3 Launch Lessons from 36 Q1 Launches at The Alliance

OK I am sharing this 1 b/c the image is so funny (and so are the comments). Apparently all marketers are magicians with 32 tabs open on a computer they never shut down. But also 2 for item 3 on the list below. I feel like when I say to someone we need different content and messaging based on stage they get it. When I say we have to layer across multiple channels they get it. When I say we have to outreach to all leads within 24-48 hours or the conversion starts dropping fast they think I am full of it. What's one more day? Well apparently, the difference between 2 days and 3 days is 57%. Time to follow up isn't a joke. When you have a good convo at a conference, you should connect on LI right then. When they accept, you should send a note ASAP. After an event, you should be reaching out within 24-48 hours to try to book a meeting. After each meeting you should be reaching out within a couple hours with next steps. You don't have an unlimited amount of time to move the needle. Speed to contact matters and apparently now I have more proof :)

As a marketer, a strategic thinker and often an over analyzer, this hit home. We e have to push the boundaries and shift the trajectory of what we want to achieve and how do we reshape the narrative of what we want to achieve and successfully so, within a defined time, effectively, cleverly and with the most thought provoking ways. Instead of being marketing as the support function, be marketing that leads the business, segment and channels.

“Bad marketing will kill your company...and when your company dies, and you create a new one, bad marketing will kill that one too" ~Unknown I have an antidote for this company killer 👇 First off, there are no shortcuts in marketing, and no 'hacks' that you can master on LinkedIn in 4 easy steps. Marketing done right makes selling superfluous, but requires uncommon dedication and patience. 'Patience' being the 5th 'P' in the Kotler marketing '4 P's' 😉 As Peter Drucker famously stated: "The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself." What to do? What to do? I have been the Head of Marketing for a number of deep-tech B2B startups and emerging companies over the past couple of decades. As a 'strategic marketer', I’m a huge fan of account based marketing (ABM). It's actually not a new thing; ABM has been around for a generation. I just happened to be a VERY early adopter. That said, it's not necessarily for everyone as the lifting can be heavy. 👏 On the one hand, it will greatly reduce the number of accounts you should put your effort into...if done right 🎯 However, for any marketer who is myopically performance reviewed by a CEO or CFO who insists on having an inordinate number of marketing qualified leads (MQL's), this ain't for you. Let's hear it for f-o-c-u-s! You DO need enough high-value target accounts to make ABM worthwhile. That's where the rubber hits the road. The good news is that you may have some early market traction that can help you characterize your 'ideal customer profile' (ICP). Determining this can be genuinely time consuming and is part AI, part judgement, part software like 6Sense, part experience. Better, and easier yet, if you've managed to acquire a 'lead user'. 🤓 By definition, a 'lead user' is typically visionary (top 2.5%), and faces "needs that will become general in a marketplace, but face them months or years before the bulk of that marketplace encounters them". They are positioned to benefit significantly from obtaining your company's solution to those needs early. In other words, they 'early adopt' your company 🤝 It's also when you can quickly determine if you really do have a differentiated value proposition, and a minimum viable market worth going after. Once again, let's hear it for f-o-c-u-s! Ok, after the ecstasy, now the laundry... Once you’ve selected your target accounts, ABM takes a fair amount of time, effort, and coordination. Researching the right targets is not only time consuming, but, it can take you down a lot of frustrating dead ends. However, it you do it right, be patient, have trust in the process, and expend some targeted marketing $'s into it, it can lead to your best marketing ROI. Do it right and your crossing the chasm will be less perilous.

Paid search. LinkedIn. Events. Email. Most marketing teams can list the channels in their mix. Fewer can explain why each one deserves to be there. The right mix should come from a different set of questions: where does the buyer actually pay attention, what stage of the journey are you trying to influence, and where can your budget compete effectively? That usually leads to a more focused mix. Not necessarily a broader one. Dan Enrico, VP of Strategy at DSM, lays out the framework senior marketing leaders should use to make those decisions: https://lnkd.in/ee6uMjT5 #B2BMarketing #MarketingStrategy #ChannelStrategy #DemandGeneration #MarketingLeadership

B2B Marketing Leaders Struggle to Prove Business Impact: 10Fold A recent 10Fold report finds marketers are expanding how they measure public relations, content, social, digital and AI visibility programs, but many still lack the integrated reporting and connections to business systems needed to prove business impact for the CEO and board of directors, #Marketing #DigitalMarketing #ContentMarketing #SocialMediaMarketing #MarketingStrategy #Branding #OnlineMarketing #MarketingTips #MarketingGoals #MarketingTools #SEO #Advertising #MarketingCampaign #EmailMarketing #MarketingPlan #MarketingIdeas #MarketingTrends #GrowthMarketing #PerformanceMarketing #InboundMarketing #LeadGeneration #B2BMarketing #MarketingAgency #ContentCreation https://lnkd.in/dz--BMdH

B2B Marketing Leaders Struggle to Prove Business Impact: 10Fold A recent 10Fold report finds marketers are expanding how they measure public relations, content, social, digital and AI visibility programs, but many still lack the integrated reporting and connections to business systems needed to prove business impact for the CEO and board of directors, #Marketing #DigitalMarketing #ContentMarketing #SocialMediaMarketing #MarketingStrategy #Branding #OnlineMarketing #MarketingTips #MarketingGoals #MarketingTools #SEO #Advertising #MarketingCampaign #EmailMarketing #MarketingPlan #MarketingIdeas #MarketingTrends #GrowthMarketing #PerformanceMarketing #InboundMarketing #LeadGeneration #B2BMarketing #MarketingAgency #ContentCreation https://lnkd.in/dz--BMdH

More visibility doesn’t automatically translate into more revenue. Increases in social media engagement or email open rates feel encouraging, but those metrics don’t create demand on their own. When marketing success is measured by activity alone, it's easy to lose sight of what the business is actually trying to achieve. Our latest blog looks at why marketing and revenue often become disconnected, and how businesses can refocus from activity to commercial outcomes that drive growth. Read the blog: https://lnkd.in/ekEVP-zB #marketingadvice #businessadvice #revenue #leadgeneration

📈 The Marketing Funnel: From Brand Awareness to Customer Advocacy Effective digital marketing isn't just about attracting traffic or generating leads. Its about guiding potential customers through a structured journey that builds trust, drives conversions, and creates long-term loyalty. Understanding the Marketing Funnel helps businesses deliver the right message to the right audience at every stage of the customer journey. Here are the five essential stages: 🔹 1. Awareness — Get Noticed Use online advertising, social media marketing, and SEO to increase brand visibility and attract potential customers. 🔹 2. Engagement — Build Relationships Keep your audience interested through valuable social media posts, optimized websites, blog articles, and educational content. 🔹 3. Conversion — Turn Interest into Action Convert engaged visitors into leads and prospects with effective lead magnets, optimized landing pages, and compelling sales offers. 🔹 4. Loyalty — Keep Customers Coming Back Strengthen customer relationships through personalized email marketing, loyalty programs, excellent customer service, and ongoing support. 🔹 5. Advocacy — Turn Customers into Promoters Encourage satisfied customers to recommend your brand, share positive experiences, and become advocates for your business. 🎯 Why Does the Marketing Funnel Matter? A well-planned marketing funnel helps businesses: ✅ Attract the right audience ✅ Improve engagement and lead generation ✅ Increase conversion rates ✅ Strengthen customer retention ✅ Generate referrals and build brand trust 💡 My key takeaway: Successful marketing doesnt stop at the first sale. Sustainable growth comes from nurturing relationships and turning satisfied customers into loyal brand advocates. 💬 Discussion Question: Which stage of the marketing funnel deserves more attention from businesses today: awareness, conversion, or customer loyalty? Lets connect and share ideas! 🤝 #DigitalMarketing #MarketingStrategy #MarketingFunnel #SocialMediaMarketing #LeadGeneration #CustomerRetention #SEO #BusinessGrowth

Marketing leaders, do you know which of your 2026 lead gen activities gave you the best ROI? I read somewhere the other day that attribution at scale has become incredibly hard, and that pipeline attribution the way we thought of it (and planned for it) 5-10 years ago has largely been proven to be (at worst) impossible or (at best) unreliable. Whether or not that is also your experience is beside the point. At the end of the day (or year, as it were) we need to show a solid ROI and demonstrate what our marketing budget has achieved and contributed. And in economically pressured times like these, vanity metrics don't get us very far. So the focus changes to be on logical planning and demonstrable metrics. Why? Because they're justifiable and explainable. 👀 Imagine a quadrant matrix: Low Cost to High Cost, and Low Lead Quality to High Lead Quality. So you end up with: 🟠 Low Cost / Low Lead Quality 🟠 High Cost / High Lead Quality ❌ High Cost / Low Lead Quality ✅ Low Cost / High Lead Quality I think we can all agree on two things: 1. We probably have a mix of all four in our budget/acitivities 2. "Low Cost / High Lead Quality" is possibly the most elusive but also most desirable combo This points towards a need for a strategically considered approach. Think of the range of your lead gen activities like an investment portfolio. You will want diversification, but you also need a strategic core investment that is consistent, productive, and provides compounding gains. For many Enterprise organisations, webinars provide this strategic core investment. Scale (of audience, pipeline etc) doesn't have to come from scaled (i.e. increased) promotional investment. The smarter move is to reduce cost-per-lead while simultaneously improving lead quality. ✅ Now is the time of year for planning and budget allocation for the new FY. I have written an article that will help you dive deeper into the 👉 Cost-Quality Framework in B2B Marketing ROI 👈 (link in comments 👇). Read it, use it, share it. You have 2 months until the end of the year. Time to think about how your webinars are either going to be your *new* major contributor OR your *most improved* major contributor to marketing ROI in 2027.

Before you spend more on marketing this week, ask yourself one question: Do you have a marketing problem, or are you simply investing in the wrong priorities? I've seen a common pattern in how businesses approach growth. When sales slow down, they want more leads. When engagement drops, they want more content. When conversions decline, they want more traffic. And when the numbers don't improve, they consider increasing the budget. But what if the real problem isn't the amount of marketing you're doing? What if it's the strategy behind it? Consider this: → More traffic won't necessarily help if you're attracting the wrong audience. → More leads won't necessarily increase revenue if your follow-up process is weak. → More content won't necessarily build trust if your message doesn't address your customers' real concerns. → More automation won't necessarily improve results if the underlying process is ineffective. → More data won't necessarily lead to better decisions if you don't know what to measure or how to interpret it. This is why I believe effective digital marketing starts with diagnosis, not execution. Before launching another campaign, I want to understand five things: 1. The audience: Are we reaching the people most likely to need the offer? 2. The positioning: Is the value clear enough to give people a reason to choose the business? 3. The customer journey: What happens between the first interaction and the buying decision? 4. The follow-up: Are interested prospects being nurtured, or are opportunities being overlooked? 5. The performance: Which activities are contributing to qualified leads and actual business outcomes? Once these questions are answered, decisions about SEO, content, lead generation, email marketing, CRM, and automation become much more purposeful. The objective isn't simply to do more marketing. It's to make every marketing activity serve a clear business objective. That's the difference between being busy with marketing and building a marketing system designed to support growth. As we begin a new week, I'd like to hear your perspective. Business owners: what's your biggest marketing challenge right now? A. Attracting the right audience B. Generating qualified leads C. Converting prospects into paying customers D. Following up and retaining customers Comment with A, B, C, or D—and, if you can, share what's making it challenging. I'd love to hear real experiences from business owners and fellow marketing professionals. #DigitalMarketing #MarketingStrategy #LeadGeneration #CustomerAcquisition #BusinessGrowth