Good morning: B2B marketing will be disrupted

B2B marketing, having undergone the ABM revolution, seems ripe for further disruption.

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Good morning, Marketers, and the B2B marketing stack will be disrupted.

The comment you’ll see from MarTech contributor Scott Vaughan below reflects some ideas we’ve been kicking around here all fall. B2B marketing, having undergone the ABM revolution, seems ripe for further disruption. Marketing automation isn’t going anywhere just yet — indeed, it will continue to be an important part of the B2B arsenal — but a number of factors have the potential to reduce its importance.

For one thing, there’s the dramatic change in the way B2B buyers are working. Many are working remotely, in different channels, on different devices — and doing their own research. In-person meetings with sales reps are down and buyers are actively avoiding calls. And although email is still important, there really are other channels.

For another thing, the value proposition of CDPs is growing from data storage and identity resolution tools to activation and execution platforms. I could, and will, say much more about this. A final hint: What’s more important, a truly engaged prospect or a qualified lead?

Kim Davis

Editorial Director

Shorts 

B2B marketing is getting disrupted. GTM advisor Scott Vaughan writes: “Marketing Automation as the center of the Marketing/Revenue world to generate leads was a critical and powerful launching point for B2B Marketing relevance and to get a seat at the table. But the buying and selling process has changed, external buyer and internal CXO expectations are different, Marketing leaders are gaining confidence via experience, and data and technology models are more advanced to move to a more precision, data- and buyer-driven approach. NOTE: ABM/X can be part of it but it is NOT the strategy.” Read more here.


About the author

Kim Davis
Staff
Kim Davis is currently editor at large at MarTech. Born in London, but a New Yorker for almost three decades, Kim started covering enterprise software ten years ago. His experience encompasses SaaS for the enterprise, digital- ad data-driven urban planning, and applications of SaaS, digital technology, and data in the marketing space. He first wrote about marketing technology as editor of Haymarket’s The Hub, a dedicated marketing tech website, which subsequently became a channel on the established direct marketing brand DMN. Kim joined DMN proper in 2016, as a senior editor, becoming Executive Editor, then Editor-in-Chief a position he held until January 2020. Shortly thereafter he joined Third Door Media as Editorial Director at MarTech.

Kim was Associate Editor at a New York Times hyper-local news site, The Local: East Village, and has previously worked as an editor of an academic publication, and as a music journalist. He has written hundreds of New York restaurant reviews for a personal blog, and has been an occasional guest contributor to Eater.

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