Small is the new big. Large business-to-business (B2B) technology companies continue to outspend their smaller counterparts in dollar and percentage terms, and yet, rank poorly on marketing-driven revenue. What gives?

Perhaps they haven’t course corrected for the five key trends that are changing the marketing landscape.

As a product marketing leader at a mid-sized software vendor, I believe large B2B tech companies can learn the following from the democratization of marketing.

Data, Data Everywhere

Data was the first casualty of democratization in the enterprise. Even in our personal lives, the sophisticated data models and analyses available to an average user are much richer than those previously available to experts in the field.

Large corporations cannot expect to compete on access to data anymore. Data exchanges have rapidly emerged as a market allowing every size of pocketbook access to larger data sets. But more granular data is not an enabler in and of itself. In fact, it could turn out to be the exact opposite in some cases.

While traditional enterprises across all industry verticals are busy transforming their marketing organizations into mini software companies, not only did the goal post move farther but the sport changed altogether. Based on my perspective, companies in the future will not compete just on how well they squeeze every actionable insight out of data, but also on how well their algorithms can heuristically make intelligent recommendations given sparse and ad hoc data. In other words, artificial intelligence (AI) meets marketing.

Think Mobile First

Another wave of democratization facilitated by technology playing out in front of us is mobile. It’s hard to imagine that smartphone technology is barely a teenager today, and yet, it is practically ubiquitous. From the streets of Sao Paulo to the gullies of Singapore, an entire generation of consumers lives their professional and personal lives through their mobile devices.

Based on my observations, most large B2B corporations have not adapted their marketing to the era of mobile. Webpages are optimized for mobile as an afterthought, rather than a design principle. Mobile gestures add a whole new dimension in the way prospective customers interact with and research online products.

It’s not enough to retrofit the current B2B buyer’s journey into the mobile space. While a mobile-first approach may mean a complete reboot for some, the investment may be well worth it in the long run.

Must Try It To Buy It

While millennials and Generation Zers may have disproportionately been awarded the “entitled” tag, it is true that they have grown up on a try-then-buy prerogative. As they are set to become the largest purchasing demographic, B2B companies need to find innovative ways to facilitate a similar experience.

At the same time, almost every web-based product offers a free online trial since it’s easy to turn off the spigot after the renewal period. By the same token, large corporations are advised to consider free on-demand test drives for traditional technology products.

A Cloudy Playfield Is A Level Playfield

We are all cloud users, whether we know it or not. Email is one of the earliest and simplest software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications that’s entirely cloud-based. While the cloud represents an opportunity, it could be a major threat to large corporations that tend to run most marketing functions in-house.

Access to cloud-based marketing services and customer lists levels the playing field, both in terms of quality of content and radius of outreach. Marketing as a service is a rapidly growing trend that can improve service levels around content creation and demand generation without the upfront capital expenditure on marketing software and systems.

Good Is Great

The modern consumer doesn’t just buy products — they invest in brands, particularly when the brand supports a socially responsible mission. Notice how many Super Bowl ads focus on concepts rather than products.

Based on my experience, B2B customers are no different. They increasingly want to be associated with brands that are open-minded, philanthropic or “green.” In general, younger software companies invest in significant efforts to showcase their socioeconomic impact, while the old guard tends to lead with product quality and customer value.

As their customer bases change, modern enterprises are well advised to incorporate a deeper sense of human connection into their marketing.

As with evolution itself, the ones able to adapt to changing conditions are more likely to survive. Too many large corporations have fallen prey to leaner, agile, young upstarts that have redefined the parameters of the business to their advantage.

The democratization of marketing is not nearly complete. In fact, it’s only getting started. It’s time for large corporations to internalize what that means to them, and how they can learn from their younger siblings.