If you haven’t already booked your spot at the 2020 B2B Marketing Exchange, some of these sessions just might persuade you to book some last-minute travel. There’s much more than gorgeous surroundings and luxurious amenities at the year’s best B2B marketing conference.
Make time for the parties and networking events; there are always fabulous people to meet and share professional insights with. Kick off the first night with fireworks and welcome festivities. Get revved up in the morning with boot camps and yoga. And certainly make time to stroll through the Marketplace and visit us at Booth 101 to say hello during a networking break.
But most important, peruse the B2BMX agenda to find the sessions tailored to the topics you’re most keen on.
We’ve identified six can’t-miss sessions that we think are ideal for content marketers, beginning of course with our very own case study session with Assurant. We hope this helps you make the best use of your B2BMX time. It goes by so quickly!
How Assurant Used Content as the Key to ABM Success
Tammy Graves and Catherine Boyd, Assurant
Kelly Zahoudanis, Content4Demand
Monday, 3:10 p.m. to 3:50 p.m.
Join Content4Demand to learn how Assurant developed and launched its first-ever ABM campaign strategy—targeted to one prospect with huge potential. Tammy Graves, Strategic Content Leader at Assurant, and Catherine Boyd, Digital Content Manager at Assurant, will show how they collaborated with C4D to:
- Outline the sales journey and identify key messaging with the help of a key salesperson and a motivated project manager as SMEs
- Develop a content plan and targeted content for the funnel with SME input and research
- Develop a library of content: E-books, infographics, blog posts, checklists, articles, and more
- Engage senior-level management and achieved progression through the content
Seats are first come, first served, so be sure to arrive early to reserve your spot.
Decoding B2B Buying Behavior: How to
Contextualize Messaging for Hyper-Personalization
Jessie Johnson and Renee Irion, SiriusDecisions
Tuesday, 10:45a.m. to 11:15 a.m.
B2B buyers expect hyper-contextualized experiences in increasingly complex buying scenarios that require both relevance and responsiveness. Marketers must be able to capture, interpret and respond to buying behavior and signals in real time to deliver an optimal buyer and customer experience. Content insights reveal meaningful intent signals and feedback loops to leverage in designing and adapting hyper-personalized buying experiences that provide multiple paths to connect, convert and drive repeat purchases.
This session will provide:
- Strategies and tactics for a signal-response approach to hyper-personalization
- A methodology for contextual activation using real-time buyer insights
- Privacy as a building block for delivering relevance through personalized, dynamic interactions
Tackling B2B’s Creativity Problem:
How to Find Moments of Brilliance in Everyday Chaos
Todd Henry, Author and Keynote Speaker
Tuesday, 8:45 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.
Whether you’re writing a new marketing email or developing a new business strategy, it has to be creative, fast, relevant and preferably under budget.
With this ever-increasing pressure to produce consistently great work, how can you ensure that those brilliant ideas will be there when you need them? Creativity is unpredictable, and you’re on a tight timeline. In this session, Todd Henry, author of Herding Tigers and The Accidental Creative, will share practical tactics to help you and your team bring your best creative ideas to the table every day — especially under pressure.
Some key takeaways will include:
- The three kinds of work that all creative pros engage in, and the one that we often ignore at our peril
- How to use challenges and “the big 3” to gain focus for yourself and your team
- The four kinds of stimuli that lead to brilliant ideas
Don’t miss your chance to get up close and personal with Todd after his keynote session. Content4Demand is proud to be hosting a special event at Marketplace Booth 101 from 10 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. where Todd Henry will be personally signing copies of The Accidental Creative: How to Be Brilliant at a Moment’s Notice.
Building a Global Demand Gen Machine:
Lessons Learned from Year One
Christine Elliott, JLL
3:45 p.m. to 4:20 p.m.
Building a global demand generation function has tremendous benefits: the ability to leverage scalable programs across regions as well as consistent messaging and KPIs. On the flip side, going global can be fraught with challenges, as content and campaigns must speak to the unique challenges, needs and expectations of buyers in specific markets. Creating global scale while acting “local” is a delicate balance.
JLL was tasked with developing a robust global demand gen strategy that was scalable but still supported the creation of programs for targeted markets. During this session, Christine Elliott, Global Leader of JLL’s Demand Center and Content Strategy, will outline how her team has:
- Created global programs that allow regional and local customization
- Addressed regional differences in terms of database strength and privacy concerns
- Developed a robust content strategy that can scale globally and locally
- Built consistent foundational processes and KPIs to measure success
How AI Is Already Impacting Every Stage of Buyer Engagement
Pam Didner, Relentless Pursuit, LLC
Wednesday, 8:40 a.m. to 9:10 a.m.
#B2BMX favorite Pam Didner will share insights on what sales and marketing teams need to know about the immediate impact of artificial intelligence (AI). It’s already impacting our lives in more ways than you may realize. Author and advisor Pam Didner will crack some AI myths and share insights to help you identify potential AI initiatives that can impact each of the specific stages of buyer engagement.
- Understand how AI impacts the sales and marketing landscape
- Access specific examples of how applications are already being used to improve engagement with account targeting, content offers, sales qualification and many other areas
- Connect the dots between the AI and your jobs
- Identify key actions and ideas to kick off initiatives with your teams
Get a taste of Pam Didner’s insights now in her episode of the B2B Marketing Exchange Podcast as she discusses key things she’s learned.
Applying the Principles of Social Strategy to Content Creation
Dave Bruno, Aptos
1:35 p.m. to 2:05 p.m.
When Aptos spun out of a much larger brand in 2015, they had to completely reimagine the way they went to market. Part of a highly entrenched and competitive category, many of Aptos’ competitors were focusing on the same trends, using the same jargon and frankly, telling the same stories. The company had an opportunity to stand out, leveraging cost-effective yet strategic content creation practices that allowed them to build brand credibility, establish trust among target buyers and influencers, and truly stand out in the marketplace.
Join Aptos’ Brand Director Dave Bruno to discover some of the most valuable lessons his team learned on their five-year journey. A few highlights of those lessons learned include:
- Designing new content strategies that address both brand and demand-gen objectives
- Reversioning and repurposing content in order to maximize reach and impact
- Dramatically rethinking how content is delivered to a social media-crazed world by embracing “meme-like” content (that still packs a thoughtful punch)
- Finding new ways to work with demand gen teams to evolve without compromise
How B2B Content Consumption Insights and Multi-Channel Campaign Design Helped SAP Boost Pipeline Creation
Nick Robinson, SAP, and David Fortino, NetLine
2:15 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Buyers are overwhelmed by the amount of information at their fingertips. At the same time, the type of content they prefer and consume is constantly changing. To stand out, brands must orchestrate a coordinated combination of first-party, insight-driven content syndication; display advertising; and paid social media. SAP has successfully embraced this approach by identifying and delivering content to accounts that have a greater intent to buy. During this session, learn how SAP leveraged NetLine’s B2B buyer content consumption data to increase pipeline generation and marketing’s overall impact on revenue by:
- Tailoring campaign and content messaging to large buying committees and complex sale cycles
- Embracing intent data to identify likely-to-buy accounts
- Leveraging content syndication to put the right content in front of the right buyers
- Developing a repeatable process for creating targeted campaigns at scale
These are just six of the 100-plus valuable sessions available to #B2BMX attendees this year. Want a glimpse of what else there is to do at this must-attend event? Read 5 Reasons I Can’t Wait for #B2BMX.
Holly Celeste Fisk
Holly Celeste Fisk is an accomplished marketing pro with 20+ years of experience in B2B and B2C. She’s responsible for Content4Demand’s internal marketing efforts, managing everything from content creation and email marketing to events and sponsorships, blog publishing, website management and social media presence. When she’s not working, you’ll find her sliding into third at softball, buried in a book or practicing her Italian.
