2017 Marketing Excellence Awards – Call for Entries: Honoring the Best in B2B Services and Solutions Marketing

LEXINGTON, Mass. - March 28, 2017 - PRLog -- ITSMA, the leadership community for B2B services and solutions marketing in the connected economy, today launches the 2017 Marketing Excellence Awards program. The program honors standout performance in seven strategic and critical aspects of B2B marketing.

"The accelerating pace of change for companies in the connected economy has created tremendous opportunities for B2B marketers to transform their organizations and programs for digital-era leadership," said Dave Munn, President and CEO of ITSMA. "This year's Marketing Excellence Awards program highlights seven key areas that B2B marketers are focusing on as they advance the role and impact of marketing in their organizations."

The Awards Program, now in its twentieth year, puts special emphasis on market insight, marketing innovation, and demonstrable business results. Last year's winners included: Accelya, Adobe, Avanade, Cisco, Cognizant, Fujitsu, HCL Technologies, IBM, Infosys, Juniper Networks, Misys, North Highland, NTT Data, Optum, PwC, and Vodafone.

The deadline for submissions is June 7, 2017.

2017 AWARD CATEGORIES

Accelerating Growth with Account-Based Marketing. Developing and implementing account-based marketing programs that change perceptions, deepen relationships, and ultimately accelerate growth with targeted accounts; programs can include Strategic ABM (1:1), ABM Lite (1:Few), and/or Programmatic ABM (1:Many).

Closing the Insight-to-Action Gap. Building or strengthening marketing programs and capabilities that create actionable insight from customer, market, competitive, and financial data, and work with marketing, sales, and business leaders to impact the business. [New in 2017]

Driving Business with Thought Leadership. Developing high-quality thought leadership organizations, programs, and content that help connect with target audiences, improve reputation, and advance opportunities for innovation and growth.

Enabling Sales for New Growth Opportunities. Improving sales capabilities and impact with programs, tools, training, and support, especially for new offerings, new markets, new types of buyers, and/or new areas for growth; programs can be marketing-led or sales-led if marketing plays a significant role.

Ensuring Customer Success. Developing and strengthening programs and initiatives across the customer lifecycle to improve and measure adoption and value of new and existing services and solutions; programs can be marketing-led or led by other functions within customer success/service organizations where marketing plays a significant role.

Strengthening Brand Differentiation. Creating marketing programs and experiences that strengthen differentiation at the corporate, business unit, and/or regional level and substantially improve reputation and competitive advantage.

Transforming Marketing for Digital Leadership. Reshaping marketing's role, organization, skills, operations, and tools to ensure business leadership in the digital future; how marketing organizations and/or functions are transforming, the progress they are making, and value they are delivering to clients, partners, and the business. [New in 2017]

ELIGIBILITY AND AWARDS

The ITSMA Marketing Excellence Awards program is open to all companies that market and sell technology, telecom, or professional services or solutions. Small and medium-sized businesses are especially encouraged to apply.

ITSMA awards two winners in each category:

Diamond: Best in class for the industry

Gold: Standout results in marketing impact

In addition to the two winners in each category, ITSMA will award two winners from small and medium-sized businesses. These awards will go to the strongest submissions from two companies with less than $500 million in annual revenue, regardless of category.

ITSMA will announce the winners at a special awards reception during ITSMA's Annual Marketing Vision Conference on November 1, 2017 in Cambridge, MA.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Visit ITSMA's website at https://www.itsma.com/about-us/marketing-excellence/awards/ for detailed information, submission guidelines, and online entry forms.

ABOUT ITSMA

For more than 20 years, ITSMA has led the way in defining, building, and inspiring B2B marketing excellence. With a dedicated focus on services and solutions for the connected economy, we provide our member community with insight, advice, and hands-on help to strengthen reputation, increase revenue, and deepen customer relationships. Learn more at www.itsma.com.