Buyer Journeys Are Pinball, Not Linear Funnels
The marketing "funnel" isn't dead, at least not from the perspective of site owners seeking an analogy of the business-side experience. BUT... if you're seeking analogies for buyer behavior, the funnel really doesn't work anymore. IMO it's more like a pinball machine. Potential buyers bounce between sources of influence, researching, observing, asking, searching, and browsing before, after, and during the decision-making process. This week's new #5minutewhiteboard breaks down how this works (and hopefully convinces your boss/team/client to stop thinking of buyer journeys as linear, funnel-like processes) 👇
Early Startups Thrive on Passionate Product‑savvy Sales “Magician”
I'd say 8 times out of 10, early start-ups have a "sales magician" ... that actually is only a B+ at sales per se. But ... - customers >love< them - knows product cold, better than anyone but CTO - deeply passionate about mission,...
Track Full Funnel Metrics Before Turning Off Ads
Watch all of the metrics of the funnel when turning off an ad.
AI Can Misrepresent Your Brand—Learn How to Fix It
You've managed to get your brand included in GenAI results except, the information is wrong. Is AI lying about your brand? This is the question Nick Nelson asks in today's post on the TopRank Marketing B2B Marketing blog. Not only...
Protect Q1 Profits with Free Chargeflow Post‑BFCM Shield
Most merchants treat BFCM like a finish line. But any founder who’s been through it knows that the real chaos hits in January. • Friendly fraud • Refund abuse • Disputes you didn’t see coming It’s digital shoplifting, and it drains Q4 profits when you’re...
Claude Opus 4.5 Streamlines Tool Calling, Cuts Token Bloat
BREAKING: Anthropic launches Claude Opus 4.5 Several of the upgrades are squarely at people like me, developers building agents. I'm particularly impressed with how elegantly they handle one of the biggest issues developers are dealing with: tool calling. MCP is...
Shared Mental Model Ensures Consistent AI Adoption Across Teams
You cannot ask a thousand people to adopt AI and expect consistency. You need a shared mental model. Without it, the company’s output becomes a collage of mismatched assumptions.
Mindset, Not Money, Determines Your Wealth Ceiling
I've built my network with founders at every wealth level over the past decade. Here's what I learned about how they think differently: Millionaires celebrate quick wins. They're optimizing for the next deal, the next exit, the next opportunity. It's about momentum. Deca-millionaires...
AI Exposes, Not Fixes, Assumption‑Driven Decision Failures
Companies pretend decisions fail because of bad data. They fail because people protect their assumptions. AI does not solve this. It forces the assumptions into the open.
Today's Top Marketing AI News From Leading Sources
Top #Marketing #AI News Stories today: https://t.co/HXpZ3cAJnV Top stories from @MediaPost @martechismktg @WARCEditors @TheHustle @DrexelNews @MarketingProfs @Forbes @martechcube @elitebizmag @CarBizToday @cxtodaynews @Gartner_inc and more. https://t.co/z2UbR3M5pN
Treat Love Like a Startup: Vision, Risk, Commitment
I’ve built and sold companies worth millions. But the best decision I ever made was choosing the right person to build life with.... I’ve done the big deals. I’ve lived the founder rollercoaster. I’ve cashed the checks. But none of...
Marketing Success Starts With Making Friends, Not Broadcasts
Every year I set a new intention for my business or theme to guide me. This next year's comes from the one and only Andy Crestodina . Andy and I always joke that if you put us both together, you'd...
Allocate 10% to a 30x Winner for 3x Fund
How do you create a 3x venture fund? For a smaller fund, in theory there are many ways, but most likely is: 1️⃣ Put 10% of your fund into your very best investment 2️⃣ It does 30x = 3x the whole...
Plan Mode Helps Finish Half‑baked Features
Most great features start half-baked. Plan Mode in Reforge Build lets you cook. https://t.co/k7WwyeuL8o
Turn Half‑Baked Ideas Into Detailed AI Prototypes Instantly
Most great features start half-baked. A fuzzy idea from a customer call. A vague customer complaint. A gut feel about what's broken. A "what if" from your shower. But AI does best with clear directions. Detailed requirements. Do you really...
AI Landing Page Tools Still Miss Critical Nuance
We’re entering a new phase in how people find products. More searches start inside LLMs. Fewer people land directly on your site. Which means the visitors who do make it through are more intentional than ever. This raises the bar...
2026 B2B Buying Journey: New Trends Redefine Demand Gen
B2B demand gen is a tough gig. Just when you think you've got it all figured out... WHACK! Your target buyers go and change everything. (maybe not *everything*... they still love great research and webinars!) The latest research shows that...
Real User Touchpoints Spark Honest, Faster Innovation
Every product begins as a question you don’t yet know how to answer. You can guess. You can model. You can argue. But none of it substitutes for the small shock you feel the first time the product touches a...
Five Paid AI Tools that Actually Boost Revenue
The 5 AI tools I'm actually paying for (and why they're worth every penny): Most AI tools are noise. These 5 drive actual revenue. **Granola AI ($14/mo):** Listens to every call and surfaces blind spots I'm missing. Asked it last week: "What...
Prioritize Contribution Margin over Chasing Larger Revenue Numbers
Friendly reminder as you go into this week. Don’t lose profitability to see a bigger number on your dashboard. Focus on your contribution margin and scale off of that.
Add Last‑Updated Timestamps and Schema to Avoid AI Penalty
Turns out that AI (and humans) HATE recommending stale/old content. That's why EVERY marketer should make this a non-negotiable in 2026: 👉 Put a “Last Updated” timestamp on every major page and article on your website, just like you see...
Give One Clear Reason to Say Yes
If your conversion rate is low, give consumers: • Clear value. • Believable support. • An obvious next step. All that you need is one reason to say yes.
From Coach to Fractional CMO: Earn More, Stress Less
I shifted my coaching business 2 yrs ago to do the thing everyone's trying to escape. By moving from "Business Coach" to "Fractional CMO". Revenue went up. Stress went down. Here's why most people have it backwards: 1. Coaching Is...
Build Outbound Email Infrastructure Before Crafting Copy
Build Your Outbound Email Infrastructure The Right Way 📬 Most teams obsess over copy and sequences. But none of that matters if your emails never reach the inbox. Outbound does not start with messaging. It starts with domains, inboxes, warm...
New AI Agent Adds Visual Timeline to Company Research
It's shipping Sunday! (Not all days are Shipping Sundays for me -- but today is). As you may recall, a few weeks ago, I launched a simple but super-useful (at least for me) AI agent called CompanyResearch .ai The premise...
Plan Now: Top B2B Sales Conferences for 2026
It’s hard to believe that 2026 is just around the corner. If you’re thinking about hitting up any sales conferences next year, now’s the perfect time to start planning. My team and I have put together a solid list of...
Get My Proven AI Marketing Blueprint for Brand Growth
Want to see exactly which tools I use to turn digital brands into growth engines? I'm dropping my complete AI marketing blueprint - the same one that's generated millions for my clients. No fluff. No theory. Just the exact playbook. Drop a 🔥...
Only 3 AI Tools Drive Real Marketing Results
Most businesses are drowning in AI marketing tools but starving for results. Here's the brutal truth: You don't need 47 different AI platforms. You need to know which 3 tools actually move the needle for YOUR brand. I've cracked the code for 100+...
Marketing Success Depends on Conditions, Not Just Tactics
Much as we’d like it to be, marketing is not deterministic or meritocratic. Great ideas and execution often fail, and mediocre ones can thrive - the common variable is the conditions in which the marketing happens. Yet so much of...
Alertmouse Outshines Google Alerts for Real Mentions
I am so blown away by how bad Google Alerts became. Literally only ever sent me notifications of my own projects and posts. Makes no sense. I switched to @alertmouse this year and really love it. Good examples from Nov: 1. a...
Framing Determines Whether Ideas Stick or Vanish
Every idea competes for space in someone’s mind. How you frame it decides whether it sticks, spreads, or disappears. That’s the real work behind influence, and it’s a skill worth treating seriously.
Strategic Questions Turn Creative Tests Into Insight
Most creative testing fails because there’s no strategy behind the test. What are you trying to learn? • Which hook performs best? • Which visual holds attention? • Which CTA drives conversion? Every question asked brings you closer to the...
AI Boom Thrives, Business Models Still Uncertain
Everyone in AI feels the same tension right now, but this piece finally names it clearly. The tech is real. The progress is real. The spending is real. The business models aren’t. Not yet. This is the best breakdown I’ve...
Visibility Drives Business Opportunities Beyond Vanity Metrics
Why are you on LinkedIn? The ultimate scoreboard isn’t likes, it’s business. But my guest Neal 🎙 Schaffer suggest that visibility still matters if you want to win. - More engagement boosts your content in the LinkedIn feed - High-like...
Fresh, Focused AI Memory Beats Massive, Outdated Datasets
I know ‘memory’ is a big deal in AI — what I don’t know is how >much< of it you really need to have a great AI experience. The more I learn about how our own AI Agents work, the...
Master Your Speaking Pitch – Limited Spots Available
If you're planning to pitch yourself to speak at industry events next year (or appear on more podcasts): I'm running a Pitch Challenge the 1st week of Dec to work with a small group on their pitches. You'll learn to develop,...
Use Pain‑Qualified Seg
You can’t personalize your way out of a targeting problem. Focus on finding evidence of the problem, then just ask them if that evidence means they are struggling with X problem. This is called a PQS, pain qualified segment, and...
Prospects Ignore Your Fancy Site—Results Matter
Nobody Cares About Your Perfect Website (And That’s Exactly Why You Should Care Less Too) Your prospective buyers don’t care how pretty your website is. They don’t care about your gorgeous brochure, your profile banner, or the thousands you spent...
Turn Crises Into Trust: Authentic Rapid Response Wins
59% of Brands Face This Crisis, Are You Ready? Discover the rapid response system and Stakeholder Communication Matrix that helped turn a potential PR disaster into a trust-building opportunity. From recognizing issues instantly to tailoring messages for different audiences, this...
Marketing Wins by Retaining, Not Just Attracting
Great marketing is not about who arrives. It's about who stays. So many people are focused on the wrong thing thanks to the influence of mass-market brands first, now social media algorithms. The entire job of the marketer is to: 1. Earn trust 2....
Weekly Syncs, Shared Scorecards, Unified Platform Bridge Gaps
Sales and Marketing fail when the conversation stops. Communication is the bridge that moves revenue and too often that bridge is closed. What is one practice your teams use to keep the bridge open? Why the gap exists • Marketing...
Creative Partnerships Thrive on Human Insight, Not Algorithms
Ever feel like you’ve been set up with an agency by a soulless algorithm? One that knows nothing about your brand, your goals, or your team? On Monday’s episode of On Brand, Toby Wilkinson , co-founder of ASK US FOR...
New Framework Helps Brands Become Best Answer Leaders
I had the pleasure of presenting at #mpb2b this week. The topic? Our new thought leadership research with Ascend2 + @TopRank's framework for becoming a best answer brand. Original research + multi-channel content experiences for SEO, GEO, & humans! https://t.co/2aot41mGAB...
Google's Vertical AI Strategy Mirrors Its Internet Domination
Google is the only company in the world building AI vertically. They used the same move to dominate the internet. Their AI playbook explained👇
Google’s Vertical AI Stack Fuels Unmatched Competitive Edge
Google is the only company in the world building AI vertically. They used the same move to dominate the internet. Their AI playbook explained👇 Everyone’s busy debating model benchmarks, GPU shortages, and who shipped the newest AI app. But that’s...
