Farewell Forrester Research; Hello B2B Content Intelligence
Former Forrester head of B2B content research explains why she joined PathFactory and how content intelligence accelerates buyer journeys and sales opportunities
As many of you know, I recently decided to make a career change and head back into the practitioner world. After 7+ years as a SiriusDecisions then Forrester analyst leading B2B content research, I joined PathFactory as SVP of Product Marketing and Research.
It has been an honor to serve the B2B community over the past several years as a research analyst. I have always experienced immense satisfaction and joy from helping clients solve and simplify their complex content challenges, align their content strategy to business strategy, and transform their content engines into competitive differentiators. But similar to what Kerry Cunnigham said about his transition from Forrester to 6sense, I felt like it was time to get back into the practitioner world where I believe I can have an even greater impact.
Revenue intelligence is all the buzz in the B2B world right now – and for good reason. Understanding intent and buying signals so that we can focus on the right contacts and opportunities, in the right accounts, at the right time is how we build and accelerate pipeline and drive profitable growth for our businesses. But there is a big hole in the revenue intelligence narrative – content intelligence and the first-party buying signals it creates.
I joined PathFactory because they are leading the way in content intelligence with such happy customers and a competitive product roadmap that I want to be a part of bringing to the market. The PathFactory vision and product are aligned to what I’ve been advising clients to focus on for years to increase content engagement, deliver contextual content experiences, and tie content to business impact.
There Is No Revenue Intelligence Without Content Intelligence
In its 2021 B2B Buying Study study, Forrester benchmarked that over 80% of B2B purchases involve three or more people in a typical buying group. This multiplayer aspect of the B2B purchasing process makes revenue intelligence a non-negotiable requirement for enabling effective buying and selling experiences. But real revenue intelligence requires content intelligence.
Forrester VP Principal Analyst Phyllis Davidson and I explained in our keynote Time Travel and Transformation: The Future of B2B Content at Forrester B2B Summit North America last month that content is data and creates data. As buyers interact with our content, they generate all kinds of buying signals. What we understand about our buyers (role, industry, location, account, etc.) and their interaction behaviors combined with what we know about the content they’re consuming (topic, offering, channel, format type, etc.) is where true, actionable intelligence is unlocked.
Yes, you can use Marketing Automation/ABM/ABMX/CRM tools to identify who the active leads are in an account. But they don’t tell the whole story. Content fuels a significant part of the buyer journey. And the many people in the buying group have both common and unique content preferences and behaviors as they move through their purchasing decision process.
Content intelligence connects the dots of how our content is being consumed not only at the individual lead level but at the buying group level as well. It also provides insights into what each member of the buying group in an account cares about at each stage of their journey.
PathFactory’s campaign, website, virtual event, and revenue enablement capabilities coupled with PathFactory analytics is what I’ve been wishing I could get into the hands of my B2B marketing and sales clients’ hands for years. With the right tools, making data-driven content strategy decisions and creating personalized and relevant content experiences at scale doesn’t have to be painful!
I also love that the audience engagement data helps us make smarter content investment decisions, because we can surface what content is and isn’t working. Let’s face it. Only a small percentage of content typically drives engagement and buyer journey acceleration. So much B2B content goes to waste because it’s not good, relevant or well promoted. Especially in current economic conditions, we have to do better.
I’ll still be sharing and evangelizing B2B CX, marketing and content best practices in blogs, webinars and industry events. But by joining PathFactory, I feel confident that I can get my clients/customers there faster and in a way that prepares them for the future of B2B content. I’ll be evangelizing and educating the B2B world on the fantastic capabilities that already exist in PathFactory that they should be taking advantage of. And, I want to be your voice and advocate for what new capabilities you need as the PathFactory team prioritizes our product roadmap.
A Humble Call-to-Action
As a Forrester analyst, I listened to your pain points and helped you address your business challenges. My mission remains the same at PathFactory. I want to help B2B companies build intelligent content engines that drive profitable growth and deliver optimized experiences. Whether you’re a PathFactory customer now or think you might like to be, I’d love to talk to you. Send me a message if you want to set up some time to connect.
