Feature Articles

The new technologies and processes being implemented by leading BtoB companies means marketing and sales are more reliant than ever on content. However, in one of the closing keynote sessions at the recent SiriusDecisions Summit, Jay Gaines, Service Director for Demand Creation Strategies at SiriusDecisions, pointed out that most BtoB companies are lacking accountability, strategy and measurement when it comes to content.

“If content is king, then people treat that king pretty badly,” Gaines said during a session titled, Content: The Heart of Effective Demand Creation. Illustrating his point, Gaines conducted a poll of the audience that found 76% of attendees cited content as critical to their demand creation efforts. However, responding to a follow-up question, 41% of attendees said lack of budget and resources or the lack of a content strategy provided significant hurdles to their efforts.

The annual SiriusDecisions Summit has become the bellwether event to track the progress and maturation of demand generation practices in the BtoB sector. And based on the presentations from this year’s event, held last week in Scottsdale, AZ, major BtoB companies are now realizing significant payoffs from their investments in sales and marketing alignment and lead management tools and processes. 

The event provided three days of best practices, benchmarks, case studies and proof points, all demonstrating how Bb-to-B b companies that have made investments in integrated lead development, demand management and measurement are outperforming their competitors.