Every year, B2BMX brings together the best and brightest in B2B marketing, and 2025 was no exception. It’s one of our must-attend events, offering an incredible opportunity to connect, learn, and collaborate with our peers and community. A huge thanks to the Demand Gen Report and the Emerald X team for curating yet another inspiring experience!
This year’s theme, “Building Bridges, Breaking Barriers: Entering a New Era of B2B Marketing,” addressed some of the most pressing challenges marketers face today, sparking valuable conversations on how to navigate this evolving landscape.
Read on for five key insights we gathered from B2BMX West 2025.
Takeaway #1: Marketers are still grappling with how to do more with less
The phrase “do more with less” has been thrown around so much that it’s almost lost its meaning—but for B2B marketers, the struggle is real. It’s been nearly two and a half years since tech layoffs surged during the 2022 market correction, yet marketing teams are still navigating budget constraints, shrinking resources, and rising expectations.
Throughout the conference, speakers shared case studies on how they’re adapting, from streamlining processes to making every dollar count in pursuit of pipeline goals. Jeff Pedowitz, President and CEO of the Pedowitz Group, tackled this challenge in his session, “Marketing on a Shoestring: Maximising Every Dollar,” where he emphasised the need to rethink martech investments.
“Martech is changing all the time. The tools we used 5 years ago may not work the same way today. Don’t just accept what your predecessors brought on,” said Pedowitz.
Similarly, in his presentation on “The Next Era of Demand Marketing: Demand as a Service & The Convergence Of Brand + Demand,” Tony Uphoff, CEO of Pipeline360, highlighted how budget shifts coupled with the complexity of 15,000+ martech solutions crowding the landscape are a key challenge for B2B. “The last thing B2B marketers need is another platform to manage—they’re looking for results,” said Uphoff.
Takeaway #2: Marketers are still trying to figure out how best to leverage AI
This relentless pressure to do more with less is also accelerating another major shift: the importance of leveraging AI. Across sessions, AI was repeatedly highlighted as a way to help B2B marketers scale despite stagnant or shrinking teams and resources.
Keynote speaker, Roderick Jefferson, CEO of his own consultancy, spoke about how to leverage AI across the GTM motion by revolutionising productivity and efficiency across various business functions. Instead of merely “embracing AI,” it’s time to “enhance AI,” because “we still need the human touch for context” when it comes to AI.
Meanwhile, in her keynote, Forrester’s Phyllis Davidson highlighted the next frontier in genAI – Agentic AI – advanced artificial intelligence systems designed to function autonomously. Unlike basic automation or predictive analytics, Agentic AI can make decisions, take actions, and pursue specific goals with minimal human involvement. These systems stand out for their ability to solve problems, plan, and adapt dynamically to new information, demonstrating a remarkable level of independence. Examples of Agentic AI include web engagement bots, segmentation bots, prospect prioritisation agents, conversational intelligence, RFP bots.
(For more on Agentic AI, Pipeline360’s CEO, Tony Uphoff is leading a discussion at the AI Agent & Copilot Summit, March 17-19, 2025 in San Diego, on Industry AI Innovation, with Suvajit Basu, CIO at Goya Foods, S. David Brown, Founder at PacificaOne, Kenny Mullican, CIO at Paragon Films, and Thomas Gerdes, EVP & Chief Information Officer at The Heico Companies, to discuss the opportunities, impact, and outcomes they are seeing in their industries.) /h2
Takeaway #3: Marketers are feeling overwhelmed by data
“We are swimming in data, but we’re drowning in information,” said Roderick Jefferson, capturing a sentiment echoed across sessions. Marketers are inundated with data, yet many struggle to make sense of it—or even trust its accuracy.
Justin Eisner, VP Technnical Consulting at Integrate highlighted just how pervasive the issue is in his presentation, “Do My Leads Really Suck? Building Trust with Sales to Win Together.” Citing a MarketingOps “State of the Marketing Operations Professional” report finding that while 88% of marketing ops professionals see data hygiene as a top challenge, only 12% have a framework to address it. He then posed a critical question: “Is it worth having all this data if so much of it is bad?”
Beyond just managing data, another challenge lies in leveraging it effectively—especially when it comes to proving marketing’s impact.
Leslie Alore, SVP of Marketing at Flexera, addressed this head-on with her presentation, “Metrics that Matter: Demonstrating Marketing’s Impact on Business Outcomes.” She emphasised the need to align marketing metrics with business objectives, ensuring data-driven decisions that resonate with finance and the C-suite. Alore advised the audience to “Share the metrics that matter and explicitly explain how they align to the business. Explain the methodology and how you got there…And treat your sales partners and customer success teams as thought partners.”
Takeaway #4: Content matters more than ever, but it’s so hard to get right
While marketers recognise the power of great content, many are still struggling to deliver truly personalised experiences. Forrester’s Phyllis Davidson called for a rethink of B2B content operations, noting that “We’re still in the early days of getting personalisation right.”
Morgan Ingram, CEO of AMP and keynote speaker, reinforced this idea, stating, “Content without a strategy is just noise.” He urged marketers to go beyond surface-level audience insights by understanding the psychographics of their target customers—their values, interests, and lifestyles. At the same time, he stressed the importance of clarity in a brand’s own identity, ensuring that content resonates authentically.
Takeaway #5: Reaching millenials is no longer optional
With millennials now making up 75% of B2B buying teams, understanding their preferences is critical. Neil Patel, co-founder of NP Digital, shared practical insights on how to engage this audience effectively, emphasising the importance of authenticity and strategic channel selection.
According to Patel, paid search and paid social are the most effective customer acquisition channels, generating 10x more revenue than organic social media. Meanwhile, organic search and organic social ranked among the least effective.
Surprisingly, email marketing remains a strong performer, with Patel noting that Tuesdays through Thursdays between 9 AM and 12 PM are the optimal times to send emails for maximum engagement.
The Bottom Line: Demand-as-a-Service is the Future
The ever-evolving martech landscape, limited resources, AI advancements, data overload, content demands, and the rise of digital-first buyers are making it harder than ever for marketers to succeed. To address these limitations, our research has found that 40% of B2B marketers are turning to external support, such as contractors or agencies.
“To thrive in this environment, marketers must embrace a new standard: scalable and streamlined demand generation. This is where Demand-as-a-Service comes in,” explains Tony Uphoff.
Demand-as-a-Service empowers marketers to offload complexity, save time, and focus their in-house teams on high-level strategy rather than execution.
The secret to success in 2025? Embracing change, leveraging AI intelligently, and seeking the right partners to focus on delivering meaningful business outcomes.
