With rapidly shifting buyer expectations and increasing competition, B2B marketers must operate with precision and foresight. Adam Preis, Director of Product Solution Marketing, Ping Identity, and a Propolis member, has developed strategies that not only drive engagement but also contribute to revenue growth. His insights provide a masterclass in overcoming the fundamental challenges that define modern B2B product marketing.
“B2B marketing isn’t just about generating leads, it’s about driving pipeline and proving value at every stage of the buyer’s journey,” Adam explains. “You have to align your efforts with sales objectives and ensure that marketing is seen as a revenue enabler rather than just a support function.”
Aligning Sales and Marketing: The Revenue-Driving Partnership
Sales and marketing alignment has been amply covered on Propolis, but it’s always worth stressing that it can still become an operational challenge and revenue risk. In a world where buyers expect a seamless experience, disjointed messaging or siloed teams can result in lost opportunities. Adam explains why it’s important to break down silos and forging a shared mission.
“It’s no longer enough to hand off MQLs to sales and hope for the best,” he says. “Marketing needs to take ownership of pipeline acceleration, ensuring that leads are not just qualified but also nurtured with the right content, messaging and timing.”
Marketing teams need to work closely with sales from the outset, aligning on key accounts, shared KPIs and the precise pain points of target buyers. This collaboration ensures that marketing efforts contribute directly to revenue generation.
“It’s really about understanding who your Ideal Customer Profile is and, within that, identifying your target personas. One of the best ways to do this is by spending time in the field: working alongside your sales teams and partner teams whenever possible,” Adam recommends.
Competitive Differentiation: Crafting a Market-Dominating Narrative
The sheer volume of competing solutions in the B2B space means that differentiation is more critical than ever. Buyers are bombarded with messages from multiple vendors, making it essential for companies to carve out a distinct, compelling position in the market.
“Your biggest competitor isn’t just another vendor, it’s inertia. If you can’t articulate why a prospect needs to act now, they’ll do nothing. The job of marketing is to create urgency and clearly communicate why your solution matters today, not in six months.”
Marketers need to move beyond feature-heavy messaging and instead focus on business outcomes. When crafting compelling messaging that differentiates complex tech solutions in a crowded B2B marketplace, Adam advises that one of the best ways is to actually spend time with your clients, both directly and indirectly. The point is to truly understand the challenges they face and help solve those problems.
Rather than talking about what a particular product does, talk about what it enables. How does it increase efficiency, reduce risk or drive revenue? Those are the messages that resonate with decision-makers, who are measured on business performance, not technical specs.
Data-Driven Marketing: Moving Beyond Vanity Metrics
In a marketing landscape increasingly dominated by data, the challenge isn’t just collecting metrics, it’s knowing which ones actually matter. Many B2B marketers still rely on traditional metrics like website traffic, number of downloads and social engagement, but Adam insists that these are only part of the picture.
“Engagement is great, but it’s not the same as pipeline impact,” he says. “If your marketing isn’t influencing closed deals, you’re measuring the wrong things.”
Adam recommends focusing on full-funnel analytics, tracking how marketing efforts contribute to opportunities, deal velocity and customer expansion. A/B testing, attribution modeling and intent data should be leveraged to continuously refine targeting and messaging.
“In B2B, product marketing sits at the top of the funnel. Our role is to generate interest, drive demand and support demand generation. However, product marketing also plays a crucial role at the bottom of the funnel in deal acceleration. By fostering relationships with sales, product marketers can add significant value in accelerating deals and closing opportunities.”
It’s important for product marketers to gain firsthand insights into what customers and prospects truly want, enabling them to position products more effectively. Ping Identity leverages an “outside-in” team in their product marketing function, who is responsible for running rapid-response surveys in the marketplace, which have proven to be extremely useful.
“Recently, I was working on developing messaging for fraud detection and prevention in the financial services industry. We engaged this team to conduct a survey, which provided us with valuable food for thought and compelling statistics, allowing us to evaluate whether our approach was on the right track or needed adjustments.”
Adam adds that another essential element is staying connected with partners in specific geographies, segments and markets where they have a broader footprint and deeper understanding of the landscape.
The Future of B2B Marketing: Agility, AI and Personalization at Scale
As technology continues to evolve, so do the expectations of B2B buyers. AI-powered personalization, predictive analytics and account-based marketing (ABM) are reshaping the way companies engage with prospects. Adam sees AI as a game-changer, particularly for optimizing personalization at scale.
“We now have the ability to deliver hyper-targeted experiences to each prospect, based on real-time intent signals. The companies that get this right – using AI to serve relevant content and messaging dynamically – are the ones that will dominate in the coming years.”
The future of B2B marketing belongs to those who can combine data-driven strategies with compelling storytelling and deep alignment with sales. Whether it’s aligning teams, crafting a compelling market position, or leveraging AI for smarter engagement, success in B2B marketing is about staying agile, data-driven, and relentlessly focused on business outcomes.
Unlock expert insights and on-demand content with Propolis, designed to shape your marketing strategy, boost team effectiveness and drive business growth.
