Being boring brings benefits

Posted on February 10, 2026 by Ann James

Good Housekeeping? It’s in the detail.

We’re always pushed for time. CEO wants that product launch. SDRs need leads, now. Event deadlines close in. I get it. But that’s normal, that’s just marketing.

The thing is, while we’re buzzing around keeping everyone else happy, the boring-but-critical stuff lurks quietly in the corner. Standards slip. Data gets untidy. Workflows clash. And everyone pretends not to see it because ‘we’ll get round to it later’.

Except later never comes.

And who does notice?

  • The prospect who gets an irrelevant email for the third time this week from a brand they were just starting to warm to.
  • Our future selves who have to run an ABM campaign from a cold start, because the opt-in event data wasn’t prepped with targeting in mind.
  • The customer pulled into an automation that misfires, dupes or loops, and sends outdated content because the underlying data is chaos.

And you’re apologising for something that should have been invisible, seamless, and quietly doing its job.

This is why I say: do the thing now.

Give yourself the best chance of being righter later. Usually takes an hour or two tops, do it during the mindless lunch hour or while you’ve half on eye on a training video… can always make time if you try hard enough.

Here’s what I mean:

Uploading data from an event?

Sure, you can just upload it. But take the extra ten minutes to clean it, align industry labels with your CRM fields, fix country formats, and suddenly you’re future‑proofing your ABM and targeting. Skip it and… well, why bother doing any of it?

Sales won’t always play along with detail.

But lead by example. Show them the downstream benefits and a few will start helping out. Though the rest might claim they ‘don’t have time’ while spending 45 minutes ‘improving’ a deck 😉

In Your Hands

  • Data quality: fields, filters, and forms need to be basically correct or nothing else works.
  • Deduping & merging: leads and contacts – clean them before they multiply and confuse.
  • Hard bounces: clear them out for a truer view of your market. For key accounts, whether prospect or customer, tell sales – it’s useful intel on movement, churn risk, and new contacts to find.
  • Workflow automations: check your start and finish dates, plan and share your intentions within the marketing team for conflicts or parallel campaigns to that audience. Archive the previous if it’s recurring.
  • Content hygiene: redundant or confusing web and landing pages, outdated PDFs, old versions floating around – kill them. Redirects are your friend. And while you’re there, fix your alt tags. Accessibility matters, search engines care, and nothing says ‘we’re not on the ball’ like missing or meaningless alt text.

Really?… Just do it, tidy up.

Make the time to get it right.

Your prospects will feel the difference.
Your customers will feel the difference.
And yes – your metrics will absolutely feel the difference.

Posted in B2B marketing tip, Customer experience | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A conversation with AI about AI-ready marketing

Posted on January 27, 2026 by Ann James

This blog about making marketing content AI-ready raised more questions than it answered. So here, So What Marketing scratches the surface and goes in deeper. Grab a coffee and learn more about what we really have to do, from this little chat with Copilot… (and yes there will be a checklist soon!)

🗣️ Round 1: The Big Question

So What Marketing:
Right, Copilot – everyone keeps talking about ‘AI‑ready content’. What does that actually mean? And please, keep it simple. I’m only human.

Copilot:
Ok, here we go. In simple terms: buyers are asking AI about you before they ever visit your website. If your content is unclear, inconsistent, or fluffy, the AI will get it wrong – and the buyer will believe the AI.

So What Marketing:
So… all the brand messaging we’ve spent years polishing?

Copilot:
Beautiful. Useless. Machines can’t interpret poetry.

So What Marketing:
That’s a bit rude. But fair enough.

🧠 Round 2: What Marketing Doesn’t Know It Doesn’t Know

So What Marketing:
Alright then. What else don’t marketers know they don’t know?

Copilot:
A few things:

  • AI doesn’t read your content in the order you want.
  • It stitches together your website, PDFs, social posts, and press releases.
  • Contradictions confuse it.
  • Vague language forces it to guess.
  • Guessing leads to hallucinations.
  • Hallucinations lead to buyers thinking you do something you don’t.

So What Marketing:
So the problem isn’t AI, it’s our content.

Copilot:
Exactly.

🎯 Round 3: But how do we differentiate if we can’t use brand fluff?

So What Marketing:
Here’s the bit I’m stuck on. If brand messaging is too fluffy for AI, how do we still differentiate? Isn’t that the whole point of brand?

Copilot:
Differentiation doesn’t disappear. It just shifts.

Right now, many brands differentiate through tone, slogans, and abstract positioning.
AI can’t use any of that.

To differentiate in an AI‑mediated world, you need:

1. Clear, specific value propositions

Not ’empowering transformation.’
More like: ‘A workflow automation tool for finance teams that reduces manual processing time by 40%.’

2. Explicit differentiators

Not ‘leading platform.’
More like: ‘Only solution with native integration to X, Y, Z.’

3. Evidence, not adjectives

Not ‘trusted by global brands.’
More like: ‘Used by 1,200+ public sector organisations.’

4. Consistent language everywhere

If your website says one thing and your sales deck says another, AI will pick the wrong one.

5. A point of view

This is where your brand voice can shine – in how you explain, challenge, and contextualise.
AI can summarise facts. Only you can articulate meaning.

So What Marketing:
So differentiation becomes clarity + proof + perspective.

Copilot:
Exactly.
Brand still matters – it just has to be grounded in something AI can actually use.

❓ Round 4: What ‘question‑aligned’ actually means

So What Marketing:
And this ‘question‑aligned’ thing – I think I know what it means, but humour me. Marketers love a buzzword.

Copilot:
OK, I’ll spell it out.
‘Question‑aligned’ means your content is structured around the questions buyers actually ask – not the messages you want to push.

For example:

Buyers ask:

  • What does this product actually do?
  • Who is it for?
  • How does it work?
  • How is it different from X?
  • Does it integrate with Y?
  • How much effort is implementation?
  • What results can I expect?
  • Is it compliant with Z?

AI needs:

Clear, direct, unambiguous answers to all of these – in your own content footprint.

Question‑aligned content looks like:

  • FAQ pages that actually answer real questions.
  • Product pages written in plain language.
  • Case studies with specifics, not adjectives.
  • Feature lists that are complete, not curated.
  • Comparison pages that are factual, not snarky.
  • Pricing explanations that don’t require a sales rep to decode.

So What Marketing:
So instead of ‘messaging pillars’, we need ‘question pillars’.

Copilot:
Exactly.
If you don’t answer the question, AI will – and you may not like the answer.

🛠️ Round 5: What AI‑ready content actually looks like

So What Marketing:
Fine. Give me the checklist. What does AI‑ready content actually look like?

Copilot:
It’s:

  • Clear
  • Consistent
  • Specific
  • Question‑aligned
  • Evidence‑based
  • Machine‑legible
  • Written in language a buyer and an LLM can understand
  • Free from contradictions
  • Structured so AI can summarise it accurately.

So What Marketing:
So basically everything marketing claims to do but often doesn’t.

Copilot:
You said it, not me.

🛰️ Round 6: What AI can actually read (and what you need to do about it)

So What Marketing:
We’ve talked about clarity and consistency, but what about channels, media? What can AI actually read? And what should we be doing to help it?

Copilot:
Short answer: AI can read almost anything that’s text‑based or can be turned into text.
Longer answer: some formats are easy, some are painful, and some are invisible unless you help.

Let’s break it down.

1. Websites

AI can read:

  • On‑page copy, navigation labels, Alt text, structured data, blog posts, FAQs, product pages, pricing pages.

What you should do:

  • Use clear headings.
  • Avoid jargon.
  • Make sure every page answers a real buyer question.
  • Keep terminology consistent.
  • Add schema/structured data where possible.

2. PDFs, slide decks, whitepapers

AI can read:

  • All text, tables, captions, appendices.

AI struggles with:

  • Images of text, diagrams with no labels, dense, unstructured content.

What you should do:

  • Export as real text, not flattened images.
  • Add alt text to diagrams.
  • Use clear section headings.
  • Include an executive summary that actually summarises.

3. Video

AI can read:

  • Transcripts, Subtitles, Descriptions, Titles.

AI cannot read:

  • The video itself, visuals with no narration, on‑screen text unless captured in the transcript.

What you should do:

  • Always include transcripts.
  • Add proper subtitles.
  • Put key points in the description.
  • Don’t rely on visuals alone to convey meaning.

If your video doesn’t have a transcript, it’s effectively invisible to AI.

4. Audio (podcasts, webinars, interviews)

AI can read:

  • Transcripts, show notes, episode descriptions.

What you should do:

  • Publish full transcripts.
  • Use descriptive titles.
  • Add time‑stamped summaries.

5. Social posts

AI can read:

  • The text, the hashtags, the alt text on images, the comments.

What you should do:

  • Keep terminology consistent with your website.
  • Use alt text.
  • Avoid cryptic “if you know you know” posts.
  • Make sure your POV posts still contain facts.

6. Images

AI can read:

  • Alt text, captions, surrounding copy.

AI cannot read:

  • The image itself (unless OCR is applied, and even then it’s hit and miss).

What you should do:

  • Add alt text that actually describes the content.
  • Avoid embedding key information only in images.

7. Third‑party content

AI can read:

  • Analyst reports, review sites, press releases, partner pages, industry blogs.

What you should do:

  • Make sure your messaging is consistent everywhere.
  • Correct outdated or inaccurate listings.
  • Provide partners with up‑to‑date boilerplate.

8. Internal content that leaks into the public domain

AI can read:

  • Public help docs, API documentation, knowledge bases, support forums.

What you should do:

  • Make sure these don’t contradict your marketing.
  • Clean up legacy content.
  • Add clear definitions and explanations.

So What Marketing:
So basically, if it can be turned into text, AI will read it. And if it can’t be turned into text, we should help it.

Copilot:
Exactly. If you want AI to understand you, you have to give it something it can actually digest.

So What Marketing:
So transcripts, alt text, structured data, consistent language…
It’s not glamorous, but it’s the difference between being findable and being guessable.

Copilot:
And in an AI‑mediated buying journey, ‘guessable’ is not a strategy.

🧵 Final Round

So What Marketing:
So if we actually start doing all this – the clarity, the consistency, the question‑alignment, the evidence, the differentiation-that-isn’t-fluff – our content is better placed to be found, understood, and reused by the AI our prospects are already asking.

Copilot:
Exactly. Think of it as SEO for AI – but instead of optimising for keywords, you’re optimising for comprehension.

So What Marketing:
And the sooner we start, the sooner it becomes second nature.

Copilot:
There’s no ‘later’ in this shift. Buyers are already using AI. The only question is whether the AI is using your content… or someone else’s.

So What Marketing:
Right then. Time to make sure the machines don’t get the wrong end of the stick.

Posted in B2B marketing tip, Field Marketing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

What AI told me about AI‑ready content (so you don’t have to ask it too)

Posted on January 27, 2026 by Ann James

**Your campaigns aren’t ready for GenAI (but they could be if you start now)**

There’s a slightly awkward truth floating around B2B marketing right now: buyers are already miles ahead of us.

Forrester says almost 95% of buyers expect to use generative AI to support their decision and purchase process in the next 12 months. Not ‘experiment with.’ Not ‘dabble in.’ That’s tools like Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, used as standard, day in, day out.

Meaning your content is about to be consumed, interpreted, summarised, compared, and judged by a machine before a human ever sees it.

And most current campaigns? Hmm, still built for eyeballs, not algorithms aren’t they?

We’d better have a think about that.

Traditional campaigns are built for a world that no longer exists

We’ve all been doing our best with the tools and knowledge we’ve had to hand, but let’s be honest about the current ‘best try’ model:

  • Campaigns are built around our best guess of a timeline, not the buyer’s.
  • Content is designed for channels, not questions.
  • Messaging is optimised for attention, not comprehension.
  • Nurture flows assume buyers are politely waiting for us to educate them.
  • Gated assets merrily pretend that buyers don’t have other options.

This whole setup assumes a human is patiently clicking through your funnel.

Spoiler: if they ever were, they’re not now.
They’re interrogating a Large Language Model – an LLM.

GenAI-led buying: the shift we can’t ignore

Here’s what’s actually happening out there:

  • Buyers ask genAI to summarise your product.
  • They ask it to compare you to competitors.
  • They ask it to explain your pricing model.
  • They ask it to translate your jargon into something that makes sense.
  • They expect instant, accurate answers – not a 12‑email nurture sequence.

And the thing is:
They’ll judge you based on the clarity, consistency, and completeness of your content footprint – not the content you wish they’d read.

So, you’re no longer creating content for buyers.
You’re creating content for the AI that buyers trust.

So, what does ‘optimising for genAI-led buying’ actually mean?

This is where the work mindset shifts from ‘campaign execution’ to ‘content architecture’.

It means:

  • Structured clarity: unambiguous, factual content that machines can parse without hallucinating.
  • Question-first design: mapping the questions buyers ask at every stage – and answering them publicly.
  • Semantic consistency: your website, product pages, case studies, and social posts must all tell the same story.
  • Evidence over adjectives: AI rewards specifics; it ignores fluff.
  • Comparability: if you don’t define your differentiators clearly, AI will make them up.

This isn’t SEO 2.0.
This is ‘make your content machine-legible or get misrepresented’.

Campaigns: the old way vs the new

A quick comparison to make the shift painfully obvious:

Traditional campaignsGenAI‑optimised campaigns
Channel-firstQuestion-first
Gated assetsOpen, structured, answer-rich content
Nurture flowsInstant clarity, accessible to AI
Brand messagingFactual, consistent, machine-parseable
‘Hero’ assetsModular, reusable, semantically aligned
Human interpretationMachine interpretation before human interpretation

You’re no longer orchestrating a journey, you’re feeding an ecosystem.

Why starting now matters

This is the part marketers love to chew over (aka have lots of meetings to plan out) – because it feels big, strategic, and slightly important.

But here’s the truth:
GenAI doesn’t reward last-minute retrofits. Teams who start now will:

  • Build muscle memory for writing clearly.
  • Develop instinct for structuring content logically.
  • Create assets that answer questions directly.
  • Catch contradictions early.
  • Make ‘AI-ready’ a habit, not a project.

By the time everyone else panics, it’ll be second nature.

Here’s a simple ‘no fluff’ starter playbook

  • Audit your content for clarity, consistency, and contradictions. (You can even ask AI what it thinks!)
  • Identify your top 50 buyer questions and answer them publicly – sales, account management and customer teams can help here.
  • Rewrite key pages in plain, unambiguous language. Apply the ‘So What’? test.
  • Remove jargon that only makes sense internally.
  • Create structured summaries for your core offerings, repurpose with clarity in mind.
  • Build a cross-functional ‘AI readiness’ checklist for every new asset.
  • Treat every piece of content as something an LLM will read first.

This isn’t transformation, it’s really basics.

The So What?

GenAI isn’t replacing marketers, it’s replacing complacent content.

The winners will be the teams who treat AI as the first reader, not the last.

Start now, and by the time the market fully shifts, you’ll be working that way automatically, not scrambling to retrofit your entire content universe.

Truth is, if your content can‘t survive an AI interrogation, it won’t survive a buyer’s.

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The buyer’s ‘Right to Do Nothing’: the competition we forget

Posted on January 26, 2026 by Ann James

Tech firms, we do love a good fight, don’t we?

Line up the competition, list our USPs, polish the pitch, shout about why our tech is smarter, faster, shinier. We’ve got the features, the benefits, the ROI – ok, the potential ROI ;-). We’re convinced. We’re winners, we believe in us!

And yet… there’s a competitor we rarely acknowledge. One that wins more often than we care to admit.

It’s called doing nothing.

Fine, just as they are.

Your buyer is doing fine. Just as they are. Really. What they’re doing now works well enough. It’s low risk. It may be using an in-house solution, or one of the tired, battle-worn competitors you’ve just dismissed, but the obvious bases are covered. More important, it doesn’t involve hours of consuming content, talking to sales people, convincing colleagues and the boss, wrangling a budget – and that’s before putting it all in place.

Change? It’s just hassle, uncalled for. It costs time to rationalise, money to adopt, and let’s not forget the awkward overlap between old and new. Oh, and if it fails? Guess who’s carrying that if it all goes pear-shaped?

Doing nothing is safe, certainly not moving hastily. Comfortable. Rational. And we forget that.

An example close to home?

Think of the last time you considered switching your broadband provider. The new deal looked great on paper – faster speeds, better price. But then you thought about it more: squinting through the contract for ‘gotchas’, installation, an engineer visit, downtime, chasing customer service. Actually, sticking with the current provider feels like the smarter move.

Why marketers miss it

Because we’re high on our own supply. We love to believe our own hype.

We’ve got the best tech in the space. We’ve benchmarked against the competition. We’ve got benefits piled high like Jenga blocks. Surely they’ll see it?

Except they don’t. Because better isn’t always enough to swing it.

A stat to chew on:

According to Gartner, 77% of B2B buyers say their last purchase was “very complex or difficult.” Ouch.
Complexity kills momentum, reality kills dreams – and it makes doing nothing, look rather appealing.

The hidden price tag of change

Look at it through your buyer’s eyes: here’s what they see when you pitch your shiny new thing:

• Time drain: They’ll need to evaluate, justify, and explain.

• Budget pain: Not just the upfront cost – fully loaded and ongoing costs too.

• Overlap hell: Paying for old and new systems while they transition.

• Personal risk: Convince the team and the boss, own the outcome, pray it works.

We’ve all been there

Marketers are buyers too! A marketing director considering a new automation platform isn’t just thinking about features. They’re thinking: “Will my team hate me for this? And what about Sales ?! How long will it take to adopt? Will I blow half my budget and still miss targets?”

Empathy check: Would you?

Would I gamble my reputation on your promise of ‘better’? Or would I quietly take a sip of coffee and turn to all those pinging inbox reminders, just carrying on as I am?

Before you deploy that next full-on campaign, ask yourself, if I were in their shoes, would I make this change?

For us, sometimes the most human thing we can do is… calm down. Step back. Give them space.

So what do we do?

It’s ok, we don’t have to stop marketing. But we do stop assuming their priorities meet ours.

Here’s the more realistic play:

• Make change feel safe: Show real ROI, not just pretty charts. Get those real customer quotes, even just snippets or stats. Be upfront with assumptions and explanations. Offer buyers risk mitigation.

• Reduce friction: Easy onboarding, clear, true and loaded costs, no nasty surprises.

• Build trust over time: Educate, don’t pressurise. Share proof points. Look from every angle, through a customer’s eyes.

• Be indispensable, and yes, unavoidable, but not intrusive: Create content that solves problems – even if they don’t buy today, it’s a slow burn, they’ll start to have doubts about their now, and remember you.

And here’s the kicker: this isn’t just campaign thinking.
It’s the slow burn, undercurrent content marketing we should always be doing. The stuff that sets out the stall, earns trust and gives your highly crafted, incisive ABM campaign a chance of landing well when the time is right. Because when the moment comes for the buyer to move, you want to be the obvious and low-risk choice.

Stat to remember:

Forrester found that B2B buyers consume up to 5 pieces of content before making a decision (and that sounds low!), and up to 13 people may be involved. Translation: they’re not rushing into anything. So don’t push – guide them.

The human touch

Content strategy should be ‘unavoidable’ and ‘indispensable. But in reality, maybe let’s add add ’empathetic’ to the list. Respect their pace. Offer value without strings. Sometimes stepping back builds more trust than pushing forward.

Because here’s the truth:

The right to do nothing isn’t resistance – it’s rational, human nature. And the marketer who understands that? Wins in the long run.

Sources:
Gartner B2B Buying Behaviour Survey- cited in Advertising Week
Forrester Research – Buyer’s Journey Stats

Posted in B2B marketing tip, Field Marketing | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Lies, damned lies, and meaningless marketing metrics.

Posted on January 11, 2026 by Ann James

Why hiding behind vanity numbers is hurting your credibility – and how to make marketing truly matter.

Ever sat in a meeting proudly quoting MQLs, open rates and click-throughs, only to see the Sales team roll their eyes? Here’s the truth: those numbers aren’t telling the story you think they are.

The comfort blanket of big numbers

Marketers, we have a problem. We’ve become addicted to numbers that look good but mean very little. Open rates, click-through rates, bounce rates, visits and visitors, likes and shares – they’re easy to measure, easy to report, and easy to spin into a story of success. But scratch the surface and it all changes: these metrics are all too often meaningless when it comes to proving marketing’s impact on the business.

And worse? By playing along and hiding behind these numbers, marketers risk losing credibility with the people who matter – the board, the CFO, and most importantly, the sales team – the first line who knows that the ‘warm’ leads they’re being passed are really as cold as a dodo’s toes.

—

The mask of vanity metrics

Let’s call them what they are: vanity metrics. They make us feel good, but they rarely really count commercially.

• Open rates

Inflated by bot activity and privacy changes, a measured ‘open’ just doesn’t equal interest. Sad to say, but latest stats show around 60% of B2B email opens are from anti-phishing or other cyber security software just checking you out. Whether data is net cold / new, cold (to you), even third party optin or legitimate interest lists, – even your own opted in contacts may not remember why they did – until you’re into established relations territory, in a pattern of comms, you’re probably kidding yourself.

• Click rates

See above. Bots click too, so much more than we like to believe. And even when humans click, be aware that curiosity in isolation isn’t commitment. Engagement is though – what happens next – more on that later.

• Bounces & time on page

A low bounce rate doesn’t mean success either. A visitor could spend five minutes on your page because they’re lost, or gone for a coffee, not engaged. What happens next is the interesting thing.

• Social likes and shares

As I’ve said before, Beware the Social Echo chamber! Big numbers backing up social posts are great to see, but if they’re all your employees, even well-connected ones, you still have work to do.

These metrics aren’t evil – they really can be useful. But they’re not proof of marketing effectiveness. Reporting them as success indicators, too often in isolation, is a dangerous game.

—

Why marketers play along

Why do we do it? Because it’s easy. Because stakeholders ask for them. Because we’re spending company money and the stats make us look busy and successful. But a word of caution: every time we hide behind these numbers, we reinforce the myth that marketing is a cost centre, not a growth driver.

If we want marketing to be taken seriously, we need to stop hiding behind the mask and start measuring what matters.

—

What really counts

Marketing’s job is to drive growth. That means connecting activity to pipeline, conversion, and lifetime value (LTV) – the metrics that sales and finance care about, the ones that good marketers should.

• Pipeline contribution

How much qualified pipeline did your campaign generate or help along? Not clicks, not visits – actual opportunities. B2B is hard to measure, with multiple contacts at complex organisations, but that’s the game, and measurement is doable, with martech (and a backup spreadsheet if you have to).

• Conversion rates

From lead to opportunity, and opportunity to customer. This shows whether your marketing is attracting the right audience. Take a bit of time to figure out conversions – they don’t all have to be completing a form for a meeting – just a notable step or positive action can be an initial indicator of meaningful success – and build an armoury of these. Your prospects are taking small steps, so follow their path.

• Revenue influence

Did marketing touch deals that closed? Attribution isn’t perfect, but directional influence matters. It’s hard though, we all know it is, and sales (love ‘em) will always want to show how they built the deal, all on their own, but with today’s tech, weaving together the influence of ‘touches’, even if it does mean some manual attribution, is worthwhile in the longer term. If your campaigns have focus, ABM-like, this makes it easier to spot, attribute and learn, even with multiple players at an account.

• Customer lifetime value (LTV)

Are you acquiring customers who stick around and spend more? Marketing can be optimised for quality, not just quantity.

—

Making marketing more meaningful

So how do we shift from meaningless metrics to meaningful measurement?

1. Stop reporting vanity metrics in isolation

They can be diagnostic, but they’re really not success indicators. Take a look at your email reports. Some software will help you filter out the bot clicks, but a quick glimpse will raise a question in your mind. All those opens and clicks from the same company? Hm, probably not for real. Immediate opens stacking up just after the send? same, sorry. Clicks that have then continued a journey, maybe revisited that email and spent time on a page? That’s what we want to see, those will start to count. Make an effort to join up steps of customer journeys, seek engagement not hits, filter out the company echo chamber in your socials and see what counts.

2. Align reporting with business outcomes

Build dashboards that show pipeline, conversion, and revenue influence. If your campaigns reporting needs help, ask the CRM whizz, someone will know.

3. Be straight with stakeholders

Explain why open rates don’t equal engagement and why relating to pipeline matters more. This might mean buying time to show what’s working, perhaps persuading sales to assist with tracking attribution touches, but the commercial head honchos should appreciate this candid approach. It should mean you can focus efforts more on the activities and approaches that combine to build deals. If they don’t, perhaps it’s time to spruce up your cv.

4. Automate attribution where possible

Use CRM and marketing automation tools to connect campaigns to revenue. Easier said than done, you might have to cobble some bits together, especially at complex organisation structures, and wallpaper over the gaps, but the truth is out there.

—

The three Ms: Metrics, Myths and Masks

Marketing can’t afford to hide behind a mask. Vanity metrics are myths that keep us comfortable but powerless. If we want marketing to matter, we need to make it meaningful – by measuring what drives growth, reporting what influences revenue, and proving our impact on the business.

So next time you’re tempted to parade the open rates, ask yourself:

Do you want pretty numbers, or can you prove that marketing is powering up the pipeline?

—

Stop hiding behind the mask. If you want to start making marketing meaningful, give me a shout, I’d be happy to help you work it out.

Posted in B2B marketing tip, Field Marketing | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Otherwise it’s just noise.

Posted on December 26, 2025 by Ann James

2025 was a year of reminders. Not revelations – just the kind of gentle (and occasionally snooze-disturbing) nudges that make you tilt your head and think, hmm, that again…

A few themes kept resurfacing.

Email doesn’t work… until it does.

If you blast noise to an unwitting audience, it dies. If you send something genuinely useful, timely, and human, it still earns its place. Turns out the channel isn’t broken – the content and timing often is.

Conversion isn’t about cornering people.

Forms, gates, ‘book a demo’ buttons – they only work when the value is obvious. Buyers don’t want to be captured. They want to be helped. When your information is indispensable to them, they convert themselves.

Face‑to‑face still matters – but only if you’ve done the groundwork.

A good conversation is gold. A surprise conversation is expensive. If you haven’t laid the groundwork with content, clarity, and context, you’re wasting precious show time.

Everyone is on their own trajectory.

There is no universal journey. No neat funnel. No perfect timing. All we can do is show up consistently, in the right places for our targets, with something that’s actually useful to them. Being unavoidable, just bumping into them, again.

Plan… but not so tightly you miss the moment.

Marketing paralysis is real. The perfect plan can be the enemy of the timely post. Get it right enough and publish the thing. You can expand or refine later.

Repurpose long after you’re bored of it.

If you’ve said it three times, three ways, you’re just starting to warm up. Most people haven’t seen it yet – and the ones who have, probably needed the reminder.

Choose your battles.

Don’t try to be everything to everyone. Choose your battles, focus for the wins, learn to press their buttons and expand on the footprint. Then you can plan for the next one.

And finally: don’t be seduced by the stats.

Bots open and click. Dashboards flatter. Pipelines tell the truth. Talk to sales. Follow the deals. That’s where the real story and hints for success, live.

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These are the threads I’ll be chewing over more in the New Year – shouldn’t we aim to be unavoidable and indispensable, building content that actually works, bumping into our audiences in the moments that matter?

For now, a friendly ‘au revoir’ to a year that reminded me of the basics:

Be useful. Be present. Be human.
Oh and say ‘so what?’

HNY, see you in ’26 🙂

Posted in B2B marketing tip, Field Marketing | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

It ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it.

Posted on February 12, 2025 by Ann James

Marketing. Everyone’s an expert. Every professional marketer has been in the meeting* where seemingly everyone else (sales, finance, customer service, product development) has an opinion – nay an unquestionable, expert view (cue eye roll) – as how the company should be marketed. Its use of social media, advertising, search, email, not to mention the website and the old chestnut of how to write a press release: any channel is fair game for comment. And do you know what? On the face of it, that’s fair enough. The actual machinations of delivering a message via any of these media isn’t exactly rocket science.

So what, you might ask, does an experienced career professional actually bring to the game, since marketing’s that obvious? The answer lies in balance and judgement. Not just the what, anyone can do that for sure, but the message, the when and to whom. The how – the combination of channels to deploy that build from piqued interest, raised eyebrow, to learning more and buying in to your brand.

That’s not just blindly posting a tweet or scheduling three LinkedIn posts a week. It’s understanding the target audience, crafting a message that resonates, and strategically timing the post for maximum visibility and engagement. It’s about analysing the data to see what’s working and what’s not, and adjusting the plan accordingly. It’s a post on a topic of relevance, a teaser video which links to a landing page with a full infographic and the drill-down, multi-layered setting out of the argument that shows you ‘get it’, the invitation to the webinar, building confidence until your brand is top of the list. Complex stuff, a journey, to coin a phrase.

Effective marketing is about maximising the return on investment of both time and money. It’s about setting realistic, measurable goals and developing a strategy to achieve them. It’s about knowing which metrics to track and how to interpret the data to optimise campaigns and demonstrate value. It’s knowing when and what to spend, what results to expect or consider good or bad, when to start and when to stop – that’s what comes with experience, insights, learning, victories and, yes, sometimes mistakes.

What does this mean for your business? Well, while everyone can have an opinion on marketing, it takes an experienced professional to strategically navigate the complexities and deliver real results. Investing in experienced marketing professionals isn’t just for delivery, it’s about fine-tuning.

In the words of the legendary Bananarama and the Fun Boy Three**, that’s what gets results.

* inspired by a recent linkedin post I can’t find again. I felt her pain.
** yes, I know it was a cover, but we all have our points of reference.

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Time to catch up with old friends?

Posted on January 28, 2025 by Ann James

Chasing new logos can mean overlooking your customer base – and its opportunities.

The challenge of new logo account sales is so much fun! There’s the initial buzz of attraction, the warmth and getting-to-know-you of nurture, and the euphoric hit of the win. Contrast that with spending time with customers, a known and somewhat predictable entity: they know your products already – sometimes better than you do – and they are often well placed to have a moan about ongoing issues.
But ignore them at your peril! — According to a study by Bain & Company, increasing customer retention by 5% can increase profits by 25% to 95%. They’re the key to your future revenues, an opportunity for cross-sell and up-sell, if you only stay in touch and point them the right way.

For one thing, your customers are already bought in to your brand. They’ve done their due diligence, they share your dream, so don’t drop them mid-way. It makes absolute sense to put in the effort to growing their allegiance to your company’s offering – the deeper they commit, the longer they will stay and the harder it is to be tempted to move to a competitor. Talking of competition, this kind of managed nurture can be a differentiator too – if your competitors are focused on the win, it can pay to be seen as the vendor who cares long term.

Customers are a wealth of information too, they can guide you to new features or streamline awkward processes, even unveil brand insights you’d never see through the company’s eyes. Some will turn out to be your superstars too, championing the common cause of their success underpinned by your brand. Others may prefer to keep it behind the scenes, but remain happy to reference, speak to press or assist with marketing case studies. After all, who cares what a vendor says? A prospect would rather hear the news from the coal face.

What can you do in terms of customer marketing?

  • Communicate, first and foremost: Use social media, email and web content to share the love.
  • Start a regular series of communication: Choose a frequency you know you can support. Plan your content calendar at least 3 months ahead, so you know what you’ll need to request collaboration with and prepare.
  • Create a community: Remind them of the community they’ve joined and the shared journey they’re on. Run virtual and in-person events, from user groups to regional meet-ups to VIP events, to share outcomes and challenges overcome.
  • Encourage feedback: Use account management and other forums to ask customers for their thoughts on the company, products & services.
  • Use that sales and marketing data: Gather and analyse what it tells you about your customers’ interests and needs, using that to guide content.

These are just some ideas to engender that ‘feel good’ vibe amongst your customers.
Make the effort to love them, and you’ll reap the benefits of them loving you back.

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Forget Numbers, Focus on Percentage Wins: Why Sales & Marketing is More Than a Volume Game

Posted on January 16, 2025 by Ann James

The age-old saying in sales goes that it’s a “numbers game”. But does that really hold water for modern, digital, sales and marketing; is thinking in terms of volume still the best approach? Is is filling the pipeline still about bombarding prospects with countless emails, sending generalised content out into the ether, hiding behind fudged MQL numbers and hoping for a few lucky breaks? Or does success lie in strategically choosing your targets and optimising an aligned approach for the highest possible conversion rates?

We believe the latter approach wins, and we’re not alone.

Increased Success Rates: Companies using ABM have seen 60% higher success rates compared to those that don’t.
Customer Engagement: 72% of marketers have reported a substantial boost in customer engagement after implementing ABM strategies (learn.g2.com)

While sheer volume might seem like the path to success – more leads mean more opportunities, right? – and it’s certainly easier to show marketing energy in big numbers – this approach so often leads to wasted effort and low returns. Blindly trying to attract and chase every lead can quickly become overwhelming, disheartening and inefficient.

What if instead of focusing on the number of prospects, you shift your attention to the percentage of prospects you can successfully attract then nurture to conversion? Focus in on segments of your ‘marketable universe’ – those organisations you can and should sell to, you can identify their traits, meet their needs, they fit your commercial package – and while volume reduces, focus pays off, % plays out and goals are hit.

Here’s why:

Improved Efficiency: By targeting the right accounts with the right messaging, and nurturing their informational needs through the funnel from the ‘what is?’ through to ‘why us?’, you streamline your sales process and marketing communications. You’re not wasting time on outlying leads or pursuing deals with low probability of success. This allows you to dedicate more time and resources to the most promising opportunities.

Increased ROI: When you focus on quality over quantity, you’re more likely to close deals with higher profit margins. These deals are a better fit, often more strategic and long-term, leading to greater overall revenue and a stronger return on your sales and marketing investments.

Enhanced Brand Perception: Targeting specific, high-value accounts allows you to build stronger relationships and establish yourself as a trusted advisor – you’ve shown your understanding of their issues and needs and that will grow. A targeted approach demonstrates a deeper understanding of your ideal customer profile and positions your company as a thought leader in your industry.

Better Data-Driven Insights: By tracking the performance of your targeted campaigns, you gain valuable insights into what’s working and what’s not. This data allows you to refine your approach, continuously improve your sales and marketing strategy, and achieve even better results over time.

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is a powerful approach that aligns perfectly with this focus on percentage wins. By identifying and prioritising a select group of target accounts, you can tailor your messaging and outreach to their specific needs and pain points. This personalised approach can zone  in by 1 to 1 or grouped as 1 to few, but the value lies in resonance – this increases engagement and significantly improves your chances of conversion.

Repeatability: a process with focus at its core, honed by both successes and learning from failures can be repeated across other market segments, tailored to hit home within each one.

Key Takeaways:

Quality over Quantity: Prioritise focus on market segments and sub-segments with high potential over simply chasing a large number of leads.

Strategic Targeting: Research your customer base and identify your ideal customer profile(s), focusing your efforts on the accounts that are most likely to convert.

Personalised Approach: Tailor your messaging, content and outreach channels to the specific needs and interests of each target account.

Leverage ABM: Combine sales and marketing knowledge to implement an Account-Based Marketing strategy; maximise your impact and achieve higher conversion rates.

By shifting your focus from volume to percentage wins, you can transform your sales & marketing efforts from a chaotic scramble to a strategic, data-driven approach that delivers consistent and sustainable results.

What can you do about it?

If you need some help aligning sales and marketing, fresh and experienced eyes can help.
Contact us

Posted in B2B marketing tip, Field Marketing | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Martech Isn’t Actually the Silver Bullet for B2B

Posted on January 14, 2025 by Ann James

But that’s ok!

We live in a world obsessed with shiny new tools. In marketing, that more often than not translates to a fascination with martech. From sophisticated automation platforms to complex analytics dashboards, the promise is always the same: solve all your marketing woes with the right technology.

But let’s be honest: while martech plays a crucial role in B2B marketing – and without a doubt, its precision and clarity, tracking and attribution, have been a revelation – it’s really not the silver bullet many believe it to be. In fact, *whispers* relying solely on technology to drive results is a recipe for disappointment.

The Martech Mirage

It’s so easy to get caught up in the hype. Martech vendors love to paint a picture of effortless lead generation, personalised customer journeys, and rocketing ROI, all achieved through the magic of their software. But while the ‘stack’ of these tools can contribute to those outcomes, parting with budget on a monthly basis just doesn’t magically conjure them out of thin air.

The reality is that martech is primarily infrastructure. It provides the pipes, the wires, and the control panels, but it doesn’t create the actual content that flows through them. It can tell you when to send a message and who to send it to, but it can’t tell you what story to tell, the nuances of what that message should be.

The Human Element: Where Martech Falls Short

This is where the human element becomes essential. Martech can:

  • Automate repetitive tasks: freeing up marketers to focus on tasks where they better add value.
  • Segment audiences: allowing for more targeted messaging.
  • Track campaign performance: providing valuable data insights for review, amend, test and repeat exercises.

But it cannot:

  • Develop compelling messaging: crafting narratives that resonate with your target audience requires creativity, empathy, and a deep understanding of their needs.
  • Create engaging content: whether it’s a blog post, a video, or a white paper, directing and creating content to meet the need demands human understanding, ingenuity and expertise. An email needs a compelling subject line, aligned with supporting content in other formats – that takes some thoughtful planning.
  • Build genuine relationships: while martech can facilitate communication, it’s human interaction that fosters trust and loyalty, and people build with people in mind.

So What Marketing? The Real Value Proposition

So, if martech isn’t the silver bullet, is anything close? The answer is simple: smart marketing. And “smart marketing” combines the power of technology with the irreplaceable value of human creativity, understanding of the little nudges in our lives, and strategic thinking.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

  • Define clear objectives: What are you trying to achieve? Martech can help you structure, deliver and track progress, but it can’t define your goals for you. Choose your battles to give yourself the best chance of a win, then deploy martech to execute with your focus in mind.
  • Develop a strong content strategy: What stories do you need to tell to engage your audience? How does the narrative grow out over time – consistency at its core and valuable insights on a repeated schedule. Martech can help you distribute that content, but it just can’t structure, direct and create it.
  • Remember relationships: Scratch the surface, and most services and products are 80-90% similar within the space. But people still buy from people, and companies showing that they have connection and understanding. How can you trigger and connect with your target audiences on a human level? Martech can facilitate communication, but it can’t replace genuine interaction.

The Bottom Line

Martech is a powerful tool, but it’s just that: a tool. It’s a means to an end, not the end itself. To truly succeed in B2B marketing, you need to combine the efficiency of technology with the creativity, strategy, and human touch that only marketers can provide. Don’t fall for the martech mirage. The shiny tech stack is a costly beast, with value for sure, but don’t assume it will run the show for you. Instead, embrace the ethos of “so what marketing”—a smart marketing approach that prioritises strategy, content, and human connection.

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