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He’s making a list

He’s checking it twice

He’s gonna find out who’s naughty or nice

‘Tis the season! This is the last you’ll hear from me in 2023 – and I wish you all the best for the holidays, and a rockin’ 2024! As always, I want to hear from you – feel free to reach out – and let’s all finish the year strong and start January off with a bang!

Give this holiday standard by Brian Setzer a listen and enjoy the naughty and nice lists below… HO HO HO!

You-Know-Who is Comin’ to Town

This week’s song is a very cool version of the classic “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” – by the Brian Setzer Orchestra. There have been so many good versions of this over the years, that I thought I’d share a list of them for you – no matter what your musical style, one of these should make you happy!

• Bruce Springsteen
• Michael Bublé
• Jackson 5
• Burl Ives
• Pentatonix
• Alan Jackson

And while we’re at it, let’s take a look at some naughty and nice lists for 2023!

Naughty Lists

Want to know what NOT to buy that special someone on your list?? Here’s a list of the worst tech of 2023 – the ‘anti-gift’ guide!

Seen any good movies lately? When you’re cuddling up at home over the holidays, you may want to avoid these…

Nice Lists

Check out the top tech trends of 2023 – would you agree?

It was a great year for live music – check out the top-grossing tours!

As always, don’t hesitate to call me to brainstorm or just say hello – Happy New Year!

Looking forward,
Rick

Rick Endrulat, President | ricke@v-causeway.com | www.linkedin.com/in/rickendrulat

The post Your B2B Naughty and Nice Lists appeared first on Virtual Causeway.

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I’ve had the chance to see some great shows over the years. And many of these occurred at Salesforce’s Dreamforce conference.

Well – it’s that time of year again – give this song by Foo Fighters a listen as we see what the experts are saying this week.

Living the AI Dream(force)?

Were you at #dreamforce last week? Estimates say 40,000 attended Salesforce’s annual conference in San Francisco this year… a far cry from the 100k+ attendees they boasted pre-COVID. And Foo Fighters performed – again!

You may have seen some of Marc Benioff’s criticism of the city as well – and his warning that Dreamforce 2024 wasn’t a lock for San Francisco if the city’s unhoused and addicted population intruded on his company’s annual software festival.

And what did we learn? Yes, everything is AI. Salesforce’s Einstein product was front and centre, which is to be expected, based on the current trend in B2B and beyond.

What do these lower attendance numbers mean – are they a function of our reluctance to spend time in San Fran? Were the conference (and hotel/travel) costs too outrageous this year? Or we were caged and now we’re free… but maybe Salesforce underestimated the amount of people still unwilling to get back to in-person events.

The next few weeks will be interesting to see: how the conference’s success is assessed and perceived (by Salesforce and others), and what the future of Dreamforce might be.

Speaking of AI…

Maybe you’ve heard “Heart On My Sleeve,” the song that uses AI to mimic the vocals of artists Drake and the Weeknd. Well – there was some recent press around it, and the fact that it’s not eligible for a Grammy – but only because it’s not commercially available (after being removed from streaming services over copyright issues).

AI-generated music that took the voice of popular artists to make new songs or have them “cover” other songs gained traction on social media earlier this year. “Heart On My Sleeve,” in particular, has millions of plays on streaming services Spotify and Apple. Financial Times reported that Universal Music Group – which both Drake and the Weeknd have deals with – requested streaming services prohibit AI platforms from using streamers to study copyrighted songs.

What do you think? It’s interesting that while this song isn’t Grammy-eligible, it’s not for AI-related reasons. While many are hesitating when it comes to AI, many others have embraced it – whether in music or in B2B. But AI isn’t going anywhere! So if you’re one of those hesitating, well, now and then you might try to bend. With the right AI monkey wrench, it might be better than you expect!

As always, don’t hesitate to call me to brainstorm or just say hello!

Looking forward,
Rick

Rick Endrulat, President | ricke@v-causeway.com | www.linkedin.com/in/rickendrulat

The post Dreamforce, AI and the Road Ahead appeared first on Virtual Causeway.

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During these scorching summer days, let’s take a moment to check our collective B2B temperature. Just as monitoring your body temperature can help detect disease or sickness, so can monitoring various factors in your B2B sales and marketing strategies.

With the seesawing conditions we’ve encountered over the past few years, it’s crucial to maintain a deep understanding of your B2B health and wellness. Doing so helps you make informed decisions and positions your team for success – are you consistently inconsistent or on track?

Give this song by Hot Hot Heat a listen as we stay cool and see what the experts are saying this week.

Heat Alert! B2B Marketing Trends in 2023

Despite the looming threat of recession, 92% of marketers expect their budgets to increase or stay the same this year (at least for now). 86% say that data privacy regulations have impacted their marketing strategy over the past year. And most agree there’s one tactic that’s the biggest trend, has the highest ROI, and tops the to-do list for this year.

Those are just a few of the takeaways from HubSpot’s recently released The State of Marketing: Marketing Trends in 2023 from AI to Z report. This 46-page report is packed with stats and insights on all aspects of marketing from HubSpot and partners including Wistia and Litmus.

While the entire study is worth a read, here are some key takeaways and points of interest from the report:

1. SEO: Surprisingly Enticing Opportunity
   Given that organic search is one of the top two sources of traffic for business websites (at least on the B2B side), and has high conversion rates, it’s surprising that this research reports, “29% of marketers use a search-optimized website and blog to attract and convert leads.”
   Only 29%?! That doesn’t sound right. It’s also inconsistent with findings elsewhere in this study…
2. Video Marketing: Hotter Than Ever
   Video marketing is huge and somehow keeps getting huger. It’s been “the year of video” every year since 2017. Per the new HubSpot report, “Video is the most popular and effective media format for the fourth year in a row.”
3. Influencer Marketing: It’s Social (But Pick Your Platforms Carefully)
   Influencer marketing continues to grow in importance across industries, though priorities, platforms, and practices are much different between B2B and B2C influencer marketing.
4. The Last Word (Acronym, Actually) on Marketing Trends for 2023
   Likely because of the timing of the study, the research doesn’t say a lot about the impact artificial intelligence (AI) will have on marketing this year and beyond. It does note that AI is where everybody’s hanging out… marketing tools are now everywhere; they’ll help marketers with the perennial demand to “do more with less”; and “Content creators and marketers now have a new skill to learn – getting good at using AI.”

Streaming – Communism vs Capitalism?

I think sometimes we expect simple or quick answers to problems when the real solution is a horribly complex mess of contradictions that’ll chew you up and spit you out anyway. With that in mind, there was a weird peace of mind to be found in reading Will Page’s very interesting thoughts on the state of streaming.

Page likens the friction around streaming remuneration as being like communism meeting capitalism. The ‘communism’ view is that every song is worth the same. The ‘capitalism’ view is the opposite.

Seems that artists need to find other ways to generate revenue now, and need to be getting more adventurous, more inquisitive, and more playful in how they are connecting fans with music.

I don’t believe music’s cultural heft has diminished. But at some point, it’s like we all accepted that it’s just worth less now, and that was that. But like share prices, these things can move up as well as down, and perhaps we’re approaching a point where the value of music needs to be focused on a bit more.

What about B2B? As marketers and B2B professionals, unpredictability’s our responsibility. The value of certain things – including the goods and services that we provide – can go up and down unexpectedly. Things like a State of Marketing report can help mitigate some of that unpredictability, though.

So get more adventurous, more inquisitive, and more playful! How do you leverage data from reports like HubSpot’s to connect (or reconnect) with your fans?

As always, don’t hesitate to call me to brainstorm or just say hello!

Looking forward,
Rick

Rick Endrulat, President | ricke@v-causeway.com | www.linkedin.com/in/rickendrulat

The post Have You Done a B2B Temperature Check? appeared first on Virtual Causeway.

What Do B2B Marketers Do Now? is an ongoing email. Join the mailing list to be the first to receive these weekly insights!

I love it when a past client comes back. It’s a great feeling – like getting the band back together!

How do you create that same feeling with a NEW client? And how do you get those other past clients back? Maybe you just need to ask them – every single one’s got a story to tell!

Give this song by The White Stripes a listen as we hear what the experts are saying this week.

AI – 2023’s NFTs!

Seems like every B2B article is about AI nowadays. And yes, I’m including last week’s post in that list – it was all every analyst talked about at the Forrester #b2bsummit last week! Interested in exploring the history of ChatGPT? Check out this timeline: from launch all the way to reaching over 100 million users, 1.6 billion visits, and 200 plugins.

Everyone knows about it! ChatGPT launched only six months ago so the timeline is pretty short – but it’s jampacked! It’s interesting to see how the growth of AI happened in such a tight timeframe.

While we’ve never really seen growth quite this fast before, it did get me thinking about B2B (as these things often do). What other tech has seen a quick rise, seemingly out of nowhere? How did we adapt to it, and looking back, how can we apply that to what we’re experiencing with AI now?

Band Reunion Odds

Before the internet, a band could break up, its members retire, and still be a profitable venture.

Those days are gone. Physical sales are a tiny fraction of what they used to be and fat royalty checks are a thing of the past. Meanwhile, streaming doesn’t pay like physical sales. If you’re an artist of a certain vintage, what do you do?

There’s lots of money to be made in taking nostalgia on the road. Amphitheaters and arenas need to be filled. Multiple generations have shown that they’re prepared to part with their money: Boomers want to relive their youth and Zoomers, consumed with FOMO, want to see these great acts before too many of them die off.

Promoters are willing to offer heritage bands sweet guarantees to get back together. What are you willing to offer churned clients to get back together with them?

While you think that over, Alan Cross lists seven groups that appear on many reunion wish lists – what are the chances of them putting aside any past differences for one more go-round? Or will most of them just say they don’t wanna hear about it…?

Want to Play? There’s always room in the band…

This week (June 21) is Make Music Day, the worldwide festival of making music. Visit here for more information.

As always, don’t hesitate to call me to brainstorm or just say hello!

Looking forward,
Rick

Rick Endrulat, President | ricke@v-causeway.com | www.linkedin.com/in/rickendrulat

The post Getting the Band Back Together: Winning Back B2B Clients appeared first on Virtual Causeway.

What Do B2B Marketers Do Now? is an ongoing email. Join the mailing list to be the first to receive these weekly insights!

I love getting emails. Well, I get so many that I can’t keep up. BUT I love to see how competitors, vendors, clients, and other B2B firms are messaging their offerings and solutions. I attended the #forrb2bsummit last week, and I’ve been BOMBARDED with emails!

I’ve noticed that we really lack any sort of imagination in emails – I got so many from different vendors with similar subject lines and top-level messages. It all just becomes noise – very disappointing. Let them say what they want, but it’s not being heard!

Let this song by the Cars knock you around as we hear what the experts are saying this week.

Let the Stories Be Told

Not surprisingly, the role of Generative AI was prominent at the Forrester B2B Summit last week. Some key takeaways from the various keynotes:

• Don’t wait to implement your Generative AI strategy. If you don’t have one, then develop one. “You might not be interested in Generative AI, but Generative AI is interested in you.”
• Why is now any different? Big tech change is difficult to predict and typically arrives in ‘thunderstorms’. What triggers that change? A substantial shift in the user interface evolves access to the technology, making it available to a significantly wider set of the population. That’s what just happened.
• SEO in its current form will be obsolete. Why drive people to a website when Generative AI can simply tell you the answer?
• Websites in their current form – also obsolete. The future website is a large language model, made available to Generative AI. Rather than a dump of marketing information on a set of pages, data is simply made available and AI can sort through it.
• B2B sellers are MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER. As more of the buying process becomes digital, human interaction and sellers will be integral. These sellers are ‘fast’ relationship generators. When AI can tell you so much, the differentiator becomes associated with how fast the seller can build a solid relationship.

What do you think? Things are getting more automated and more decisions can be driven through AI, so it’s good practice to let AI be on your side. But at the same time, the relationship matters more than ever – so don’t let it suffer!

Let the Good Times Roll

It’s been 45 years since the Cars released their first album. Wow. I remember playing that album over and over in my parents’ basement – my brother or sister bought it, but I wore it out! At the time, these guys were groundbreaking – they always embraced the latest technology and equipment… even if they knew it would be obsolete in two months!

As a guitar player and tech nerd, I tend to get a little too excited about gear. Do you know anyone that’s similar? A musician that has more gear than they know what to do with? Perhaps they suffer from Gear Acquisition Syndrome!

It’s a tongue-in-cheek ailment, but the behaviour is real! The trigger stems from a deep-seated emotional connection coupled with the satisfaction received from the pursuit of the instrument at hand.

For me, it’s a connection with Gibson Les Pauls, since I was obsessed with Led Zeppelin when I was learning how to play rock guitar. Seeing those guitars takes me back to that precise moment in time when I first heard Zep.

B2B impact? How can you get your customers to have that same emotional connection with YOUR brand? Consider those innovators and early adopters – the ones that HAVE to have the coolest and newest technology. Don’t let them leave you up in the air – foster those relationships and cross the chasm into the early majority!

As always, don’t hesitate to call me to brainstorm or just say hello!

Looking forward,
Rick

Rick Endrulat, President | ricke@v-causeway.com | www.linkedin.com/in/rickendrulat

The post AI: The B2B Worm for your Early Bird appeared first on Virtual Causeway.

What Do B2B Marketers Do Now? is an ongoing email. Join the mailing list to be the first to receive these weekly insights!

What marketer hasn’t been swept up in the AI craze? Maybe it can make our jobs easier. Maybe it can help us hit our sales numbers. Or maybe it’s a big distraction…

Case in point – the other day I spent hours listening to AI-generated isolated guitar tracks from Smashing Pumpkins songs. Fascinating… very helpful when you’re trying to learn parts – but I also got sucked into countless YouTube videos of AI-generated music and guitar solos.

Check out this song by Smashing Pumpkins (non-AI version) while we see what the experts are saying this week…

HubSpot’s AI Solution

As a B2B marketing professional, you understand the importance of creating quality content to engage with your target audience. However, this can be time-consuming and daunting, particularly if you’re managing multiple campaigns.

HubSpot’s latest AI-powered tools, the content assistant and ChatSpot.ai, are designed to save you time and streamline your workflows. These tools use advanced artificial intelligence technology from OpenAI to make work easier for marketing, sales, and customer service professionals.

All in all, AI can be a double-edged sword. Marketers should know both the advantages and disadvantages of using AI in marketing before implementing it in their campaigns. HubSpot’s new tools will be interesting to follow as their user base adopts them.

What do you think? Is AI a friend or foe of marketing? Will it speak to your customers in a language they can hear?

Long Tail, Scarcity & Pop Culture

Within a few weeks, we’re going to see thousands (or millions) of new songs created by AI and available on YouTube and streaming channels. Some of them will be mediocre, others breakthroughs, and even some hits.

Pop culture has traditionally depended on scarcity – with only a few TV stations or a dozen radio stations, it’s likely that many of us have watched or heard the same thing at the same time. A popular TV show from fifty years ago probably reached twenty times as many people as a popular hit today.

But the long tail brings other benefits. More choices, more innovation. Not just a long tail of consumption, but also a spectacular decrease in the cost of production. Innovations in computers, cameras, and AI mean that people can make content without permission from a gatekeeper.

According to Seth Godin, creating music – like writing – is an inherently human activity, and it doesn’t go away. People will make the effort. What does go away is the commercial and creative dynamic of thousands of people in places like Nashville and Hollywood trying to become ‘someones’ with nothing but a typewriter or a guitar.

The end of pop and the rise of the long tail and AI brings us back a century. Just like it used to be – small circles of people, not mass markets. But this time with endless choices and a business model that’s hard to visualize.

What do you think? Can you make it last forever?

As always, don’t hesitate to call me to brainstorm or just say hello!

Looking forward,
Rick

Rick Endrulat, President | ricke@v-causeway.com | www.linkedin.com/in/rickendrulat

The post Heads or Tails? AI and the Long Tail appeared first on Virtual Causeway.

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As a guitarist, I’ve listened to my share of loud music. Back in the ’80s, there was no such thing as an unnecessary amplifier… the more the better! Just look at the videos from then – the back of the stage filled with huge amplifiers – which I thought was super cool.

But when it comes to language, Seth Godin advises against unnecessary amplifiers. That got me thinking about our communications and how we love hyperbole.

We might as well jump in and see what the experts are saying this week… so give this song by Van Halen a listen as we do!

AI’s Role in ABM

Artificial Intelligence seems to be on everyone’s mind these days. B2B Marketing Zone lists ways AI can support ABM. These are just a few:

• Segmenting your market
• Generating targeted content
• Scoring leads and determining when to engage

Of course, there are challenges in implementing AI for ABM. Understanding what data to collect and ensuring output quality are some big ones. Will AI-generated targeted content be too full of unnecessary amplifiers? Will it get to what’s real and have the right tone for your organization?

You won’t know until you begin, but there are definitely best practices you can follow when integrating AI. Make sure your goals and objectives are clear from the outset, regularly test your results, and ensure you have the resources available to manage and maintain your AI software… and soon enough, nothin’ will get you down!

Music & Tech Trends

Walls of amps aside, have you been wondering how music tech is trending in 2023? Bob Lefsetz shared some of his predictions. I found them particularly interesting, as just about all of them apply to B2B as well!

• Independent creators will continue to grow
• Ticketing is heading for a crunch point
• If TikTok is killed, Instagram reels will burgeon
• It’s harder to gain traction than ever before – so people will look for new ways to get noticed
• Everything happens slower than it ever did before
• In a digital world, people crave live, breathing events
• In an era of authenticity and credibility, sell out at your peril

Some of these trends sound awfully familiar, don’t they?

It was just last month we looked at a study finding that B2B sales cycles have increased (everything happening slower). And I don’t know how many times I’ve said this, but it bears repeating: in a digital world – that’s now increasingly AI-driven – live, breathing human touchpoints are more important than ever!

There are challenges we may be facing with tech and AI. But there are some big advantages, too. So go ahead and jump – just make sure you’re making the necessary preparations for it!

As always, don’t hesitate to call me to brainstorm or just say hello!

Looking forward,
Rick

Rick Endrulat, President | ricke@v-causeway.com | www.linkedin.com/in/rickendrulat

The post The Growing Role of AI in ABM appeared first on Virtual Causeway.