The Tell Your Story team proudly joined more than 950 fellow b2b marketers for Day 1 of the world’s biggest and best b2b marketing event, BMA15. In addition to staffing the press room and managing press for the conference, our team soaked up a plethora of valuable ideas, insights and takeaways that we can apply to our b2b marketing programs and careers. The conference has our entire team inspired and energized to “Be More.” Here are our top 10 takeaways from Day 1 of BMA15:

1. Millennials now make up almost half (46%) of b2b buyers. Reach them via mobile and video, or get left behind.
2. Data, data, data! We don’t need more dashboards, we need insights to guide decisions.
3. There’s much disconnect between who should own digital strategy. 100% of marketers think they should, while only 7% of non-marketing functions agree. What to do? Be the digital expert. Make internal connections. Draw the map.
4. Agencies need to stop talking about themselves. They need to start talking about solutions to client’s business problems.
5. The number of b2b searches on mobile has tripled in two years with 42% of b2b searches done on mobile. If you didn’t know mobile was big, now you know.
6. The “Relevance Imperative” – Customers expect great experiences, meaning greater expectations on marketers. Relationships and results build relevance.
7. Time spent online now exceeds time spent with all other media combined. Online is where your audience is and where they are consuming branded and non-branded content.
8. The “Moment of Truth” no longer exists. Instead, it is a dozen key micro-moments. Make sure you know what those searches are and that you are there.

   

9. Think like a profit-driven marketer, not a revenue-driven marketer. In revenue-driven marketing, you create offers to better align with the needs of your customer. In profit driven marketing, you create offers to leverage existing capabilities into competitive advantages.
10. Social employee advocacy platforms are growing in adoption. Companies like CDW are using tools like Social Chorus to amplify their message through employees.

Stay tuned for our top takeaways each day of the conference. You can also follow us on Twitter for live coverage and see photos from the event on Facebook.