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Articles by Tom Swanson
Improving Accountability in Marketing Teams
By: Tom Swanson, Senior Engagement Manager at Heinz Marketing “There is no accountability” is the single most common complaint I hear when working with teams struggling with structure. Most of the time, I agree. When something goes wrong in the workflow, it is often unclear where the break was, exactly. Creative blames review timelines, reviewers blame the strategy being unclear, strategists blame the tactical teams, and on it goes. If you want to get more familiar with Marketing Orchestration.
How to Prioritize AI Use Cases in B2B Marketing
Summary Use a 3-part framework to evaluate use cases for AI in B2B marketing, and then prioritize based on where they fall in that spectrum. The 3 areas to review are leverage (how often are these tasks repeated), risk (what happens if things go wrong), and chainability (how does this fit into a workflow). By Tom Swanson, Senior Engagement Manager at Heinz Marketing Last month I wrote about using SWOTs to identify use cases for AI in B2B marketing workflows.
Dust Off the SWOT: How to Choose the Right AI Marketing Use Cases.
Summary AI integration is hard not because of what AI can do, but because of choosing where to start. The fix is boundaries, and the tool is an AI-adapted SWOT: Strengths and Weaknesses surface internal use cases (enhancing a strength is usually the faster win), while Opportunities and Threats handle timing and the disruptions that derail adoption. Two client examples ground it. The takeaway: set your own boundaries, involve leadership, and plan the changes.
Can AI content break through?
Summary The keys to effective use of AI in content development are: spend the time to develop your positioning, feed your docs and data to the machine, work on your brand voice, and give it a recursive learning loop so it can learn from each post. By Tom Swanson, Senior Engagement Manager at Heinz Marketing Recently I was talking to a past client about how he is using AI to generate content and the big question I had was: does it work?
B2B marketing lessons from real AI implementations
Summary B2B marketers are figuring out how to use AI. New solutions for old use-cases come up every day. This post goes through a handful of different use-cases we have seen with real implementations. We cover using AI for data enrichment, chunking knowledgebases, and delivering quality over quantity. By Tom Swanson, Senior Engagement Manager at Heinz Marketing There are plenty of resources about use cases and how to set up and use AI.
How to Make the Most of AI Adoption in B2B Marketing
Summary Don't let AI just become a tool to do faster work. Invest the saved time in fundamentals and team alignment. Here are 4 areas most teams struggle with that you could invest the time into: Better targeting. This is the core. Stronger alignment between marketing and sales. Talk to your customers. Metrics, attribution, and pipeline visibility.
Improving Your Marketing Workflow the Right Way
Summary If you want to improve your marketing workflows the right way, focus on mapping out and solving problems sequentially from the beginning of the workflow. Look to where you have the fewest assumptions about what problems are occurring and why. Most of the time, downstream problems are just cascading issues stemming from a source earlier in the workflow.
Using AI to support change management in marketing orchestration
Summary TLDR: for any change you should have a change management plan. If you can't (or won't) hire a change manager to handle it, AI can be helpful. These are some practical tips for how to use these new tools to develop a workable change management plan. Not my recommended approach, but better than nothing.
Improving Agent Adoption With A Front End
Summary Accessibility can improve adoption of AI agents, and a great way to make agents more accessible is to embed them into an application front-end. This brings everything into one place and can define how and when they should be used. Smart workflow design can make them easier and more intuitive. There are a few other considerations such as security and total cost of ownership. I also go over a bit of the infrastructure.
How to Improve Marketing Docs for LLMs
Summary 5 simple, pragmatic steps to improve outcomes when using LLMs (both directly and through agents) 1. Use the LLM to draft a prompt based on your documentation to see what is needed/solve issues with prompts. 2. Update naming conventions to include purpose, audience, version, and date. 3. Deprecate old versions in live knowledge bases. 4. Include negative examples. 5. Summarize important docs.
CLG Metrics: Red Flags and Questions to Ask
Summary Marketing needs to be cognizant of the impact it can have on customer relationships. In particular, while we are focused on driving expansion, we should also be careful of not overwhelming or otherwise damaging these relationships. Here are some flags to look out for and questions to ask. By Tom Swanson: Senior Engagement Manager, Heinz Marketing Sometimes it is more important to track what doesn’t work than what does. Customer marketing is one of these areas, at least in my opinion.
B2B Reads: Agents, Data, Change Management, and Marketing
Summary Some of our favorite B2B sales and marketing posts from around the web this past week. Every Saturday morning we share some of our favorite B2B sales and marketing posts from around the web 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. This particular post is more about AI than B2B marketing, but consider it cross-training.
Using AI to "Talk To" Your Customer Data
Summary Explore this journey with AI tools, particularly custom GPTs and agents, to improve customer-led growth (CLG) marketing. I walk through the evolution from using basic ChatGPT+ for campaign development to experimenting with more advanced, agent-based solutions that integrate live data via APIs, highlighting their potential to democratize data analysis and drive more effective, personalized marketing strategies.
Lessons from Structuring GPTs for Customer-Led Growth
Summary Here is a quick look at the lessons (also, conveniently matches the section headers), Give it mixed data sets Use the GPT to self-troubleshoot Don't have it make decks Be specific in defining how it should use your templates Give it good supporting information By: Tom Swanson, Senior Engagement Manager If you read our B2B Reads, then you know I have been digging into custom GPT-building for some of our internal operations.
Structuring Project Management in a Marketing Team
Summary Project managers are crucial to well orchestrated B2B marketing teams. I offer insight on 4 structural PM needs that must be in place to maximize success: impact on accountability, boundaries, power over the process, and reporting to marketing operations. Then I give some advice on how to manage a change in this direction.
B2B Reads: AI Prompts and Addiction, Growth Tactics, LLM SEO, and More
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 and marketing posts from around the web 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. B2B Marketing Prompt Library by Andy Crestodina The always excellent Andy Crestodina presents his work on a prompt library.
B2B Marketing FAQ: Metrics and Measurement
Summary Below are the most common questions we get about B2B marketing metrics and measurement from our clients, partners, and other leaders. While there are few 100%, always right answers in marketing, we have included the insights we have gleaned from hundreds of projects. By: Tom Swanson, Senior Engagement Manager at Heinz Marketing Throughout our work, we get plenty of questions about metrics. This is a challenging spot for many B2B leaders and contributors.
5 Common CMO Questions About GTM Orchestration
Summary We go over 5 questions and their short (and long) answers. The questions are: 1. Are we over-engineering this? 2. How long does it take to get to a usable workflow? 3. How do we ensure adoption? 4. What are the most common missing pieces? 5. How will we know if it works? By: Tom Swanson, Senior Engagement Manager at Heinz Marketing Marketing is not generally known for consistency. It is a philosophical struggle for me, and I grapple with it on a daily basis.
The Tariff Effect: Strategies for SaaS Marketers in Budget-Conscious Industries
The latest wave of tariffs, especially those impacting manufacturing, logistics, and energy industries, has created ripple effects that extend far beyond physical goods. B2B SaaS and IT companies may not face direct price hikes on their services, but their customers in affected sectors certainly do — and that can drastically reshape buying behavior.
Predictable Pipeline Benchmarking: Sales Processes Lack Structure, Even with Adequate Resources
Summary Throwing more tools and resources at your sales team won’t fix your pipeline problems—it might even make them worse. The real key to predictable revenue? A structured sales process that ensures adoption, efficiency, and real results. Here’s how to bridge the gap. By Win Dean-Salyards, Senior Marketing Consultant at Heinz Marketing When we enter a new client company, we establish our baseline using the Predictable Pipeline Maturity Model.
Predictable Pipeline Benchmarking: ABM Execution Suffers from Misalignment
Summary Four tips to improve cross-functional alignment for teams doing ABM: 1. Make it its own motion. 2. Develop a prioritization model and stick with it. 3. Standardize your intake scenarios 4. Structure cross-functional touchpoints By: Tom Swanson, Senior Engagement Manager, Heinz Marketing Everyone wants to bring in bigger deals. While not for every single company, the vast majority of the folks we work with are at least somewhat interested in ABM.
Optimizing ABM: Cross-Team Alignment
Summary Four tips to improve cross-functional alignment for teams doing ABM: 1. Make it its own motion. 2. Develop a prioritization model and stick with it. 3. Standardize your intake scenarios 4. Structure cross-functional touchpoints By: Tom Swanson, Senior Engagement Manager, Heinz Marketing Everyone wants to bring in bigger deals. While not for every single company, the vast majority of the folks we work with are at least somewhat interested in ABM.
RACI vs. DACI 2: Deciding on Accountability
Summary When deciding between RACI and DACI models, consider accountability and how it is assigned. When accountability needs to change from step to step in a workflow, RACI is preferable. When it needs to be consistent throughout, DACI is preferable. Below I walk through how accountability should be assigned for different situations. By Tom Swanson, Senior Engagement Manager at Heinz Marketing Recently, I had another opportunity to engage with DACI as a tool.
Streamlining Go-to-Market Execution: Project Management Tools for B2B Marketing Teams
Summary Go-to-market (GTM) orchestration requires seamless collaboration, clear timelines, and precise execution, but without the right tools, even the best plans can falter. Project management tools help B2B marketing teams stay aligned, streamline workflows, and execute GTM strategies with confidence. In this blog, we’ll explore what to look for in a GTM-friendly tool and highlight top platforms to boost your team’s efficiency.
Recognizing the Signs: When Your Organization Needs Marketing Orchestration
Summary Marketing orchestration is a strategic approach that synchronizes marketing activities across channels, platforms, and teams to create a cohesive customer experience. It helps organizations improve efficiency, align teams, and deliver personalized messaging, ultimately driving higher conversion rates and customer satisfaction. Signs that a business needs marketing orchestration include siloed teams, fragmented customer data, and declining engagement.
DACI vs. RACI: Challenges in Implementation
Summary Are you struggling to determine whether DACI or RACI is the right model for your organization’s efforts? This blog dives into the challenges our clients have faced when implementing these models, helping you understand where each excels and where they might fall short. If you're looking to clarify roles and streamline decision-making in your projects, this blog will help you match your unique challenges to the right model.
Maximizing B2B Event ROI: How to Create a Clear Event Strategy RACI
Summary Building a clear event strategy RACI is crucial for streamlining roles, improving collaboration, and ensuring smooth execution. Here’s how to create and implement a RACI to maximize your team’s efficiency and drive success at your next B2B event. By Brittany Lieu, Marketing Consultant at Heinz Marketing You’ve spent months planning your next big event—aligning teams, targeting high-value prospects, and preparing to drive real ROI.
The COO’s Role in Enabling Revenue Growth
Summary This post offers actionable strategies for COOs to drive sustainable growth by aligning sales, marketing, customer success, and product teams. Readers will learn how a unified Revenue Growth strategy fosters collaboration, data-driven decisions, and customer-centric outcomes, leading to long-term success across go-to-market functions. By Maria Geokezas, Chief Operating Officer at Heinz Marketing For many organizations today, sustainable growth is the new goal.
AI Tasks and Tools for SDR Success
Summary Discover the top AI tools and tasks transforming the SDR role. Learn how to automate prospecting, outreach, lead scoring, and more to boost efficiency and drive better results. By Sarah Threet, Marketing Consultant at Heinz Marketing In a fast-paced sales environment, Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) face the constant challenge of balancing high-volume outreach with personalized engagement.
Using ChatGPT for marketing Mixed Methods Analysis
Summary In this video, I will walk through how to use ChatGPT to conduct easy qualitative and mixed methods data analysis. Stop missing out on all of the context available in your qualitative data fields. There is a gold mine of information there, and now you can analyze it at scale. By Tom Swanson, Engagement Manager at Heinz Marketing Marketers love quantifying things, but what about the qualitative data? Things got a lot easier to analyze when GenAI came onto the scene.
The Competitive Edge in B2B Profitability? A Joyful Workplace
Summary B2B companies often focus on productivity and profit, but incorporating joy into workplace culture can boost employee engagement, creativity, and overall business success. Joyful employees are healthier, more motivated, and contribute to better customer experiences and lower turnover, ultimately driving higher profitability.
CLG Logistics: Practical Tips for Precision Campaigns
Summary Highly targeted marketing and sales campaigns benefit from strong logistics. We have organized these practical tips into 5 sections: 1. Doing strong account research 2. Overcoming localization challenges 3. Building a modular process 4. Executing in waves 5. Avoiding overcomplication Read more below for specific tips. By Tom Swanson, Engagement Manager at Heinz Marketing We often think of “Spearfishing” as largely for net-new logos.
Harnessing AI: Heinz Marketing's Values-Driven Approach
Summary This article provides practical insights into how a values-driven approach can effectively guide the implementation of AI technologies. Readers will gain an understanding of how AI can enhance productivity, creativity, and strategic decision-making in B2B marketing, while also appreciating the importance of maintaining human oversight and adaptability.
Principles for Managing AI-Related Change
Summary The key values for effectively managing change are Clarity, Consistency, and Empathy. When it comes to any change, plans will only get you so far. When those run out, you have to rely on values and principles to guide you. If you can apply the simple principles listed below, you will have more success in not just integrating AI, but in any change. By Tom Swanson Engagement Manager at Heinz Marketing Let’s get straight to the point: there is no one-size-fits-all approach to integrating AI.
De-Siloing GTM Teams for Customer-Led Growth
Summary If you are struggling to activate a customer-led growth motion, among the first things you should examine is your misaligned objectives and incentive structure. How do core business objectives make it out to the teams? Are they targeting the right metrics? Do incentives apply to one team only or are they held across GTM teams? By Tom Swanson, Engagement Manager at Heinz Marketing CLG (customer-led growth for the unaware) is another entry in the X-Led Growth trend.
Marketing Orchestration vs Marketing Operations
Summary Two critical components that drive marketing success are “marketing orchestration” and “marketing operations”. Though often used interchangeably, these terms have distinct roles and functions within an organization. This blog aims to clarify the differences, similarities, components, and importance of marketing orchestration and marketing operations.
Navigating Regulatory Compliance: Lessons from Coca-Cola
Summary Coca-Cola's introduction of attached bottle caps in response to the EU's Single-Use Plastics Directive highlights the challenges of balancing regulatory compliance with customer satisfaction. CMOs can learn from this experience by prioritizing user-friendly innovations, integrating customer feedback, and effectively communicating changes to enhance brand loyalty while meeting regulatory requirements.
The Essential Role of Intranet Management in Marketing Orchestration
Summary Effective intranet management is crucial for enhancing marketing orchestration and operational excellence. Without a well-organized intranet, marketing teams can struggle with productivity and workflow inefficiencies. Discover how standardizing your intranet practices can transform your team's operations and lay the foundation for scalable success.
Marketing Orchestration Fails Without Communication
Summary Dive into this post to learn actionable ways to implement communication processes to strengthen your Marketing Orchestration. By Brenna Lofquist, Client Services Operations Manager at Heinz Marketing Everyone has heard variations of “communication is key” throughout their lives, but we’re going to talk about it again. Communication is one of, if not the most, important aspect of a successful Marketing Orchestration strategy.
Beyond Acquisition: 7 Ways B2B Marketers Can Lift Customer Retention and Lifetime Value
Summary The article discusses the vital role marketing plays not only in customer acquisition but also in customer retention and increasing lifetime value. It emphasizes the need for businesses to shift their focus from solely acquiring new customers to nurturing existing ones. B2B marketers can apply these seven steps to create a customer experience that grows loyal customers and profitable customer relationships.
Can ChatGPT Optimize a Marketing Orchestration Workflow?
Summary While it struggles to create a marketing orchestration workflow, ChatGPT can be very helpful at finding optimizations. We cover what qualitative data to use, how to clean it, and how to get the best results out of ChatGPT. Enjoy! By Tom Swanson, Engagement Manager at Heinz Marketing Last time we found out that ChatGPT struggles to make a visualized workflow. Today we are digging into whether or not ChatGPT can optimize a workflow based on qualitative data.
A Curious and Terrified Marketer’s Start to AI and Predictive Analytics – Pt 2 | Heinz Marketing
Summary Continued from their previous blog, a marketing consultant novice to AI, experiments with a machine learning platform's free trial to see if performing predictive analytics is as easy in application for new users as it sounds in theory. By Sarah Threet, Marketing Consultant at Heinz Marketing In my previous blog, I shared how I wanted to begin to demystify AI for myself by looking into how it can be used for predictive analytics.
Can AI streamline accountability structures? Part 2
Summary This post walks you through part 2 of an exercise of using AI to create an accountability structure (aka RACI). I'll share the prompts I used, how I adjusted them to better fit what I wanted, and my takeaways from the experiment. By Brenna Lofquist, Senior Marketing Consultant / Client Services Operations at Heinz Marketing In my post last month, Can AI streamline accountability structures?, I went through an exercise where I provided ChatGPT information to see if it could create a RACI.
Using AI for Content Creation: From Research to Writing and Beyond
Summary Discover the transformative power of AI beyond average results in content creation. Unveil expert insights from Andy Crestodina in our webinar breakdown, and learn how to train AI effectively, brainstorm compelling topics, and craft strategic content missions for unparalleled engagement. By Brittany Lieu, Marketing Consultant at Heinz Marketing If you feel like ChatGPT is spitting out subpar results, I hate to say it, but you’re using AI the lazy way.
Using AI for Content Creation: From Research to Writing and Beyond
Summary Discover the transformative power of AI beyond average results in content creation. Unveil expert insights from Andy Crestodina in our webinar breakdown, and learn how to train AI effectively, brainstorm compelling topics, and craft strategic content missions for unparalleled engagement. By Brittany Lieu, Marketing Consultant at Heinz Marketing If you feel like ChatGPT is spitting out subpar results, I hate to say it, but you’re using AI the lazy way.
Can AI streamline accountability structures?
Summary This post walks you through an exercise of using AI to create an accountability structure (aka RACI). I'll share the prompts I used, how I adjusted them to better fit what I wanted, and my takeaways from the experiment. By Brenna Lofquist, Senior Marketing Consultant / Client Services Operations at Heinz Marketing I wanted to see if, when provided a set of steps with assigned owners, ChatGPT could create a RACI so I tried it out. The simple answer is yes but it’s incomplete.
A Curious and Terrified Marketer’s Start to AI and Predictive Analytics
Summary One marketer's journey into machine learning and predictive analytics. This blog explores various techniques within predictive analytics highlighting their relevance in marketing. Follow a journey that demystifies the process of executing a propensity model with AI tools, discussing steps from choosing an AI platform to model deployment, emphasizing the accessibility of predictive analytics tools for marketers without extensive statistical knowledge.
Can ChatGPT make a marketing workflow?
Summary ChatGPT is a powerful tool, but can it make a workflow? Sorta. The tool is great for a start, but struggles to visualize and work in partnership on a project like this. See below for prompts, diagrams, and some funny responses. By Tom Swanson, Engagement Manager Can ChatGPT make a marketing workflow? To not bury the lead, the answer is: sorta. As with almost everything in the world it depends on what you seek.
Fundamentals of Marketing Orchestration
Summary Discover B2B marketing success with Marketing Orchestration fundamentals. Explore strategic alignment and processes, defined roles, efficient project management tools, and effective communication. By Karla Sanders, Engagement Manager at Heinz Marketing Do you have strategic alignment and processes dialed in? defined roles? efficient project management tools? How about effective communication? These are the fundamentals of Marketing Orchestration.
Take Action Against Collaboration Drag
Summary This article addresses "collaboration drag," a major revenue challenge for marketing and sales leaders and offers a three-part action plan—Fix the Foundation, Build Cross-Functional Systems, and Foster a Culture of Innovation. By tackling both systemic issues and individual mindsets, organizations can foster a collaborative environment, enhancing work quality and team relationships.
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