The 13^th annual KCAs celebrated the marketers who creatively connected with their audiences by leveraging influencers and turning basic content formats into engaging experiences. With more than 150 nominations across 13 categories, the Demand Gen Report team worked alongside the #B2BMX team to analyze all the submissions and narrow the list down to 25 final winners.

“For years, the Killer Content Awards have honored B2B companies that are forging a new path beyond the status quo to deliver exceptional buyer engagement and content experiences,” said Klaudia Tirico, Content Director for the #B2BMX event series. “The 13th annual ‘Finnys’ recognized the relentless pursuit of storytelling that not only survives but thrives in the ever-evolving landscape of attention. This year’s nominations were an exceptionally difficult bunch to judge, as each one stood out as a testament to creativity, strategy and the power to authentically engage buyers and customers in the ever-evolving B2B marketing and sales industry. Congratulations to all winners and nominees!”

So, without further ado, let’s meet the winners!

Account-Based Marketing Campaign

• Bombora
• BOL

Design Concept/Theme

• Honeywell Aerospace
• Resonate

Influencer Campaign

• Demandbase
• SAP

Research-Based Content

• TechTarget + Amazon Web Services
• OutSystems

Sales Enablement Content

• Clearwave
• INFUSEmedia

Buyer-Focused Content

• Boeing
• 2.718 Marketing

Channel/Partner Marketing

• Cisco Systems Inc.
• Sage with Unreal Digital Group

Interactive Content

• Mastercard
• Activate

Nurture Campaign

• Purechannels — The Channel Agency
• ExtraHop

Short-Form Content

• Grant Thornton LLP

Multi-Touch Campaign

• Intellimize
• Myriad Genetics

Video Content

• VisiQuate
• Insight Enterprises, Inc.

Audio Content

• NinjaCat
• Project Management Institute

Don’t worry: We’re not going to wax poetic about creativity and then just leave you hanging with a few bullet points. We’re already hard at work putting together an interactive iPaper that showcases our winners in the engaging medium that they deserve, so make sure to check back in with us next month!

The post Meet The Winners Of The 13th Annual Killer Content Awards appeared first on Demand Gen Report.

“You have to be creative, but also serious; tactical, but also strategic. Strategic, but also Brian in HR has a better idea of a product launch,” said Handley. “The list goes on, and it’s too contradictory and too hard. B2B marketers are often measured by a set of impossible standards, and we’ve always been at the forefront of change. With ridiculous algorithms, fractured audiences and disruptive AI, I’ve come to realize we’re entering a great B2B Renaissance.”

As marketing shifts away from their tried-and-true tactics, Handley continued by highlighting two startling statistics that outline two major influences behind the Renaissance:

• 95% of buyers aren’t even in-market, and those that are remain anonymous throughout almost the entire journey; and
• When they are ready to buy, 90% already know the vendor they’ll ultimately choose before they start reaching out.

Further outlining the changing dynamics of the B2B environment was Ruth Stevens, President of eMarketing Strategy, with her keynote, “What’s Working In B2B Marketing: New Developments, New Tools & New Techniques.” To kick off her session, Stevens outlined four major factors driving change in B2B today:

• The return of events post-Covid;
• The differing expectations between generational buying groups;
• The increasingly digital preferences of buyers; and
• The declining influence of sales and increasing influence of marketing.

“B2B E-commerce has taken the lead as the most effective sales channel,” said Stevens. “It’s rated No. 1 by 35% of buyers, ahead of in-person sales (26%), video conferences (12%), email (10%) and phone (8%).”

With digitalization and self-service journeys at the forefront of most #B2BMX sessions, the overarching theme across the three-day event revolved around optimizing content and strategies to engage with the chronically online buyer.

Focusing On Brand Experiences To Promote Familiarity

In the digital world, brands that create emotional connections will undoubtedly come out on top. Echoing Dan Gingiss’ day-two keynote, Handley explained that marketers’ traditional focus on highly measurable tactics has left much to be desired brand-wise.

{loadposition GIAA}“We’re over indexing on short-term pipeline and not thinking enough long-term about those emotional connections that we’re building,” she explained. “And when I say brand, I don’t mean just your logo or your look; it’s about your feel and how people are thinking about you. When I think about brand, I think about the Double D’s: Distinction and differentiation.”

Adding to the list of D’s was Dana Harder, Partner and Co-Founder at Unreal Digital Group, in a content panel discussion. She noted the importance of discoverability — particularly in the era of stealth, anonymous buyers.

“If you were to start searching for yourself and your brand on generative AI tools and start having conversations with your clients about it, you’ll be surprised to find out you’re not there,” explained Harder. “You’ll see other companies coming up that might not be in your industry at all, or your competition, and you’re still not here. From a content perspective, that’s going to mean creating more content — it pains me to say it, but you’re going to have bring some product and brand content back in the mix to come up where people are searching.”

Leveraging Real-World Customer Insights To Inform Content Creation

To create content that hits on the Triple D’s (and I’m not talking about Guy Fieri’s show), first- and zero-party data are essential. Sarah Sehgal, Director of Demand Generation for OpenSesame, noted that marketers likely have prospect information at their fingertips.

“Every marketer has excellent access to zero- and first-party data,” said Sehgal. “Zero-party data, specifically, comes from people raising their hands and intentionally sharing information, while first-party is coming from whatever platforms you have on your website that connect into our CRM or marketing automation tool. To generate more first-party insights, you need to go into those systems to segment and activate your audience by action to unlock that type of engagement.”

Sehgal also mentioned that marketers often tend to overcomplicate things, so she encouraged them to embrace simplicity. Taking it one step further was Handley, who added that the best company voices are simple, engaging and even a little weird. With that in mind, Handley noted that a company’s voice isn’t about grammar or punctuation — instead, it’s about their personality on the page.

“The weirder you are in B2B marketing, the more that you will be remembered and the more your content will connect with those around you,” said Handley. “Weird gets a bad rap and people make it seem like a bad thing, but it’s real. It tells the truth, it’s memorable and entertaining, and it stands out from the crowd.”

To learn more about the intricacies of crafting compelling buying experiences, make sure to head over to our recap of the event’s first two days and revisit the third-ever Campfire session.

Feeling some FOMO from missing out on the 2024 B2B Marketing Exchange? The #B2BMX team is already hard at work putting together their next event, B2B Marketing Exchange East, taking place from Oct. 1 to 3 in Alpharetta, Georgia. See you there!

The post #B2BMX Day 3 Recap: Unraveling The Marketer’s Paradox To Enter The B2B Content Renaissance appeared first on Demand Gen Report.

PromoAI Copilot is designed to learn a company’s branding simply from the URL and quickly generate a month’s worth of customized, high-quality videos that draw from Getty Images’ 275-million-stock library. The videos can be edited in real-time via chat-based AI requests to swap out content, change music, style, colors, caption, language, fonts and more. Videos can then be scheduled with an intuitive planner and automatically published across various social channels or saved to shared folders.

The new solution integrates with Meta, X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, Instagram, HubSpot, YouTube, Wistia, LinkedIn, Google Drive and DropBox.

“For companies of all sizes, PromoAI Copilot represents a giant leap forward in social media marketing,” said Tom More, CEO of Promo.com, in a statement. “The platform almost instantly delivers a compelling, video-centered social media strategy for businesses, delivering thousands of dollars’ worth of value. Our Copilot evens the playing field for small business owners to compete against bigger brands across these promotional channels and vastly increases productivity when compared to creating social videos manually.”

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Propelled by the rapid rise of artificial intelligence (AI), mass adoption by global communities (5.3 billion people are now online around the world) and consumers’ seeming insatiable demand for digital products and services, the internet and its vast web of interconnected ecosystems is changing before our eyes.

Understandably, businesses are trying to transform alongside it. Many are struggling to keep up.

With the digital landscape changing daily, staying ahead of the latest trends and consumer sentiment demands more than adapting to change. It requires brands and global enterprises to actively drive it.

The Role Of Experimentation In Digital Marketing

Experimentation-as-a-service (EaaS) provides a framework for actively driving trends.

EaaS, a systematic approach to assessing the efficacy of marketing tools and techniques, isn’t a new concept. It is newly relevant, as AI and machine learning (ML) algorithms are making it more efficient, effective and impactful.

{loadposition GIAA}Most importantly, it allows brands to proactively shape their marketing strategies rather than perpetually reacting to market dynamics.

For maximum effectiveness, brands should test several aspects of their marketing campaigns, including content, design, user experience and channel strategies. In doing so, brands begin to understand consumer behaviors and preferences, elevating sustainability and business growth potential.

For instance, a social media campaign that is continuously monitored and tweaked based on user engagement metrics can achieve significantly higher reach and impact compared to a static campaign.

With EaaS, digital marketers and the brands they support can leverage often-enormous data sets to make their companies more customer-centric than ever before.

AI Data Analytics For Better Decision-Making

Data is an abundant resource for many brands and leveraging it to make informed decisions is often easier said than done.

For instance, global data volume is quickly approaching 175 zettabytes, an unfathomably large number that is the functional equivalent of creating a stack of Blu-ray discs that can reach the moon 23 times.

This deluge of digital information has made data-driven decision-making more of a talking point and less of an operational reality.

Today, less than a quarter of executives say they’ve successfully created data-driven organizations. Despite having more data than ever before, companies are less effective at using this information than they were four years ago.

AI and ML are helping to solve this problem. These technologies are excellent at data analysis, identifying patterns and producing actionable outcomes that would otherwise be unavailable to brands.

As the “Harvard Business Review” succinctly explains, “This means that as a firm gathers more customer data, it can feed that data into machine learning algorithms to improve its product or service, thereby attracting more customers, generating even more customer data.”

While products and services with weak data footprints will inherently provide less data, practically every brand can leverage this technology to create more insights that drive better decision-making processes.

The goal is to maximize personalization. Adobe reported that 71% of consumers say they expect companies to deliver personalized interactions, and with more than three-quarters getting frustrated with brands when they fail to deliver, this is a critical dynamic for effective digital marketing experimentation.

With the average person encountering more than 1,700 online advertisements every month, these personalized encounters are critical to cutting through the noise and maximize marketing ROI.

Make Marketing Experimentation A Priority In 2024

Learning to create a dynamic feedback loop between brands and consumers won’t happen overnight. However, making it a strategic priority in 2024 can significantly impact marketing strategy and ROI, enabling businesses to make informed, real-time decisions that fuel sustainable growth and market impact.

Put differently, using AI and machine learning to distill actionable insights from vast data sets enables brands to forge a dynamic feedback loop with their customers, leading to more effective decision-making and a robust competitive edge.

That’s the power of making change, not just responding to it.

Mario Peshev is the CEO of DevriX, a global WordPress agency providing scalable, long-term technical partnerships along with marketing and business consulting. He is also a Core contributor to the WordPress project, an Inbound Certified marketer and a multi-disciplined business owner with a wide scope of skills.

The post Agile Isn’t Enough For Sustainable Business Growth: How Brands Can Use Marketing Experimentation To Spur Continual Innovation appeared first on Demand Gen Report.

Integrate works with organizations like Salesforce, Microsoft, Akamai and Pluralsight to power its B2B marketing strategies.

The Lowdown

Pipeline360 is Integrate’s media arm that offers an all-in-one integrated media solution for content syndication, account intelligence enhancement and digital advertising.

Back-Of-The-Box Details

Pipeline360 seeks to enable a strategic, holistic demand generation approach tailored for the reality of today’s B2B purchasing process. Powered by Integrate, Pipeline360 combines targeted display, content syndication and a comprehensive marketplace model to help ensure that marketers achieve 100% compliant and marketable leads by:

• Effectively engaging with audiences much earlier in the buying cycle;
• Connecting with buyers at every stage of the process; and
• Optimizing programs to drive performance.

Who It’s For

Demand generation teams and B2B marketing teams seeking to drive predictable, compliant pipeline.

What It Solves

Pipeline360 helps marketers:

1. Acquire high-quality leads at scale;
2. Ensure all leads adhere to local and global data privacy laws and guidelines through data governance;
3. Optimize program performance via analytics; and
4. Drive outcomes that demonstrably drive pipeline.

What Makes It Special

Pipeline360 brings content syndication management and campaign management — including display advertising, lead validation and standardization — under one roof with links to CRM and marketing automation data.

Contact

Integrate

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With more than 80 sessions that include Breakouts, Lunch & Learns, Case Studies, Workshops, Keynotes and Labs across five tracks — Content2Conversion, Demand Gen Summit, Sales Impact Summit, Go-To-Market Strategy and ABM In Action Live — there’s something for every marketer in the line-up. Let’s peek into this year’s agenda and see what’s in store.

Kicking off the event with the opening keynote is “B2B Content Lessons From Taylor Swift: Shake Off Your Old Strategy & Experiment To Engage,” featuring Forrester’s Phyllis Davidson. Throughout this session, Davidson will take a page out of Swift’s songbook to talk about better connecting with your audience, personalizing content and experimenting with new approaches and technology.

Interestingly, that’s not the only Taylor Swift-themed session on our docket this year. We also have “Enter Your B2B Brand’s Reputation Era,” with MNTN’s Jon Zucker, who plans to walk attendees through how CTV helps marketers ensure that they’re in the initial consideration set and provides brand-safe protections to ensure that delicate reputation stays intact.

While we’re on the topic of powerful women, I’m most excited for “Women In Revenue: How To Get Paid What You’re Worth,” a panel discussion that will share insights into the pay gap and how women can fight for their right to equal pay.

Before we move on, let’s circle back to the Keynote circuit. While Davidson will kick off the event Monday evening, the other keynoters we have on tap include:

• The Experience Maker Dan Gingiss, with “Elevating B2B Marketing: Transforming Challenges Into Opportunities With Customer Experience,” which will cover how integrating customer experience principles can address the distinct challenges faced by B2B marketers and provide actionable strategies to drive transformative change within your organization;
• Google’s Steve Armenti, with “B2B Buyers Want A Better Purchasing Experience — Get The ABM Framework That Delivers It,” to discuss how to use ABM in a new capacity to meet the evolving needs of today’s B2B buyers; and
• Two more that will be announced soon — I can’t give everything away!

Moving on, refining go-to-market strategies will remain a major focus of the event, with track sessions that include:

• “It’s Not A Sales Or Marketing Issue; It’s A Brand Issue: No BS Brand Tactics For B2B Marketing Leaders Who Want To Win,” featuring Kate DiLeo from the Brand Trifecta; and
• “Our Hard Work Is Hardly Working: The Unseen Reason Everyone Is Busy But Nothing’s Getting Done & How To Fix It Today,” with Andrea Fryrear of AgileSherpas.

It’s also not a secret that B2B marketing has changed dramatically in the last few years in response to rapidly evolving business buyer behavior. To help practitioners address the changing dynamics, eMarketing Strategy’s Ruth Stevens will take the stage with “What’s Working In B2B Marketing: New Developments, New Tools + New Techniques,” where she’ll share what’s real and what’s really working in social media, content marketing and trade shows and events.

Stemming off Stevens’ presentation, the topics she covered will be expanded in:

• “Make It A Marketing Sensation Soiree: Level Up Engagement & Have Key Targets Coming Back For More!”, featuring Dan Glicksman from CDM Media;
• “The Power Of Live Events: Driving Growth Through Experiences,” with Huong Nguyen, Shiloh Events;
• “Navigating The Intersection: The Convergence Of Demand Generation & Account-Based Marketing In B2B,” featuring a panel of speakers from Versique, Blue Yonder, Grubhub and Lumen Technologies;
• “Integrating Pursuit-Based Marketing Into Your Sales & Marketing Mix,” with Kim Saving, Accenture; and
• “Using Data To Drive Demand,” with Cisco’s Christine Otts.

And that’s not even scratching the surface: We also have bunch of Case Study sessions on Monday, several Lunch & Learns taking place across Tuesday and Wednesday, Workshops for All-Access Pass holders and our third-ever Campfire session, a keynote/workshop hybrid!

Other key elements of #B2BMX will include:

• The CMO Mentors program, which connects up-and-coming practitioners will seasoned industry vets;
• Our popular, invite-only CMO Exchange;
• An invite-only B2Bvip networking event;
• The Killer Content Awards ceremony; and
• Networking receptions.

Make sure to check out the full agenda and register now, and if you’re feeling lucky: Reach out to me on LinkedIn and I might hook you up with a discount code!

The post #B2BMX 2024 Preview: The Roadmap To Revenue Revealed appeared first on Demand Gen Report.

Pipeline360 incorporates what was previously known as the Integrate Lead Generation Marketplace with multichannel, full-funnel, global campaign management, including real-time analytics, lead validation and standardization and enhanced segmentation.

 As part of the media division’s release, Pipeline360 and Demand Metric conducted “The 2024 State Of B2B Pipeline Growth” survey, which found that:

• 80% of B2B marketers report getting new qualified leads is mission critical or an urgent priority, yet 53% of B2B marketers are unable to meet their pipeline goals; and
• 93% of B2B marketers say that data compliance and accuracy is a priority at their company.

“This gap in marketers’ ability to meet pipeline goals underscores the complex intersection of challenges B2B marketers face today — budget constraints alongside rising targets, a convergence of brand and demand, all while facing heightened scrutiny on data privacy,” said Jeremy Bloom, Co-founder and CEO of Integrate, in a statement. “We developed Pipeline360 to provide our customers with a flexible solution that makes it easy and seamless to generate a robust pipeline enriched with high quality leads. This complements our SaaS platform’s capability to connect, govern and measure performance across multiple demand channels.”

The introduction of Pipeline360 closely follows Integrate’s release of Data Guardian, a data protection offering designed to help ensure marketing leads are high quality and compliant in the highly regulated data landscape.

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AI-Powered Personalization

One of the primary ways AI is influencing B2B content syndication is through advanced personalization. AI algorithms analyze vast amounts of data to understand buyer behavior, preferences and intent. This enables marketers to create highly personalized content that resonates with individual prospects. From tailored email campaigns to dynamic website content, AI-driven personalization ensures that each touchpoint is relevant and compelling.

In the context of content syndication, AI helps marketers deliver the right content to the right audience at the right time. Through predictive analytics, AI identifies patterns in buyer behavior, allowing marketers to anticipate the content needs of their target accounts. This not only enhances the user experience but also increases the likelihood of conversion by providing valuable, targeted information.

ABM: Laser-Focused Targeting

ABM, on the other hand, complements AI by offering a strategic framework for content syndication. ABM revolves around identifying high-value accounts and tailoring marketing efforts specifically for them. This aligns seamlessly with the precision that AI brings to personalization. Together, AI and ABM enable marketers to create hyper-targeted content strategies that address the unique challenges and interests of key accounts.

In the realm of B2B content syndication, ABM ensures that content is not just broadly distributed but also strategically placed in front of decision-makers within target accounts. By aligning content distribution with the account’s specific needs and pain points, marketers can significantly increase engagement and conversion rates. AI can also help expand ABM lists by building look-a-like lists that may target companies that were not even on a company’s radar but looking for a specific type of solution.

Efficient Lead Scoring & Qualification

AI plays a crucial role in optimizing lead scoring and qualification in B2B content syndication. Traditional methods often rely on static criteria, leading to inefficiencies and missed opportunities. AI-driven lead scoring, however, dynamically assesses the potential of leads based on real-time interactions, behavioral patterns and historical data.

This dynamic approach ensures that sales teams focus their efforts on leads with the highest likelihood of conversion, improving overall efficiency and productivity. In the context of content syndication, AI-driven lead scoring allows marketers to prioritize the distribution of content to accounts that are more likely to move through the sales funnel, maximizing the impact of their syndication efforts.

Enhanced Analytics & Measurement

AI not only aids in the creation and distribution of content but also revolutionizes the way marketers measure its effectiveness. Advanced analytics powered by AI provide a granular understanding of how content is consumed, shared and acted upon. This level of insight allows marketers to refine their content syndication strategies continuously.

ABM complements these capabilities by providing a holistic view of the account-level impact. By measuring the engagement and conversion rates of target accounts, marketers can gauge the overall success of their content syndication efforts. This data-driven approach enables agile decision-making, allowing marketers to adapt their strategies in real-time for maximum impact.

Conclusion

In the dynamic landscape of B2B marketing, the synergy between AI and ABM is reshaping content syndication strategies. The marriage of AI-powered personalization and ABM’s targeted approach is unlocking unprecedented levels of efficiency and effectiveness. As businesses strive to stay ahead in the competitive B2B arena, leveraging the combined power of AI and ABM in content syndication is not just a choice but a strategic imperative for success. Remember, this is not an easy task and is not something that can happen overnight; it takes planning, support, executive sponsorship and patience.

Mark Nachlis is a 25-year veteran in the B2B space and the Co-founder and Managing Director of Revline Marketing, Inc., a marketing firm that owns first-party data and provides B2B solutions for agencies.

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The partnership seeks to provide Vende Digital’s customers with access to enhanced content creation and optimization through Jasper’s platform to help enable more effective, scalable marketing.

“Our partnership with Jasper isn’t just about leveraging their top-tier AI platform; it’s about reinventing how businesses approach marketing,” said Paul Slack, CEO of Vende Digital, in a statement. “Jasper’s AI platform is purpose-built for business. Features like brand voice customization to match our clients’ tone and style and collaborative team workflows will allow us to help clients take their B2B marketing to the next level.”

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Schultz brings more than 25 years of sales strategy and executive experience to Uberflip. Most recently, he was the CEO of Modus, a B2B SaaS company specializing in marketing software, where he steered the company to a more than 30% year-over-year SaaS growth and a more than 94% retention rate. His strategic leadership led to a successful exit through an acquisition in July 2023.

“As I take on responsibility as CEO, my focus is leading with integrity, empowering our team and charting a course for sustained excellence,” said Schultz, in a statement. “With Uberflip being the pioneer of content experiences, we are able to position ourselves in a place where we can continue to thrive and evolve as fast as our clients’ needs.”

For his part, Cogan brings more than 20 years of experience supporting, designing and executing revenue generating models. His experience spans sales, customer success, partnerships, strategy and operations and, most recently, he was GM of the Americas at Piano, a digital experience platform.

“As CRO, I plan to do more than just drive revenue growth, but also create strategic partnerships and optimize our sales and marketing efforts,” said Cogan, in a statement. “This will be a seamless transition for our clients who will continue to receive unparalleled innovation. It’s an honor to join the Uberflip team and work closely alongside Jeremy to leverage our collective strengths and navigate this economy and industry together.”

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