Ed Burleigh

Welcome to B2B marketing's slow-motion suicide circle: In 20 years, we went from strategic partners to lead vending machines, sales-order takers and "arts&crafts" team. 2000th: Demand Waterfall Framework: "Gate content, create MQLs, pass to sales" 2010: Marketing Automation & Lead Nurturing: "Automatically email thousands, drip campaigns" 2014 - 2023: Era of Growth Hacking / Lead Gen: "Scrape web, find emails, set up outbound cadences" 2023 and beyond - Do More With LESS (resources and budget) but with AI -> Coming back to where we started. Every MarTech and vendor promised "10x your pipeline." We bought it all. It created a false perception that the path to scalability is via technology. GTM strategy became a synonym for "ads + outbound on steroids". We completely messed up tactics with strategy and forgot what actually GENERATES DEMAND FOR THE PRODUCT AND INFLUENCES THE BUYING DECISIONS. The rotten reality: -Marketing lost its board seat -B2B tech CMO tenure is plummeting -Produce more generic content with AI your buyers ignore -Copying broken playbooks for short-term ROI and proving marketing value -Forced to be "AI native" without GTM fundamentals -Expected to generate marketing-sourced revenue separately from sales It caused a harmful thinking: - This is just how B2B marketing works now. There's no way to change this system -Everyone else seems to be making it work. Maybe I'm just not good enough Here is the elephant in the room that everybody ignores: We're trapped in a system that punishes long-term thinking but demands long-term results. "I'll survive this quarter, show ROI, and next quarter it will be better". No, it won't be! You're just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, and you know it well. But I've learned the hard way. To get out from the suicide circle we must have hard conversations with the leadership about the role of marketing: "What if marketing's job isn't to generate MQLs, but to make our company the obvious choice?" From there, everything shifts back to what marketing used to do: 1.STRONG GTM FUNDAMENTALS: - Brand narrative, differentiation, positioning & messaging - Well-defined ICP and understanding of the buyer journey - Pricing - Cross-functional alignment on revenue - Market research - Data governance ⠀ 2.BUYER-CENTRIC PROGRAM / FULL-FUNNEL THINKING: Awareness → demand capture → pipeline → Buyer enablement→ CS & expansion 3.BALANCED TIME HORIZONS. - Long-term programs create brand and increase pipeline velocity. - Medium-term programs create future pipeline. - Short-term programs help to accelerate pipeline and capture the demand. ----- The way out isn't another MarTech tool or AI platform. It's getting back to what marketing is supposed to do: Understand customers and their buyer journey, and build brands B2B buyers actively choose. Everything else is just expensive drama theater with B2B CMOs acting as protagonists.

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Most brands are missing high-value segments. Not because the creative is bad. Not because the media plan is sloppy. Because the target audience is wrong or incomplete. Here’s the trap marketers fall into: - We start with who we think our buyers are. - We optimise messaging, media, and budget around that profile. - And we keep doing it… because we don’t have high-quality data to prove otherwise. The result? ✅ You might dominate awareness in one segment. ❌ You’re lagging in the higher-value segments that are driving growth. Studying challenger brands in the consumer goods category is instructive. 💱 Challenges can’t afford to waste a single dollar on the wrong audience. 💡 That’s where modern platforms with real-time data and dashboards change the game. ⭐ I’m fascinated to find the case studies in the new Tracksuit playbook (link in the comments). The cases feature challenger brands across fast-moving consumer categories, and how they’re using insights to carve their audience wedge. Brand leaders are using data to: +Spot where their brand is over/under-indexing across age, gender, income +Find out what media platforms these people are spending time on +Identify targeting gaps their competitors aren’t yet filling These insights can change their growth plans and the conversations CMOs have in boardrooms. Question for you: What’s one of your favorite challenger brands? Bonus: What makes their targeting compelling? ⬇️ Drop your pick in the comments.  ♻️ Repost this if you think it'll help other brand leaders. #marketing #challengerbrand #brands

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Looking to sharpen your PR and comms skills? Here are the top 10 books every PR and communications pro should read (no particular order): 1. Spin Sucks by Gini Dietrich - A practical guide to ethical PR and reputation management, focusing on how to build trust in today’s digital age. 2. Trust Me, I’m Lying by Ryan Holiday - A rare look behind the scenes of media manipulation that every communicator should understand. 3. Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath - Learn how to craft simple but memorable ideas that resonate with your audience. 4. The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott - A detailed modern playbook for reaching audiences through compelling digital content. 5. Reputation Rules: Strategies for Building Your Company’s Most Valuable Asset by Daniel Diermeier - Written by Vanderbilt University’s chancellor, this book is a must for any communicator who wants to master crisis readiness. 6. The Public Relations Writer’s Handbook: The Digital Age by Merry Aronson, Don Spetner, and Carol Ames - Check out their templates and tips for writing press releases and media pitches. 7. Five Stars: The Communication Secrets to Get from Good to Great by Carmine Gallo - Get top insights on persuasion, storytelling, and how to connect emotionally with your audience. 8. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Dr. Robert Cialdini - A deep dive into the science behind why people say “yes.” Lays a general foundation. 9. Everybody Writes by Ann Handley - A useful guide for anyone who wants to master engaging and effective writing for PR content. 10. Beautiful PR by Sophie Attwood - A straightforward introduction to building honest and clear communications campaigns rooted in integrity. Any others that I missed?

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This AI will fix you.😌 If you’re a brand, marketer, or creator who’s tired of shooting endless UGC videos…stop for a second and read this. I recently discovered something called ugenc.ai and it’s honestly one of the smartest tools I’ve come across. It lets you create real-looking UGC videos without hiring creators, scheduling shoots, or waiting for edits. Here’s how it works: You upload your voice. The AI clones it into the model’s voice. It syncs the lip movements perfectly. And within seconds, you get a ready-to-use, natural-looking UGC video. What I loved most is how real it looks…no robotic expressions, no fake avatars, just authentic human faces that actually connect. Brands and agencies are using it to: • Launch TikTok and Instagram ads faster • Test 50+ hooks in a single day • Build massive UGC libraries without reshoots • Cut production time and cost by 80% It works because real faces build trust, and AI cloning makes it infinitely scalable. If you’ve been struggling to create consistent, high-quality UGC, this tool can genuinely change the game for you. Check out my comments for the demo and the link. #ai #linkedin

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More content ≠ more value. Personal branding is more relevant in the AI era - but the playbook flipped in the last 18 months. Ten years into the game, I've seen many trends come and go and worked worked in 2023, is completely missing the mark now. More how-to’s, staged and overly polished photos and empty updates ≠ impact. In a noisy world, don’t add content; add context. → Codify your IP. Own your language. Visibility is cheap; depth of expertise is the real value as you can't just ChatGPT it. My moto has always been: If you can’t draw your value, you can’t scale it. And simplifying the complex requires a genuine understanding of the content and that coms from actual experience and a lot of the 'unsexy' work, aka deep thinking. Build authority assets, not one-off posts: ▪️One-pagers > posts. Clear, scannable, action-ready. ▪️Frameworks > opinions. Make thinking visible and repeatable. ▪️Explain why > list what. Context beats inventory. The strategic edge [most won’t do this]: 〰️ Room access > reach. Map the 12 people who move your deals; build for them, not the feed. 〰️ Document as you go > report later. Decision journal,, weekly conversation & learning recaps. 〰️ Proximity over popularity. Fewer, stronger relationships with people who sign off. The shift I’m making [and with clients): Brand & visibility → Authority systems & placement. Generic, staged content → Content IP & proprietary language. Succession. Exit. Boards. What’s next - happens by design, not by luck. TL;DR: Less content, more context.

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