As b2b marketers usher in the new year, they have even more ways to create innovative, engaging programs to connect with their target audiences.

The marketing landscape has been transformed by new technology, with platforms such as mobile devices and social media allowing marketers to interact in completely different ways with users who are always connected and increasingly engaged.

However, marketers face obstacles this year as well, brought on by a still sluggish economy and global challenges.

BtoB talked to marketers, agency executives and analysts to identify the following top 10 trends for 2012.

With 36% of U.S. adults now owning smartphones and 5% owning tablet computers, according to Nielsen, the mobile market is set to explode.

EMarketer projects that 10.8% of the U.S. population (all ages) now use a tablet computer at least once a month, and tablet penetration is projected to reach 27.7% of the U.S. population by 2014.

“For the enterprise segment, you have a whole separate class of tablets being built by companies like Cisco and Motorola. So in that regard, you will see more mobile devices in the hands of b2b marketers,” said Noah Elkin, an analyst at eMarketer.

An online survey of 501 U.S. marketers conducted by AT&T Inc. in September found that 88% plan to increase their mobile marketing programs this year.

The top mobile programs this year will be mobile apps (43%), followed by mobile barcodes (41%) and banner ads (40%), according to the survey.

B2b marketers are already creating innovative mobile apps, such as an iPad app from Dow AgroSciences that provides real-time information on insects and diseases for rice farmers, and a mobile app from Emerson for its RIDGID power tools that turns a smartphone into a digital bubble level for contractors.

Marketers are moving away from a media environment in which they consider traditional, online and other forms of media to a paid/owned/earned model. (Paid is for purchased media; owned is for original content; and earned is for social media.)

“There is much more focus on a holistic approach across content and the marketing investment for clients. Paid/owned/earned is becoming the standard model,” said Lou Aversano, who was named COO of Ogilvy New York in June, after serving as global managing director of Ogilvy & Mather.

Part of Aversano's new role is looking at how the agency can deliver the best services to meet client needs in this new P/O/E environment.

Clients, too, are developing new models to distribute content across paid/owned/earned media.

“Our editorial strategy is to become like a publisher, build an editorial plan and deliver messages through all our channels,” said Scott Anderson, VP-customer communications at HP Enterprise Business.

Hewlett-Packard Co. has hired editors and created an editorial board made up of executives from the company's different business units to help deliver content that communicates with customers.

A recent study by the Content Marketing Institute found that, on average, 26% of the total b2b marketing budget is now dedicated to content marketing, and that figure is expected to increase this year.

The study, based on an online survey of 1,092 b2b marketers conducted in August, found that more than 60% plan to increase their content marketing budgets this year.

The most popular content marketing tactics used by marketers, according to the study, include articles (79%), non-blogging social media (74%), blogs (65%) and e-newsletters (63%).

To develop all this content, marketers are relying on their own marketing departments, as well as agency partners and freelancers.

Tom Haas, CMO at Siemens Corp., said one of his top marketing priorities this year is “content integration.” “Specifically, how we can integrate content across different platforms, particularly online and offline. That's very important to us.”

At Intel Corp., the marketing organization now has an editorial calendar that it uses to plan and develop content across all its marketing channels, from advertising to social media.

Social media is now a solid part of most b2b companies' marketing programs. According to BtoB's “Outlook 2012” report, based on an online survey of 343 b2b marketers conducted in December, 70% now use social media as part of their marketing mix.

However, social has evolved from simply having a Facebook page and Twitter account to function as an integral part of the organization, touching everything from product development to customer support.

“We have four pillars within our integrated social strategy: listening, planning, engaging and measuring,” said Petra Neiger, senior manager of social media marketing at Cisco Systems.

Cisco's social team listens in real time to conversations about the company on social media channels, then routes questions and issues to the appropriate people within the company.

Cisco is also using more engagement—such as online video interviews with high-level executives who answer questions through social media—to improve brand awareness, customer loyalty and, ultimately, conversions.

The growth of social media channels, the avalanche of user-generated content and improved measurement tools are creating a wealth of information from online activity that has come to be called “big data.”

“There is an explosion of big data,” said Howard Sherman, worldwide president of Doremus, New York. “Businesses need to be able to better deal with data.”

To handle the massive amounts of information coming from all these new channels, the agency last year launched an analytics practice called Doremus Network Analysis (DNA).

DNA, based on a proprietary technology platform, mines social media data to identify trends, issues and sentiments around client topics that the agency uses to inform its campaigns.

For example, it used this approach to create an online video called “A Day Made of Glass” for Corning Inc., which became a viral hit and received more than 13 million views on YouTube.

“Data is becoming part of our creative strategy,” said Gunther Schumacher, COO of OgilvyOne, which has an advanced analytics practice based in Bangalore, India, with more than 200 analysts mining user data.

OgilvyOne uses this data analysis to create relevant, engaging campaigns for global clients such as Cisco, DuPont and IBM.

Many b2b companies will increase their use of marketing automation systems this year in order to streamline their operations and better align them with sales.

“The future of marketing is going toward using IT-enabled tools to automate many of the processes we have in place and also bringing marketing and sales closer together,” said Eduardo Conrado, senior VP-CMO at Motorola Solutions, which is completing a worldwide rollout of an Eloqua marketing automation system and tying it into Salesforce.com software.

“It allows us to do better targeting at the top end of the funnel and, as we move down the funnel, work with our databases to develop a much more personalized contact strategy,” he said.

Ken Aoti, senior director-strategic marketing at Sybase Inc., said, “One of the big things we're going to do in 2012 is more "drip and nurture campaigns,' making use of the capabilities within our marketing automation system to send out materials based on where the buyer may be in their sales process.”

As technology becomes a more critical tool for marketing, relationships between CMOs and CIOs are moving closer.

“What I call the "CMO-CIO bridge' is one of the most important foundational items for today's CMO and today's CIO,” said Allison Watson, corporate VP-U.S. marketing at Microsoft Corp.

Microsoft has a dedicated IT unit within the marketing organization that reports to the CIO.

“By sitting inside my organization, they are able to develop goals and be close to the customer—the marketing department in this case—relative to the business and the activities we're trying to drive. So I think that is pretty critical and a big commitment from the CIO,” Watson said.

The marketing department and the IT department at Microsoft also have “score cards” with jointly developed business goals rather than individual score cards. With joint goals, “We really started to see transformation between how the teams were working together,” Watson said.

With their ability to tweet about brands, blog about companies, post product reviews on websites and engage in real time with marketing organizations and each other, customers are becoming even more central to b2b marketers' strategies.

Many b2b companies, such as Cisco, HP and Sybase, are turning loyal customers into brand ambassadors.

Cisco, for example, created a Cisco Networking Academy page on Facebook, which currently has more than 280,000 members. It features brand ambassadors who moderate discussions, post videos and blog about Cisco products and applications.

Other marketers are featuring customers in traditional advertising, such as small businesses that are showcased in American Express OPEN's “Start Booming” TV campaign. Xerox Corp.'s “Ready for Real Business” integrated ad campaign features clients including Marriott Hotels, Procter & Gamble Co. and Virgin America.

An important theme in recent b2b marketing campaigns has been helping move the economy forward, a trend that is sure to continue this year.

“Economic restoration is an extension of the corporate social responsibility strategy, moving it toward helping to restimulate the economy,” Doremus' Sherman said.

B2b marketers such as American Express OPEN and FedEx Corp. have recently launched campaigns featuring economic stimulation as themes.

In 2010, American Express OPEN created Small Business Saturday (the Saturday after Thanksgiving) as a day to support small businesses. The initiative is part of the company's overall “Start Booming” campaign, which is designed to show how small businesses are helping revitalize the economy.

American Express OPEN continued the effort with new small-business case studies and resources for small businesses on its website.

In September, FedEx launched a new campaign called “We Understand,” which showcases some of the challenges facing small businesses in a slow economy as well as ways it can help.

“At the end of the day, the small-business owner probably has more skin in the game than anyone else,” said Steve Pacheco, director of advertising at FedEx.

B2b marketers will extend their brands and operations into more territories around the world this year, focusing on emerging markets.

“There is really more emphasis on setting up shop in [places] like Africa and Asia,” said Ogilvy's Aversano. “A lot of clients are looking at Africa—South Africa, Nairobi, etc.”

Engineering company Emerson is expanding its media buy into Russia this year, said Kathy Button Bell, senior VP-CMO, and is looking at expanding into other new markets such as Australia, Korea and Malaysia.

“Some of the emerging nations will make this a very challenging media life,” she said, pointing to issues such as higher taxes on TV commercials in Brazil, inflation in prices at major airports in China, and increased censorship and approval processes for creative in many markets.