The content team of tomorrow will look a lot like the publishing team of today. That was one of the key messages from the Power Panel Crafting a Killer B2B Content Strategy at the B2B Content2Conversion event hosted by Demand Gen Report.

During the panel discussion, Joe Pulizzi, Founder of Content Marketing Institute (CMI), and Ann Handley, Author and Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs, explained that B2B marketers should plan their content based on the six “W”s of journalism — who, what, when, where, why and how.

The winners of the Second Annual Killer Content Awards were honored at an awards ceremony as part of Demand Gen Report’s B2B Content2Conversion Conference, an educational and networking event focused on helping B2B marketers develop, map, measure and optimize content marketing strategies.

Andrew Gaffney, Editor of Demand Gen Report, said the submissions were judged in areas such as social media and targeted content marketing; educational content that informs and inspires buyers; linking content to measurable, revenue-focused results; using video and interactive content in new and creative ways; and deploying content that drives successful, cross-channel campaigns.

“We’re pleased to honor these innovative and inventive campaigns that had a measurable impact on ROI,” Gaffney said. “These companies are leading the way in categories such as E-books, white papers and case studies — to blogs, newsletters and webinars — in creating engaging content that relates to prospects’ buying needs and company pain points.”

Citrix is rolling out GoToWebcast in North America and Europe, providing users with a low-cost, self-service webcasting tool for up to 5,000 attendees. A subscription-based webcasting tool, GoToWebcast allows users to broadcast unlimited audio and video presentations to live and on-demand audiences of up to 5,000 viewers, including mobile devices, according to company officials.

Computer hardware, telecom and retail were among the highest performing verticals in Silverpop’s recently released 2013 Email Marketing Benchmarks Study. In addition to the standard email marketing benchmarks, the report provides a breakdown of data by top-quartile, median and bottom-quartile performers and analysis by industry and geography.

"In today's very multichannel world, email still plays a critical role in marketing departments across all industries," said Loren McDonald, VP of Industry Relations for Silverpop. "Email remains the most effective channel for delivering personalized, dynamic messages at the right time. For marketers seeking to set their messages apart from the rest of the pack, this benchmark report serves as a baseline for them to not only see where they stand against their peers, but also the direction — and how far — they need to go to be considered a top performer."

Act-On Software, cloud-based integrated marketing automation software provider, announced Q1 2013 results; 247% revenue and 100% employee increase compared to the same time last year.

The Act-On Partner Ecosystem (APEX) program, which began in Q3 2012, has also seen notable success. Act-On reported that the APEX program has increased its total number of partners to 287. In addition, Act-On rolled out the Agency Control Panel feature. This tool enables agency partners with a single sign-on management interface to provision, manage and report on multiple Act-On accounts. Agencies using this feature can provide clients with revenue impact report that measure campaign performance from initial lead generation to customer acquisition, according to company officials.

Leadspace, a B2B social lead targeting technology provider, doubled its customer base in Q1 over the previous quarter as B2B brands such as Marketo, Jive and Stylesight adopted the company’s social lead targeting solution to refine customer acquisition and boost sales efficiency.

Leadspace solution enables marketers to precisely target their ideal customer and optimize the time, effort and money spent to convert the most valuable prospects, according to company officials.

More than ever, B2B buyers rely on content – all types of content – to research and make purchasing decisions. That’s good news for content marketers working to validate their approach and secure more resources for their campaigns.

According to our 2013 B2B Content Preferences Survey, however, content marketers also face a growing number of challenges. Many buyers say they are overwhelmed by the amount of content available to them; they are more concerned about finding trustworthy content that focuses on hard data and demonstrable value, rather than still-typical sales messages.