Every year, the team at B2B Marketing puts on one event designed to capture the zeitgeist of our industry. For this event, we pick one issue which, more than any other, has stood out and captured the imaginations of B2B marketers at all levels and in all sectors.
In previous years, we’ve covered content marketing, emotional engagement, customer centricity and most recently CX or customer experience. This year, more than any before, it was a pretty simple choice: ABM, or account-based marketing.
A benchmark and methodology for the ABM journey
We’re absolutely not pretending that ABM is anything new: it’s actually been around in one form or another for many years. But over the last couple of years, it’s attracted enough attention, generated enough momentum and galvanised enough interest for us to say, with confidence, that it’s an idea whose time has come. It’s gone from something with relatively niche appeal within a segment of the tech sector, to something that is resonant across all industries.
So, the time has come for us to take it to a bigger stage – a full day to explore what it means, how it works, how to do it, how to get it right, and what you need in order to achieve that. And that’s what we’ll be doing at our Annual Conference, which takes place on Thursday 9 November at County Hall in London.
But beyond that, we’ll also be looking to take the whole ABM discussion forward – we’ll be unveiling a benchmark and a methodology for marketers to understand their ABM journey, how they compare with others and what steps they’ll need to take to reach the next level.
Based on our own inhouse research following two years of offering ABM training to B2B marketers, plus discussions with senior practitioners on the topic, we believe this simple and highly usable tool will be a significant asset to those struggling to plot their journey to ABM success, or accelerate the speed of deployment.
ABM is for sales as much as marketing
This conference is designed to provide a whole new level detail on ABM, and a total immersion in the topic – if you’re just beginning on your ABM journey (as we’ve found most people are) or if you’re a seasoned ABM campaigner, we promise you a full and compelling day of insight and inspiration, plus a wealth of expert speakers covering all aspects of this topic.
If that were not enough, we’re also going to come at ABM from a new angle – embracing the concept of ‘account-based everything’, which encompasses sales and customer success as well as marketing, to build a more comprehensive picture of successful ABM adoption.
We’ll also be seeking to balance the perspectives of inhouse marketers who have practical experiences of deploying ABM techniques and processes from within an organisation, with those of vendors and agencies, who are becoming increasingly pivotal in helping brands achieve success with ABM, or helping them scale its usage.
If ABM is one of your priorities this year, then you can’t afford to miss this conference – I hope to see you there.
