Top five B2B audio marketing trends

B2B marketers are increasingly taking advantage of the blurring lines between home and work, fast-growing listener numbers and universal platforms to reach audiences with business insight.

To help you keep pace, here’s an overview of today’s six biggest audio marketing trends.

The audio marketing trends to watch

1. B2B audio is now mainstream
2. Brands are using audio to humanise themselves
3. Audio SEO and voice search are on the rise
4. Audio is a format for debate – not conclusions
5. Audio-first thought leadership could be next
   
   

1. B2B audio is now mainstream

From true-crime podcasts to celebrity interviews, audio content is already a mainstay for millions of people. But what about business content? In the coming years, we expect great B2B audio content to break down the barrier between the worlds of work and home. So marketers need to think about how to make their content relevant for audiences both in the workplace and on a personal level.

Companies like Spotify and Apple Music make this possible by giving B2B brands a universal platform for brand building, but it’s the quality of the content you create that will make the difference. Make your audio content stimulating and inspiring and your audience won’t mind where or when they listen.

2. Brands are using audio to humanise themselves

The war for more humanisation was waged long ago. According to Edelman’s 2024 B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report, 62% of senior executives consider content produced by a prominent, well-respected expert to be a mainstay of quality thought leadership – and 66% say content should be delivered in a unique format or style. Audio marketing could help.

Business audiences can easily identify heavily edited and forced on-brand messages. Done right, audio interviews can convey personality and are typically easier to relate to on a human level. They take anonymity out of business and put people at the heart of your ideas.

So the next few years will see marketers challenge expectations with audio consisting of diverse voices, formats, styles and topics. As well as internal experts, their content will feature outside voices that give the discussion credibility and objectivity.

3. Audio SEO and voice search are on the rise

Search engines manage the way we find content. If your content isn’t discoverable online, then you can wave goodbye to attracting new online audiences. So how can you capitalise on search engine optimisation (SEO) value when your content is audio?

Enter audio SEO. This technique has been gaining momentum since 2019, when Google first announced it was exploring ways of applying the same SEO values to audio as it does text, image and video. This helps B2B audio benefit from the same level of SEO value – and scrutiny – as other web-based content.

This is good news for marketers, many of whom have SEO expertise already. 

4. Audio is a format for debate – not conclusions

According to Edelman, 55% of decision makers value thought leadership content that references strong research and data, and 44% want content that helps them better understand the challenges and opportunities facing their business. This is especially important in B2B, because many companies face complex, multi-faceted issues – sustainability, for instance – that don’t have obvious solutions.

Audio is a compelling format for debate. It’s not just about the exchange of ideas, but about the speaker’s ability to influence and persuade. The goal isn’t to conclude definitively – it’s to spark debate and conversation and give listeners a range of perspectives.

We expect B2B marketers to fully embrace this idea of debate in their thought leadership in future, and audio will be their format of choice.

5. Audio-first thought leadership is upon us

The last of our audio marketing trends is a bold one. Just as we saw the seismic shift from analogue to digital, we think there could be a switch from digital-first to audio-first thought leadership.

Part of this transition will involve a move away from traditional thought leadership campaign structures and towards an ‘always on’ approach, with a mix of content activated on a rolling basis. 

Some brands are already wising up to this. For example, Protolabs recently produced a three-part audio-first series called Real Talk, which looks at the impact of AI and emerging technologies on the manufacturing and industrials sector. 

Will we soon see a thought leadership campaign that has a flagship audiobook instead of a flagship ebook? We like to think so.

Make the most out of audio marketing

Unsure about how you can start elevating your brand through B2B audio content? Learn more about how we can help you create impactful audio thought leadership.