The rise of digital within B2B buying is a double-edged sword for marketers.
While the growing number of digital touchpoints offers more opportunities to engage with buyers, it also means buyer behavior changes more rapidly – making leads a constantly moving target.
This article helps you navigate the changing landscape of B2B digital lead generation and understand which channels to focus on in the future – as well as how to get the best results from them.
Expect to learn:
- Why 89% of marketers believe qualified leads are harder to find today1
- Why no B2B marketing channel is truly "dead"
- How to generate more high-quality leads in 2025
3 Ways B2B Lead Generation Has Changed
The last few years have seen a few significant shifts within B2B marketing that have altered the lead generation landscape:
1. Changing Buyer Preferences
The shift toward digital-first B2B research and purchases has empowered buyers – and that has altered how marketers and sales teams engage with them. Roughly 75% want a "rep-free" research process, which places emphasis on channels that help buyers become more self-sufficient and learn about solutions without committing to a direct engagement.
Whereas a sales qualified lead (SQL) might previously have requested a demo – which primed your sales team to engage directly – they are now more likely to want self-directed demos or free trials. Even companies that exclusively sell services are likely to gain more traction today through case studies or testimonies that buyers can consume at their own pace than through direct sales conversations.
Equally, gated content must offer far more value than before to convince buyers to give up their contact details; 71% of buyers now say they are disappointed in the value of gated content.
2. Emphasis on Quality Content
Generative AI has dramatically cut the cost and effort associated with producing marketing content. But rather than making lead generation a simple matter of asking ChatGPT to write a blog, this has made many buyers more wary of low-quality content – and more selective over the vendors and outlets they trust with their time and attention.
This places an extra emphasis on content that is harder to produce using generative AI, such as deep research-focused articles and emails with a more "human" touch. In fact, the Content Marketing Institute's annual survey revealed that 2024 was the first year B2B marketers were more concerned with content quality than content quantity. That shift has been exacerbated by recent updates to Google's algorithm, which increasingly prioritizes newer and more comprehensive content.
3. Wider Sphere of Influence
The average buyer team has changed in two ways in recent years:
- Larger Units: Recent research shows that some buyer teams feature up to 17 different individuals from a wide range of departments. This is nearly double the size Gartner reported just before COVID-19. This may be a result of increased caution due to economic volatility, or it may simply be the result of vendor research becoming easier for buyers – meaning companies can loop in more people to consult on purchases without adding excessively to their workload.
- More Channels: Each of these buyers interacts with a wider range of media channels. 65% of buyers say they are influenced by YouTube – a channel the majority of B2B marketers still overlook.
The takeaway is clear: all B2B lead generation in 2025 and beyond must be built around omnichannel strategies that appeal to numerous complex personas. But will that mean every channel is equally relevant to lead generation agencies?
Are Some Marketing Channels Really "Dying"?
From cold emails to webinars, virtually every B2B marketing channel has been declared dead at some point. Hell, some "thought leaders" even think lead generation itself is on its way out. But the reality is most established channels are still capable of producing results – the game has just changed.
Let's consider a few factors that shed light on a lot of B2B marketers' pessimism:
1. Competition for Attention
The growth of digital content is rapid and unremitting. More companies are producing more content across a wider range of channels – and that makes buyers' finite attention harder to win.
This helps explain why some marketers find their content marketing is less effective. Buyers have always trusted third-party sources more than vendor-generated content - and they are now more capable of finding impartial, high-quality material.
Don't Say: "Content marketing doesn't work anymore."
Do Say: "Content marketing must provide more value than any other source of information buyers could access."
2. Personalization Fatigue
The rise of generative AI and various MarTech solutions has made personalization far easier to achieve for most B2B marketers. While Gartner predicted 80% of personalization efforts would be abandoned by 2025, what has happened instead is most marketers have embraced a lazy version of personalization that produces a lot of poorly targeted content that actively dissuades buyers from engaging.
Forrester began the year by estimating that "thinly customized content" would degrade the purchase experience for 70% of buyers – and they have been proven correct.
This explains why some marketers find email has not produced the results they expected in recent years. Low-quality personalization may be used to hide the lack of inherent value being offered to buyers, which ultimately leads to messages that use the recipient's name – but don't seem to understand what they actually want or need.
Don't Say: "Email doesn't work anymore."
Do Say: "Email is about hyper-relevance and providing genuine value to buyers."
3. The Paradox of Choice
Most B2B buyers are overwhelmed by the number of options available to them. Given the level of research and due diligence required to make a larger purchase, it should be no surprise buyers want to reduce the volume of choice – and therefore, 92% start their search with a pre-existing list of preferred vendors.
The result is clear: many marketers are frustrated about slow or limited lead generation despite investing almost nothing in building their brand. Without that level of recognition and pre-existing trust, many buyers will simply never consider your company – and that will further reduce your already small total addressable marketing (TAM).
Don't Say: "Lead generation doesn't work anymore."
Do Say: "B2B brand building is more important than ever."
Which B2B Channels Will Still Drive Leads in 2025?
Ultimately, almost no lead generation channel is "dead." Instead, what is required to make them work has changed – and some may no longer produce results for specific industries or business niches.
Based on our experience, the following channels are likely to be the most widely effective for B2B lead generation in 2025:
Webinar Marketing
B2B webinars are one of the most powerful ways to generate high-quality leads and engage with them in a deep, direct way. However, many companies have struggled in the last few years to get the most out of them.
The pandemic created a huge spike in webinar attendance, as many buyers were in lockdown and had more free time to kill. As a result, some marketers came to believe that simply putting on a webinar was a surefire way to fill their pipeline – and were rudely awakened when buyers had more options again and weren't desperate to attend digital events.
How to Run Webinars in 2025
At ProperExpression, we've seen how the right promotion and post-event nurture campaigns can increase attendance by 400% and generate 25x ROI. But there are a few elements you must get right to produce such results in the coming years:
- Standout Titles: Webinars are now competing with a near-infinite variety of content, and to capture buyers' attention, your event must have a clear, effective title that both communicates the value of the offer and triggers an emotional response.
- Omnichannel Promotion: Most of your budget should be invested in promoting the event across every conceivable channel and platform. That includes creating templates to help your speakers advertise the event to their own social media following and email list.
- Post-Event Follow-Up: Webinar attendees quickly lose interest in your business after the event is over. That's why you need to plan, create, and deliver content that encourages them to book a demo or meeting on the days immediately following the event while your brand and offering are still fresh in their minds.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization experts had a scare in early 2023 when many claimed generative AI would "kill" search. However, the reality is that most B2B buyers still start their search process with a search, and over 50% continue to use it at least once per week throughout their research.
What has changed is the competitive landscape of SEO. Once again, low-quality AI-generated content has flooded the playing field and will inevitably force search engines to shift to an even greater emphasis on quality; some have already begun putting measures in place to combat content spamming.
How to Drive Leads with SEO in 2025
Smart B2B companies should rethink their SEO strategy moving forward to place a greater emphasis on the following:
- Dynamic Optimization: SEO is no longer a "one and done" effort. You must regularly revise, update, and optimize existing content to retain and improve rankings and make it more relevant to the current moment.
- Creative Keyword Research: Many of the most competitive and relevant keywords are long since won at this point; good luck hitting Google's top three for "Project Management Software." But that means companies must focus on finding underutilized terms and emerging industry language for which they can rank.
- Conversion Focus: Relatively few buyers will find your blog through search and turn immediately into a highly qualified lead. Instead, your SEO content should be part of a larger strategy to build awareness and move prospects through the funnel.
Pay-Per-Click
From LinkedIn carousels to Google Ads, PPC is going strong in 2024 – and will continue to produce meaningful results in the coming years. The most recent research shows that 50% of B2B marketers consider social media advertising to produce their best results, but what constitutes an effective ad is changing.
How to Drive Leads with Paid Media in 2025
To drive reliable leads in 2025, paid media ads will need to be:
- Pattern Breaking: Marketers must stay aware of trends in each paid search and paid social channel to ensure their ads don't simply blend in with the rest.
- Heavily Tested: Given the volume of ads buyers are now served, ongoing testing is essential to ensure you are trying as many approaches as possible – and not getting held back by outdated best practices.
Revenue Operations (RevOps)
Revenue operations covers a wide range of activities designed to maximize revenue generation. From sales and marketing alignment to lead scoring processes, none of these practices are traditional "lead generation" methods – but they will be increasingly crucial to effective lead generation in the coming years.
The right RevOps program will help you:
- Select the Right Channels: RevOps dashboards help you identify which channels drive leads that actually turn into pipeline and customers and focus your budget on them.
- Make Nurture Smoother: RevOps methodologies ensure every lead you do create receives more comprehensive lead nurture and is handed off to sales more efficiently.
- Prove Marketing ROI: With growing pressure to demonstrate the value of various marketing channels, RevOps will prove crucial in showing how each channel influences deals and justifies its expense.
Drive More High-Quality Leads in 2025 with ProperExpression
Ultimately, the true determining factor in lead generation is how you connect these channels – and that is why a full-stack skill set is the best investment you can make for 2025.
At ProperExpression, we combine the full range of creative skills with HubSpot expertise, data and tech skills and extensive marketing strategy. Better still, we augment that stack with:
- Trend Research: Our team stays on top of emerging B2B marketing trends to help you leverage the best new approaches while differentiating your brand.
- Extensive Testing: We A/B test content across all channels to ensure we find the right combination of audience, message and design.
- RevOps: Our focus on RevOps helps to maximize the value of every lead you generate, focus your budget on the right channels and ultimately produce the highest possible ROI.
The result? A flexible approach to marketing that lets you leverage the channels that best serve your specific business. It helped us increase inbound generated revenue for one client by 466% - and it could produce similar results for your business.
Want to explore how we could help you generate high-quality leads across every key channel?
