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.

————————————————————————

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 🙂

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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

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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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You’ve lost me already.

Posted on December 20, 2024 by Ann James

I paused, but I’m walking straight past. Before I got beyond the first paragraph of proper copy. My question is: What are you going to do, for me? If I haven’t a clue what you can actually offer me, after – what? 5 seconds, maybe an optimistic 10 – and I just don’t ‘get it’, I’ll move on to somewhere else. Maybe they’ll have more luck, or better judgement regarding what’s important to the visitor.

I am of course taking B2B websites, homepages to be exact. I’ve been looking at a few of these recently in my marketing job search, and many are surprisingly and shockingly poor at making the singular and incisive point, of what they do. Of course each organisation is a lovely, customer focused and vibrant entity, with wholly engaged and switched on team, a great place to work. But – shock, horror – so is everywhere else (as far as website truths go anyway) and now I’ve got past the hero image (stock, smiley / earnest people in meeting maybe) and I STILL don’t know what you offer the world.

So, let’s be a bit braver and turn it all upside down. Find the hook in the message, those few words that explain what you do for your customers, maybe building to a teeny bit of how. Assure the visitor that they’re in the right place to address their interest, or pain. Screenshots or pithy testimonial quotes aren’t banned from the top fold, especially if that taste of the product lets prospects see what’s in it for them. From there, you can take the visitor on the unique journey of your company, flavoured with relevance and loveliness.

Look at your online experience from the outsider’s point of view. Just don’t waste that hard-earned visit, and blow it too soon 😉

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Storytelling: It’s the future! But we aren’t all Hans Christian Andersen.

Posted on October 28, 2024 by Ann James

Once upon a time, storytelling became the bright new thing in B2B. What wasn’t to like about adding the human touch to our soulless marketing output? It was time to break free of feature, function, benefit comparison tables and create engaging content that played to the emotions and valued outcomes of the people we wanted to choose us (yes, B2B Decision Makers are actually people too!). Hell, marketers even added storytelling to their CVs, they were so convinced of its importance.

But then marketers actually tried it, the storytelling thing, in a B2B context, and big, bad reality started to hit – it wasn’t as easy as it sounds. Getting buy-in from product teams, selling the idea to the big bosses, drafting briefs for wordsmiths and designers, trying to explain the metrics of conversion from soft touches. It wasn’t just about engaging formats – video, carousels, or shock, horror, corporate TikTok… To work, storytelling actually needed a volume of compelling content in a structure that brought to life the point to be made, meaningful to the right people in a way they would ‘get it’.

And so it faded away a bit and marketing found a new shiny thing to focus on (Hello, AI!). But the term is still knocking around and what’s more, it’s still focused on a worthwhile goal, that of getting under the skin of prospects. What do we do with an old idea? As all good marketers do, we give it a tweak and repurpose – and discover we’ve been working towards storytelling for a while after all. We didn’t know it but we’ve been writing the all important Introduction all along, creating the storyline from which any manner of sequels and chapters can spin.

How? By deploying that much under-estimated concept, the Use Case. If a good Use Case doesn’t tell a story, I don’t know what does. It’s a short story, for sure, but there’s nothing wrong with snackable content. By its nature, your Use Case adds context, a bit of drama. Has a hero / heroine and maybe even a villain. If storytelling is the best way to weave a message into a prospect’s mind, then the Use Case provides your opening chapter. More power to the Use Case I say, there’s no better way to show what your product can do than by showing what your product has done to the benefit of a customer in a scenario that brought it to life.

Did they all live happily ever after? I think there’s more to explore on this topic – watch this space!

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Beware the social echo chamber

Posted on October 28, 2024 by Ann James

Oooh that post got 1234 likes! and 567 shares! Put it in the reporting, make sure the bosses know!
It’s an easy ‘win’ on paper to count likes, shares and comments – they’re a positive affirmation you’re doing something right after all – so yes, it’s a metric.

But this is marketing and nothing is that straightforward, so by all means give yourself a pat on the back, but don’t be too distracted from pursuing the end goal (the sale, if I need to remind you). One big fat red herring on social metrics is the ‘who’ – Linkedin is a professional network by definition, and alot of your network will be your peers – not your customers. If your company has a ‘like and share’ practice for its employees, it’s easy enough to ramp up the reactions, just don’t get too carried away seeing them as proof of a successful message.

Taking a reality check on the ‘echo chamber’ effect is worthwhile – a customer or prospect reaction is harder won and has alot more worth than that of the rest of the marketing team. Whether you can spot those and track their engagement in a scored journey is probably out of your hands, with the martech team – just don’t let the echo (echo, echo) distract you from mapping out the next nurture step on the way to the all-important sale.

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On Being Bold.

Posted on October 13, 2024 by Ann James

Just imagine a world where every marketing campaign is a carbon copy of its predecessor. Where brands blend into a sea of sameness, offering little to differentiate themselves. In today’s AI-happy, digital landscape, standing out demands boldness.

I’ll start with what isn’t being bold. More of the same. Ramping up spend on your LinkedIn always-on campaign. Sending more emails, to the same people but with slightly different offers. Taking the same space at an event because you always do.

Same, same, it’s safe and the outcomes are fairly predictable, but they’ll probably also tail off without a significant refresh. Or a splash of the bold.

What’s being bold then, and how might it create a ripple effect, nudging your outcomes towards that much needed boost?

Well, let’s look at one situation, the trade show with a smart, corporate booth backdrop, clinically approved messaging and some nice enough swag that might just make it home. Nothing bold about that, and safe enough, with nothing really to go wrong either (except if no traffic wanders by, your pre-show activity not whetting the appetite to find out more). Does it give your offer a chance to really shine in the face of competitors though? So, how about joining the innovation showcase then, a few $k more spend for what? The opportunity to hone a pitch with incisive messaging explaining your fit with this space, demonstrable benefits and proving you understand your prospects’ needs. Sure, it’s a one off – 10 mins, hit or miss, since no-one might show up – or is it? Maybe by merely positioning yourself as innovative, by getting on that agenda listing, you’re raising an eyebrow with prospects who just didn’t consider you to be any different from all the others. And maybe they can’t all make that 10 min presentation slot, and aren’t committed enough yet to sit down at the hosted dinner on offer, but they saw your booth the next day and were interested enough to find out more, or search for your blog posts or follow you on LinkedIn. Boldness is acting differently and maybe, just by doing something a bit unexpected you can unleash a thread which finds new ways to new customers. Question the safe way and prepare for a new offensive.

The calculated risk is of course worthy of a lot of thought. Cap the spend to a reasonable amount in your context, consider what else you could do with it. What’s the risk if you do nothing? Will doing this thing help you hone and test messaging for a new, focused campaign? Measurement and metrics are always there to guide and assess; it might not be 100% the first time but you’ll know where it did get you, and you can always go back to more of the same.

Bold marketing isn’t for the faint of heart. There’s the fear of the unknown and it requires courage, creativity, and a willingness to take and stand by your calculated risks. But the rewards can be immense. By daring to be different, you can break through the noise, build stronger brand with your customers, and drive real pipeline growth. So, what are you waiting for? It’s time to be bold.

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Masterchef Lessons in Marketing… Content 3 ways, anyone?

Posted on April 30, 2024 by Ann James

And tonight, I’ll be serving courgette 3 ways – as ribbons in a warm salad; served whole, stuffed with a pistachio and sultana mousse; and with a courgette and honeycomb foam on the side. “Taking the finest, native ingredients and serving them creatively in all their finery – cooking doesn’t get better then this”, splutters Greg.

You get the idea, but it just made me smile. Courgette three ways. Content three ways. Isn’t that the basics reimagined, how to keep putting your point across, in the most ‘palatable’ of forms?

Blog, video snippet, infographic.

Webinar, listicle, ebook.

Q&A, survey, sub-topic blog.

You get the idea. Pick your three, then another combination and pick them again. Don’t get bored and move on too quickly, your prospects probably haven’t even noticed your efforts yet. Once just isn’t enough: creative repurposing is the chef’s, um, marketer’s friend.

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