2026 is introducing a lot of new issues to the marketing world. So marketers are now stepping into this new year as if it's a new era in marketing.
And within the context of B2B, we're seeing a lot of fundamental changes, and it's causing marketers to approach their practice in a very different way and having to rethink a lot of norms and traditions that have existed for a very long time.
And I think the first one, and I think of these as almost five forces that are kind of steering and directing marketing. And the first truly stands out. And a lot of marketers are experiencing this, which is buyers are wrestling with control. They want to own more of the investigation decision-making process without a sales rep present. There's a lot more of a desire for self-education. They're spending longer in the self-education process. And a lot of the traditional tactics, like forms and gates and capture tactics, are tending to underperform where they once thrived.
And so marketers are now having to think about ways to educate buyers versus capture them and pressure them. And success now depends intensively on enabling the buyer education process, enable buyers to share what they're learning with others in their decision-making group, and reducing friction to form a much more comprehensive understanding of a product or solution. So this is more of a value exchange than a capture moment. And that's probably the first force that I would highlight for this new world of marketing. It's existed for a long time, but again, it's taking root in a much more deep and profound way today.
The second one that truly stands out and we're seeing it almost on a daily basis as visibility is much harder to earn today. But it's also easier to waste. So being able to capture a lead, being able to, you know, gain someone's attention from an ad campaign or from an organic effort, is oftentimes being directed to other sources.
Buyers are constantly looking at competing information. Marketplaces are more crowded. Platforms are more expensive, and attention is scarce. And so a lot of marketers need to think about using resources wisely, conveying a very strong point of view and perspective that represents their unique stance in an industry.
Being able to test messages is a big part of the ball game. Now it has been for Ironpaper for a very long time, but I think that's only growing in terms of urgency and need. Being able to earn attention quickly and create a valuable experience for a buyer to enable their process.
The third piece is how, especially with AI and AI going mainstream, noise is scaling faster than companies can differentiate. There's just so much noise in a marketplace. Buyers are hit with so many attention seeking stimuli. So AI is, yes, the super-powered tool that we all have access to and can use, but it also is causing companies to look more similar.
It's also causing companies to produce a lot more slop and low-level content. So being able to stand out and differentiate, being able to relate to a buyer more clearly in a more profound way, and figuring out the buyer's operational pain are critical factors from being able to kind of rise above the noise in a very crowded marketplace.
The fourth one that I'm seeing is how measurement is starting to hit some very practical limits. Attribution is becoming more difficult and sometimes unreliable. Platform metrics are also noisy. As marketers wade through all the potential data points that they can use to identify is what we're doing working or not working, they have to really think about what matters most. Are we measuring?
The most poignant pieces of data, or are we being tricked into an illusion with our data? Are we being steered in the wrong direction? So there's a discernment that marketers must use. And also some technical wayfinding to be able to establish a really strong guidance system that allows them to identify where did a lead come from? Where did this deal originate from? What is the marketing and sales contribution to earning the revenue that we have?
And I think companies that spend time, patient time, and also help to fix a lot of those technical issues that get in the way of accurate measurement will be able to identify what works, so they can invest in the right things. For the most part, though, a lot of companies try to fast-track this process. So they're still in this world of guesswork, but with a lot of noisy data. And so it becomes ever harder to create a clear picture for what causes growth.
Now the final force that I'm seeing as marketers enter this new both 2026 year but also this new era is how signal integrity is really putting marketers under pressure. There's a lot more bots, there's a lot more fake submissions, low intent conversions are in the rise. And so it becomes more and more difficult to wade through the security and privacy concerns of marketing to earn these really clear signals and eventually establish trust with companies that are an ideal fit.
And so that becomes a really profound recipe book for the foundation of marketing. It's now a new core marketing responsibility. So there's going to have to be a deeper partnership with IT, a deeper partnership with sales.
These silos that we've established for growth are going to have to soften a bit and there's going to be a lot more collaboration between these functional divisions of marketing sales, IT and executive teams where people will have to work together to achieve a cleaner picture of growth.
Signals, having good signals, is vital to being able to identify where you go in the future. You know, if what you're investing in is paying off and working. It's really easy for a company to cut a program that's working or to leave a program that's not working running. It's the small decisions and refinements that marketers make on a daily basis that is the difference between success and failure.
This era gives us a new opportunity to go back to the basics of marketing. And when we do that, we must think about what value are we creating for buyers?
This is probably one of the most profound basics, and marketers have to go back to this touchstone. What differentiates us? What defines us? What do we stand for? What perspectives are we taking in the industry and in the marketplace? We need to think carefully about what is resonating with our customer base. What do they need? What are they trying to solve in their daily existence and their kind of operational ecosystem? And who are our ideal customers?
I think a lot of companies in this era that we're finding ourselves in are changing. And so they're having to really think about who best suits us, who do we serve the best? Where do we create the best value? And where can we create the best bidirectional relationship?
So if you think about it from that notion, it's a great time to start fine-tuning and regearing marketing systems and the storytelling that is really at the heart of all great marketing.
Building better collaboration with sales and IT, as well as executive leadership, is also a great place to start for marketing organizations today. This alignment and this partnership can allow growth to occur with greater clarity. And that's really important. Clarity is something that's very much needed in the world we live in today. And it is a powerful moment. Sure, there's a lot of fear. Sure, 2026 has brought a lot of change and a lot of concern and risk aversion, but companies can also thrive in this era, but they must be adaptive.
This era that we live in takes courage, leadership, but also a lot of great awareness. And with that, companies can prosper and grow. Thank you.