Google promises better results with just one click—“Apply All Recommendations.” But what if those recommendations aren’t actually in your best interest? At 97th Floor, we’ve seen firsthand how blindly following Google's automated suggestions can drain budgets and derail strategy. So we put it to the test. In a head-to-head experiment, we pitted Google’s recommended setup against our tailored, expert-built campaigns. The results were eye-opening—and could change the way you manage your ad spend.
We tested campaigns with three of our clients to compare the effectiveness of Google’s automated recommendations with the hands-on approach taken by our experienced advertising team at 97th Floor. Each campaign was structured to align with specific goals, but the key difference was in how they were managed:
| 97th Floor | ||
|---|---|---|
| Objective | Select one | Select one |
| Conversion actions | Auto-select | Manually select |
| Campaign type | Search | Search |
| How you reach goals | Visit website | Visit website |
| Bidding | Start with conversions | Start with clicks |
| Max CPC limit | Don’t start with one | Start with one depending on client; not too restrictive (e.g., under $10) |
| Networks | Allow Search partners and Google Display Network | Turn Google Display Network off; test Search partners if... |
| Location | Set a location as presence or interest | Set a location as presence only |
| Audience Segments | Observational targeting | Observational targeting |
| Broad match | On | Off |
| Automatically created assets | On | Off |
| Ad rotation | Optimize for best performance | Optimize for best performance |
| Ad schedule | None | Add if needed |
| Campaign creation | Go through Google's process | Go through 97th Floor's process |
| Ad copy | Use Google's suggestions | Written by expert content marketer |
| Budget | Equal budget | Equal budget |
| Optimizations | Turn on auto apply recommendations for this campaign | Optimize manually |
Here are the settings we kept the same between the control and test group. These are Google’s recommendations that we agree with.
| 97th Floor | ||
|---|---|---|
| Objective | Select one | Select one |
| Campaign type | Search | Search |
| How you reach goals | Visit website | Visit website |
| Audience Segments | Observational targeting | Observational targeting |
| Ad rotation | Optimize for best performance | Optimize for best performance |
| Budget | Equal budget | Equal budget |
When you feed a smart bidding system bad signals, you get bad results. We focus on signal quality to guide the algorithm toward actual business growth — not just form fills or button clicks that look good on paper.
| 97th Floor | ||
|---|---|---|
| Conversion actions | Auto-select | Manually select |
Smart bidding needs data to perform well. Jumping straight to "Maximize Conversions" without historical data is like trying to sprint before you've learned to walk. Our approach allows us to build a strong foundation — minimizing waste while setting the campaigns up for smarter automation later.
Without a CPC cap, Google can overspend on low-quality traffic. We applied reasonable limits to protect budget efficiency.
| 97th Floor | ||
|---|---|---|
| Bidding | Start with conversions | Start with clicks |
| Max CPC limit | Don’t start with one | Start with one depending on client; not too restrictive (e.g., under $10) |
The Display Network may offer more impressions, but not always better ones. Especially early on, we want every click to count — and that means keeping the focus tight on search intent, not expanding blindly into display.
Advertising to someone thinking about your market is not the same as advertising to someone in your market. Having your location set as presence or interest allows Google to waste your dollars on the wrong users.
Google's default runs ads 24/7. We customized schedules to align with peak engagement and business hours when necessary.
| 97th Floor | ||
|---|---|---|
| Networks | Allow Search partners and Google Display Network | Turn Google Display Network off; test Search partners if... |
| Location | Set a location as presence or interest | Set a location as presence only |
| Ad schedule | None | Add if needed |
Broad match can open the floodgates — sometimes usefully, sometimes recklessly. We prefer a controlled expansion. Typically, we prioritize stricter match types, like phrase or exact. We use broad match strategically, mostly on longer tailed terms since the intent is more spelled out. It’s important to test broader match types strategically—you don’t want to waste ad spend but you do want to take into account that 15% of searches every day are new. People could be in the market for your product or solution but type it in differently than your keywords. Broad match keywords are a good way to mine for new keyword ideas.
| 97th Floor | ||
|---|---|---|
| Broad match | On | Off |
Auto-generated ads often sound robotic and generic, or can state things that are outright wrong. We believe brand voice is too important to automate away — especially when you have just seconds to grab a user’s attention and build trust.
| 97th Floor | ||
|---|---|---|
| Automatically created assets | On | Off |
In every case, the campaigns managed by 97th Floor outperformed those set up using Google’s automated recommendations. Here's a breakdown of the results:
The data speaks for itself—relying solely on Google’s recommendations can leave performance on the table. While Google’s automation offers convenience, it lacks the precision and strategic insight required to maximize advertising budgets effectively. 97th Floor’s campaigns delivered better results, proving that expertise and human intervention are essential for optimal ad performance.
If you're relying entirely on Google’s automation, you could be spending more without seeing the results you deserve. At 97th Floor, we offer expert campaign management that outperforms Google’s one-size-fits-all approach. Contact us today to see how a professionally managed campaign can transform your advertising results.
See how a professionally-managed campaign can transform your advertising results.
Buy Ashley’s Book Human-Centered Marketing and get 25% off when you use code: KOGANPAGE25.
The Kindle version is available now, with physical copies launching May 27th.
The Trust Crisis is Real
Something has broken in how people relate to brands, leaders, and institutions. The 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer delivered a stark wake-up call: 68% of people now believe that government leaders, business leaders, and journalists deliberately lie and mislead them. That's an 11-point jump from the year before—a massive shift in how people view authority.
This isn't just a cultural problem. It's a business problem.
When trust erodes, everything gets harder. Sales cycles stretch longer. Customer acquisition costs climb. Employee retention drops. The old playbook of push marketing, gated content, and funnel optimization starts to feel tone-deaf in a world where people are actively suspicious of being manipulated.
While most marketers see this trust crisis as an obstacle, smart ones see it as an opportunity. When trust becomes scarce, it becomes valuable. Companies that figure out how to build genuine relationships with their audiences don't just survive—they thrive.
As Ashley Faus explains: "People trust people like themselves and people buy from people they trust." The solution isn't more sophisticated attribution models or better funnel optimization. It's human-centered marketing that treats people like humans, not leads. It's about giving value before asking for anything in return. It's about building trust as a core business strategy, not a nice-to-have.
Building trust isn't some fluffy, feel-good marketing exercise. It drives hard business results.
As Ashley Faus puts it: "This is not fluffy. It's not a nice to have. It's not something that just feels kind of nice and like, you know, wouldn't it be fun if people trusted us? That would be pleasant, right? No, this has significant financial ramifications."
Research from Edelman shows that 58% of people buy or advocate for brands based on values and beliefs. Sixty percent choose where to work based on whether they trust the company. Sixty-four percent make investment decisions through this lens. And 88% of institutional investors now look at environmental, social, and governance impact when making decisions.
These aren't soft metrics. They're revenue metrics. Talent metrics. Investment metrics.
When people trust your brand, they buy from you. When they don't trust you, they don't just avoid your products—they actively warn others away. In a world where a single tweet can reach millions of people, trust becomes your best insurance policy and your biggest competitive advantage.
The companies getting this right are seeing the results. They're attracting better talent because people want to work for organizations they respect. They're closing deals faster because trust shortens sales cycles. They're getting higher customer lifetime value because trusted relationships last longer.
Most marketing frameworks weren't designed to build trust. They were designed to extract value from people as efficiently as possible. And that's exactly the problem.
The traditional marketing funnel treats people like they follow a predictable, linear path: awareness leads to consideration leads to conversion. But that's not how humans actually behave. It's not even how we make simple decisions, let alone complex B2B purchases that involve multiple stakeholders and months of evaluation.
Worse, the funnel is fundamentally company-centric. As Faus explains: "It only recognizes somebody once they're already in a buying process, which means it's retrospective, not forward-looking. And then it locks us into doing the activities that are easiest for us to measure in a dashboard instead of the activities that most resonate with the audience."
Think about it like dating. Yes, if you spend time with someone and get to know them well and share values and enjoy each other's company, you might fall in love and get married. But as Faus puts it: "You didn't get married because there was a proposal." The proposal was just the visible moment in a much longer, messier, more human process.
The funnel mindset makes us focus on the proposal—the moment someone converts—while ignoring all the relationship-building that had to happen first. It treats symptoms as causes and wonders why our marketing feels so transactional.
Meanwhile, our audiences feel the disconnect. They see through the manipulation. They recognize when we're more interested in their email address than their actual problems. And in a world where trust is already scarce, that approach backfires spectacularly.
Instead of forcing people through a linear funnel, what if we created a content playground where they could explore, learn, and engage on their own terms?
This starts with rethinking how we categorize content. Instead of awareness, consideration, and conversion content, think in terms of depth:
Conceptual content covers the what and the why. As Faus describes it: "It helps the audience think about and understand the problem space."
Strategic content gets into process, tools, and key knowledge components. "It equips the audience to do their own research and helps them think about the criteria for success."
Tactical content is where the rubber meets the road. "This is nitty gritty, prescriptive, where the rubber meets the road to implement the strategy."
Here's the key insight: people need all three levels, but not necessarily in order. Someone might discover you through a tactical piece, then go deeper into strategic thinking, then step back to understand the conceptual framework. Let them move around the playground naturally instead of forcing them down a predetermined path.
The second shift is thinking about intent—what people actually want to do next. Most marketers obsess over buy intent and use intent. But there are other valid intents that matter just as much: trust intent, learn intent, and help intent.
Take Atlassian's approach with their Agile microsite. They create conceptual content about the shift from waterfall to agile methodology. They offer strategic content about how to adopt agile practices. They provide tactical content about running standups and grooming backlogs.
As Faus explains: "You can choose Scrum or Kanban projects when you first start setting up your projects... However, that's pretty inefficient. Maybe let's show you how to do that with JIRA." Some of this content mentions Jira's features. Some doesn't. All of it helps people succeed with agile methodology whether they use Atlassian's products or not. That's trust-building in action.
Buy Ashley’s Book Human-Centered Marketing and get 25% off when you use code: KOGANPAGE25.
The Kindle version is available now, with physical copies launching May 27th.
This doesn't mean abandoning measurement. It means getting smarter about what we measure and when.
The problem isn't that marketers measure too much—it's that we measure the wrong things. We optimize for short-term revenue conversion as the only metric that matters. We default to digital touchpoints that are easy to track in a dashboard. We want one-to-one attribution for everything.
As Faus puts it: "Most of the time we don't actually have that discussion of like, here are the video metrics, here are the article metrics." We intuitively understand that watch time makes sense for videos but not for articles, yet we often apply the same success metrics to completely different types of content.
Social media perfectly captures this problem. "You'll get basically dichotomous or opposing views. We wanna optimize for in-feed engagement and CTR. Okay, well, you're not gonna get people commenting and liking and sharing on social media if the only thing you give them to do is to click a link."
The "Learn More" call-to-action perfectly captures this trust-breaking approach. As Faus explains: "I don't know what that is. Am I gonna watch a video? Am I contacting sales? Do I have to register an event? Am I making a purchase? Like what happens when I click that link, right?"
Be specific. Match your calls-to-action to your content intent. If someone is reading a tactical implementation guide, "Download the template" makes sense. If they're reading conceptual thought leadership, "Contact sales" probably doesn't.
The biggest trust-killer in marketing is short-term thinking. The pressure to close business this month, hit quotas this quarter, show immediate ROI on every campaign.
This shows up in tactical decisions that seem small but actually matter a lot. Do you put a human name on your content or just say "written by [company name]"? Do you invest in building up internal thought leaders or worry that they might leave someday?
As Faus points out: "There is a lot of pushback about employees building their personal brand... Because what if they leave, right? That is a very short term mindset."
Think about relationships that continue to create value long after the direct business relationship ends. Faus shares a perfect example: "I no longer have a need for their services and yet they keep in touch with me. We have a good relationship and I have referred multiple clients to them."
None of this shows up in last-touch attribution. You can't track exactly how many deals came from that conference conversation or that helpful email you sent six months ago. But the compound effect is real.
This applies to content strategy too. A tweet has a half-life of maybe eight seconds. An evergreen guide on your website might generate traffic and leads for years. Yet many marketers spend equal time on both, or even more time on the short-lived content because it feels more urgent.
The fundamental shift here is moving from a pushing mindset to a helping mindset. Instead of trying to move people through your funnel, focus on genuinely helping them succeed.
This doesn't mean hiding the fact that you have products or services that could help. As Faus puts it: "If your product genuinely solves someone's problem, you're doing them a disservice by not saying this thing can help you in this way."
Her hot take on gating content perfectly captures this mindset: "If I had it my way, I would un-gate, like, I fundamentally don't believe in gated content at all." The philosophy is simple: "Showing, not telling, giving, not just receiving in a transactional way builds that trust, builds that long-term affinity, and it does ultimately turn into revenue."
Start small. Pick one piece of gated content and ungate it. Create one genuinely helpful resource with no strings attached. Put one employee's name and face on your thought leadership instead of hiding behind your company logo.
In an age of AI, human connection becomes more valuable, not less. People crave authenticity precisely because it's becoming harder to find. Companies that figure out how to build genuine trust won't just survive the current crisis—they'll emerge stronger on the other side.
Trust isn't just the fastest way to long-term ROI. In a world where trust is scarce, it might be the only way.
Ready to earn your C-suite's trust?
Get executive buy-in faster by presenting your strategy in the language your board already understands.
Imagine you're in a board meeting, and the CEO looks at you and asks, "What are we really getting from our marketing budget?" It's the question that keeps marketing leaders up at night.
The numbers are tough to swallow. Most CMOs last only 12-18 months in Silicon Valley. Even worse, only 66% of Fortune 500 companies have a marketing leader—and that number is dropping.
The good news is when times get tough, smart marketers actually do better. The secret? They balance quick wins that boards understand with long-term plans that drive real growth. This is how to build marketing that's so clear and reliable that your leadership team will bet on it.
Marketing leaders need to wear many hats. They're part psychologist, part numbers person, part creative genius, and part business manager. They need to know technology (marketing buys tons of software), understand data, get how people think, plan strategy, and run daily operations.
Everything changed with COVID. Now AI is changing things again. But many CEOs and boards still think marketing is just about making things pretty or planning parties.
This creates a big problem. Marketing work has gotten way more complex, but other leaders don't really get what marketers do. The job is super important but often overlooked by the people who control the money.
Karl Vandenberg knows this well. He's the CMO at Illumio and was named Cybersecurity Marketer of the Year in 2024. Before marketing, he ran products, led companies, and handled mergers. This outside view helps him see marketing's unique challenges clearly.
When Karl joined his last company, he was the fifth marketing leader in five years. Trust was gone. His fix? Run marketing like a sales team.
He started by building a computer program that could predict which companies would buy their product. Today you can buy this technology, but his team built it from scratch to prove marketing could be as numbers-driven as engineering.
Here's what they did:
Then Karl did something unusual: monthly pipeline reviews with the board, just like sales teams do. He gave his team quotas and paid them based on hitting sales targets.
This openness worked. By talking in "sales speak"—forecasts, quotas, pipeline numbers—marketing finally made sense to board members. Within six months, he had enough trust to talk about bigger, long-term investments.
Balancing Quick Wins with Big Picture Thinking
When money gets tight, most people focus only on activities that show immediate results. But that's exactly when you should also invest in building your brand.
The problem? Brand building doesn't show instant payback. Karl's answer is to think about "Return on Goals" not just "Return on Investment."
Take their recent AI product launch. Instead of focusing on sales, they aimed for 100 free trial signups per week. It's measurable and shows progress, but it's not directly about money—yet.
For long-term investments like brand building, track early signs of success:
During COVID, while running a startup backed by investors, Karl made a bold choice: invest in brand. They tracked progress with a score card, showing quarterly proof the investment was working even before sales went up.
Think of brand as air cover for your sales team. When people have heard of your company, they're more likely to talk to your salespeople. You can't draw a straight line to sales, but it makes everything else work better.
Key Relationships and Local Teams
After your CEO, your most important work friend is the head of sales. This partnership doesn't always come naturally, especially for technical marketers, but it's crucial.
Working with the product team matters too. But the sales partnership is extra important in B2B tech, where buying decisions involve 15+ people across different departments.
Karl uses what he calls the "franchise model." Marketing and sales work together at the local level. Regional teams get:
This changes how people think. Instead of marketing "owning" the budget, they're investing money to help sellers succeed. Local teams combine marketing skills with sales street smarts, creating better campaigns and stronger trust.
The One-Page Marketing Plan
Marketing might be complex, but explaining your plan doesn't have to be. The one-page plan turns your strategy into something any executive can understand in minutes.
Here's how it works:
A good plan might have five company goals, five marketing goals, three or four big projects per goal, and about 10 total measurements. These feed into a simple dashboard for executives.
The magic is keeping it simple. No marketing jargon, no detailed channel plans—just the big picture. When people ask about specific tactics, those details live in your project tools, not executive updates.
Get executive buy-in faster by presenting your strategy in the language your board already understands.
Since 60% of CMOs are first-timers, here's how to succeed:
Start by proving you can deliver leads and pipeline. Show you can hit targets before asking for money for long-term projects.
Accept that you'll spend about 30% of your time teaching others about marketing. You need to think big picture while delivering daily results. There's no way around this balance.
Use data to back up your ideas, not just report what happened. When your models show clear thinking and real facts, people trust you even before you prove results.
Build relationships on purpose. Work closely with sales leaders, product teams, and regional managers. Give local teams responsibility while keeping everyone aligned.
Don't give in to pressure for only quick results. Companies need marketing leaders who can deliver now while building for later. Those who only focus on today fail both themselves and their companies.
Marketing has completely changed. As AI reshapes how we work and how buyers shop, marketing will become even more important to business success.
For marketers ready to handle this complexity, the opportunity is huge. Companies need people who can mix creativity with numbers, big ideas with daily execution, future vision with current results. Those who master this mix won't just earn trust—they'll shape how businesses grow.
In times of big change, one thing is certain: companies that invest in strong marketing leadership will beat those that don't. The question isn't whether to build trustworthy marketing—it's whether you're ready to lead the change.
Ready to earn your C-suite's trust?
Here's a reality check for marketers: according to HubSpot's 2024 State of Marketing report, companies spend $92 on attracting visitors for every $1 they invest in converting those visitors into customers. We're pouring resources into filling the top of our funnels while neglecting what happens after people arrive.
Even more eye-opening, Build Wealth reports that less than 2% of websites use any kind of Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) technologies. This represents a huge missed opportunity, especially as marketing teams face growing pressure to deliver more with tighter budgets.
Let's clear something up right away: CRO is much more than just A/B testing. While testing is part of it, CRO encompasses everything that helps turn visitors into customers. When done right, it dramatically boosts the return on all your marketing efforts by making sure the traffic you've worked so hard to attract doesn't go to waste.
In this article, we'll explore why CRO deserves more attention, how to build an effective optimization framework, and why accessibility might be your biggest untapped conversion opportunity.
Despite being what experienced marketers call "the lowest hanging fruit" for driving growth, CRO remains significantly underinvested in most companies. But why?
Many organizations view CRO as simply testing button colors or headline variations, asking: "How much impact can these small changes really have?" This limited perspective misses the strategic value of a comprehensive CRO program.
When treated as a core marketing function rather than an occasional tactic, CRO becomes transformative. As Chad Sollis, Chief Marketing Officer at AudioEye, puts it, CRO represents an opportunity to "double leads, double revenue really quickly."
The real power of CRO emerges when it serves as a gateway to other marketing initiatives. By understanding how different audience segments interact with your website, you create insights that strengthen everything from content creation to paid media, email campaigns to product development.
Yet CRO often falls to the bottom of priority lists. It requires building a capability that many organizations haven't developed, demanding both technical skills and strategic thinking that crosses department boundaries.
At the heart of effective CRO lies a genuine understanding of your audience—not through fluffy personas that detail what time people drink their coffee, but through actual behavior data that drives action.
According to Sollis, audience understanding makes up 60-70% of successful CRO implementation. The good news? When it comes to CRO, you have an advantage in segmentation compared to broader marketing initiatives: you're focusing specifically on people already visiting your website.
Here's how to gather actionable audience insights:
Web Analytics and User Behavior: Start with the data you already have. What sources bring traffic to your site? Which landing pages get the most visits? This information provides your first layer of segmentation.
First-Click Behavior: The first action a visitor takes reveals volumes about their interests and intent. As Sollis explains, "What is the first click they do? If they're abandoning, then you have a problem with the page that they're actually landing on... But if they create a next action, that creates a segment for you."
These behaviors allow you to make informed discoveries: "These people are interested in product X when I thought they were interested in product Y" or "This is their problem versus that is their problem."
The content visitors consume, the product pages they view, and the search terms they use on your site all provide valuable clues for effective segmentation.
Similar to a lead scoring model, this behavioral segmentation happens through technical tools that track on-site behavior. Different pages and actions carry different weights, with product and pricing pages typically having higher impact than others.
Once you've established your audience segments, it's time to build tests that will improve conversion rates. Sollis recommends a three-component framework:
The key is aligning content to the outcome you're trying to drive. For a B2B or SaaS business, that might ultimately be generating leads or trials. However, recognizing that visitors often need to take several steps before converting is crucial.
"You might have to understand that to get them to trial, you actually need them to go two or three steps into the website before they're willing to engage in a trial," Sollis notes. "So if they're in step one, your goal is get them to the next step. If you're in step three, your goal is to get them into trial."
By understanding this progression, you can optimize each step of the journey rather than focusing solely on the final conversion point.
Perhaps the most overlooked opportunity in CRO is optimizing for accessibility. Many companies view accessibility primarily as a way to avoid lawsuits or as a social responsibility initiative. While these are valid concerns, this perspective misses the significant business opportunity.
"People with disabilities actually account for about 25% of web traffic on the internet," Sollis reveals. "So one in four of every visitor has disabilities. That is an opportunity to personalize and to optimize to a segment."
The numbers are compelling:
Viewed through this lens, accessibility becomes not just a compliance requirement but a substantial CRO opportunity that spans across B2B, D2C, and all types of companies.
A comprehensive accessibility strategy requires more than just installing a plugin. Sollis outlines a three-pronged approach:
This combined approach yields not only the highest level of compliance but also "a level that will achieve the highest conversion for a massive component of your audience."
Beyond direct conversion benefits, accessibility improvements can drive additional value:
The gap between what companies spend on attracting traffic versus converting it represents an enormous opportunity for marketers willing to invest in CRO. By approaching conversion optimization as a comprehensive discipline—with audience understanding at its core—organizations can dramatically improve their marketing ROI across all channels.
The three-part framework of audience segmentation, content alignment, and creative execution provides a structured approach to improving conversions. Meanwhile, accessibility stands out as a particularly underutilized opportunity to reach a significant segment of consumers while building brand loyalty.
As marketing budgets face continued scrutiny, the ability to extract more value from existing traffic becomes increasingly important. CRO offers a path to not just incremental improvements but potential step-changes in performance.
The question isn't whether you can afford to invest in CRO—it's whether you can afford not to.
Between the cost of tools, the time and resources needed to create tailored content, the investment in marketing ops, and the challenge of aligning with sales reps, ABM can be seen as a high-risk, high-reward strategy for many organizations. And that's all before you even get to measurement.
Many companies find proving the ROI of ABM campaigns to be somewhat complex. However, when done properly, ABM can be one of the most effective ways to guide high-value accounts down the funnel. But there's a lot that goes into it—ABM is one of those things that is easier said than done. On paper, it's quite simple, but in practice, it can become much more complex.
One of the biggest challenges with ABM is that companies often think they're doing ABM when they're actually doing demand generation. As Madelyne Oliver, Senior Marketing Operations Manager, ABM at Cloudflare explains, "The biggest difference is that ABM is single-handedly account-centric. It focuses on the journey of the account, whereas DemandGen is leads, contacts, all of those people touchpoints... their journey is the typical lead scoring journey becoming an MQL and all of that."
This distinction is critical for effective implementation. When you're thinking about demand generation, you're focusing on individual leads and contacts. But with ABM, you're looking at the account holistically—considering the entire buying committee, the account's overall engagement, and its progression through the funnel as a unified entity.
This perspective shift fundamentally changes how you approach everything from content creation to campaign design. Your ABM marketing materials aren't designed to attract individual leads; they're crafted to appeal to specific accounts and to engage multiple stakeholders within those accounts. When marketers fail to make this distinction, particularly in one-to-many ABM programs, they often end up with ineffective hybrid approaches that miss the mark on both fronts.
Successful ABM strategies typically follow a tiered framework that allows for different levels of customization and resource allocation based on account value. Oliver outlines a three-tiered approach that has proven effective:
The most resource-intensive tier focuses on high-value enterprise clients that require a highly customized approach. These accounts typically receive:
"One-to-one is the very high-touch enterprise clients that really require this very custom journey, custom fit, custom outreach, like a lot of custom content," notes Oliver. This tier typically includes 50-100 accounts at most, given the intensive resources required.
The challenge with one-to-one ABM often lies in content creation. Many organizations struggle to deliver the fast turnaround, dynamic, and fluid content these high-value prospects require. Without dedicated content resources aligned to ABM initiatives, this tier can falter despite its potential for significant returns.
The middle tier balances personalization with scale, typically targeting around 1,000 accounts. This approach includes:
This tier allows for deeper segmentation of target account lists by different verticals and behavioral signals that indicate intent to buy. Companies can create more tailored experiences while maintaining efficiency, making this tier the workhorse of many successful ABM programs.
The broadest tier typically encompasses 3,000-5,000 accounts and represents the bridge between traditional marketing and ABM. While still account-focused, campaigns at this level are more scalable:
This is where the line between ABM and demand gen often blurs. The key differentiation is maintaining account-centricity even at scale, rather than reverting to lead-focused approaches.
The foundation of any successful ABM program is selecting the right accounts. This process begins with building a target account list, but it doesn't end there.
"I think the most common place [where organizations go wrong] is when they don't align with sales," Oliver points out. While marketing can develop the initial target account list, validating it with sales is crucial for success. Without this alignment, you risk targeting accounts that your sales team isn't equipped to pursue effectively, creating a disconnect that undermines the entire ABM strategy.
The account selection process should incorporate:
Once established, these target account lists should not remain static. Oliver recommends quarterly reviews to evaluate what's working, what's not, and which accounts should be added or removed based on changing market conditions and account behavior. This ongoing refinement ensures your ABM efforts remain focused on the accounts with the highest potential value.
Data quality makes or breaks ABM initiatives. According to a study by Validity, 44% of companies surveyed say they have lost 10% of revenue due to CRM data decay. In ABM, where you're working with a smaller pool of targeted accounts, poor data quality has an outsized impact.
"It's really important to make sure that data is clean, it's reliable, it's deduped, it's standardized," Oliver emphasizes. "Especially with Salesforce, there can be parent accounts, there could be child accounts. And you really want to make sure that the data is clean so that your lists are clean because that impacts what kind of campaigns you enter them in."
The consequences of poor data hygiene can range from embarrassing targeting mistakes to complete program failure. When accounts are miscategorized, you risk:
Implementing effective data governance requires both automated and manual approaches. Organizations should establish clear suppression criteria, ensure proper data collection processes, and implement regular cleansing practices. It's particularly important to verify that third-party data is correctly appended to your CRM fields to prevent targeting errors based on incorrect information.
Building an effective ABM tech stack depends heavily on your organization's size, maturity, and budget. Not every company needs to invest in expensive enterprise platforms to get started with ABM.
For enterprise organizations, platforms like Demandbase and 6sense offer comprehensive solutions that integrate account identification, intent monitoring, and campaign orchestration. These platforms typically provide:
For mid-market companies or those with more limited budgets, leveraging existing tools while strategically adding ABM-specific capabilities is often the most practical approach. Even without dedicated ABM platforms, organizations can implement ABM principles by:
"I know not everyone has the budget to go out and get 6sense or Demandbase," Oliver acknowledges. "Sometimes you're just focused on crafting your targeted account lists in Salesforce or from your CRM, validating it with sales. And if that's where you are in your maturity level, that is fine too."
Artificial intelligence is transforming ABM, making personalization at scale more achievable while reducing the manual workload on marketing teams.
Oliver sees AI's impact on ABM as both making things harder and easier simultaneously: "I think harder and easier at the same time. It gets more complicated when you're a large company and you have a large tech stack... But then on the flip side, it can be easier because AI can fill those data gaps."
The most promising applications of AI in ABM include:
The key is distinguishing between tasks best suited for AI and those requiring human intelligence. AI can handle the heavy lifting of personalization and content creation, allowing marketers to focus on higher-value activities like strategy development and relationship building. This strategic division of labor enables marketers to concentrate on areas where human judgment and creativity add the most value, while AI handles repetitive tasks that benefit from automation and scale.
Despite the increasing adoption of ABM, measurement remains a challenge. According to a 2023 study by ITSMA, only 52% of companies measure account-based marketing ROI. Even among those who do measure, proving value can be complex.
Oliver's team takes a pipeline and revenue-driven approach to measurement, focusing on metrics that directly demonstrate business impact:
"We are very pipeline and revenue driven... We're trying to showcase what makes the most impact from an ABM perspective. And so when you're focusing on the percentage of your total pipeline and revenue, is it coming from those ABM targeted accounts or not?"
Key metrics that demonstrate ABM effectiveness include:
For companies with longer sales cycles, pipeline velocity becomes particularly important. The goal is to shorten the sales cycle by engaging with accounts earlier in the process and measuring the time it takes for an account to move from first engagement to closed deal.
Account-based marketing represents a significant shift from traditional lead-focused approaches, but when implemented effectively, it can dramatically improve marketing efficiency and sales outcomes for B2B organizations.
The keys to success include:
The most successful ABM programs aren't static implementations but evolving strategies that continuously adapt based on performance data and market changes. By maintaining a cycle of review and refinement, organizations can realize the full potential of ABM to accelerate high-value deals and drive meaningful business growth.
Here's a quick exercise: Take a look at your competitors' ads. Now remove their logos. Can you tell them apart? If you're like most B2B companies, probably not. This striking similarity in B2B marketing isn't just a missed opportunity – it's a weakness in an increasingly competitive landscape.
While many B2B marketers focus on optimizing channels and tweaking conversion rates, they're overlooking one of the most powerful tools: storytelling. And contrary to what you might think, this isn't just fluffy marketing speak. Recent research has shown that storytelling in B2B advertising has an even stronger effect on C-level decision-makers than on other buyers, particularly in building trust and fostering long-term brand advocacy.
Think of your customer journey as a story – because that's exactly what it is. From the first touchpoint to the final sale, you're not just moving prospects through a funnel; you're engaging them in a narrative about transformation and possibility.
High-funnel brand touchpoints – whether they're bus shelter ads, digital campaigns, or conference presentations – act as your story's "book cover." They're not meant to tell the whole tale but to intrigue and invite your audience to learn more. As Tara Ramroop, Director of Content Marketing at Braze, explains, "It's like the blurb that you see when you're kind of shopping for something to read. Or maybe you weren't shopping for it at all... but there was something about it – the brand, the tagline, the copywriting, the voice – that drew you in."
But here's where many B2B companies falter: they start strong with brand awareness, jump straight to the hard sell, and leave a massive gap in between. The result? Sales teams complaining about tepid leads and prospects who aren't ready for conversations. When this happens, it's often because the story didn't make sense – the chapters were out of order, or worse, missing entirely.
Traditional B2B marketing follows a familiar pattern: company blog → CTA → gated asset → sales funnel. While this approach has worked in the past, it's becoming less effective as buyers grow more sophisticated and their journeys more complex.
The solution isn't to abandon these tools but to rethink how we use them. Instead of leading with what we want to say, we need to start with what our audience needs to hear. This means taking an audience-focused approach rather than a content-focused one.
"Companies always have something to say," Ramroop notes, "but it doesn't do service to the story that is connective or inspiring to lead with yourself." The key is demonstrating that you understand what keeps your prospects up at night and showing how you can help them work better, live better, and lead better.
Modern B2B purchases rarely involve a single decision-maker. Instead, you're typically dealing with a buying group – a cast of characters, each with their own concerns, priorities, and perspectives. The IT manager, marketing director, and legal counsel might all be involved in the same purchase decision, but they're looking at it through very different lenses.
This is where deep audience analysis becomes crucial. Instead of segmenting purely by demographics or firmographics, focus on understanding behaviors, desires, and pain points. What keeps each stakeholder up at night? How do they collaborate with others in their organization? What does success look like from their perspective?
The phrase "operationalizing storytelling" might sound like an oxymoron, but it's essential for scaling your narrative approach. This means establishing processes and systems that help you tell consistent, compelling stories across all touchpoints.
Some key components include:
Tools like Asana for project management, a robust digital asset management system, and analytics platforms like GA4 can help you manage and measure your storytelling efforts. However, remember that the tools themselves matter less than having everyone aligned on using them consistently.
If you're thinking this all sounds great but impossible to implement with your current resources, take heart. You don't need perfect conditions to start improving your storytelling strategy. Start small, measure what works, and build from there.
Begin by analyzing your current content performance. What stories are resonating with your audience? Where are you seeing engagement drop off? Use these insights to inform your next steps, and don't be afraid to get scrappy with your implementation.
Remember, you can build your storytelling infrastructure while maintaining your current marketing operations. As Ramroop advises, "Crawl, walk, run. You'll get to a place where you'll have your process and it runs like clockwork, and then you can tweak that process as you go."
In today's B2B landscape, standing out means more than having the right features or the best price. It means telling a story that resonates with your audience on both rational and emotional levels. By taking a systematic approach to storytelling while maintaining flexibility and creativity, you can create marketing that doesn't just inform or persuade – it inspires.
Start by examining your current customer journey. Where are the gaps in your story? Which chapters are missing? Then, begin filling those gaps with content that demonstrates genuine understanding of your audience's challenges and aspirations. Remember, the goal isn't just to tell any story – it's to tell the right story to the right person at the right time.
When it comes to B2B marketing success, personalization isn't just a buzzword – it's a proven strategy. According to McKinsey, 77% of B2B companies that implement personalized experiences see an increase in market share. Yet many organizations struggle to effectively segment their markets, particularly in the B2B space where the rules of engagement differ significantly from B2C.
While consumer marketing can often rely on broad demographic data and personal preferences, B2B segmentation requires a more nuanced approach. Today's B2B buyers expect personalized experiences that speak directly to their unique challenges and pain points. But how do you deliver that personalization at scale while avoiding the pitfalls that derail many segmentation efforts? Let's explore a practical approach to industry segmentation that drives real results.
The B2B landscape presents unique challenges that make traditional segmentation approaches less effective. First, the decision-making process is inherently more complex than in B2C. Instead of convincing a single consumer, you're often dealing with multiple stakeholders, each with their own priorities and concerns.
Adding to this complexity is the reality of smaller audience sizes. While B2C companies might target millions of potential customers, B2B markets often consist of much smaller pools of qualified prospects. This makes traditional statistical approaches to segmentation less reliable and requires a more focused strategy.
Then there's the "95-5 rule" – a fundamental principle of B2B marketing that states only 5% of your potential market is actively looking to buy at any given time. This means your segmentation strategy needs to account for both immediate opportunities and longer-term relationship building.
Finally, B2B products themselves tend to be more complex, often requiring different approaches for different use cases. A solution that works perfectly for a small business might need significant modification for an enterprise client, even within the same industry.
Before diving into complex segmentation models, smart B2B marketers start by understanding the natural segmentation that already exists within their business. Take Bill, a financial operations platform, as an example. They serve two distinct markets: direct companies and accounting firms. These audiences solve similar problems using the same software but in fundamentally different ways.
This natural segmentation often emerges from how sales teams operate. Sales professionals instinctively adjust their approach based on company size, industry, and specific use cases. As Rick Golan, SVP of Growth Marketing at Bill, notes, "Sales will naturally segment in order to best communicate with, best set expectations for, and best sell the product that you have."
Company size frequently serves as a proxy for needs and complexity. A manager at a 2,000-person organization has very different requirements and decision-making processes compared to a small business owner. These natural divisions provide a foundation for more sophisticated segmentation strategies.
Success in B2B segmentation requires balancing rigorous data analysis with real-world sales insights. While large organizations might have teams of PhDs analyzing customer data, smaller companies often rely more heavily on sales team feedback and market testing.
The key is adopting an "explore and exploit" methodology. This means continuously testing different segments while being ready to double down on opportunities that show promise. The story of Divi (now part of Bill) illustrates this perfectly. While the platform wasn't initially built for accounting firms, the team discovered through market exploration that it solved a crucial pain point for accountants and their clients. This discovery led to a highly profitable segment that might have been missed with a more rigid segmentation approach.
To identify and validate segments effectively:
Once you've identified your key segments, the challenge becomes creating targeted messaging that resonates without crossing into what customers might perceive as "creepy" territory. According to research from Smarter HQ, 63% of consumers would stop purchasing from companies whose marketing feels too invasive.
One common challenge is the homepage dilemma – how do you speak to multiple audiences through a single asset? Rather than forcing visitors to self-identify through "Are you X or Y?" buttons, consider a "choose your own adventure" approach. Present key benefits and features that naturally appeal to different segments, allowing visitors to gravitate toward what matters most to them.
Small networks often provide the best opportunities for targeted messaging. When you can speak directly to the specific challenges of a niche industry or role, word-of-mouth marketing – still the most powerful driver of B2B growth – happens naturally.
Implementing effective segmentation requires the right tools and approaches. Popular options include:
The key is working closely with sales teams to identify momentum and amplify success. As Golan puts it, "Great creative work is born out of constraints," and specific segment targeting provides the perfect constraints for creating impactful marketing.
Remember to balance personalization with accuracy. While tools can help identify company characteristics, being wrong about personal details can damage credibility. Instead, focus on business challenges and industry-specific needs that resonate even if some assumptions are slightly off.
Effective B2B segmentation isn't about perfect data analysis – it's about taking action on insights and continuously refining your approach. Start with your natural business segments, validate them through sales team feedback, and test messaging in small networks before scaling.
Remember: "You can't hyper-segment your homepage," but you can create targeted experiences that speak to specific business challenges. Focus on understanding and solving real problems for defined segments, and the results will follow.
The key is to stop overthinking and start testing. Connect with your sales team, identify opportunities, and move quickly to exploit them. In B2B marketing, success often comes from finding and serving smaller networks exceptionally well rather than trying to be everything to everyone.
Marketers have a lot going on in 2025.
Marketing budgets are at an all-time low post-pandemic. At companies feeling especially strained, what little budget remains is controlled by a CFO whose concern is for immediate ROI instead of long-term strategy.
Search is undergoing its own metamorphosis as AI continues to dominate SERP results and Google pushes out more algorithm changes than ever before. Gartner predicts that search engine volume will drop 25% by 2026 as audiences turn to AI chatbots and social platforms for information.
To sum up, marketers are expected to do more with less budget, grow at the whims of Google, and learn how to use AI while also combatting AI.
The response to the chaos is to focus on the core tenets of marketing–aligning our messaging to the audience and our CTAs to a robust full-funnel strategy.
Brands that will reach their audience across the entire funnel know that a message is more important than the channel through which it is sent.
Dollar Shave Club (DSC) came onto the scene in 2011 with a pioneering direct-to-consumer subscription model for high-quality razors delivered monthly for just a few bucks. The startup's messaging positioned themselves as the long-sought-for alternative to overpriced razors loaded with gimmicky features. DSC was scrappy, smart and spoke directly to their audience’s desire to save money.
Unilever bought DSC in 2016 for $1 billion cash, surely with intentions to turn the brand into a profit machine. But Unilever misunderstood DSC’s audience.
DSC was cool precisely because it wasn’t part of a massive conglomerate. Its audience loved a rugged brand born out of a viral YouTube video that offered them an alternative to $35 shaving kits.
But all that Unilever could see was the sexy world of commercials. In 2019 Unilever produced a new video for their brand DSC, inviting men and women of all kinds to “join the club.” Actually, Unilever made a slew of commercials with the same deadpan style as the 2011 hit that made DSC go viral. But it wasn’t shirtless bodybuilders squeezing shampoo bottles or sphynx cats in a shave butter heaven that made DSC successful. Okay, well kind of.
DSC subscribers love funny videos. But if the funny video doesn't have the right messaging, it still misses the mark. Unilever was too focused on channels to really understand the audience and message that DSC customers were so fanatical about.
In an effort to maintain profit margins in retail, Unilever expanded DSC’s offerings to include products such as hair cream, cologne, face moisturizer, and sunscreen. But these products cost anywhere from $10-50.
The same customer that wants quality razors for just a few bucks isn’t going to spring for a $50 bottle of cologne.
In 2023 Unilever sold their majority stake in DSC after seven fumbling years trying to grow their profit margins.
Don’t be Unilever. Know your audience. Listen to them. Create messaging that speaks to their core desires and don’t be distracted by flashy new channels.
That last part is the trap. "Flashy new channels" are usually demand channels in their prime — which means they're also the channels that will plateau, saturate, and eventually stop delivering. Udi Ledergor, former CMO at Gong, warns that every demand channel has a lifespan, and brands that build their entire growth engine on today's working channel are building on borrowed time. This short video captures what it looks like when a channel stops working — and what smart teams are already doing about it.
Something is happening to the marketing funnel. It’s waist? The core middle section that holds all those essential organs? Itty bitty. Hourglass. Nearly invisible for far too many brands.
Top of funnel content is fun! It’s exciting, it’s new, it’s engaging. Bottom of funnel strategy gets the bulk of the resources. “Leads leads leads,” we hear the CEO chanting as we ask for more SEO spend. And the mid-funnel? Forgotten.
Developing a strong mid-funnel strategy is the most crucial effort that marketers can make to increase engagement in 2025.
Mid-funnel content is the heavy hitter—or it should be—in helping your audience to trust you, become true experts in the solutions that can address their problem, and feel prepared to make a decision. This is where your audience wants to hang out.
B2B buyers are self-navigating their way to purchases. They’re not including sales people; they’re doing extensive research on their own. The brands that deliver robust early and mid-funnel content to these B2B buyers will win engagement and ROI.
A report published by Demand Gen reveals that B2B buyers consider the following to be characteristics of early- and mid-funnel content memorable enough to warrant a sales call:
The report also identified interactive content as important in the mid-stages of the buyer’s journey. This content can look take many forms, but respondents prefer:
Build mid-funnel content that allows your audience to do the research that they want to do anyway, but with you.
Ever read an article with a title like “Ten Motivational Quotes for a Tuesday” only to be hit with a “try our complicated SaaS platform” CTA?
All over the internet we’re seeing bottom-of-funnel CTAs slapped on top-of-funnel content. It’s jarring.
In 2025, engagement will hinge on how well marketers align their CTAs with the specific stage of the buyer’s journey.
Marketers should judge every single CTA against two factors: value and relevance.
First, a CTA should continue offering value to your audience. They should get something or learn something that continues to guide them on their journey and help them solve their problem.
Second, a CTA needs to be relevant to the content it appears with. A motivational quote article doesn’t need a CTA for a demo, but maybe a CTA for a productivity guide? That’s closer.
CTAs should mirror the knowledge and intent of your audience. Ask yourself this: if I were engaging with this content what would I want to know or do next that would get me closer to a resolution? That’s your CTA.
Successful marketing strategies employ multiple CTAs, each tailored for their audience’s specific needs at each stage in the funnel.
If marketing is undervalued, brand marketing is the poster child for it. Convincing leadership to lend a budget for top-of-funnel awareness plays can feel impossible in the face of a recession scare.
But marketers know the truth: having a strong brand protects performance dips in every other channel–especially organic and paid.
A strategic brand campaign can have massive ROI that rolls in new business for a long time after the campaign concludes.
One of the most overlooked brand channels is already built into your product. Former Slack CMO Bill Macaitis explains why every free user is quietly acting as a member of your marketing team, spreading awareness and pulling your brand into new organizations. This short video breaks down why your free users may be your most underutilized marketing asset.
Back to the earlier point about the mid-funnel, building strong mid-funnel strategies and CTAs along the full funnel mitigates some of the risk of investing in top-of-funnel brand marketing. Put in different terms, if you want the buy-in for your top-of-funnel dream campaigns, build the mid-funnel first and connect the dots for upper leadership.
A brand marketing campaign should not be a drop-off.
Create a journey. Make your upper-funnel content work for you by hooking your audience on valuable content that logically follows through a whole network of truly useful resources and touch points.
If we had published this article even a year ago it may have felt elementary. Of course we need mid-funnel and multiple CTA. Of course we need to focus on messaging that hits home with our audience!
But in 2025, it feels necessary to re-center on these core tenets of building a brand that audiences trust.
This year we're giving you the tools to succeed by digging into the strategies that top B2B leaders use to turn marketing challenges into meaningful wins. Subscribe wherever you enjoy podcasts.
Let's talk about gated content - you know, those forms you have to fill out to get an ebook or whitepaper. It's 2025, and B2B marketers are still divided on whether it's the right way to go. Some say it's essential for generating leads, while others argue it just frustrates potential customers. But maybe we're getting caught up in the wrong debate. Instead of arguing about whether to gate content or not, shouldn't we focus on creating exchanges that actually work for both sides - our businesses and our audiences?
"It is so easy to grab onto that pendulum and let it swing over into 'I'm just delivering leads,'" Jonathan Riemer, Director of Global Content Experience at ServiceNow. This mindset often leads to gating everything in sight, with success measured solely by form fills rather than genuine engagement or audience value. The opposite extreme – removing all gates – might work for retail or smaller B2B companies with instant-purchase products, but enterprise solutions require a more nuanced approach.
The reality is that most B2B organizations need some way to identify and nurture potential customers. However, the traditional "gate everything" approach increasingly fails to meet modern buyer expectations. The key lies in understanding when information exchange makes sense and when it creates unnecessary barriers.
Consider this scenario Riemer presents: Someone's kitchen sink is spewing water everywhere. Do they want an immersive 3D experience explaining water valve mechanics, hidden behind a form? Of course not – they need immediate, actionable information to solve their crisis. "When you're trying to solve a basic problem that someone has, you don't form it," Riemer emphasizes. This principle applies broadly across B2B content strategy: When addressing immediate, critical needs, remove the barriers.
Once you've solved the immediate problem, you've earned the right to offer additional value. Want contacts for reliable plumbers in your area? That might be worth a form fill. Interested in DIY plumbing tutorials? That could be gated content too. The key is solving the initial problem first, then offering relevant, valuable next steps.
When you do gate content, it needs to feel special. "News organizations are probably at the forefront of figuring out how to create content that is digital still, but feels special enough to warrant someone giving information," Riemer observes. "Shame on us from a B2B standpoint not to consider that as well. Some things should be free, some things are 'no, if you want to find this out, you're going to have to give me something for it.'"
This is where the concept of "agentic content" comes into play. Imagine allowing users to specify not just their contact information, but their preferred format for consuming content. An HR executive at a medical institution might prefer their insights in PowerPoint format for an immediate presentation, while another user might want an in-depth PDF report for careful analysis. Modern AI makes this level of personalization possible and increasingly expected.
Artificial intelligence is transforming how we think about content delivery. New tools can convert long-form content into various formats – from podcasts to presentations – while maintaining quality and relevance. This isn't about replacing human content creators but augmenting their capabilities to serve audiences better.
"From a content strategy and experiential standpoint," Riemer explains, "if I don't know how you prefer to engage with me and get information from me, the power of being able to say, 'Hey, tell us how you would prefer to consume this fantastic information' – that's where AI is going to be so amazing and incredible for demand generation."
"When people fill out a form in the B2B world," Riemer notes, "they are admitting that they're getting ready to have someone, a door-to-door salesman come to them and interrupt them... That's why people put false information or never put their phone number." The solution isn't to abandon lead capture but to create more valuable, less intrusive follow-up experiences.
For mid-funnel content, focus on clear communication of value before asking for information. "Make sure that whatever it is that is inspirational or threatening thing, you have clearly communicated that there are answers and next steps for it," advises Riemer, "and not something wishy-washy."
When deciding whether to gate content, consider these key factors:
Looking ahead, AI agents will play an increasingly important role in content delivery and personalization. "That's where AI is going to be so amazing and incredible for demand generation," Riemer predicts, "is to respect our audiences better and provide them the information that they want in the formats that they want."
These AI team members can help:
"Know that if someone is truly interested in finding out more about your products and solutions... they will not be afraid to give you information," Riemer emphasizes. The key is earning that trust through consistent value delivery and understanding your audience's needs.
The future of gated content isn't about choosing between all or nothing – it's about creating intelligent, value-based exchanges that benefit both parties. As AI continues to evolve, we'll see more sophisticated approaches to content delivery and personalization.
The most successful B2B marketers will be those who master this balance, using technology to create personalized experiences while respecting their audience's time and attention. The question isn't whether to gate your content – it's how to create enough value that your audience gladly opens the gate themselves.
In 2025 and beyond, the winners won't be those who collect the most form fills, but those who create the most valuable, trusted relationships with their audiences. By focusing on value first and using technology to deliver it effectively, we can transform gated content from a necessary evil into a welcome exchange of value.
It's almost time to kick off Mastermind 2024 and we're excited to see you all in Park City very soon! Below are event details, including travel info, a packing list, and agenda.
If you haven't already taken our 5-minute Mastermind Welcome Survey, please click here to fill that survey promptly.
We have prepared an in-depth agenda for Mastermind—check it out HERE. Everything kicks off with registration opening at 11am on Tuesday, November 19th and Lunch being served at 1pm.
Arrival: If you're flying in, you will be taking a Lyft ride from the Salt Lake City Airport up to Park City. Each attendee has one Lyft voucher to travel from the Salt Lake City Airport to Pendry in Park City. The Lyft pickup area is located in the middle traffic lane on the ground level outside of the terminal (follow signs as you exit the terminal). To use the voucher, make sure you have the Lyft app installed on your phone and an account created. Go to https://lyft.com/lp/97THRIDE and log in to your Lyft account to add the voucher using code 97THRIDE. You will then see a Lyft Pass called "Mastermind 2024" in your Payment section. This is only valid at the beginning of the event as people are arriving (11/18 or 11/19).
Otherwise, you can also select a ride from the airport to Park City and in they payment section, select "Add promo code" using "97THRIDE".
Departure: We have prepared shuttles to take all attendees from Park City back to the Salt Lake City Airport on the final day of Mastermind, Thursday November 21st. These shuttles will be leaving every few hours to make sure you're back to the airport in time for your flight.
Parking: If you're driving to Mastermind this year, please follow the signs to Pendry's guest parking underneath the resort.
Pendry Park City
Located in: Canyons Village at Park City
Address: 2417 W High Mountain Rd, Park City, UT 84098
When you arrive at the Pendry Resort, you should be dropped off on the west side of the resort. Members of the 97th Floor team will be roaming around and the Pendry staff will also direct you.
Each year, we create a Mastermind slack group where attendees can find all the information they need, introduce themselves, connect with other attendees, and share links to helpful resources.
We invite you to join the Slack group ahead of time by clicking here. Start by jumping into the #introductions channel to share a picture, your name, company, title, and maybe a fun fact or two!
Weather update: The forecast is looking like we might have fresh snow and the temperatures will be cold (high of 35° F), so be sure to pack a coat!
We want to make sure you’re comfortable during the event. Here’s a quick packing guide:
Indoor:
Outdoor:
Everything else should be taken care of in the way of food, lodging, materials, etc.
We're very excited to have Greg McKeown joining us as our Keynote this year—if you haven't picked up a copy of Essentialism, we highly recommend it! Here's a little more about him:
Author, Public Speaker, Leadership and Business Strategist
Greg McKeown has dedicated his professional life to uncovering counterintuitive ways to be very successful–without burning out. He has written two New York Times bestsellers, “Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less”, which has sold over one million copies and “Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most”.
McKeown has spoken to hundreds of audiences as he has traveled to 40 countries around the world, including Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Nike.
He’s the host of The Greg McKeown Podcast which has been ranked in the Top 5 of all Self Improvement podcasts (out of 11,000) and his work has been covered in print media including in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Time, Fast Company, Fortune, Politico, Inc., and Harvard Business Review.
Organizations, teams, and individuals have benefited from McKeown’s innovative perspective, which challenges conventional wisdom and defines how to break through to the next level of success and profitability. In a compelling way, Greg Mckeown’s Essentialism keynotes will ignite a conversation that revolutionizes the way your organizations think and work.
We're looking forward to meeting and learning from you at Mastermind this year!
"When I’m showing off our program to Sr. Leadership and the C-team, those are the metrics I turn to…I'm really thrilled with the results we're seeing and hope you guys know you’re killing it!" – Head of Organic Marketing, Point of Contact at B2B SaaS
Our client is a B2B SaaS customer management software used by small- and medium-sized healthcare businesses.
Our client needed an SEO strategy to break into four target verticals.
We conducted vertical-focused keyword research and created topic clusters for each of the client’s four focus areas. Based on our research, we began delivering 20 content briefs to the client each month.
Traffic and inquiries have increased in each of our four targeted verticals, with a 39% increase in organic traffic YoY; 28% increase in ranking keywords; and 77% increase in organic traffic YoY.
Tome is an AI assistant for sales. "Trained on your playbook and CRM data, Tome can identify strategic initiatives and key decision makers to help you break into large accounts with a message that resonates."
When Tome came to 97th Floor they were getting the majority of their traffic from users signing up for the free version of their product. They needed a strategic partner to help them increase overall business revenue and increase the number of users that were signing up for the paid premium version of their tool.
To reach Tome's goals, we wanted to focus on creating content that would attract paid customers. Through our conversations with the client, we knew that sales and marketers were two of the main audiences that would likely be paying for the premium version. Creating customer journey maps enabled us to identify the types of questions this audience would be asking that would lead them to Tome.
We then used these insights as we were crafting our SEO strategy and doing our keyword research to go after keywords related to those audiences needs. We prioritized optimizing templates that were relevant to these audiences (case study templates, marketing plan templates, ai presentations, etc.) to help us get in front of these users and help Tome start to quickly grow their organic traffic.
67% increase in average organic traffic in the US
234% increase in ranking keywords in the US
212% increase in keywords ranking in positions 1-3 in the US
