Icon-M3-AI-logo-tx

Dear Marketing Leaders, Use It or Lose It

As we near the end of 2017, many publicly-held companies will be examining budget usage against performance. At this time of year, Marketing leaders often become concerned that their unused budget will be pulled back to improve year-end financials – and not reallocated the following year. It’s “use it or lose it” time. Are there […]

The Story I’m Sticking To

Published on LinkedIn September 16, 2016 For years I’ve been drawing this “demand-gen engine” diagram on white boards across America’s FinTech companies. It always makes perfect sense to the viewers — they say, “Exactly, we should be doing that!” But I’ve rarely seen a company that does it all. Some are good at inbound content marketing, […]

Silos, Sticks and Carrots

Published on LinkedIn January 21, 2017 How many times have you heard the word “silos” at work? As in, “They’re in their own silo,” or “This company has too many silos.” If that’s a common term, mostly likely your company has grown through acquisition. Then the enterprise didn’t do a complete job of wresting control into […]

Personas Backwards and Forwards

Published on LinkedIn October 30, 2016 The longer I navigate large B2B companies, the more I observe the same marketing projects being kicked-off over and over again. New people come in looking for something to champion within that magical first ninety days. After identifying an area of opportunity – say a shortage of buyer personas – […]

The Marketing Automation Paradox

Published on LinkedIn June 11, 2016 In his recent MarketingProfs article, Andrew Davies describes the paradox of marketing automation.  On one hand, these systems allow Marketers to nurture prospects and clients through longer lifecycles and larger revenue streams.  On the other hand, he points out, marketing automation isn’t cheaper. It “means having to bring on more—not less—staff. […]

Distracted By Bright Shiny Objects

Published on LinkedIn April 15, 2016 This Adobe 2016 Digital Trends Infographic poses some interesting questions. Consider a few key data points from it: 90% of the 7k executives surveyed say Data-Driven Marketing is the top strategic priority for 2016 46% think Strategic Thinking is the key element of Marketing success, but only 37% see Data as the key 51% […]

Going “New-School” with Omnichannel Marketing

Published on LinkedIn March 4, 2016 Don’t miss this CMO.com Omnicommerce Article about the challenges Marketing leaders have faced in moving from “old-school” to modern marketing. Last century we Marketing types used multichannel tactics all at once to saturate a market – TV, radio, print, billboards, etc. Then, as digital and social media expanded the channel options, we worked to create consistent messaging […]

M-Commerce: Fact or Friction?

Published on LinkedIn on April 6, 2017 A recent article in Forbes, intended to help small-to-mid-sized merchants (SMBs) understand the potential of mobile payments (a.k.a. m-commerce), caught my attention with its preamble. The author wrote, “Many managers see the emergence of paying for goods and services via a mobile phone as a mere technological evolution…first […]

FinTech Companies Struggle For the Right Message To Market

Published on LinkedIn February 11, 2017 FinTech is tough – seems everybody wants a share of technology-enabled financial services. In the Atlanta metro-area alone, a 2016 report by the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) identified more than 100 established firms, with more start-ups joining this space every year. Here’s a snapshot of Georgia “FinTech Corridor” (a.k.a. […]