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.

The underlying theme throughout most of the sessions was the various factors that impact the backbone of marketing: Content. For content creation, specifically, Forrester VP, Principal Analyst Phyllis Davidson kicked off the event with her opening keynote, “B2B Content Lessons From Taylor Swift: Shake Off Your Old Strategy & Experiment To Engage.”

Davidson explained that the top three reasons for Swift’s success — and the three components practitioners can bring into their day-to-day — are her ability to evolve, adapt and engage with her fans. Starting with evolution and adaption, Davidson started with a blunt fact: The majority of marketers fail to understand the changing buying landscape and don’t work to refine or adjust their content to keep up.

“The content that most of us put out there is not loved or well received by our audiences,” said Davidson. “Buyers believe that almost 60% of content is irrelevant and that they receive better information from other sources. I’m sure we can all relate to that as consumers of content — a lot of vendor-created material is useless, because it’s incredibly biased.”

Tapping Into Emotions To Create Memorable Content Experiences

That said, it’s often difficult for marketers to shake off their biases, because the concepts of product and pricing are deeply engrained in common “best” practices. Jay Mandel, The Brand Coach, noted in his session — “From Manipulation To Empathy: Redefining Marketing In A Changing World” — that creating content around pricing doesn’t cut it in the modern world. Pricing product information alone isn’t enough to differentiate, so marketers need to find other avenues of creativity.

{loadposition GIAA}“You need something bigger than making money if you’re going to convince anyone of anything,” said Mandel. “You can’t operate with the mentality that ‘We have problem;’ you need to understand that your customer has a problem. You need to reframe your products from the consumer’s perspective and address it. Based on those insights, you can better understand what your customers’ goals are and how you can address it.”

Dan Gingiss, an international keynote speaker and customer experience coach, also took the keynote stage with “Elevating B2B Marketing: Transforming Challenges Into Opportunities With Customer Experience,” where he suggested practitioners eliminate biases by putting themselves in the shoes of their customers.

“You need to become a customer of your own business, so fill out a form, register for something on your website or even ‘forget’ your password,” said Gingiss. “As consumers, you’ll notice the things that are annoying. So, you have to turn it around and become a customer of your own brand, and that’s how you’ll find extraordinary opportunities.”

While Gingiss admitted that it often feels time- or money-intensive to innovate or adapt marketing strategies, he continued that practitioners don’t have to do anything elaborate or over the top; instead, he noted they can engage audiences by creating immersive content that evokes emotions.

“Immersivity is about creating an experience people feel in their bones, because that’s how we remember things,” he explained. “Most of all, you need to appeal to one of the five senses or emotions — if you think back to all the memories you have of being a child, most of them will come back to an emotional moment or something you can smell, taste, see or touch.”

For example, Jake Sanders, Content Marketing Manager for Ninjacat, shared one of his most successful assets during a panel discussion titled “Retain, Engage, Sustain: Crafting Content That Keeps Customers Coming Back.” Sanders explained that he wrote a musical to replace the deluge of blogs his company was churning out, as he candidly admitted he was tired of sending blogs into the world because no one really reads them.

“If you can be entertained in the way that you relate information, and it’s filled with education and actual qualitative insights with quantitative data, you can marry that with fun,” said Sanders. “You want to educate, entertain and inspire people, and a lot of us are missing that. It can even be as simple as playing around with rhyming schemes or alliteration or fun words. You want your content to reflect that you love what you’re doing.”

Experimenting, Testing & Embracing AI

There’s no modern marketing conference with discussing the tools and technology influencing strategy creation and execution, so Davidson naturally brought up the power of AI experimentation in content creation. She noted the top two areas with the heaviest AI influence are production and promotion. She continued that everyone’s still thinking about AI — “whether they’re playing or running away from it,” — but the narrative’s finally shifting away from fears of AI stealing jobs.

“We’re seeing that humans are still exceedingly important in this process, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future,” said Davidson. “Don’t worry: We’re going to find all kinds of interesting ways to use GenAI and keep our jobs.”

Chiming into the AI narrative was Dan Glicksman, who runs demand generation for CDM Media. In his session, “Make It A Marketing Sensation Soiree: Level Up Engagement & Have Key Targets Coming Back For More!,” he recommended marketers embrace AI but do so with caution in mind.

“We need to be careful how we use AI,” said Glicksman. “Honestly, it’s a practice: There’s a lot of information, with a ton of bias, that is based on models that are constantly being trained. And training means it’s making mistakes.”

As marketers embrace the nuanced approach to AI-generated content creation, Davidson also stressed the importance of experimentation, because “if you don’t experiment, you’re just going to scale brand new ways to do things without really testing them.” She continued that there are three ways to test AI:

1. Testing different versions of content with the same audience;
2. Testing assets generated by AI versus humans; and
3. Testing AI to manage experience orchestration.

“What we see is mostly online experimentation, and for more than a decade it’s been about experimenting with different types of promotions,” noted Davidson. “That includes changing the banner ad or email subject line to see what looks better — Your typical A/B testing practices. That needs to continue to happen, but you need to take experimentation beyond that. You can’t simply come up with an idea, run it full force then wonder if it worked. You need to do real testing.”

Shifting ABM Approaches To Focus More On GTM

If anything was made clear on day one of #B2BMX24, it’s that the buying experience in B2B has changed dramatically in recent years. Buyers are now more informed and demanding than ever before, and they expect a personalized and seamless experience from start to finish.

Steve Armenti, VP of Revenue Marketing at Digital Ocean (former global demand gen lead for Chrome Enterprise), shared his insights into why marketers should shift toward an account-based go-to-market (GTM) framework. Coincidentally, his framework brought together the theories of emotionally resonant content and adaption.

“An account-based GTM framework is a strategic, long-term approach to entering a market through advanced targeting with specific, high-value accounts or segments,” Armenti explained. “You need to personalize marketing and sales efforts to the unique needs of the decision-making process at those accounts.”

Alright, we’ve officially hit the full circle moment — while there’s only so much room per page, the #B2BMX24 coverage isn’t stopping. You can check out our blog here, which further delves into ABM frameworks and sales activation plays, and stay tuned on our website for our day three recap.

The post #B2BMX24 Day 1 & 2 Recap: Crafting Immersive Content That Matches The Modern Buying Experience appeared first on Demand Gen Report.

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.

The post Integrate Launches New Media Division, Pipeline360 appeared first on Demand Gen Report.

The Problem

Revenue professionals understand the significance of selling to existing customers rather than acquiring new ones: It cuts down on acquisition costs, enhances overall efficiency, fosters enduring customer relationships and maximizes the value of each customer. With that in mind, Avalara wanted to uncover new ways to deliver greater value to its customers and optimize revenue opportunities based on their existing contracts.

“Avalara’s customer account teams handle a high volume of interactions, driving roughly 3,000 deals to close each month,” said Sean Flynn, SVP of Global Sales at Avalara. “We put great emphasis on providing best-in-class customer service to make compliance less taxing for our customers.”

The Solution

In 2021, Avalara’s customer account management (CAM) team adopted revenue intelligence platform Gong to capture customer interactions — such as calls, emails, video conferences and more — to surface insights that would help teams boost engagement and increase efficiencies to drive more revenue. Leveraging Gong Insights, the CAM team was able to identify the behaviors that contributed to growth and those that hindered opportunities.

“For customers like Avalara that have a large and diverse customer base, automated insights that uncover opportunities for account growth can make a big difference,” said Ben Brownlee, Gong’s Chief Customer Officer.

These insights allowed CAM leaders to provide personalized coaching that would improve customer interaction quality. They could also communicate the value of their solutions more effectively and assist their sales teams in achieving better results.

The Results

After seeing the widespread adoption of the platform throughout the CAM team, Avalara decided to extend the use of Gong to other departments, including customer success, customer development, product marketing, sales development, new business sales and support. Gong rapidly became integral to these teams’ most critical workflows, enabling Avalara teams to:

• Achieve a better understanding of their customers, which enabled them to build robust sales pipeline and identify potential opportunities;
• Close new business deals more effectively through data-driven insights into customer needs and preferences;
• Provide a more personalized and value-driven customer service experience; and
• Analyze customer interactions and behaviors to identify cross-sell and up-sell opportunities to maximize revenue from Avalara’s existing customer base.

“With Gong, we have accurate, market-driven insights on how to deliver the best possible experience for customers on every transaction, which has been instrumental in helping us develop a culture of value in every customer interaction,” concluded Flynn.

The post How Avalara Drives Lifetime Value For Customers With AI-Enabled Insights From Gong appeared first on Demand Gen Report.

In this era of information overload, capturing and retaining the attention of potential clients requires a delicate balance of technology, empathy and strategic finesse. From the deployment of AI-powered chatbots to the orchestration of multichannel conversations, businesses are deploying an arsenal of tools to stay ahead in the race for customer engagement — especially because 52% of customers are inclined to make repeated purchases from a company if they provide assistance through live chat.

“The world we live in is in a constant state of communication, we can all agree that we’re short on one valuable resource: Time,” said Jeanne Kirby, VP of Marketing for full service marketing and communications agency Inviso Corporation, during her #B2BSMX presentation. “We’ve never been as connected or reachable as we are today. There are a lot of distractions that can happen, so you need to win the battle for your customers’ attention, reach them through the noise and connect with them in a way that they’ll remember you.”

Throughout this report, we’ll unveil how successful practitioners are quickly getting in front of buyers with the right messaging. Drawing from real-world case studies and industry insights, this report will equip you with the knowledge and tactics needed to not only captivate your audience, but also convert them into devoted advocates of your brand. Specific topics of discussion will include:

• How continuous testing of messaging strategies, calls-to-action and chatbot responses refines conversational marketing efforts for maximum impact;
• The power of AI for dynamic, context-aware conversations that can help with lead qualification and improved customer satisfaction;
• The role content plays in conversational marketing, with a focus on content-rich conversations such as interactive guides and product demonstrations;
• The tools and technologies needed to ensure consistent messaging across various channels, including website chat, social media and email; and
• How to leverage analytics and customer data to facilitate real-time decision-making to optimize strategies.

Crafting Content That Engages & Stands Out

Perhaps the most difficult component of conversational marketing involves actually engaging with a prospect. With the world in content overload and attention a valuable resource, it’s difficult for organizations to craft compelling assets and messaging that grabs prospect and customer attention.

“They say that the human attention span is eight seconds long, but I don’t think it’s necessarily our attention spans that short — it’s our consideration span,” said Kirby. “That’s the amount of time we’re willing to consider whether we’re going to keep reading that article, following that influencer or watching that show. For us as marketers, it means that we have eight seconds to hook our customer before they’re off to the next thing. We don’t have time for facts and stats and evidence — we need something that’s going to keep them planted right where they are, by lighting up their interest.”

Kirby continued that Inviso operates with a “customer-first” focus, which means the company’s marketers ask themselves what their customers really care about and identify the one thing they want their customers to remember. Being that “talking through a whole bunch of stats or benefits is forgettable,” Kirby said the team instead focuses on:

• What’s the one reason the customer will say yes to this?
• Why will they take that next step?
• What do they care about?
• What’s the biggest problem in their lives right now, and how long has it been an issue?
• Have they tried anything to eliminate it already?
• What’s the cost of the problem?

With that baseline established, Peter Prodromou, Founder and President of AI-marketing agency Boathouse Group, noted at #B2BSMX that marketers should weave those insights together to condense and correlate their messaging across all channels.

“We align issues with audiences, look at the narratives that they are shaping individually and start to figure out how those can be interrelated to create a tapestry that gives you control over the dialogue,” continued Prodromou. “Whether you’re selling a product, in charge of marketing or developing creative, everything must be consistently tailored to the needs of your target audience.”

Proof Point:

Inviso’s Kirby explained that when she first started, the company would create partner launch kits in the form of a zipped file that partners could download. Within those files were folders which, when opened, had many different pieces of content within them. Given the sheer amount of information provided and the company’s desire to streamline the kits, they turned the files into flipbooks with a table of contents that the audience could self-navigate. Within the flipbook, the audience could download a flyer, watch a video, quiz themselves or even watch a GIF.

Analyzing The Latest Tech To Provide Always-On Conversations

Given the challenges of engaging modern buyers due to their unpredictable work hours and a more competitive field, practitioners are turning to various tools and technologies to better meet prospects where they are. Most notably, this takes the form of AI and predictive learning technologies.

“When you don’t have complete control over an organization, you need to be more flexible,” said Prodromou. “You need the tools, solutions and ability to assess in real time what kind of narratives are being shaped in real-time so you can get in front of prospects. There’s just an enormous sense of fear in our industry that we’re going to be displaced by AI. What we ought to be focusing on is the AI that makes us smarter, not the kind that displaces us.”

Prodromou shared that there are several tools that are “phenomenal” at identifying conversations in real-time, which includes chatbots and predictive analytics. He continued that chatbots and their corresponding dashboards let Boathouse Group assess what conversations are happening in real-time across key constituent groups.

However, Phyllis Davidson, a Principal Analyst at Forrester, noted in her #B2BMX session that marketers need to proceed with a little bit of caution when deploying chatbots.

“Everybody has chatbots, and the technology is certainly there, but we need to understand how strong these technologies are,” Davidson continued. “Arguably, not too great right now, and that’s because of the humans interacting with AI. We aren’t quite there with feeding it the right information, but I think that’s going to change a lot over the next few years. That will take the form of developing a predictive AI engine that understands and begins to deliver those more customized experiences.”

Proof Point:

State Street Global Advisors (SSGA), the investment management division of State Street Corporation, traditionally relied on in-person interactions to sell their services. But after realizing its clients were looking for a different experience where they could conduct their own research, ask questions on their own terms and make the majority of their purchases digitally. The company turned to chat bots to help meet those needs and, as a result, achieved its six-month $15 million revenue goal (and more!) in just three months, in addition to generating $65 million from leads and achieving 2X of attainment goals in Q4.

Conclusion

The B2B marketing realm has undergone a transformative evolution with the integration of conversational AI and innovative content creation strategies. The symbiotic relationship between artificial intelligence and engaging content has proven to be a game-changer, enabling businesses to forge deeper connections with their target audience. Embracing this synergy not only enhances customer engagement but also empowers businesses to adapt to the ever-evolving demands of the digital era.

“It’s not about attitudes,” concluded Prodromou. “It’s about breaking down barriers and understanding how individuals consume information day-to-day. Once you have that behavioral analysis and prospect and customer channel preferences, then you can start building your strategy and narrative. Organizations that drive narratives are going to be the winners in the courts of public opinion, customer acquisition and value.”

The post What’s Working In Conversational Marketing? Orgs Infusing AI Into Content & Messaging appeared first on Demand Gen Report.

Between dwindling budgets, mass layoffs and economic volatility, 2023 was a scary time for B2B practitioners. Whether they were attempting to motive their remaining team members or trying to make the most of existing technology, practitioners often felt they were cobbling together marketing strategies à la Dr. Frankenstein.

As the tribulations of 2023 will likely bleed over into 2024, here are three strategies practitioners should lock up in their asylums (and hope they don’t escape Michael Myers-style!).

1. Overt Sales Pitches

Blatant sales pitches trap B2B buyers in a haunted house of messaging, with “Hi [Name],” and Calendly links dripping in red down the walls. With that lovely visual in mind, it’s unsurprising that nearly half (46%) of all B2B buyers want companies to curb sales messaging in favor of outreach that demonstrates an understanding of their company’s unique needs.

“It comes back to the old adage of buying a used car: We hated it because we knew we were going to be sold to, it was probably going to cost more, the payments would be more expensive and our ROI would drop as soon as we drove off the lot,” said Roderick Jefferson, a Sales Coach for Growth Companies and author of “Sales Enablement 3.0.”, on the B2BMX podcast. “The same thing is happening now, because I think our prospects and customers have access to so much information that they’re not looking to be informed; they’re actually looking for confirmation about whether or not they should buy from your company.”

Instead, buyers want to build relationships with their sales reps and feel a connection to the company — specifically, 55% want communication that speaks directly to and demonstrates expertise around the needs of their industry. Roderick continued that there’s never been a time in history where humanity and empathy has meant as much as it currently does, so he encouraged salespeople to start actively listening to prospects.

“It’s all about asking the right questions, and it’s about clear communication,” Jefferson continued. “It allows you to demonstrate your credibility but also starts driving the conversation toward action items, like scheduling the next follow-up and moving a prospect along in the buyer’s journey, as well as understanding why they buy, how they buy, when they buy and who’s buying.”

2. Product-Specific Content

I get it: While the primary purpose of marketing efforts is to generate awareness of products, buyers don’t want content that focuses solely on a brand’s value and solutions. Freddy Krueger is the perfect example of product-specific content: He only appears in dreams, and you know you’re in trouble when you see him. Instead, practitioners need to take Jigsaw’s approach and keep buyers on their toes of what they can expect.

“Most times, we make it about our product or service that we’re trying to tell, and we don’t do enough to get to know that individual, what makes them tick, their interests or their ideas,” said Jeremy Hurewitz, creator of the Sell Like A Spy program, during his B2B Marketing Exchange presentation.

Beyond building personal connections, buyers also want content that:

• Presents thought leadership presented by experts and peers (71%);
• Uses data and research to support its claims (53%); and
• Is personalized and tailored to their needs (42%).

3. Form Fills & Gates

Some of the most predictable twists in horror movies feature the captured person finally making it to the door or gate of their captor’s building, only to find that it’s locked, they’re trapped and danger is imminent. B2B buyers feel the same — more than one-third (35%) want content that’s easier to access, while 43% want ungated assets that are easier to share with colleagues.

“People care about time more than ever,” said Jay Baer, Founder of marketing consultancy Convince & Convert, at the B2B Marketing Exchange. “We all only have 1,440 minutes per day — you can’t buy more. Time is the only resource that we all share equally on this planet. A lot of these trends we’re seeing — quiet quitting, the great resignation, traveling, working from home — are all the same. We care about time more than ever so if you give your customers time, they’ll give you money.” 

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The new tools include:

• Enhancements to its AI Assistant, which include the ability to source information from customers’ Content Libraries, in addition to publicly available sources;
• Deeper content management automation to help prevent and remove redundant, obsolete and trivial content; and
• A broadened profile center that can now share web-based information profiles as public Trust Centers, in addition to offering invitation-only information profiles.

“Responsive prioritizes a customer-driven product roadmap, and we deeply appreciate the consistent input that our customers share, which helps us build meaningful and powerful tools,” said AJ Sunder, CPO and CIO at Responsive, in a statement. “We are particularly excited about the rapid adoption of capabilities like our AI Assistant, and we look forward to the progress customers will make with today’s enhancements to our AI, automation and privacy offerings.”

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Many of these conversations are — as usual — directed at global B2C brands. But while these brands trade in volume, the more interesting story is B2B brands, which trade in accuracy and precision. Rather than using their data to reach bigger audiences, B2B brands can use data to refine their insights to further improve their highly targeted approach.

But wait, it gets more complicated: While B2C marketers are focused on individuals and households, B2B marketers are focused on individuals as part of accounts and buying groups within those accounts. A study from Forrester found that 94% of B2B marketers sell to groups of three or more, with more than one-third selling to groups of 10 or more. To successfully use identity-based advertising to reach an entire buying group, B2B brands need a slightly different approach than their B2C colleagues.

Getting The Data Right

ID-based targeting, which uses a stable unique identifier based on first-party data for more accurate targeted advertising than third-party cookies, is only as good as the data being used. That means B2B marketers need up-to-date and complete information about an entire buying group, which averages between six and 10 people, according to Gartner.

The first (and most important) step is to build out first-party data that’s organized around these buying groups. While B2C marketers have individual customer profiles, B2B marketers need to also have information about how individuals are connected. In a customer data platform (CDP) or other data management solution, this requires an extra layer of organization. When anyone in the buying group takes an action (completes a search, downloads an article) that information is added to the buying group record, not just the individual record. 

Connecting individuals based on the company they work with, their roles and responsibilities, as well as their activity and interaction with the company, requires detective work. While a B2B marketer builds up their own first-party insights about a buying group, they’ll likely need to augment this with partner data that can build out the complete picture, including important signals like intent. With a core record of a buying group, B2B brands are set up to have a view of all their activity across channels and create highly targeted advertising campaigns.

Getting Used To Identity Matching

With a database full of buying-group information, B2B marketers are in a good position to activate ID-based advertising campaigns. This is where those “data clean rooms” come in. Using first-party data for advertising requires a safe and secure way to share information with advertising partners. If a B2B marketer wants to use their own data set to advertise on a specific website, they need to “match” their data to that website’s audience using encrypted IDs. The clean room is where this happens.

Having data clean room capabilities helps B2B marketers securely activate their own data on a partner website and augment it with data from partners to further build out their profile. While some data sets can be matched up using a common key, such as an email address or cookie, in many cases, it requires an “identity graph,” also sometimes called an “identity spine.” Companies with a robust identity graph have enough insights about an audience to match two disparate data sets accurately to make that match even without those two sets sharing a common match key.

For example, if a B2B marketer collects data from activity on their own website, they’ll be able to record any recent site visits, downloads and clicks. However, there might be a partner with lots of additional insights, such as a reseller partner that has a high-volume website featuring a lot of different products. A B2B marketer can “match” the data from their partner site to gain additional insights about their target accounts, such as potential searches for competitor products.

Better Campaigns & Better Results

Of course, all this work to create a great database is just the beginning of a new phase in B2B marketing and advertising. Data becomes the foundation of an omnichannel marketing strategy that is more accurate and more personalized. For example, a marketer could set a frequency cap of an ad across an entire buying group or trigger an email campaign to a specific stakeholder based on the actions of a different stakeholder. In other words, imagine being able to share an article about how secure your products are to the privacy stakeholder right after her boss just downloaded a white paper on your site.

The beauty of identity-based advertising is that it puts marketers in more control while still maintaining user choice and privacy. Not only can they be more precise, but they also get insights back that can build a better picture and inform the next touch in the customer journey. Marketing channels like email have had some of this for years now. Identity-based advertising brings this same capability to the bigger picture. 

Naomi Sherry is the Sr. Digital Demand Strategist at Anteriad, a full-funnel marketing solutions provider.

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