Smart B2B Tech Marketing: E Gilliam

To celebrate the Content Bureau’s 20th anniversary, we’re seeking wisdom from 20 rock star clients whose serious B2B marketing cred, brains, and heart have always inspired us. Next up: E Gilliam.

  • Name: E Gilliam
  • In: San Francisco
  • Hired the Content Bureau at: Equinix
  • For: Tech marketing content
  • One word to describe the Content Bureau: Knowledgeable
  • Best marketing asset ever produced: Landing page for the Equinix Global Interconnection Index (a 5-year prediction of digital trends).
  • Why: We saw a triple-digit increase in engagement when we made this page interactive. When prospects choose their region, they see regionally targeted content. They can also see trends by vertical. The page used to be static; it’s a quintillion times more useful for our audience now.
  • Biggest challenge facing B2B marketers today: Creating purpose-built content, measuring its effectiveness, then iterating. We’re not changing all the messaging based on one stakeholder’s conversation with three people! We need data to prove that what we’re doing is working.
  • B2B marketers of the future should be: Savvy users of Kapost or Percolate content operations and marketing platforms. We also need to be expert users of digital asset management systems, which could use AI to automatically tag marketing assets and their components—such as all marketing assets across the company, in any language, which use the same image. We need these tools so we can better manage our digital assets and avoid constantly reinventing the wheel. Nobody’s ever producing less content!
  • If some extra budget fell into my lap, I’d produce: 15-second animated explainer videos. They’d be templated, repeatable, but creative. Customers love use cases that make things simpler. We did this with animated gifs—they were localized into many geos—and I’d now like to do this with videos.
  • Where I go to learn: We have a very fruitful relationship with SiriusDecisions. I can call them up and ask about trends in vertical marketing, and they’ll get back to us with a helpful direction to pursue. Our team has also gotten a lot out of Henry Stewart Creative Operations conferences.
  • Smart ask: Inclusion—getting experts in various regions of the world to participate in the campaign development process.

Smart thoughts from E Gilliam! I always enjoy and appreciate E’s extremely brainy, rapid-fire, think-out-loud style; as well as her curiosity and deep sense of humanity. Great marketers love people, n’est-ce pas?

Want to discuss anything here? Call me, or check out our technology marketing services.

By Stacy Crinks