6 Essential Skills B2B Marketing Leaders Need to Succeed in 2025 and Beyond

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 an AI Task Force

• Podcast:  The Artificial Intelligence Show – Paul Roetzer, Founder & CEO, Marketing AI Institute, and Mike Kaput, Chief Content Officer, Marketing AI Institute discuss making AI actionable and approachable for businesses, leaders, and practitioners.

2. Outcome-Driven Thinking: Proving B2B Marketing Business Value

According to research from LinkedIn, 78% of B2B CMOs say proving campaign ROI became more important in the last two years but at the same time, 87% of B2B marketers say it’s getting harder to measure the long-term impact of a campaign. Increased importance and difficulty spell a skills opportunity for marketing leaders that want to show their value and contribution to the business.

Marketers have more tactical options than than ever to deliver marketing asset outputs, so focus is important, especially on the things that matter and the outcomes that can be measured. Marketers often get lost in the drive to create those outputs so a shift in perspective is necessary as Tusar Barik, SVP, Marketing for The New York Times Advertising, shares:

“Focus on outcomes and impact. Think about how you’re building and executing strategies that are helping customers deliver value and driving their growth.”  –  Tusar Barik, The New York Times

As I’ve said for years, when it comes to B2B marketing, content isn’t king, it’s the kingdom and with that level of importance comes the need for accountability. Dusty DiMercurio, Senior Director, Digital Experience at Siemens, says it well:

“Be ready to demonstrate how content helps deliver business results. Not all content needs to lead to direct revenue impact, but it should move customers across their journey toward some kind of profitable behavior or action.”  –  Dusty DiMercurio, Siemens

Next Steps to Advance Outcomes Over Outputs: Adopt a data-driven approach to marketing, linking campaigns to key business metrics like revenue, customer retention, and growth. Tie content marketing efforts directly to the customer journey, ensuring it supports sales enablement, brand authority, and business growth. Also, don’t get lost in the brand vs. demand argument, because the best B2B content marketing strategists can create programs that deliver both.

Additional Resources :

• LinkedIn Learning Course: Marketing Analytics: Data-Driven Marketing – Learn how to analyze marketing data to drive business decisions.

• TopRank Marketing Blog: Measure for Success: 7 Secrets of Actionable Content Marketing Dashboards

• Research Report: HubSpot – The 2025 State of Marketing & Trends Report

• Research Report: Nielsen – 2024 Annual Marketing Report

3. Relationship Building: The Power of Strategic Connections

According to LinkedIn’s 2025 Workplace Learning Report, 67% of organizations that are confident in attracting top talent also prioritize career development and networking. Success in B2B marketing isn’t just about what you know to do the job, it’s also about relationships. In my own career, the network I’ve developed has been a tremendous value exchange of knowledge, opportunities and support.

I’m not the only one who has seen the value of investing in relationships. Cari Zoch, Director of Marketing at Caravel | BPM Technology Solutions, offers this advice:

“Invest in your connections. Form real, genuine relationships. There are so many people who know more than you, know different things than you, have different experience than you. Leverage those connections to gain perspective and become a better marketer.”  –  Cari Zoch, Caravel | BPM Technology Solutions

Key Actions for B2B Marketers to Build Relationships: Prioritize networking with peers online through B2B communities and LinkedIn as well as in person at local and national conferences. Engage in mentorship with up and coming B2B marketers and connect with industry experts to build your credibility and expand career opportunities.

Additional Resources:

• LinkedIn Learning Course: Building Your Professional Network – Strategies to cultivate meaningful professional relationships.

• B2B Marketing Communities: Pavilion, Exit Five, Peak, RevGenius

• TopRank Marketing Blog: Why Relationship Marketing Is Essential To B2B Lead Generation

4. Adaptability & Change Management: Thriving in a Rapidly Shifting Market

According to LinkedIn’s 2025 Workplace Learning Report, 91% of Learning and Development professionals say continuous learning is essential for career success and 68% of employees say learning helps them adapt during times of change. We’re certainly experiencing a time of change right now – on all fronts from business, to political to social and economic.

But change at some level is a constant for B2B marketers whether it’s the explosion of martech options including all things artificial intelligence in the past year to shifts in buyer behavior with extended sales cycles involving larger buying committees. There’s a cost to not adapting as some marketing organizations experienced during Covid.

The ability to adapt means embracing change as Kimmah Lewis, Global VP of Marketing at SuperOps, shares:

“B2B marketing evolves rapidly. Sometimes change is slow, but often it’s swift. To grow, you must evolve at the pace of the landscape. Embrace change and get comfortable with discomfort—that’s the secret sauce to career growth.”  –  Kimmah Lewis, SuperOps

How B2B Marketers Can Evolve with Change: Encourage a culture of experimentation, learning, and agility within your marketing teams. Keep pace with the evolution and change in the market  by staying connected to the chaos without becoming chaotic. Do that by finding sources of marketing truth in peers, respected industry experts and thought leaders, educational resources and even a great B2B Marketing agency that can fuel your career growth.

Additional Resources:

• LinkedIn Learning Course: Agile Marketing Foundations – Learn how to implement agile methodologies in marketing.

• TopRank Marketing Blog: Listen Learn Change Grow

• Research Report: Gartner – 2024 B2B Buying Report,

• Research Report: LinkedIn – 2024 B2B Marketing Benchmark

5. Creativity is THE Differentiator in B2B

According to a survey by LinkedIn, 49% of business decision-makers are more likely to explore a company’s products or services when its advertising employs creative elements such as humor or storytelling. Of course, the opportunity to use creativity in B2B marketing is not limited to ads – it really represents a differentiator for many communications opportunities between business and buyer. Those buyers (and the businesses that are selling) are people after all and few things connect better at an emotional and intellectual level than through creative content.  The ability for marketers to think and execute creatively is an important differentiator. After all, what better way to “break free of boring B2B” than with better creativity?

Of course it’s not just me who thinks this way. When recently citing the traits most important for marketers, Dave Gerhardt, Founder of ExitFive said it well:

“Despite the fact we can measure everything today, let’s not forget that marketing is a creative craft. Creativity is the most important skill in marketing because it’s the only true competitive advantage. Everything else—tools, tactics, data—can be copied. Creativity is the differentiator.”  –  Dave Gerhardt, ExitFive

And of course, few can explain the value of creativity (or anything for that matter) for B2B marketing than Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer at MarketingProfs:

“In a world where AI burps out colorless slop onto the content conveyor belt, our creativity becomes our superpower. But I’m not creative, you protest (depressed now, scanning the job ads). But wait! You are! “Creativity” is our taste, perspectives, experiences, and ability to tell true stories with a bit of inspired joy. You’re capable of all this. The robots are not.”  –  Ann Handley, MarketingProfs

What B2B Marketers Can Do to Boost Creativity: B2B marketing leaders can elevate their creativity by finding and following others who are already expertly tapped into their creativity. Observe and learn from them. Use technology to get more creative such as experimenting with AI tools, just don’t expect those tools to work like magic. Tap into diverse perspectives outside of your marketing team either by connecting with other marketers in and out of your network  or through a creative marketing agency.  Stay curious—study human behavior as well as award winning B2B marketing work to find formats that have worked for others and experiment. Look outside of standard B2B marketing tactics for inspiration.

Additional Resources:

• LinkedIn Learning Course: Marketing: How to Use High-Impact Storytelling

• TopRank Marketing Blog: Break Free of Boring B2B with Interactive Influencer Content

• Award Winning B2B Work: Cannes Lion Creative B2B (winners and shortlists)

6. Emotional Intelligence & Human-Centric Marketing

While many B2B marketers are trying to figure out whether AI will automate them out of a job, a study by Triptent revealed that 69% of B2B marketers believe investing in brand and human-centric marketing provides a competitive edge in performance marketing. The study also found that 81% marketers plan to increase their investment in human-centric strategies in the coming year. You cannot automate or AI your way into building and maintaining genuine relationships.

As they say, the B’s in B2B are people too and being able to strategize and implement a human-centered approach to B2B marketing is a valuable skill. It’s a skill that requires a certain level of emotional intelligence. This post by Quadigy does well to say that “integrating self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, and social skills into B2B marketing strategies leads to deeper connections and sustainable business growth.”

Much of the need for human centric marketing is in contrast to the hype of inflated expectations of AI. Who better to offer perspective on this topic than Brian Solis, Head of Global Innovation at ServiceNow?

“In an era of AI, a human-centric mindset is essential in reshaping the future. AI is a catalyst for human potential not a replacement. The human quotient goes beyond IQ and EQ. It’s the holistic approach to understanding and connecting with people on a deeper level because ultimately, it’s not business to consumer, it’s not business to business, it’s people to people.”  –  Brian Solis, ServiceNow

Next Steps for B2B Marketers to Further their EI: To improve emotional intelligence, B2B marketers need to actively listen, embrace empathy, and work to become more self-aware. The value of leveling up Emotional Intelligence is as important for work with peers as it is for how to approach marketing messaging. For marketing leaders, empathy is a superpower. Understand and communicate with customers as humans vs. data. Learn to adapt messaging with emotional insight so you can build trust through engagement that is “real”.

Additional Resources:

• LinkedIn Learning Course: Developing Your Emotional Intelligence – Techniques to enhance empathy and interpersonal skills.

• Assessment: EQ Emotional Intelligence Test 

• Blog Post: Ten inspiring examples of Human-Centered Marketing  Grow by Mark Schaefer

• Book: AI First, Human Always: Embracing a New Mindset for the Era of Superintelligence by Sandy Carter

• Book: Human-Centered Marketing How to Connect with Audiences in the Age of AI by Ashley Faus (coming May 2025)

The Future for B2B Marketing Leaders

As we move further into 2025, one thing is clear: the role of B2B marketing leaders has never been more complex—or more important. Uncertainty in the business, economic, social and political world is all around us. We are at the peak of inflated expectations with AI and at the same time, buyer expectations and behaviors are changing with extended sales cycles, larger buying committees and conservative budgets. Of course in environments like these, there’s increasing pressure to deliver measurable business outcomes with any kind of marketing investment.

“Success in B2B marketing leadership isn’t just about keeping up; it’s about leveling up.” @TopRank

However, B2B marketers have dealt with uncertainty before, whether it was Covid or previous recessions. And B2B marketers have adapted and evolved.  As these shared insights have revealed, success in B2B marketing leadership isn’t just about keeping up; it’s about leveling up.

From embracing AI beyond automation to proving marketing’s impact with an outcome-driven mindset, from deepening relationships to strengthening emotional intelligence, the future of B2B marketing leadership belongs to those who can blend strategy with creativity, data with storytelling, and automation with authenticity.

If there’s one takeaway from all these insights, it’s this: The most successful marketing leaders of 2025 won’t be those who freeze up with a wait and see approach or those who chase every new trend.  It will be those who cultivate the skills and mindset to adapt, innovate, and lead with a clear vision. B2B marketing has never been a solo sport—leaning into networks, learning from peers, tapping resources like your favorite B2B marketing experts and staying relentlessly curious will be key to staying ahead.

So, as you look ahead in your own career, ask yourself: Which of these skills will you focus on mastering? And more importantly—how will you use them to drive impact and lead your team into the future?

*Disclosure: LinkedIn is a TopRank Marketing Client