Home > Companies > C-Suite On Deck > 'Businesses need to understand what 'customer-centric’ means to them' says Barry Richards, VP Global Strategy at Transmission.

'Businesses need to understand what 'customer-centric’ means to them' says Barry Richards, VP Global Strategy at Transmission.

Interview with Barry Richards
Barry Richards is the VP Global Strategist at Transmission, London. With over 25 years’ experience in the B2B Marketing industry, Barry is a seasoned strategist with a specialism in Account Based Marketing programmes. As part of the leadership team Barry has helped establish and develop the ABM planning, research and insight functions at the agency (including an Insight's Centre of Excellence). He has worked across all accounts and regions helping clients create the right ABM strategy and programmes to meet their goals.



We need the agility to respond to the audience as they progress along the journey, be it through a predetermined route or otherwise.

Media 7:  Congratulations! Transmission has been recently named Large Agency of the Year by ANA's B2 Awards! How does Transmission ensure audience interactions from different channels are seamless and purposed to drive target accounts in the consideration stage?
Barry Richards: So, the absolute baseline or table stakes, if you will, to anticipating and plotting seamless interactions are:

  • Data-led audience insights and planning. These are essential foundations, especially when pulling in Sales and accounts teams for their intelligence
  • Integrated and omnichannel planning and delivery that reflects the audience insights (on and offline, above and below the line)
  • Engaging customer journeys (content and messaging to take them through the buying cycle) that are personalised and customised where appropriate
  • A good creative wrapper and narrative that is engaging across the customer journey

But the ABM landscape is constantly shifting. We need the agility to respond to the audience as they progress along the journey, be it through a predetermined route or otherwise. We also need to integrate Sales into the motion to ensure a seamless handover between teams. Actively managing this stage and avoiding the assumption that it will run on its own is key. Look at any elite relay team – if they don’t pass the baton in the box they are out of the race. It’s the same here. What can help is the collection and reporting of metrics that let you know where people are on their journey (so you can react), how it’s being used, and how it can be optimised.

M7. While addressing the relevancy of ABM in your blog, you have anticipated the transition of ABM to ABE-'Account-Based Everything'; what are some of the most significant changes you see in this transition?
BR: As ABM has become pervasive throughout marketing departments, each function frames it in a way that reflects their role, their interests, and their experience – whether they’re in Sales and Marketing operations, data teams, account teams, or inside sales. All of these nuances are as valid as each other and ABM needs to consider that. One of our aims in ABM is to be aligned in how we address a single or small set of accounts. For that reason, we should be more inclusive in the way we refer to our programmes – avoiding alienating people across the business by simply calling it a ‘marketing’ programme. ABE is an acronym that can accommodate this. To a certain extent, I think the name change reflects what’s already happening. You’ve got lots of other teams involved and the acronym should reflect for it to be relevant going forward. A slightly different take on ABE is that, ultimately, it’s not hard to see a future where B2B Sales and Marketing in medium-sized organisations (or larger) will always be account-based to some degree. Again, ABE is an acronym that has the breadth to accommodate this.

Read more: L&T Technology Services' Sarita Bahety explains why adopting cloud is an opportunity to make existing processes more agile for organizations


Ultimately, it’s not hard to see a future where B2B Sales and Marketing in medium-sized organisations (or larger) will always be account-based to some degree.

M7: According to you, what does it mean to be 'customer-centric' in the context of ABM?
BR: ABM is about focusing on one account or a small set of accounts, so by definition, it needs to be customer-centric. However, there is a cultural implication here. One that assumes organisations understand the value of an approach that puts customers at the heart, believing that it’s the best way to succeed. Businesses need to understand what 'customer-centric’ means to them - and need to be all aligned around that definition. In ABM, we base our initial research and insights around the needs of accounts and the people inside them. Naturally, all the decisions made from there would imply the customer is at the heart of everything. I would also particularly focus on:

  • Needs-based messaging
  • Customised and personalised content
  • Activation channels that match the consumption habits of the audience (on and offline)
  • Using tech to bring the journey and experience to life for individual accounts and the people inside them
In a sense, ABM is no different to any other time you are being customer-centric. The insights, planning, strategy, and creative/content production stages should have the customer at the heart of your thinking. Start there and you (hopefully) can’t go wrong.


M7: How does Transmission anticipate gaps within the market and use this knowledge and research to identify a niche to target?
BR: At Transmission, we use a variety of techniques to spot opportunities and identify different customer groups for our clients, especially those with nascent offers that have no defined market:
  1. Third-party data – there are a wealth of platforms and tools we use with clients across intent, firmographic, technographic, and more, that let us create Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs). We then identify the right accounts to populate them. We use ICP workshops to create and develop these accounts together with our clients, prioritise them, and then agree on where to take them next.
  2. The emergence of highly effective B2B Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) has allowed us to automate the combining of these data sets into a single platform. We then operationalise them into ICP segmentation exercises, creating sales intelligence or real-time feeds of these segments with signals into digital marketing activation/outreach (e.g., paid media & social).
  3. We have developed our own Digital Landscape Analysis that lets us understand key conversations and who is participating (organisations, publishers, etc.) in the digital space. This is another layer that allows us to create a set of insights for use with ICPs and key personas to drive messaging, content, and targeting considerations.
  4. Primary and secondary desk research allows us to dig down into these ICPs. This allows us to confirm and enrich them, while also letting us identify and better understand the needs and preferences of the personas in the groups that we need to target and engage.

Read more: Customize and target content based on the buyer's journey, says Mark Ogne, CMO at MRP


Businesses need to understand what 'customer-centric’ means to them - and need to be all aligned around that definition.

M7: Large enterprises generally have long and complex sales cycles. So how do you think they can streamline their purchase decisions as a buying committee?
BR: Research has shown that there could be anything from 6.2, 7, 6-10, possibly more decision makers in the buying process. If we look at technology sales into large organisations, cycles can take anything from 3 to 24 months. With the range of buying processes and areas this covers, I think there are two clear strategies that most organisations should follow:

A. Create a purchasing policy with clear guidelines as to:

  • Who has the authority to make the buying decision?
  • What are their budget limitations?
  • What are the vendor’s criteria for selection?
  • How many suppliers will be approached and asked to quote?
  • What are the terms of a supplier contract?
  • What’s the quality control process?
  • How to turn this into a scoring process across all buyers anonymously

B. Digitise the process with a clear workflow, incorporating the above policy and relevant buying decision makers and sign-off steps

M7: If you had to advise our readers on tackling ABM in the present market landscape, what are the top 3 priorities they should focus on?
BR: There are three key pointers:
  1. De-risk your portfolio and avoid putting all your eggs into one basket by having too few prospect accounts 
  2. Align your marketing function around what ABM is for your organisation. Then do the same for Sales and Marketing, and other teams across the rest of your business
  3. Find the right skills and experience, and have a plan for how to make up for the lack of availability in the marketplace (the lack of skills and experience makes alignment and strategy tougher)
Focus on:
  • ABM strategy and programme structure – what is your North Star?
  • Understanding and using technology – creating a clear technology roadmap
  • Focusing on creating personalised & creative experiences
  • Creating the right data-led insights

Read more: 'SaaS today is characterized by speed and quality' says Assaf Eisenstein, Co-Founder at Lusha

ABOUT TRANSMISSION AGENCY

Transmission is the world’s largest independent global B2B marketing agency. Its award-winning, full-service offering combines data-driven intelligence, innovation, and creativity across brand, demand, and sales, enabling us to craft powerful, behaviour-changing marketing that drives business performance.
With offices in eight countries worldwide, Transmission has the global agility and experience to help B2B brands drive the now and define the next.

More C-Suite on deck

Q&A with Clive Armitage, CEO at Agent3

Media 7 | July 12, 2021

Clive Armitage, CEO at Agent3, co-founded Agent3 in January 2013 to help organizations use data, technology and content to build better sales pipelines that are quicker to close, typically through innovative Account Based Marketing (ABM) programs. Prior to starting Agent3, Clive was the CEO of Bite Communications; an international communications agency that he co-founded in 1995 with four others and which grew to more than 300 people in 14 offices by the time he left to start Agent3. During his career, Clive has worked in South Africa and San Francisco and is now based back in London where he lives with his wife and three children.

Read More

Customize and target content based on the buyer's journey, says Mark Ogne, CMO at MRP

Media 7 | June 27, 2022

Personalization is one of the key aspect of ABM, however it can be challenging when it comes to multi-channel messaging. Mark Ogne, CMO at MRP, sheds light on the transformation in B2B space, personalization in ABM and provides a vision for a substantial ABM strategy.

Read More

Performance Marketing Q&A With Gary Skidmore, CEO Of Aberdeen Group

Staff Writer | December 12, 2016

We spoke with Gary Skidmore, the CEO of the Aberdeen Group, and asked him to share his insights on lead velocity and marketing performance.  Gary has a well-established track-record of innovation in marketing acceleration from his time as a small business entrepreneur, global company executive and currently as CEO at the Aberdeen Group. Here are his thoughts on what he’s seen work when it comes to sales and marketing speed. DECK 7: What do you see as major impediments to marketing performance and ultimately more leads?GARY SKIDMORE: Simply put, marketers continue to get bogged down when they don’t have a clear understanding of who their best customers are, how they think and then what type of information might be most useful for them. When it comes to understanding customers, clarity helps to focus all marketing acceleration efforts (and related lead quantity and quality) on the things that matter to your customer.  That’s a good thing. D 7: How are leading companies addressing the issue of performance and velocity? GS: We see, from our Aberdeen Group research, that many companies continue to invest in data, predictive tools,

Read More

Q&A with Clive Armitage, CEO at Agent3

Media 7 | July 12, 2021

Clive Armitage, CEO at Agent3, co-founded Agent3 in January 2013 to help organizations use data, technology and content to build better sales pipelines that are quicker to close, typically through innovative Account Based Marketing (ABM) programs. Prior to starting Agent3, Clive was the CEO of Bite Communications; an international communications agency that he co-founded in 1995 with four others and which grew to more than 300 people in 14 offices by the time he left to start Agent3. During his career, Clive has worked in South Africa and San Francisco and is now based back in London where he lives with his wife and three children.

Read More

Customize and target content based on the buyer's journey, says Mark Ogne, CMO at MRP

Media 7 | June 27, 2022

Personalization is one of the key aspect of ABM, however it can be challenging when it comes to multi-channel messaging. Mark Ogne, CMO at MRP, sheds light on the transformation in B2B space, personalization in ABM and provides a vision for a substantial ABM strategy.

Read More

Performance Marketing Q&A With Gary Skidmore, CEO Of Aberdeen Group

Staff Writer | December 12, 2016

We spoke with Gary Skidmore, the CEO of the Aberdeen Group, and asked him to share his insights on lead velocity and marketing performance.  Gary has a well-established track-record of innovation in marketing acceleration from his time as a small business entrepreneur, global company executive and currently as CEO at the Aberdeen Group. Here are his thoughts on what he’s seen work when it comes to sales and marketing speed. DECK 7: What do you see as major impediments to marketing performance and ultimately more leads?GARY SKIDMORE: Simply put, marketers continue to get bogged down when they don’t have a clear understanding of who their best customers are, how they think and then what type of information might be most useful for them. When it comes to understanding customers, clarity helps to focus all marketing acceleration efforts (and related lead quantity and quality) on the things that matter to your customer.  That’s a good thing. D 7: How are leading companies addressing the issue of performance and velocity? GS: We see, from our Aberdeen Group research, that many companies continue to invest in data, predictive tools,

Read More

Related News

Buyer Intent Data

ON24 Recognizes 2023’s Leaders in Digital Engagement

Business Wire | January 24, 2024

A recent Forrester survey found that more than 60% of B2B buyers base their final purchase decision solely on the digital content and experiences companies provide. That’s why thousands of B2B companies choose ON24 (NYSE: ONTF), a leading digital engagement platform for B2B sales and marketing that helps enterprises generate data-driven insights and deliver cost-effective revenue growth. Today, ON24, announced the industry-leading digital experiences of 2023 that drove ROI for their organizations. “At ON24, our goal is to propel business success through digital engagement, with our customers at the core. We take pride in helping our customers drive deeper engagement with their target audiences and extract meaningful insights that result in revenue growth,” said Callan Young, CMO, ON24. “It is our honor to recognize the leading organizations that exemplify excellence in leveraging our platform to create digital experiences that not only meet but surpass their audience’s expectations.” The following organizations were recognized for delivering outstanding digital experiences on the ON24 platform in 2023: Danfossdrove product growth and customer retention by leveraging distributor, reseller and customer data to optimize its webinar and digital engagement program. FloQastinfluenced 82% of event pipeline in Q3 and created 120+ new active opportunities by routing high-quality leads from in-experience demo requests directly to sales. Global X ETFsincreased qualified, high-value leads in Australia by 22%, by integrating ON24 engagement data with their CRM and using the platform’s personalization capabilities. Informaticascaled a live event into a hybrid experience across three key regions simultaneously, driving registration and delivering a consistent customer experience on a global scale. Infopro Digitalincreased conversion rates and registrations by automating processes on the ON24 platform and making real-time adjustments based on customer feedback. Kasperskydrove product adoption and business growth by creating new relationships with prospects and fostering existing relationships with customers. KnowBe4generated over $300k in pipeline through an ON24-powered digital experience. The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA)achieved 100% participant satisfaction for its unique and impactful digital experience powered by the ON24 platform. PowerSchoolachieved record-breaking registration rates, 75 CTA clicks, over 400 poll responses and 300+ content downloads during an educational experience with ON24. S&P Globaldoubled marketing qualified leads and boosted engagement by designing an ON24 digital experience personalized to different customer segments. Tata Consultancy Servicesdrove revenue growth with record-high registrations for their webinar on ON24, resulting in 70% attendee participation across 30 countries. Texthelpsourced leads during a webinar series and converted at least 70% of them into marketing-qualified leads within 30 days. TOPdeskincreased revenue and improved its customer engagement by 7% YoY and extended the shelf life of its content with an on-demand hub. TravelMediaGroupclosed three deals from a single digital experience by creating a seamless and engaging customer experience on ON24. UCBachieved a 50%+ attendee conversion rate by enhancing the HCP’s experience and integrating ON24 engagement data with its business intelligence system. UnitedHealthcareachieved an 80% cost savings, increased attendee score and engagement with a new digital engagement strategy and an always-on content hub. Wood PLCsourced leads, increased audience engagement and automated continuing professional education credits on ON24, across different time zones. ZoomInfosurpassed webinar benchmarks by generating a record number of marketing-qualified leads and 190 scheduled demos, resulting in 10 closed-won deals. To learn more about 2023’s leaders in digital engagement, watch the on-demand webinar here. About ON24 ON24 is on a mission to re-imagine how companies engage, understand and build relationships with their audience in a digital world. Through our leading sales and marketing platform for digital engagement integrated with generative AI, businesses use our portfolio of webinar, virtual event and content experiences to drive engagement and generate first-party data, delivering ​revenue growth across the enterprise – from demand generation to customer success to partner enablement. ON24 powers digital engagement for industry-leading customers worldwide, including 3 of the 5 largest global technology companies, 3 of the 6 largest US banks, 3 of the 5 largest global healthcare companies, and 3 of the 5 largest global industrial manufacturers, enabling organizations to reach millions of professionals a month for billions of engagement minutes per year with all the first-party data being captured, generated and integrated from one place. ON24 is headquartered in San Francisco with global offices in North America, EMEA, and APAC. For more information, visit www.ON24.com.

Read More

Core ABM

Marketers Given Marginal Grades for ABM-Driven Revenue Growth

GlobeNewswire | January 25, 2024

Seeding and harvesting the sales pipeline — the process of acquiring, capturing, qualifying and converting business opportunities — are essential to the growth and profitability of B2B marketers across every industry and geographic sector. Marketing is largely responsible for driving this business process, yet nearly two-thirds of lead gen and engagement strategies are underperforming. A new Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council report, produced in collaboration with WM America, entitled “Fire Up Your Revenue Generation Engine,” covers critical aspects of lead generation and engagement. This includes models and metrics for tracking and measuring performance, best practice demand-gen execution, ways to score effectiveness, and more. The latest CMO Council research finds scores of marketers falling behind in lead scoring, account-based marketing, accelerated pipeline, and intention-based marketing. Key findings from a Q4 survey of over 170 B2B marketing, sales, revenue, growth, demand gen and campaign execution leaders include: 63% say marketing must own and optimize a company’s revenue-generation engine 64% say their lead gen and engagement strategy underperforms 78% of highly evolved marketers are satisfied with their accelerated pipeline, compared to only 15% of lesser evolved marketers “In today’s competitive data-driven environment, marketers should no longer be satisfied with paltry returns on their sizable lead-gen and ABM investments,” the report notes. “It’s time to turn the tables on inefficient, ineffective, and outdated practices for anticipating, adapting, and responding to customer needs and opportunities.” “Marketers must climb the evolutionary ladder and leave behind outmoded and dated practices,” notes CMO Council executive director, Donovan Neale-May. “Using AI-derived, intention-based buyer data and advanced sales intelligence are among the ways growth marketers bring more precision, predictability, and performance to B2B account marketing investments.” The CMO Council’s research revealed the top five skill sets contributing to improved ABM-driven business outcomes: Better segmentation and precision targeting of buyers and influencers On-demand customer business intelligence and personal buyer insights Tighter integration of demand gen, channel, direct sales, and support teams Greater utilization of tools and data sources for richer prospect profiling Proactive and timely pre-sales follow up and cultivation strategies The CMO Council has uncovered widening gaps in performance between highly evolved marketers and lesser evolved marketers. Gaps are occurring in four core capabilities: lead scoring, account-based marketing, accelerated pipeline, and intention-based marketing. This report tiers factors that make up a model for better identification, engagement and conversion. The model coincides with the CMO Council and WM America’s thought leadership initiative to advance lead revenue science practices through a certified Lead Evaluation and Assurance Process, or LEAP model. “Marketers will need to take a few LEAPs of faith in the coming months, because sticking to the status quo is just not practical or possible anymore. As data becomes more critical than ever before, CMOs need to extend their visions for innovation and forward-thinking strategies,” according to Lee Salem, WM America’s Vice President of Sales. Methodology The report is based on a survey of over 170 heads of B2B marketing, sales, revenue, growth, demand gen and campaign execution in Q4 2023. It also included content from in-depth interviews with executives from Netline, Autodesk, T-Mobile, NTT, ABM Consortium, TechTarget, IBM, B2B Marketing, Reachdesk, Momentum ITSMA, and Xometry. About the CMO Council The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council is dedicated to high-level knowledge exchange, thought leadership and personal relationship building among senior corporate marketing leaders and brand decision-makers across a wide-range of global industries. The CMO Council’s 16,000+ members control more than $1 trillion in aggregated annual marketing expenditures and run complex, distributed marketing and sales operations worldwide. In total, the CMO Council and its strategic interest communities include over 65,000 global marketing and sales executives in over 110 countries covering multiple industries, segments and markets. Regional chapters and advisory boards are active in the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. The Council’s strategic interest groups include the Customer Experience Board, Digital Marketing Performance Center, Brand Inspiration Center, Marketing Supply Chain Institute, GeoBranding Center, and the Coalition to Leverage and Optimize Sales Effectiveness (CLOSE). To learn more, visit https://www.cmocouncil.org. About WM America WM America is a leading B2B marketing company specializing in targeted in-market demand generation. The intent database at WMA tracks the intent behavior of over 75 million business professionals globally, 24X7. The database is segmented into 3,300 categories. WMA keeps around-the-clock track of buying signals from each category in this database. Based on this extremely strong foundation of data points, the company delivers precisely targeted prospects for focused marketing. Accurate keyword search enables deriving of active content consumption and opt-in content downloads. WMA's deep search ensures accurate and targeted information delivery that helps craft successful, cutting-edge marketing strategies. For more information, visit www.wmamerica.com

Read More

Core ABM

Demandbase Gets Named 2023 ABM Leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant

Demandbase | November 06, 2023

Demandbase, an AI-driven account-based go-to-market (GTM) leader, has been named a leader in the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Account-Based Marketing (ABM) Platforms. The recognition is based on Demandbase's completeness of vision and ability to execute and follows being named a Gartner Peer Insights Customers' Choice for ABM earlier this year. Demandbase's CEO, Gabe Rogol, attributes the recognition to product innovations and positive customer reviews. Demandbase, a pioneer in AI-driven account-based go-to-market (GTM), announces its recognition as a leader in the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Account-Based Marketing (ABM) Platforms. This honor, which follows a comprehensive evaluation of nine vendors, is a testament to Demandbase’s comprehensive vision and its ability to execute effectively. Earlier this year, the company also received the Gartner Peer Insight Customers’ Choice for ABM. Gartner defines ABM platforms as software that empowers B2B marketing and sales teams to implement ABM programs at scale, including account selection, planning, engagement, and reporting. These platforms facilitate the creation of target account lists by integrating first- and third-party data. Additionally, they may engage audiences by activating channels such as display advertising, social advertising, email, and sales engagement, using a combination of native capabilities and integrations. Gabe Rogol, CEO of Demandbase, expressed his praise for the innovations the team had worked on by exclaiming, We are honored to be recognized as a leader in the Gartner ABM Magic Quadrant once again this year. We believe this recognition is a reflection of the dedication and effort we’ve invested in our product over the past year, including innovations in connected TV advertising, non-English intent, new integrations, continuous improvement of our account intelligence, the release of workspaces for enterprises, simplified dashboards, UI improvements, and more. We also believe this recognition mirrors the consistently positive reviews we receive from customers through Gartner Peer Insights and on G2. We extend our gratitude to Gartner, our customers, and our entire team. [Source – Cision PR Newswire] According to the Magic Quadrant report, the essential capabilities of ABM platforms include: Account-level intent data (proprietary and/or licensed) to understand customer behavior and buyer interest. Multi-channel campaign orchestration and activation drive engagement and progression in the buyer’s journey. Monitoring accounts and measuring analytics to quantify progress and performance across channels, campaigns, and programs On the downside, Demandbase may face stiff competition from other vendors in the ABM market, such as 6sense, Terminus, and Roll Works. It may need to invest more in product development, marketing, and customer support to maintain its leadership position and customer satisfaction. Additionally, it may encounter challenges in integrating its platform with other systems and data sources, such as CRM, marketing automation, and analytics tools. On the upside, Demandbase can leverage its recognition as a leader and a customer’s choice to attract new customers and retain existing ones. It can also showcase its product innovations and customer reviews as proof of its value proposition and differentiation in the market.

Read More

Buyer Intent Data

ON24 Recognizes 2023’s Leaders in Digital Engagement

Business Wire | January 24, 2024

A recent Forrester survey found that more than 60% of B2B buyers base their final purchase decision solely on the digital content and experiences companies provide. That’s why thousands of B2B companies choose ON24 (NYSE: ONTF), a leading digital engagement platform for B2B sales and marketing that helps enterprises generate data-driven insights and deliver cost-effective revenue growth. Today, ON24, announced the industry-leading digital experiences of 2023 that drove ROI for their organizations. “At ON24, our goal is to propel business success through digital engagement, with our customers at the core. We take pride in helping our customers drive deeper engagement with their target audiences and extract meaningful insights that result in revenue growth,” said Callan Young, CMO, ON24. “It is our honor to recognize the leading organizations that exemplify excellence in leveraging our platform to create digital experiences that not only meet but surpass their audience’s expectations.” The following organizations were recognized for delivering outstanding digital experiences on the ON24 platform in 2023: Danfossdrove product growth and customer retention by leveraging distributor, reseller and customer data to optimize its webinar and digital engagement program. FloQastinfluenced 82% of event pipeline in Q3 and created 120+ new active opportunities by routing high-quality leads from in-experience demo requests directly to sales. Global X ETFsincreased qualified, high-value leads in Australia by 22%, by integrating ON24 engagement data with their CRM and using the platform’s personalization capabilities. Informaticascaled a live event into a hybrid experience across three key regions simultaneously, driving registration and delivering a consistent customer experience on a global scale. Infopro Digitalincreased conversion rates and registrations by automating processes on the ON24 platform and making real-time adjustments based on customer feedback. Kasperskydrove product adoption and business growth by creating new relationships with prospects and fostering existing relationships with customers. KnowBe4generated over $300k in pipeline through an ON24-powered digital experience. The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA)achieved 100% participant satisfaction for its unique and impactful digital experience powered by the ON24 platform. PowerSchoolachieved record-breaking registration rates, 75 CTA clicks, over 400 poll responses and 300+ content downloads during an educational experience with ON24. S&P Globaldoubled marketing qualified leads and boosted engagement by designing an ON24 digital experience personalized to different customer segments. Tata Consultancy Servicesdrove revenue growth with record-high registrations for their webinar on ON24, resulting in 70% attendee participation across 30 countries. Texthelpsourced leads during a webinar series and converted at least 70% of them into marketing-qualified leads within 30 days. TOPdeskincreased revenue and improved its customer engagement by 7% YoY and extended the shelf life of its content with an on-demand hub. TravelMediaGroupclosed three deals from a single digital experience by creating a seamless and engaging customer experience on ON24. UCBachieved a 50%+ attendee conversion rate by enhancing the HCP’s experience and integrating ON24 engagement data with its business intelligence system. UnitedHealthcareachieved an 80% cost savings, increased attendee score and engagement with a new digital engagement strategy and an always-on content hub. Wood PLCsourced leads, increased audience engagement and automated continuing professional education credits on ON24, across different time zones. ZoomInfosurpassed webinar benchmarks by generating a record number of marketing-qualified leads and 190 scheduled demos, resulting in 10 closed-won deals. To learn more about 2023’s leaders in digital engagement, watch the on-demand webinar here. About ON24 ON24 is on a mission to re-imagine how companies engage, understand and build relationships with their audience in a digital world. Through our leading sales and marketing platform for digital engagement integrated with generative AI, businesses use our portfolio of webinar, virtual event and content experiences to drive engagement and generate first-party data, delivering ​revenue growth across the enterprise – from demand generation to customer success to partner enablement. ON24 powers digital engagement for industry-leading customers worldwide, including 3 of the 5 largest global technology companies, 3 of the 6 largest US banks, 3 of the 5 largest global healthcare companies, and 3 of the 5 largest global industrial manufacturers, enabling organizations to reach millions of professionals a month for billions of engagement minutes per year with all the first-party data being captured, generated and integrated from one place. ON24 is headquartered in San Francisco with global offices in North America, EMEA, and APAC. For more information, visit www.ON24.com.

Read More

Core ABM

Marketers Given Marginal Grades for ABM-Driven Revenue Growth

GlobeNewswire | January 25, 2024

Seeding and harvesting the sales pipeline — the process of acquiring, capturing, qualifying and converting business opportunities — are essential to the growth and profitability of B2B marketers across every industry and geographic sector. Marketing is largely responsible for driving this business process, yet nearly two-thirds of lead gen and engagement strategies are underperforming. A new Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council report, produced in collaboration with WM America, entitled “Fire Up Your Revenue Generation Engine,” covers critical aspects of lead generation and engagement. This includes models and metrics for tracking and measuring performance, best practice demand-gen execution, ways to score effectiveness, and more. The latest CMO Council research finds scores of marketers falling behind in lead scoring, account-based marketing, accelerated pipeline, and intention-based marketing. Key findings from a Q4 survey of over 170 B2B marketing, sales, revenue, growth, demand gen and campaign execution leaders include: 63% say marketing must own and optimize a company’s revenue-generation engine 64% say their lead gen and engagement strategy underperforms 78% of highly evolved marketers are satisfied with their accelerated pipeline, compared to only 15% of lesser evolved marketers “In today’s competitive data-driven environment, marketers should no longer be satisfied with paltry returns on their sizable lead-gen and ABM investments,” the report notes. “It’s time to turn the tables on inefficient, ineffective, and outdated practices for anticipating, adapting, and responding to customer needs and opportunities.” “Marketers must climb the evolutionary ladder and leave behind outmoded and dated practices,” notes CMO Council executive director, Donovan Neale-May. “Using AI-derived, intention-based buyer data and advanced sales intelligence are among the ways growth marketers bring more precision, predictability, and performance to B2B account marketing investments.” The CMO Council’s research revealed the top five skill sets contributing to improved ABM-driven business outcomes: Better segmentation and precision targeting of buyers and influencers On-demand customer business intelligence and personal buyer insights Tighter integration of demand gen, channel, direct sales, and support teams Greater utilization of tools and data sources for richer prospect profiling Proactive and timely pre-sales follow up and cultivation strategies The CMO Council has uncovered widening gaps in performance between highly evolved marketers and lesser evolved marketers. Gaps are occurring in four core capabilities: lead scoring, account-based marketing, accelerated pipeline, and intention-based marketing. This report tiers factors that make up a model for better identification, engagement and conversion. The model coincides with the CMO Council and WM America’s thought leadership initiative to advance lead revenue science practices through a certified Lead Evaluation and Assurance Process, or LEAP model. “Marketers will need to take a few LEAPs of faith in the coming months, because sticking to the status quo is just not practical or possible anymore. As data becomes more critical than ever before, CMOs need to extend their visions for innovation and forward-thinking strategies,” according to Lee Salem, WM America’s Vice President of Sales. Methodology The report is based on a survey of over 170 heads of B2B marketing, sales, revenue, growth, demand gen and campaign execution in Q4 2023. It also included content from in-depth interviews with executives from Netline, Autodesk, T-Mobile, NTT, ABM Consortium, TechTarget, IBM, B2B Marketing, Reachdesk, Momentum ITSMA, and Xometry. About the CMO Council The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council is dedicated to high-level knowledge exchange, thought leadership and personal relationship building among senior corporate marketing leaders and brand decision-makers across a wide-range of global industries. The CMO Council’s 16,000+ members control more than $1 trillion in aggregated annual marketing expenditures and run complex, distributed marketing and sales operations worldwide. In total, the CMO Council and its strategic interest communities include over 65,000 global marketing and sales executives in over 110 countries covering multiple industries, segments and markets. Regional chapters and advisory boards are active in the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. The Council’s strategic interest groups include the Customer Experience Board, Digital Marketing Performance Center, Brand Inspiration Center, Marketing Supply Chain Institute, GeoBranding Center, and the Coalition to Leverage and Optimize Sales Effectiveness (CLOSE). To learn more, visit https://www.cmocouncil.org. About WM America WM America is a leading B2B marketing company specializing in targeted in-market demand generation. The intent database at WMA tracks the intent behavior of over 75 million business professionals globally, 24X7. The database is segmented into 3,300 categories. WMA keeps around-the-clock track of buying signals from each category in this database. Based on this extremely strong foundation of data points, the company delivers precisely targeted prospects for focused marketing. Accurate keyword search enables deriving of active content consumption and opt-in content downloads. WMA's deep search ensures accurate and targeted information delivery that helps craft successful, cutting-edge marketing strategies. For more information, visit www.wmamerica.com

Read More

Core ABM

Demandbase Gets Named 2023 ABM Leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant

Demandbase | November 06, 2023

Demandbase, an AI-driven account-based go-to-market (GTM) leader, has been named a leader in the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Account-Based Marketing (ABM) Platforms. The recognition is based on Demandbase's completeness of vision and ability to execute and follows being named a Gartner Peer Insights Customers' Choice for ABM earlier this year. Demandbase's CEO, Gabe Rogol, attributes the recognition to product innovations and positive customer reviews. Demandbase, a pioneer in AI-driven account-based go-to-market (GTM), announces its recognition as a leader in the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Account-Based Marketing (ABM) Platforms. This honor, which follows a comprehensive evaluation of nine vendors, is a testament to Demandbase’s comprehensive vision and its ability to execute effectively. Earlier this year, the company also received the Gartner Peer Insight Customers’ Choice for ABM. Gartner defines ABM platforms as software that empowers B2B marketing and sales teams to implement ABM programs at scale, including account selection, planning, engagement, and reporting. These platforms facilitate the creation of target account lists by integrating first- and third-party data. Additionally, they may engage audiences by activating channels such as display advertising, social advertising, email, and sales engagement, using a combination of native capabilities and integrations. Gabe Rogol, CEO of Demandbase, expressed his praise for the innovations the team had worked on by exclaiming, We are honored to be recognized as a leader in the Gartner ABM Magic Quadrant once again this year. We believe this recognition is a reflection of the dedication and effort we’ve invested in our product over the past year, including innovations in connected TV advertising, non-English intent, new integrations, continuous improvement of our account intelligence, the release of workspaces for enterprises, simplified dashboards, UI improvements, and more. We also believe this recognition mirrors the consistently positive reviews we receive from customers through Gartner Peer Insights and on G2. We extend our gratitude to Gartner, our customers, and our entire team. [Source – Cision PR Newswire] According to the Magic Quadrant report, the essential capabilities of ABM platforms include: Account-level intent data (proprietary and/or licensed) to understand customer behavior and buyer interest. Multi-channel campaign orchestration and activation drive engagement and progression in the buyer’s journey. Monitoring accounts and measuring analytics to quantify progress and performance across channels, campaigns, and programs On the downside, Demandbase may face stiff competition from other vendors in the ABM market, such as 6sense, Terminus, and Roll Works. It may need to invest more in product development, marketing, and customer support to maintain its leadership position and customer satisfaction. Additionally, it may encounter challenges in integrating its platform with other systems and data sources, such as CRM, marketing automation, and analytics tools. On the upside, Demandbase can leverage its recognition as a leader and a customer’s choice to attract new customers and retain existing ones. It can also showcase its product innovations and customer reviews as proof of its value proposition and differentiation in the market.

Read More

Spotlight

Transmission

Transmission

Transmission is the world’s largest independent global B2B marketing agency. Our award-winning, full-service offering combines data-driven intelligence, innovation, and creativity across brand, demand, and sales, enabling us to craft powerful, behaviour-changing marketing that drives business perfor...

Events

Resources

resource image

Programmatic ABM

A short history of Pride Month

Article

resource image

Core ABM, Targeted Account Strategy

How to Create an ABM Strategy that Works

Video

resource image

Programmatic ABM

A short history of Pride Month

Article

resource image

Account Based Analytics

Lost in translation: The problem with inconsistent language in marketing

Article

resource image

Core ABM, Targeted Account Strategy

How to Create an ABM Strategy that Works

Video

Events