Every Business Has a Brand. It’s Either by Default or by Design.
Most B2B founders don't think much about brand or marketing early on. And honestly, that makes sense. When you’re launching a business, you're focused on the fundamentals: achieving product-market fit, managing costs, and generating revenue. New businesses are …
The Difference Between Brand Strategy and Marketing Strategy
Brand strategy and marketing strategy are often confused. They are highly interdependent, but they are not the same. First, let’s clarify what I mean by strategy before diving into the differences. Strategy is a high-level plan or framework …
I Never Planned to Be a PowerPoint Savant
I’m quite judgmental of marketing content. Well, all content, to be honest, I’m judgmental of all content. I want content to communicate and serve a purpose, and I judge all content I encounter with a critical eye. I’ve …
B2B Personalization — Does It Mean What You Think It Means?
Personalization is the holy grail of marketing and sales today, driving ever greater investment in marketing technology (MarTech) platforms, data and digital commerce. How important is it to marketing leaders? 92% of B2B marketers say it is a …
To Gate, Or Not To Gate? A Question As Old As Digital Delivery
Why gate content? Leads. Gating content is about generating leads say 62% of B2B organizations as recently reported by Marketing Charts. And, though the answer to “why” surprises no one, the summary of the research they published highlights …
New Marketing Landscape, Same Old Marketing Conversation?
The emergence of digital has altered everything, and marketing’s role today is not the marcom of yesterday. It’s a new game, with new rules, and an overwhelming number of new media, channels, and tools.
Tools of Ignorance or Masters Degree in Strategy?
Many baseball fans are familiar with the expression “tools of ignorance.” It is credited, with some uncertainty, to both Muddy Ruel and Bill Dickey. If the phrase is new to you, here is one definition found in the …
Every Shade of Grey – The New Reality For CIOs
The CIO role was once clear, well defined, and unambiguous. What was once black and white, is now every shade of grey.
Open letter from a CMO to a CIO
Dear IT, You and I both know the history of our relationship has not been particularly close over the years. A decade ago we shared few interests, but things have changed. Where once we had little in common, …
Why? The delta between innovation objectives and abilities.
Why is there such a massive gap between the importance of innovation and perceived abilities? Innovation means change, and change is hard.
Living In The Shadows of IT
Why are we slaves to crappy tools and processes that no one can work with? And why does the business tolerate it?
Why I don’t repurpose content
Raise your hand if you are in marketing and have embraced the need to deliver content across multiple media and channels. It is a virtual certainty you have. It supports SEM strategies, increases impressions and communicates multiple perspectives. …
Business 4 Business – A New Model
Improved business outcomes. Isn’t that why any business invests in technology?
Are CIOs and CMOs interchangeable?
“CIOs and CMOs should know enough about each other’s field of expertise to be interchangeable” according to Jim Davis, SAS’s global marketing chief in a recent CMO.com article. I had to read that statement more than once. After …
An open letter to marketing
Marketing, you have become distracted; you’ve lost your focus. Somewhere along the way you lost site of your roots and abandoned your heritage. You have forgotten that content is king, communication is personal and your audience has issues …
Context, Urgency and The Lizard Brain
I wanted to share this post from Harvard Business Review, written by Tim Riesterer. What initially “engaged” me was a great headline: Stimulate Your Customer's Lizard Brain to Make a Sale. Points for Tim; the title stopped me …
Old Habits are Hard to Break
Change is hard. “An A+ for stating the obvious” you are thinking to yourself? B2B marketing is stuck in “old ways”. Like any generalization, there are exceptions, but they remain the minority. I’ll explain. Business thrives …