October 16, 2025
If you’re a B2B marketer, you can probably see your buyer is changing. Your meetings seem to have more and more senior-positioned folk who are younger, digitally native, and social pioneers. It’s time to adapt accordingly.
They research on their phones, trust creators more than brands, and expect to feel something before they ever fill out a form fill. So how do we get ahead?
Yes. Meet your new B2B buyer
Millennials now make up over 60% of B2B decision-makers (up to 70% say other sources), and Gen Z is quickly joining the conversation.
They’re not waiting for a sales person to educate them. They’re learning on LinkedIn, YouTube, and yes, even TikTok. They’re forming opinions about your brand before they ever land on your website.
For in-house marketers, that means one thing: your social presence isn’t just top-of-funnel anymore… it is the funnel.
What’s more, this group is making up almost half of the decision-making team!
Why does this matter for my strategy?
1. Your buyers may have a closer connection between work and life
Gen Z and Millennials move fluidly between personal and professional content and they expect brands to do the same.
Your tone, visuals, and storytelling should reflect that blend of professional relevance and human authenticity. If your brand feels too polished or overly corporate, you risk them scrolling right past your content.
2. Education is key
This is at the heart of B2B marketing anyway – but the long-term learning is so important – and these generations value that hugely.
So instead of product promos, focus on short, valuable, educational content — quick insights and visual storytelling.
3. Authenticity drives trust (and trust drives pipeline)
Younger buyers don’t trust faceless brands. They trust people.
That’s why employee advocacy and thought leadership matter. Encourage your team to share their voices, perspectives, and experiences.
Give a face and personality to your business – it will help to cut through the noise.
4. Your brand story needs to feel social-first
Social media is – in our view (or at least for some of our team) – is becoming more of a content platform than a social network.
So your content should be built for the feed, not easy-to-repurpose blogs and ‘here are some photos from an event we attended’.
Use video – thought-leadership style with key stakeholders who are heavily informed on subject matters. Use captions and formats that match each platform’s native style (vertical isn’t everything, btw…!)
Gen Z and Millennial buyers expect relevance and speed. If your social content looks like a blatant ad, they’ll scroll past. But if it looks like something they’d learn from, they’re more likely to engage and watch (but you knew this anyway).
One of our team watched an interesting webinar last week, where a Gen-Z’er, addressing whether her generation have ‘shorter attention spans’, suggested that they actually are just quicker at processing information – and are capable of switching between things at a faster rate.
The takeaway: human-to-human is the new B2B
As an in-house marketer, you have a powerful advantage, in that you know your people, your customers, and your story better than anyone. You’re immersed in the brand and the services.
Use that to your advantage. Let your brand’s social presence be more human and educate, educate, educate.
Because the next generation of B2B buyers isn’t just looking for a supplier. They’re looking for a partner who gets them.
Need help with your next campaign? Drop us a line (we don’t bite).