6 Essential Skills B2B Marketing Leaders Need to Succeed in 2025 and Beyond
By Lee Odden B2B Marketing Leaders: The Next Generation
If you’re in a marketing leadership position at a B2B company, there is no doubt you’re navigating an environment increasingly shaped by AI, evolving customer expectations, and the growing pressure for marketing to drive measurable impact. In the current business environment, it is more important than ever for marketing leaders to adapt, innovate and concentrate on everything from Generative AI and emerging tech to investing in peer networks to aligning go to market strategies with the ability to prove results.
So what skills and competencies do B2B marketing leaders need in order to come out of 2025 on top?
To help answer that question I tapped the collective wisdom of the B2B marketing leaders we recently recognized in our B2B Marketers on the Move – Winter Edition as well as my pals Brian Solis, Ann Handley, Jay Baer and Dave Gerhart.
Of course there are many different skills needed to succeed at B2B marketing from strategic to tactical, creative to analytical, management to implementation. With so many options, many marketers feel overwhelmed, so this post is meant to help you focus on a few of the things that are standing out amongst the pros I talked to.
Here are 6 insights on the skills B2B marketing leaders need to succeed in 2025 and beyond.
1. AI Literacy in B2B Marketing: Moving Beyond Efficiency to Strategic Impact
According to the LinkedIn Marketing Jobs Outlook report, AI-related skills such as data analysis and automation are among the fastest-growing competencies for marketers. Without question, AI is transforming how marketers work and while many marketing organizations are at various stages of adoption, those seeing productivity gains are most often starting with efficiency. But where to start?
Jay Baer, Customer experience strategist, researcher, author and keynote speaker sums up the value of AI spawned efficiency:
“Clearly, AI is going to have a massive impact on all B2B marketing leaders in 2025. But most of the thinking is WAY too short term. Soon, what will differentiate B2B leaders and their brands won’t be how much they’ve mastered AI-based task augmentation, but rather how they choose to capitalize on the ~25% more time and capacity they and their teams now possess.” – Jay Baer
But how do B2B marketers go from AI zero to AI hero when it comes to efficiency? Amanda Backer, Senior Director, Experiences at Salesforce, explains:
“Integrate AI into your day-to-day work. AI can help you automate repetitive tasks, analyze vast amounts of data, and collect and summarize information such as meeting notes. By leveraging AI, you can make more informed decisions, personalize your work, save time, and ultimately drive better results.” – Amanda Backer, Salesforce
Next Steps for B2B Marketers to Create Impact with AI: Move beyond AI-powered automation and explore how AI tools can free up time for strategic, creative, and high-value marketing initiatives. To do that, check out these resources:
LinkedIn Learning Course: AI for Marketing – How AI can streamline workflows, boost creativity, and optimize your marketing campaigns.
TopRank Marketing Blog: Evolving B2B Marketing Strategy with Artificial Intelligence and …read more
Source:: Top Rank Blog