Thoughts on Marketing
Should the ‘R’ in PR mean ‘Research’?
Getting mentioned in credible third party publications is still a smart move.
What was once effective as an SEO tactic is perhaps even more important with the growth of AI Overviews in search.
So how do you get those publications to talk to you?
The answer is Research
Get out of the office…
In terms of B2B outreach, email just isn’t going to cut it any more. Salesforce tells us that email volume has increased 15% in the last year; and we all know that it’s easier than ever to write custom, relevant emails at scale.
So there’s a good chance that your own outbound email is going to get lost in the noise
And that means you need to get out of the office, and meet people face-to-face.
What’s in your Tech Stack?
It’s a common question when I’m talking to prospective clients.
Sometimes they want to know if I’m familiar with a particular tool, like Hubspot or Figma. At other times, I think it’s just to get an idea of what they might need to invest in.
So, here’s the basic set-up for a B2B marketing process…
Finding the Right Lever
Most founders and CEOs will tell you their biggest marketing challenge is getting more leads.
Makes sense, right? More interest, more demos, gives you more wins.
But what if your close rate is only 10%? Maybe that’s the thing to focus on…
Contact Us…. if you can
I’ve been looking at a lot of websites recently. And one thing that stands out to me is how often the “Contact Us” page is a blocker.
My biggest peeve: Why don’t they offer a calendar?
But if you that’s too much of a heavy lift, try some other ways you can make it a better user experience.
Does Content Marketing still move the needle?
For a lot of B2B companies, marketing has been narrowed down to a simple flow:
Create Content → Push it on Social → Feature in Google Searches → Drive traffic to your website
But there’s a problem. Each part of that chain is rapidly decaying, thanks to AI tools and shifting customer behaviors
Which means what worked a year ago, isn’t going to make the cut any more.
If everything is ‘dead,’ then what actually works?
In the last few weeks, the following have landed in my inbox:
“Death of the Keyword”
“Why One-Pagers are Dead”
“Did ChatGPT kill SEO”
If you’re a casual viewer of marketing trends, you could easily be fooled into thinking that nothing is working any more.
What’s your ‘one thing’ for this year?
One of the biggest challenges in Marketing is focus. Or rather, the lack of it. There are so many ways to reach potential customers, and it’s tempting to try a little bit of a lot of things.
The end result? It’s really hard to make an impact.
Working with Creatives
Creativity is at the core of Marketing. And working with creative folks is one of the most rewarding parts of the job. But whether you’re working with an in-house team or freelance talent, success is often built on the strength of the Creative Brief.
So what should the creative brief cover?
Plus – did you made it past Quitters Day?!
Productivity Hacks for a New Year
At the start of a new year, many of us set an intention to be ‘more productive’ this year (whatever that may mean!)
There are a ton of articles and books about productivity. I’ve read (and forgotten!) quite a few of them. So here are a few that I think are worthwhile, if you do want to get a bit more disciplined this year: