Erik Matlick says, “The lull between Christmas and New Year’s is traditionally a time for looking back at the best practices (and missteps) of the year gone by, in the hopes of getting a jump on the trends that will dominate the coming year. For B2B marketers, 2017 will be about three Cs: Consolidation, Convergence and the Collective.

Consolidation of vendors and dashboards

2016 might best be described as the year Account-Based Marketing (ABM) took over B2B marketing. While the basic principles of ABM are not new, ad tech and martech providers worked hard in 2016 to make the process of finding, nurturing and continuing to engage with a select group of prospects more streamlined and efficient.

The focus on ABM will continue in 2017 — but the explosion of so-called ABM vendors will not. In fact, there will likely be consolidation, since marketers want fewer dashboards and products to buy and integrate. ABM and other martech solution providers will need to make sure their data can be activated through the most widely adopted tools — think mainstays like Salesforce, Marketo and Eloqua — if they want user adoption.

Convergence leading to new benchmarks for sales and marketing

The growth of ABM is indicative of a broader trend: the continued (and necessary) convergence of sales and marketing. For ABM to work, sales and marketing teams must collaborate more closely and purposefully than they have in the past. In many cases, that will mean using common data sets and working with shared revenue goals”.

Consolidation, convergence and the collective: Three Cs will drive B2B marketing in 2017

Martech Today

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