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The Lab Results Are Fine: When B2B Marketing Data Hides a Sick System

The Lab Results Are Fine: When B2B Marketing Data Hides a Sick System

Key takeaways: Healthy B2B marketing data can make a broken system look fine. Isolated metrics, such as organic traffic, cost per click and lead volume, can hide problems with buyer intent, sales trust and pipeline movement. When sales cycles exceed historical norms or sales teams stop trusting marketing leads, marketing teams need to look at […]
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Why AI Is Ignoring Your B2B Customer Case Studies

Why AI Is Ignoring Your B2B Customer Case Studies

Key takeaways: When B2B customer case studies bury customer problems and measurable results beneath company background and product details, AI systems can’t identify the information buyers need. As a result, many case studies never appear in AI-generated answers. Most B2B customer case studies make it hard to identify the problem, the solution and the results. […]
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The Thought Leader’s Shortcut: Build a Content Bank From 1 Asset

The Thought Leader’s Shortcut: Build a Content Bank From 1 Asset

Key takeaways: Break one anchor asset into a Content Bank of articles, social posts, carousels, videos and sales tools. Use a content repurposing strategy and employee advocacy to distribute those assets and support a 90-day, multichannel campaign. This allows you to reach buyers throughout their research process. In the last Expert-Led Content Engine article, we […]
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The Trust Gap: Why Human Content Wins in an AI Market

The Trust Gap: Why Human Content Wins in an AI Market

Key takeaways: Human-first content in B2B is grounded in experience, a clear point of view and informed judgment. It helps buyers build trust before they with speak with sales. For years at The Simons Group, our North Star has been “content-first.” It’s how we keep the focus where it belongs: on the message rather than […]
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Stop Asking Experts to Write: The Two-Touchpoint Content Workflow

Stop Asking Experts to Write: The Two-Touchpoint Content Workflow

Key takeaways: A two-touchpoint content workflow concentrates expert involvement into two focused moments that support speed, cost discipline and buyer expectations. By structuring participation around an input session and an accuracy review, organizations share insights while buyers are evaluating options. In addition, this workflow reduces inefficient use of expert time, supports consistent execution and aligns […]
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Create a Quarterly Content Planning Sprint

Create a Quarterly Content Planning Sprint

Key takeaways: Quarterly content planning gives B2B teams a clear, repeatable way to set direction before execution. Rather than reacting to scattered requests, teams align on priorities, themes and proof points during a focused planning sprint that brings marketers and experts together at the right moment. Experts contribute insight once per quarter, while marketers carry […]
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B2B Trust Has Turned Inward. Thought Leadership Gets You In

B2B Trust Has Turned Inward. Thought Leadership Gets You In

Key takeaways: B2B trust now forms early and close to home. Buyers place greater confidence in familiar people and proven judgment. New research shows that thought leadership content plays a role in helping buyers assess expertise and reduce perceived risk. However, today, merely showing up with content isn’t enough. Organizations that pair expert-led insights with […]
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The ROI of Content Marketing: Why Sales Wins Start With Relevance

The ROI of Content Marketing: Why Sales Wins Start With Relevance

Key takeaways: The ROI of content marketing is measured by its ability to accelerate sales cycles, increase pipeline value and establish credibility before sales outreach. By answering buyers’ questions early, content marketing reduces time to close and improves marketing-qualified leads to sales-qualified leads (MQL to SQL) conversion rates. Effective content also functions as always-on sales […]
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Build a Scalable Thought Leadership Content Strategy

Build a Scalable Thought Leadership Content Strategy

Key takeaways: A strong thought leadership content strategy treats expert time like the scarce resource it is. With one structured input session and one final accuracy review, you build a full quarter of content from a single anchor asset. By bringing experts in early and giving them clear direction, the result is consistent messaging, reduced […]
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The Hidden Bias in AI Marketing Content

The Hidden Bias in AI Marketing Content

B2B marketers depend on artificial intelligence (AI) tools as assistants for many tasks, often without considering every request carries an unseen slant. Every answer starts with a human prompt. Therefore, bias can slip in before these tools write a single word. This cycle makes bias in AI marketing content more common than people realize. How […]
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Does Your Website Have a Good Conversion Rate?

Do you want to improve lead generation on your company’s website? If that’s one of your goals, look at your website’s conversion rate. This metric refers to the percentage of website visitors who complete a specific goal. The two types of website conversions are: Micro-conversions A micro-conversion is when you

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Woman at computer thinking about answers to 5 B2B marketing questions

B2B Marketing: 5 Questions That Drive Strategy

For a long time, B2B (business-to-business) marketing was all about inbound. The goal was to attract customers with valuable, tailored content. Companies put marketing dollars into developing engaging material. The content showed the companies’ offerings without pushing sales. The goal was to create brand awareness and attract new business. They

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Manufacturing Brand Marketing Mistakes

Industrial manufacturers might not have the advertising allure of consumer brands. But they still need a manufacturing brand marketing strategy to compete for customers. Most manufacturing leaders understand the importance of marketing. On the other hand, some industry giants face mistakes and misconceptions. As a result, their manufacturing brand marketing

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To Accomplish More, Lead With Kindness

Growing up, the only business role model I had was my dad. He was charismatic (when he needed to be). He was wildly successful. The problem was that he ruled his company with an iron fist. He led with fear, and people in his wake were often left shaking in

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Is Your Brand Safe From ‘Typo Squatting’?

There’s a new lesson for your digital marketing strategy every day. As if COVID-19 and inflation weren’t enough, your brand must worry about “typo squatting.” That’s when scammers, hackers and other exploiters hijack website domain names. They buy variants of domains with misspelled names. Two examples are “Gooogle” and “Verizan.”

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Slow down sign in traffic image for Content Marketing Efforts To Fast?

Are Your Content Marketing Efforts Moving Too Fast?

We all want to go full speed ahead to meet our marketing and sales goals. But sometimes, we need to slow down and reexamine our content marketing efforts. We need to see whether we’re heading in the right direction. Are you:  Taking time to reevaluate your strategy? Reaching your target

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Symbol for Content Marketing for Beginners: Image of many white kites and one red kite breaking free

The Beginner’s Guide to Content Marketing

Content marketing for beginners is hard. Consistently publishing valuable, relevant and high-quality content takes effort and teamwork. Why? You must find the perfect managing editor who is equal parts project manager and keeper of your brand’s voice. You must also scale a team of writers, designers and video editors to

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