Thoughts on Marketing

It’s time for IRL outreach, not just AI

[Originally published as The Marketing Mix newsletter on Substack. Please subscribe for the latest, every 2 weeks]

“In a world where everyone can now write the perfect outbound email with AI, real relationships become even more important.”

I was at the Overdrive AI Summit last week, and Mike Wilner from OpenAI was one of the few speakers☝🏻to acknowledge that there’s more to life than AI .

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. Which means your own outbound email is going to get lost in the noise

If the playing field has been flattened, you need to find another way to differentiate. And that means getting out of the office, and meeting people face-to-face.

I’m not necessarily talking about sponsoring big industry conferences. Those are expensive and time consuming. Local and regional events can often provide better quality interaction with prospects, at a lower investment. And give you a chance to build up relationships over time, rather than the 1-shot deal of a big show.

Another option is creating your own event.

• Host a VIP breakfast in a key market, with an engaging speaker.
• Start a meet-up style group relevant to your industry, like London Security Engineering, cofounded by one of my UK clients.
• A customer-appreciation event (“Custom boot fitting in Texas,” anyone?), with a few invitations for target prospects, to mix with happy clients

Now’s the time to get out of the office, and get back to meeting people “In Real Life.”

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“But don’t ask me about search…”

Mike Wilner also mentioned that there’s a whole business being built around getting found in AI search. But when asked how that was going, he stammered a bit, and then said “Well….let’s move on from that.” It just felt…well…strange.

It makes you wonder. Does OpenAI have data around AI search which they’re not sharing? Is there a business model that they want to tap in to? Or do they just not want to upset Google? 😏

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What I’m Reading

Marketing attribution is a LIE [Elena’s Growth Scoop]

tl;dr I’ve been banging this drum for years. Last-click attribution is easy to track; Google loves it, because it matches their business model. But – at best – it’s misleading. And it diverts marketing investment away from Awareness and Interest campaigns. Which hurts the pipeline, longer term.

Favorite Quote: “Digital attribution benefits mainly performance channels: Search. Some paid social…But here’s the big BUT: performance channels are mostly demand capture. If you don’t have a separate strategy to generate demand, your performance channels will dry up. You can’t harvest what you didn’t plant.”

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Drink of the Week

This week, it’s an Old Fashioned with Green Spot Irish Whiskey, a Guinness reduction, chocolate bitters and brown sugar.

It was called a Dark Horse on the menu. But it bears no relation to the cocktail you’ll find if you google the name. Since the restaurant was horse-themed, though, I guess they just went with it.

Tasted good, looked a bit cloudy (I guess that’s the Guinness). The weird thing though, was a square of chocolate as garnish. Which (a) isn’t going to add any taste to the drink and (b) isn’t going to absorb any whisky flavors itself. It’s basically an inert substance in the glass.

Which, come to think of it, makes it like many of those outbound emails we’re seeing. They exist. But they don’t add any value. And don’t make life better.

Cheers!🍺

Steve

P.S If you know you need to take marketing seriously, but don’t know where to start, let’s chat. I help growing B2B tech companies build their marketing muscles.

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