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How to Measure Thought Leadership ROI

How to Measure Thought Leadership ROI

Key takeaways: Thought leadership ROI goes far beyond likes, impressions and website traffic. The most effective measurement strategy tracks awareness, buyer engagement and revenue together, giving marketing leaders a clear view of the business results. When you also measure the value generated for every hour your experts invest, you gain the evidence you need to […]
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Why More CEOs See Marketing as a Cost Center

Why More CEOs See Marketing as a Cost Center

Key takeaways: The marketing cost-center problem is old, but it’s accelerating. The share of CEOs who see marketing as a cost rather than a profit center jumped from 35% to 60% in one year. The cause is measurement. Only 13% of CEOs feel confident that marketing can show financial benefits, and producing more content with […]
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The Double AI Lie: You’re Losing Time and Your Edge

The Double AI Lie: You’re Losing Time and Your Edge

Key takeaways: AI and critical thinking have an increasingly complicated relationship. Research shows that heavy reliance on AI can reduce critical thinking, weaken independent judgment and make ideas more alike. AI can help with efficiency, but marketers still need to question assumptions, challenge outputs and focus on original thinking. AI has incredible power and potential, […]
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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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A pedestrian stop signal on a traffic light represents the B2B content killers that can prevent engagement.

Do You Know What’s Killing Your B2B Content?

When it comes to B2B content, we’ve all been there. You wrote what you thought was your best blog post or case study. Maybe you put the finishing touches on your new website. You were proud of your work. And then someone dumped all over it. The red sea of

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A fishing pole represents the challenge of fishing for strong headlines.

Hook Them In: How to Create Powerful B2B Headlines

Powerful B2B headlines entice readers to engage with your content. Whether you’re creating content for your website, customer advocacy programs, videos, case studies or social media channels, solid titles pull your audience in. The problem is they’re not easy to write. And with so much B2B marketing content available online,

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A bird on a tree stump represents how grammar can stymie everyone.

Are You ‘Continually’ Stumped ‘Continuously’?

Two simple adverbs trip me up every time. Whether I’m writing or editing content, I have to look them up: continually and continuously. They have such close meanings, but they’re not interchangeable. It seems I’m not alone, as I continually find incorrect usage in a variety of content. Do you

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Crack the Code of That Versus Which in Writing

One of the most common mistakes I see among new and veteran writers is using “that” and “which” incorrectly. Don’t feel bad if you don’t know when each is called for or why they’re not interchangeable. Grammar isn’t in everyone’s wheelhouse. Essential clauses The first step is to grasp essential

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A handshake represents working with subject experts.

How to Work with Subject Experts and Boost Brand Trust

Buyers want and need to trust brands more than ever before. They’re educating themselves and researching online before they buy. Trust is among the top three reasons that drive purchasing decisions, according to the 2023 Edelman Trust Barometer. Fifty-nine percent of survey respondents said they’re more likely to buy from

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Colored pencils represent sharpening up your grammar, punctuation and style prowess.

Sharpen Your Grammar, Style and Punctuation with These Resources

If you create business or marketing communications regularly, you’re probably a decent writer. But even great writers use grammar, style and punctuation guides. If your skills aren’t where they need to be, these references can help you improve your writing. If you’re thinking about leaning on GPT, Copy.ai, Grammarly or

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Letter tiles that spell email represent the resurgence of B2B email marketing.

B2B Email Marketing Trends and Tactics for 2024

Business-to-business (B2B) email marketing is experiencing a renaissance, thanks to new technologies and tools. Increased demand for authentic and personalized interactions among buyers is another contributing factor. If you’re treating email marketing like you did 10 years ago, it’s time for a reboot. Email is a core digital marketing format

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An image of a human eye represents how AI can help writers.

7 Quick AI Tips for Seasoned Writers

That got concerning for a bit there, didn’t it? When ChatGPT burst onto the scene in early 2023, it felt like it was trying to take us down as writers. Suddenly, anyone could create generally presentable marketing content – instantly. Fortunately, it looks like generative artificial intelligence (AI) will be

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An empty page represents being out of content marketing inspiration.

What to Do When You Need Content Marketing Inspiration

When you’re out of content marketing inspiration and the well is dry, it’s a struggle to get out of that rut. You might explore topic ideas only to find that other creators have covered them. That happened to me recently. My next move was to tap ChatGPT and Notion.so. Unfortunately,

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Who Do You Think You’re Talking To?

Before I followed my passion and made content marketing my career, I took time off after college. I had to get my head together and mature a bit. Many of my friends did the same. Their activities included backpacking in Asia and working on a fishing boat in Alaska. In

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