What We’re Reading: Week of April 20, 2026

Welcome to What We're Reading, a weekly rundown of news stories, marketing columns, and B2B industry news that caught our eye.

Growing enthusiasm for real B2B events

As buyers gravitate toward self-serve buying behaviour supported by AI search, attendance for in-person events continues to surge. The Drum explains why and how events are making a significant impact in B2B marketing.

Physical events connect your sales team to potential customers that may otherwise hesitate to call or send an email, so it’s important to come prepared. We often recommend a mix of physical branded assets (think brochures and banners) and digital assets (think looping videos and apps) that can add immersion and interactivity to the experience.

Marketing accountability needs a reset

Warming up for its upcoming B2B Summit, Forrester poses an interesting question about the future of marketing’s accountability model, which has long been based on engagement metrics — metrics that start to lose meaning with the rise of AI search.

We don’t think engagement metrics will become obsolete, but marketers may need to paint a bigger picture to prove effectiveness. You could do that by collaborating with your sales team and documenting customer feedback, whether it’s shared directly, in testimonials, or on social media.

Advocacy takes centre stage in B2B growth

Modern buyers spend more time verifying and cross-checking information before making purchase decisions. Since they’re more likely to be persuaded by their peers — other credible customers, experts, and employees — MarketingProfs argues for advocacy as a powerful driver of B2B growth.

Customer feedback gets pulled into AI summaries along with all the marketing materials you’ve curated, so cultivating a system of advocacy is an especially important part of your AI search strategy.