Top 10 B2B Marketing Content in 2021

ITSMA had a busy year in 2021 with research, webcasts, conferences, and more. Of course, we’re on to 2022, but first we wanted to look back at what resonated most with our members last year. Members wanted learn about best practices in ABM, executive engagement, and other strategic growth drivers. Their preferred format varied from research reports to webcasts to tools to whitepapers.

Here are the top 10 pieces of content from 2021. Now’s your chance to take a second look at what your peers found interesting and valuable:

10. The Role of IT in Building Resilient Organizations – What was the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the IT organization? ITSMA conducted interviews to identify common themes and practical ideas for leveraging technology and thriving during challenging times.

9. Innovating Executive Engagement: Next Steps for C-Suite Marketing – A conversation with marketing leaders from Citrix, HSBC Canada, and T-Systems International who share ideas, insight, and inspiration for new approaches to strengthen C-suite engagement.

8. Building an ABM Center of Excellence – ABM rock stars share how to build and run an ABM Center of Excellence that supports scaling the ABM program across the business, delivering significant improvements in relationships, reputation, and revenues in priority accounts.

7. Delivering High-Touch ABM Campaigns in a Virtual World – In this whitepaper, three ABM-ers who have led award-winning programs discuss how to engage with executives who prefer high-touch engagement when it’s hard to meet face-to-face, like in the midst of a global pandemic.

6. The Six Essential Practices of the Data-Savvy Marketing Organization – This Update presents the latest research and case studies on marketing’s essential practices to not only prove marketing’s value to the business, but also to improve it.

5. Virtualizing Executive Engagement: C-Suite Marketing for the New Normal – Three experts in C-suite marketing talk about the lessons learned from the 2020 pivot; new approaches to building virtual collaboration and connections at the executive level; and new opportunities to tap into the growing C-suite focus on brand and social mission and purpose.

4. ABM Grows Up: Structuring Your Organization for Success – ABM leaders discuss one of their biggest challenges: how best to build and manage ABM teams that require an ever-evolving mix of functions, skills, tools, partners, and cross-organizational collaboration. Going agile is one clear direction for program leaders, but that still begs questions.

3. The Accelerating Growth Amid Tech Transformation: CXO Priorities Dashboard – A tool that provides insight into the current business priorities of Fortune 500 C-suite executives. The May dashboard highlights high-level priorities of the CXO, drills down to the CEO and CMO levels, and gives a closer look at the retail and healthcare industries. The October dashboard focuses on financial services and manufacturing while also offering insight into the concerns of CFOs and CMOs.

2. How Executives Engage Part 1, Buyer Behavior in a Disruptive World – Published in the spring, our study highlights the changing expectations of business and IT executives as business transformation continued to accelerate and the world remained unpredictable. Part 2, The Return of the Growth Imperative, published in the fall, shows that executives are ready to invest in new ideas and innovation to improve profitability, customer experience, and growth.

1. Embedding ABM: Next Steps for Market Leadership – The fifth annual Account-Based Marketing (ABM) benchmark study from ITSMA and the ABM Leadership Alliance is a perennial favorite. This year’s report identifies five critical areas in which the most effective ABM programs stand apart from the rest and offers practical advice on how to build a strategic ABM program that drives business results.

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