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Articles by Eric Dates
Brand is the decision in B2B, and AI decides first
Get traffic data and keyword intel on competitors instantly. B2B marketing has always loved certainty. Clear value props. Clear differentiation. Clear “why us.” A neat list of features, benefits and proof points that make a buyer feel like they’re making a rational decision. But something is breaking underneath that framework. Software differentiation is collapsing. It’s easier, cheaper and faster than ever to build and ship software. Feature advantage now has a shorter half-life than ever.
When and how to segment your product messaging
Get traffic data and keyword intel on competitors instantly. Product messaging works when it creates recognition — when the reader thinks, “this is for me.” That moment sparks belief and begins to shape how they see your product in the context of their world. This is the desired outcome of effective marketing. The brain processes a familiar scenario faster than an abstract one. When a message mirrors the audience’s situation, belief takes less effort and occurs with less mental friction.
B2B buyers need a reason to believe, not a list of features
Get traffic data and keyword intel on competitors instantly. Most product marketers mistake explanation for persuasion. They open with features, as if the product’s function speaks for itself. But buyers don’t assign value to features in isolation. They mentally tie features to outcomes they care about and do it in a way that protects them from regret. In that sense, people don’t buy the “why” alone.
If your value prop sounds like everyone else’s, you’ve already lost
Get traffic data and keyword intel on competitors instantly. Many companies that think they have a marketing problem really have a clarity problem. They either: Don’t understand what makes their product matter. Or communicate it in a way that gets ignored. A value proposition isn’t a tagline or a headline. It’s a powerful reason. It’s your company’s case for why someone should become a customer, and it needs to stand up under pressure. But here’s the problem: most companies never pressure test it.
Why brand-owned communities are the future of growth
Get traffic data and keyword intel on competitors instantly. Companies spend years growing audiences on LinkedIn, Facebook, Slack and other platforms. They pour money into content, engage in endless algorithm games and try to carve out space in a crowded feed controlled by someone else. Then, the rules change and access disappears overnight. LinkedIn recently shut down company pages for two lead-gen providers, erasing their ability to instantly reach followers.
How to bulletproof your marketing pitches
Get traffic data and keyword intel on competitors instantly. Stop me if this sounds familiar. You craft a marketing strategy that checks all the boxes: Bold, data-driven and designed to actually achieve the crazy results the broader executive team wants. The team loves it. You can already see the impact it will have. You’re cheesin’ while you see it. Then you pitch it… And just like that, the highest-paid voice in the room dismisses it without a second thought. Not because it’s a bad idea.
Summary Some of our favorite B2B sales and marketing posts from around the web this week. Every Saturday morning we share some of our favorite B2B sales & marketing posts from around the web from the last week (so it’s fresh!). We’ll miss a ton of great stuff, so if you found something you think is worth sharing please let us know.
How the Salesforce Lead Object broke B2B marketing (and how to fix it)
Get traffic data and keyword intel on competitors instantly. B2B marketing and sales have long been at odds. Sales teams frequently criticize the quality of leads they receive, while marketers question sales’ ability to follow up effectively. At the heart of this frustration is a structural problem rooted in CRM systems. I personally think Salesforce, the most widely used CRM in B2B, is to blame for this disconnect.
Marketers discuss what it takes to succeed with intent data
Intent data comes in many flavors, including first-party and third-party data. It can help you optimize your content strategy and identify high-value prospects. But some of the vendors selling third-party intent data tend to over-promise on what it can do. Third-party intent data (like many types of data) can lack timeliness, accuracy and can misinterpret online activities as buying interest.
Why public relations is thriving in today’s global marketing mix
Get traffic data and keyword intel on competitors instantly. This article was co-authored with Ronen Shnidman, Head of Content at okoora. With digital marketing and social media taking center stage, it’s easy to assume traditional public relations (PR) is outdated. However, PR is thriving in today’s marketing landscape. Around the world, PR remains invaluable for shaping perceptions, building credibility and connecting brands with their audiences.
How behavioral economics can be the marketer’s secret weapon
In marketing, understanding what drives consumer behavior separates the strategic from the box-checkers. Behavioral economics, which combines insights from psychology and economics, provides the most valuable tools for marketers, second only to understanding the exact individuals they aspire to market to. By understanding how and why people make decisions, you can craft strategies that resonate deeply with their audience, leading to better engagement and increased conversions.
How behavioral economics can be the marketer’s secret weapon
Get traffic data and keyword intel on competitors instantly. In marketing, understanding what drives consumer behavior separates the strategic from the box-checkers. Behavioral economics, which combines insights from psychology and economics, provides the most valuable tools for marketers, second only to understanding the exact individuals they aspire to market to.
The failsafe approach to building strategic nurture paths
Get traffic data and keyword intel on competitors instantly. With intense pressure on marketing teams, capturing and retaining user attention is more competitive than ever. Many B2B marketers focus on generating leads for sales, but the real goal is to create strategic nurture paths that guide potential customers through discovery, trust-building and self-driven conversion.
The failsafe approach to building strategic nurture paths
With intense pressure on marketing teams, capturing and retaining user attention is more competitive than ever. Many B2B marketers focus on generating leads for sales, but the real goal is to create strategic nurture paths that guide potential customers through discovery, trust-building and self-driven conversion. While there are many ways to build a powerful nurturing campaign, everything we’ll unpack here is simply based on what makes the most sense when you put yourself in the end user’s shoes.
9 must-have tools for demand gen marketing
Get traffic data and keyword intel on competitors instantly. In B2B marketing, “demand generation” gets tossed around almost as much as “leads.” It is often defined through the activities that encourage individual prospects to turn into leads. As the world we sell in becomes more saturated and buyer journeys more complex, the right tools can significantly enhance the efficacy of your marketing efforts.
A scoring model your GTM team will fall in love with
Get traffic data and keyword intel on competitors instantly. Lead scoring is one of those things companies tend to spend far too much time on and often use improperly. This has led to the cynicism of sales and marketing teams when it comes to trusting the contacts for outreach-driven activities. Before we dive into the scoring model, let’s quickly agree on one core concept: leads are human beings. The traditional concept of a lead is broken due to many teams misusing the term.
3 proven ways to use ChatGPT to beef up your content strategy
Get traffic data and keyword intel on competitors instantly. ChatGPT has solidified its position within the marketing community, and the mass adoption proves it’s not going anywhere but up. While most view it as a way to generate new content, I look at it to help streamline and organize my own brainstorming — especially for enhancing my content strategies. Here’s how marketers like you can leverage ChatGPT and take your content strategy up a few notches without any additional investment.
How social listening can be a B2B content marketing goldmine
Get traffic data and keyword intel on competitors instantly. Most content strategies for B2B often rely on a subject matter expert or skilled writer to generate ideas, schedule content to satisfy the CMO and write based on perceived market demands. However, you must take the guesswork out of the equation to create relevant, high-performing content. Rather than rely solely on hypothesizing what an audience may want to read, savvy B2B marketers tap into social listening.
Redefining ‘leads’ in B2B: Why data enrichment is key for lead gen
Get traffic data and keyword intel on competitors instantly. Lead generation for B2B has undergone quite a transformation. Gone are the days when gating all content to meet quarterly MQL KPIs was effective. Today, digital platforms and data enrichment strategies are the status quo, reshaping how we identify, engage and nurture potential customers we’d like to have.
4 steps to turn a prospect into a loyal customer
Get traffic data and keyword intel on competitors instantly. In my last article, I explained four things you must do to win a prospect’s trust before you ever mention your product or service. Now, we will look at the four next steps that will help you convert them into a sale and how to grow the relationship once you’ve done that. Having proven your value to the customer(s), you now deepen the relationship with engaged prospects.
The 4 steps you must take before launching your product
Get traffic data and keyword intel on competitors instantly. This article outlines four steps essential to undertake at the start of your go-to-market effort before you even mention your product. They are the basis of a powerful GTM plan that builds unmatched market impact and unlimited revenue potential. There are two things to do before starting this process. Nail your value proposition.
MAG 2023: Advocacy is key to keeping up in the payments industry
A deep understanding of market trends and consumer behaviors in the payments realm is more vital than ever. Managers and leaders stand at the epicenter of this transformation, tasked with the dual responsibility of fostering innovation within their teams and guiding their organizations to adapt to these shifts with agility and foresight.
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