Erin Balsa

Content Marketing Consultant and Writer 

I build and execute content marketing strategies for sales-led B2B SaaS startups that sell complex, enterprise-ready solutions.

Erin enjoys B2B content marketing, keeping the Halloween spirit alive year-round, and talking about herself in the third person. 

No but really ... 

I've been working in content since 2011 when I landed my first job as an editor. Since then, I've worn a bunch of hats like:

- Content marketing agency leader
- Inc. 5000 B2B SaaS marketing director
- Freelance content strategist, writer, and editor

Over the years, I've written for a bunch of brands you probably know including:

- HubSpot
- Drift
- G2
- Intuit
- And a Fortune 100 that shall not be named

These days, I help marketing teams at B2B SaaS companies (Series A-C) survey a representative sample of their ICP and write a 𝒃𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒗𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 original research report that positions their brand as a credible authority — to secure press mentions and close enterprise deals.

If you're ready to publish research that builds trust instead of skepticism, let's chat. And if you just want to connect with a fellow marketing nerd who decorates for Halloween in July, I'm here for that too.

Hausofbold.com

Content Marketing Consultant

I build and execute content marketing strategies for sales-led B2B SaaS startups that sell complex, enterprise-ready solutions. 

Unlike some strategists and agencies, I don't hand you a content strategy and say, "Best of luck!" I ensure your success by helping across four buckets:

▶ People 
▶ Process 
▶ Strategy
▶ Execution 

Learn more and read client testimonials at: hausofbold.com

It's been 3 years since I joined Navattic as a marketing advisor.

In celebration,  I'm pressing buttons on my keyboard! 

(Look at me go.) 

I remember reaching out to Devin Reed and asking him how he got into advising. A simple question — but putting my intention out into the world changed things for me. 

Next day, Natalie Marcotullio reached out ... and the rest is history!

I'm grateful to have found such a wonderful long-term partner. Amazing people, amazing product, and super customer-obsessed. What's not to love?

👉  If your B2B needs regular guidance from a content/brand leader with deep experience in content strategy, original research, and thought leadership, drop me a note.

B2B Content Marketing Leader & Advisor | Creating Data-Backed Narratives That Make Selling Easier

I opened my LinkedIn notifications to see that someone left me a mean comment. 

My blood instantly started to boil. 

"Your research report reads like a sales brochure — you just don't know it yet."

𝘞𝘰𝘸. 𝘙𝘶𝘥𝘦! 𝘞𝘩𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘶𝘥𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘮𝘦?!

Oh. 

It was me.
I posted that.
A few days ago. 

This is what happens when you take the advice to "lead with a spicy hook." It comes back to haunt you every time you open your notifications. 😂

It’s 9:07am and we have already:

- eaten breakfast, twice
- built a haunted house out of Picasso tiles 
- made cookies with Play-Doh 
- put ghost stickers on a sheet of paper 
- colored (but not on the wall this time)
- played in 3 feet of snow 

Ah, what other joys will the day bring? 

I know one thing it won’t bring: the ability to work in silence. 

Those days are long gone. 🙃

No alternative text description for this image

If your buyers are skeptical — and they are — would your research pass the sniff test or raise red flags? 🚩 

Most B2B research falls into one of four categories based on:

Rigor of methodology (competence)
Transparency of reporting (integrity)

Here’s a quick gut-check:

Is your methodology rigorous or sloppy?

Q: Was your sample size large enough to support the claims you made?
Q: Was your sample actually representative of your target market?
Q: Was the person who designed the survey and handled the data properly trained?
Q: Did you do data quality checks to weed out bots and people speeding through for rewards?
Q: Did your screener questions weed out respondents who lacked relevant, recent experience?
Q: Were your survey questions clearly worded, non-leading, and free from bias?
Q: Did you run cross-tabulations to analyze relationships within the data?
Q: Did you clearly disclose your confidence levels, margin of error, and study limitations?

Score it like this:
1 point for every “yes”
Higher score = higher rigor

Is your reporting transparent or selective?

Q: Did you set out to test a hypothesis rather than go digging for interesting stats after the fact?
Q: Did you report on the findings that challenged your assumptions — and not just the ones that supported them?
Q: Did you publish your survey questions verbatim instead of paraphrasing them?
Q: Did you distinguish between correlation and causation?
Q: Did you invite external experts to interpret your findings?
Q: Did you acknowledge limitations and uncertainties in your data?
Q: Did you keep your analysis neutral without turning it into a sales brochure?
Q: Did you show the full distribution of responses instead of only highlighting favorable results?

Score it like this:
1 point for every “yes”
Higher score = higher transparency 

Tally up your answers and see where you're at: 

High rigor + high transparency = Believable Research 
High rigor + low transparency = “Trust us” research
Low rigor + high transparency = Amateur research
Low rigor + low transparency = Hogwash research

Was this helpful?

Generic GTM is dead → Go to my featured section for actionable GTM insights and elevate your marketing game 🔥| Co-Founder of TACK | Creating the category of People-first GTM 👥| 13+ Years in B2B Marketing 📈

I help B2B companies build go-to-market strategies that prioritize real connection because relationships, not just reach, drive growth.

After 14 years in B2B marketing, I’ve led field marketing, demand gen, community, and influencer programs. I know what works, what doesn’t, and what’s changed.

Too many companies still treat buyers like leads. That’s not how modern GTM works.

I’ve helped 35+ B2B brands shift from transactional tactics to connection-driven growth, building scalable strategies, launching communities, running 30+ webinars, and rolling out on-demand models that replaced bloated in-house teams.

Today, I work directly with brands, founders, and marketers to build go-to-market engines that scale—without the spam.

What I do:
→ Build integrated campaign strategies that drive pipeline
→ Coach creators and brands on influencer marketing
→ Design community-led and field programs that actually work
→ Speak on GTM, content, and creator-led growth
→ Act as a fractional marketing leader or advisor

📚 Author of B2B Influencer Marketing: Work With Creators to Generate Authentic and Effective Marketing (Kogan Page, 2025)

👋 Let’s work together: DM me or visit https://linktr.ee/NickBMarketing

Nick Bennett

2:30am. Just walked in the door.

Gone since Sunday for B2BMX. Long days on the conference floor. Speaking. Filming content. Conversations that ran late. And a time zone that had me waking up at 3:30am because my body was still on east coast time.

I wasn't expecting anything. Just wanted to get home and crash.

Then I saw this on the door.

A sign. Handmade. Markers. Drawings of a dog they want but don't have yet. A rainbow. Little hearts.

"Welcome Home Dada!"

My kids took time out of their day to make something for me. Even though I was gone for days. Even though they had every reason to be annoyed that dad was traveling…leaving the burden of 3 kids on my wife on top of her job. 

They weren't annoyed. They were excited this morning when they woke up and I was there. 

And that's when it hit me.

The late flights. The missed dinners. The early mornings. The constant juggle of work and family.

It's not easy. And honestly, some days I question if the tradeoff is worth it.

Then you walk in at 2:30am to a homemade sign on the door.

And you remember why you do it.

Not for the conferences. Not for the pipeline. Not for the LinkedIn posts.

For them.

They're the reason. They've always been the reason.

To every parent out there grinding and traveling for work: they see you. They get it. More than you think.

Keep going.

B2B Marketing Operator | Sharing what works from 15 years of actually doing it | Field Marketing, Events, ABM, GTM

Wheels up to B2BMX.

I’m speaking Wednesday at 11:00am.

Session: “Moments That Move Buying Groups”

If you’re tired of marketing to one person and hoping your champion drags the deal across the finish line, this one’s for you.

I’m breaking down:

1.) how to map 6–8 roles before you ever outreach
why “safe” marketing disappears
2.) the G.I.F.T. framework we used to drive $9M+ pipeline
3.) plays you can steal (buying-group moments, not theory)

But here’s what I’m really after:

I’m filming a content series while I’m there.

If you’ve got a hot take, a story, or just want to riff on camera for a few minutes, DM me. We’ll make something good (fast).

Also: the Reachdesk team is unveiling something brand new at booth #209. First time anyone’s seeing it. Worth stopping by and I’ll show you it firsthand and you may get a little something. 

Now the real question:

Who’s going to be there?
Who wants to grab coffee?
Who’s down to create some content?

Drop a comment. Let’s make this happen.

Shoutout to Jared Robin and Katie Penner of Influ2 for the cool laser engraved trophy. 

Also one of the coolest designed booths I’ve seen in a long time! Shoutout to you Natalie Burt. 

LinkedIn legends 😂😂😂

I used to run monthly field marketing meetups.

80-100 field marketers would join virtually. We'd talk wins, losses, ideas. Same topic came up every single time.

Tracking.

Everyone had a CRM. Everyone had spreadsheets. Nobody had a simple way to show leadership what actually worked.

Event season is coming. I was lying in bed thinking about this problem again.

So I built something.

It's called Event Impact Tracker. Free. No login. Data stays in your browser.

Here's what it does:

→ Pipeline-first metrics (not badge scans)
→ Auto-calculates ROI and grades events A-F
→ Compares your results against industry benchmarks
→ Exports to PDF or CSV for leadership reports

I built this V1 in about 30 minutes laying in bed watching TV on Lovable last night. It's not perfect. But it solves the problem I kept hearing about for years.

Your CFO doesn't care about booth traffic. They care about pipeline and revenue. This helps you show them that.

No catch. No email capture. Just use it.

https://lnkd.in/eDQ7JirG

If you're heading into event season and need a better way to prove ROI, this might help.

Shoot me feedback! I want to improve this thing, and I'm also semi addicted now.

15+ Year B2B Marketing Leader Turned Founder | ABM, Field Marketing & Events, Influencer Marketing & More | DM Me to Learn More

Accounts don't buy. People do.

And most ABM programs forget that.

They roll everything up into an account score. Wait for a threshold. Then blast the same message to everyone on the list.

Meanwhile, the actual buyers are already forming a shortlist. Different stakeholders. Different priorities. Different timelines.

By the time your score triggers action, you're late.

Here's what Influ2 found when they analyzed 2M targets (full report in comments):

→ Contacts who engaged with ads booked meetings 74% more often than cold outbound alone
→ Accounts with buying group engagement converted to pipeline 118% better
→ 66% of buyers change priorities mid-deal
→ 92% of decisions involve up to 9 people
→ IT/Security blocks deals 38% of the time despite having only 10% of influence

That last one is critical. The person with the most objections isn't the person with the most weight. And if you're running one averaged journey for the whole account, you're missing the blocker entirely.

Here's how I'd operationalize this:

1) Map the buying group before outreach. Not just titles. Identify who influences, who blocks, and who signs. IT and Security need their own message track.

2) Track engagement at the contact level. When someone clicks, that's a signal. Follow up within 48 hours with context tied to what they engaged with. Not a generic sequence.

3) Don't wait for account scores. If one person in the buying group is active, that's your window. Act on individual signals, not rolled-up thresholds.

4) Align sales on who engaged, not just which account is "hot." Give reps the name, the topic, and the timestamp. That's what turns outreach into a conversation.

The 118% lift doesn't come from better targeting alone. It comes from treating buyers like people instead of logos.

If your ABM is still account-first, you're leaving pipeline on the table.

Full report in comments.

What's your current approach: account-level scoring or contact-level orchestration?

B2B Marketing Exchange is a wrap.

Spoke today. Reconnected with marketers I've known for years. Met a bunch of new ones. Filmed some content. Walked the floor. Had way too many good conversations to count.

And I missed my twin daughters' 3rd birthday to be here.

Poor planning on my part. 😂

But that's the tradeoff sometimes. You show up for the work, and you make it count. The energy in the room, the ideas exchanged, the people who actually get what we do it reminded me why I love this industry.

Now I'm sitting at the airport. Delayed. Because of course.

Boston eventually.

To everyone I got to spend time with this week: thank you. The conversations, the laughs, the quick hallway chats that turned into real strategy talk, that's the stuff that makes events worth it.

Already looking forward to the next one.

And to my girls: Daddy's bringing home some good stories, lots of free swag. And probably airport snacks.

Everyone's chasing scale. Bigger booths. Bigger audiences. Bigger budgets.

Deals move faster in a room of 7 than a crowd of 700.

I'm joining a virtual panel on March 17th to talk about what's actually working in B2B events right now.

The session: "Events That Actually Convert: What B2B Marketing Leaders Are Doubling Down on in 2026"

Hosted by ConvergeX Connections with a small group of North American marketing leaders who are done with vanity metrics and ready to talk real ROI.

We'll cover what's working, what's been cut, and the experiments shaping event strategy this year.

I'll be sharing my take on micro events. Highly curated. 7-10 people max.

Why I'm doubling down on them:

→ Decision-makers actually show up
→ Conversations go deeper than badge scans
→ Deals move faster because you're not competing for attention

This is a peer conversation, not a webinar. They're keeping it small and curated to make sure the discussion stays tactical.

If you're a B2B marketing leader building your 2026 event roadmap, you can request a spot here: https://lnkd.in/ecF3E-fm

Spots are almost gone, only a few seats are left. Drop a comment if you're applying. Would love to see some familiar faces in the room.

Spent 3 days at B2BMX in Carlsbad this week.

I went in expecting “new tactics.”

I left reminded that most teams don’t have a tactics problem.
They have a honesty problem.

Here are 15 things I can’t stop thinking about (and you won’t find in the recap blogs):

ABM and targeting

1) Most “ABM” is just retargeting with a nicer name.  
If you can’t describe your ICP in one sentence, you don’t have one.

2) Intent data is only valuable if you can act in 48 hours.  
If you can’t trigger a same-day Slack alert, don’t buy the data.

3) Everyone’s still optimizing for MQLs while buyers are optimizing for safety.  
70% of the decision happens before a rep shows up.  
Start optimizing for preference, not form fills.

Events

4) The booth with the longest line didn’t have the best swag.  
They had the best conversation starter on the back wall.  
Your booth isn’t a billboard. It’s a filter.

5) The brands getting ROI aren’t “showing up.”  
They’re pre-booking meetings 3+ weeks out.  
If your first outreach is the week of, you already lost.

6) Field marketers are being asked to own pipeline without owning budget.  
That tension came up in every room.  
Want accountability? Give them the keys.

Execution gaps

7) “More pipeline” is not a strategy.  
Neither is “better content.”  
The gap is almost always execution.

8) Most nurture programs are newsletters with better subject lines.  
If it doesn’t change based on behavior, it’s not nurture. It’s broadcast.

9) Direct mail is back… only when it’s tied to a moment.  
Random sends are just expensive noise.

AI

10) AI is scaling mediocre content faster.  
Winning teams use it to buy time back for strategic work.  
Use AI for the reps. Save your brain for the decisions.

11) “Personalization at scale” is still mostly a keynote phrase.  
The best 1:1 is still done by hand by the best teams.

What actually wins

12) The fastest-scaling companies share one thing:  
Sales and marketing own **one number**. Not aligned numbers. One.

13) Community is the channel nobody budgets for but everyone benefits from.  
It’s not a line item. It’s a moat.

14) The best session I attended had no slides.  
Just a practitioner walking through what didn’t work and why.  
That’s the content people actually want.

15) The quiet theme underneath all of it:  
Buyers are tired of being marketed to.  
They want to be helped.

And not enough teams can feel the difference yet.

Which of these is your team actually solving for right now?

POV: Your Event Marketing Manager trying to calculate the ROI of the conference.

Conference ROI is one of the last socially acceptable black boxes in B2B.

You can spend:

 $30𝘬 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘵𝘩
 $10k flying the team out
 3 𝘥𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘐𝘊 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦
 a month of planning

…and still get back to the office and ask:

"So what did we actually get?"

That's when the coping mechanisms kick in.

"We had a ton of great convos."
"Traffic was solid."
"People loved the swag."
"We think we met the right accounts."

Meanwhile the reality is messy:

Badge scans in one place.
Business cards in someone's backpack.
Notes in a rep's phone.
A spreadsheet called FINAL_final_V9.
And a CRM that's missing half the context.

So follow-up gets delayed.

Leads fall through cracks.

And when leadership asks for ROI, you're left trying to reverse-engineer pipeline from a bunch of partial breadcrumbs.

The problem isn't conferences.

It's that most teams don't have a clean way to connect:

who you met → what mattered → where it went → what it turned into.

That's why I like what Popl is doing.

Every time I show Popl to Event Marketers, the reaction is the same:

"Where have you guys been all this time?"

Here's why. With Popl, all you have to do is scan a conference badge or paper business card. That's it.

Then it automatically:

→ Enriches all contact & company data
→ Tags every lead to the event and rep who captured it
→ Pushes everything straight to your CRM with lead qualifiers and notes
→ Emails the prospects

All while you're still on the conference floor.

So when leadership asks "what did we get from that conference?"

You're not digging through spreadsheets and backpacks.

You've got full attribution. Every lead tied to the event. Every opportunity tracked to the source.

ROI stops being a debate.

It becomes a dashboard.

Start tracking the ROI from your conferences: https://hubs.la/Q046rbYn0

Brand partnership • B2B Marketing Operator | Sharing what works from 15 years of actually doing it | Field Marketing, Events, ABM, GTM

Event ROI doesn’t break at the booth.

It breaks on Monday.

Because by Monday, the context is gone.

The rep remembers:

- the company name
- a vague pain point
- and that the conversation “felt good”

So the follow-up turns into: “Great meeting you at the event…”

Which is basically saying: “I have nothing specific to say.”

Here’s the simplest post-event operating system I’ve found that actually produces pipeline.

The 48-hour event follow-up OS

1) Before anyone leaves the venue, capture context (15 minutes)

Do a debrief while it’s still fresh.

3 Rules:
1.) everyone stays
2.) no laptops
3.) no “we’ll do it later”

For each priority conversation, capture 5 things:

- What problem did they actually say out loud?
- What’s broken in their current process?
- What do they care about personally? (risk, time, reputation, budget)
- Who else is involved? (names and roles)
- What’s the next step they agreed to?

If you don’t have those 5, you don’t have a lead. You have a badge scan.

2) Turn that context into something delegatable (30 minutes)

This is the move most teams miss.

Have reps record a 30–60 second voice note per priority account. Raw. Ugly. Specific.

Now anyone can write the follow-up. Because the “why” is preserved.

3) 24 hours later: send the follow-up that proves you were listening

One email. Short. No fluff.

Structure:

1 line: what you heard
1 line: what you’re sending (resource / recap / next step)
1 line: the ask (calendar link or two times)

If the follow-up doesn’t reference their world, it’s spam.

4) 48 hours later: score the event like an operator, not a marketer
Don’t report “leads.”

Report:
1.) ICP accounts engaged
2.) meetings booked within 14 days
3.) influenced pipeline
4.) one thing to change next time

That’s it.

Everything else is whatever.

What’s your team’s biggest follow-up failure mode today: no context capture, no ownership, or no SLA?

I’ve watched teams rewrite sequences for 3 months…

…while 40% of their emails quietly went to spam.

The problem is you can’t copy your way into the inbox.

Here’s the simple triage tree I use before we touch messaging:

If opens are low
→ inbox placement, authentication, domain reputation

If opens are fine but replies are low
→ targeting, offer, ask, list quality

If replies are decent but meetings are low
→ qualification, next step clarity, handoff

Most teams skip the first step and jump straight to new subject lines.

If you want to stress-test inbox placement and warm-up without guessing, this is what I use:
https://lnkd.in/e4ZtDH_U

What are you seeing right now
low opens or low replies?

$150 gift to a CMO. $60 notebook for procurement. Both delivered the same day.

That's not random acts of gifting. That's a Buying Committee Play.

And when it's coordinated with what each stakeholder sees on your website and in their inbox, it can pull deals forward. I've seen it cut 23 days off cycles and push win rates to 68%.

On March 18, I'm running a hands-on workshop at "Websites That Think" where we build this play from scratch.

What we'll cover:

→ The 3 buying group stages and the signals that tell you when to act (and why stage 1 is usually the wrong time to send anything)
→ The Champion Activation Play: why a $40-60 book timed to arrive the day before a demo can drive 90-95% show rates vs ~65% average
→ How to build role-specific website experiences so your CMO, Marketing Ops, and CFO don't see the same generic page
→ The full Buying Committee Play: what to send, to who, what it costs (~$410 for 4 people), and the triggers that kick it off
→ How to measure what's working: leading indicators that show pipeline movement before the deal closes

Before the workshop, there's a panel with Oana Manolache (Sequel.io), Adam Kaiser (6sense), Matt Hammel (AirOps), Amanda Kahlow (1mind), and Guy Yalif (Webflow) on how AI powers intent-aware website experiences and what shifts when buyers arrive from LLMs like ChatGPT.

If you run ABM or field programs and want a repeatable system for moving buying groups faster, this is for you.

Save your seat: https://lnkd.in/emMK7KSQ

Websites that Think Webinar

Your outbound isn't a messaging problem. It's a deliverability problem.

I watched a team spend three months optimizing subject lines, rewriting sequences, and testing new CTAs. Open rates stayed flat. Reply rates kept dropping.

Turned out 40% of their emails were landing in spam. They had no idea.

Here's the thing. You can have the best copy in the world. If your emails aren't hitting the inbox, none of it matters.

Most operators never check this stuff until something breaks. By then you've already burned your domain.

Here's what to actually monitor:

1. Sender Reputation

Check Google Postmaster Tools weekly. If your domain reputation drops to "Low" or "Bad," you're already in trouble. Aim to stay in "High" consistently.

Microsoft SNDS gives you similar visibility for Outlook. If you're selling to enterprise, this matters.

2. Authentication Stack

SPF, DKIM, and DMARC aren't optional anymore. They're table stakes.

But "set up" isn't the same as "configured correctly." Most teams have partial implementations that still leak trust signals.

Run a check monthly. If any of these are failing or misconfigured, inbox placement tanks.

3. Domain Age and Warm-Up

New domains need 2-4 weeks of warm-up before you scale. Sending 500 cold emails from a fresh domain is a fast track to spam.

Volume ramp matters too. Start with 10-20 emails per day. Increase gradually. Jumping from 50 to 500 overnight triggers filters.

If you're running multiple campaigns, use subdomains for outbound. Protect your primary domain reputation.

4. Inbox Placement Testing

Open rates lie. Tracking pixels fire even in spam folders sometimes.

Run seed list tests before launching campaigns. Know where your emails actually land across Gmail, Outlook, and corporate domains.

This is where Warmy comes in.

It automates warm-up, monitors inbox placement, validates your authentication setup, and flags issues before they tank your campaigns.

I've been using it to stress-test deliverability for outbound programs. The visibility alone is worth it.

If you want to boost your deliverability, drop a comment and I'll send you the link.

If your outbound has been underperforming and you've already optimized the obvious stuff, check your deliverability first.

It might be the invisible thing killing your pipeline.

https://lnkd.in/eDAEH22K

Most marketers build lists the old way.

One tool for companies. Another for contacts. A third for emails. Maybe a fourth for phone numbers.

By the time you've pieced it together, half the data is stale and you've wasted hours.

I've been testing FullEnrich Search and it changes the workflow completely.

Here's the exact play I ran last week:

I had 32 target accounts attending an upcoming conference. Needed to find every VP and Director of Marketing with verified emails before our pre-event outreach.

Step 1: Uploaded my account list as a CSV

Step 2: Applied contact filters
→ Title contains "VP" or "Director"
→ Department: Marketing
→ Seniority: Senior, VP, Director

Step 3: Hit search

143 contacts across all 32 accounts. 95% coverage.

Step 4: One-click enrichment

Verified emails and mobile numbers added instantly. No switching tools. No manual cleanup.

Total time: 12 minutes.

Old workflow would've been 2-3 hours across ZoomInfo, Apollo, and a separate enrichment tool. Plus the inevitable data gaps.

The difference is the waterfall. FullEnrich pulls from 20+ sources so you're not limited to one database's coverage. Contacts that don't exist in Tool A get found in Tool B or C.

If you're building ABM lists, event prospect lists, or campaign segments, run a free search and compare it to your current stack.

FullEnrich just made list building a lot faster.

https://lnkd.in/e9g7Dfq9

#FullEnrichPartner

Badge scans. Booth traffic. "Great conversations."

None of that is ROI.

And if that's what your event report looks like, you're about to lose budget.

Here's the framework I use when I want the CFO to stop debating and start funding.

The 3-Layer Event ROI Framework

Layer 1: Strategic Fit
Was the right audience even there?

→ ICP accounts in the room
→ Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3 breakdown
→ Which roles showed up (champion, decision maker, blocker)

If you can't answer this, everything below is noise.

Layer 2: Execution
Did we create next steps that sales can actually run?

→ Meetings booked (strict definition: on the calendar, owned by a rep, scheduled within 14 days, with a named next step)
→ "Follow up next week" is not a meeting
→ Net-new contacts from ICP accounts
→ Matched contacts already in CRM that were re-activated

Those are different outcomes. Report them separately.

Layer 3: Economic Impact
Did this create or move money?

→ New qualified pipeline: opps opened post-event that hit your bar (stage, fit, value)
→ Influenced pipeline: opps that existed pre-event where the event created movement (stage progression, timeline pulled forward, buying group expansion, deal re-engaged)
→ Closed-won revenue (when it matures)

This is where most event ROI is hiding. If you're not reporting influenced pipeline, you're undercounting events and overcounting everything else.

Two ratios that change the budget conversation:

Pipeline ROI = (New qualified + Influenced pipeline) ÷ Total event cost
ARR ROI = Closed-won ARR ÷ Total event cost

Event season is coming. Steal this before your next report.

We've built an entire industry around overcomplicating be helpful and stay in touch.

Think about it.

Lead scoring. Nurture tracks. Attribution models. Engagement platforms. Intent signals. Personalization engines.

All of it exists because we forgot how to just... be useful to people.

The best marketers I know don't need half of this.

They remember what you told them 6 months ago. They send you something useful without being asked. They show up when there's nothing to sell.

That's it. That's the whole playbook.

But most companies can't hire for that. And they definitely can't scale it.

So we build tools. And frameworks. And processes.

And somewhere along the way, the process becomes the point.

The nurture sequence matters more than whether anyone actually got nurtured.
The lead score matters more than whether someone's ready to buy.
The attribution model matters more than whether the relationship is real.

Here's what I've learned after 15 years:

The tools should enable the human stuff. Not replace it.

Your CRM should help you remember what someone told you 6 months ago. Not become a substitute for caring.

Your sequences should free up time for real conversations. Not become the only conversation.

Your frameworks should create space for judgment. Not eliminate it.

When the structure starts replacing the thing it was built to support, you've already lost.

Meanwhile we keep buying more tools to fix what tools broke in the first place.

Maybe the answer isn't another platform.

Maybe it's just picking up the phone.

3 years ago I wrote a post about driving G2 reviews.

500k views. 1,500+ likes. 500+ comments. Over 200 DMs. Remember that? Was wild!

All I did was share what worked.

I've run this playbook multiple times since then. Just ran it again. 100 reviews in 3 days. Pushed us to 1,031 total reviews. We're averaging 85 net new reviews per quarter.

Word of mouth is our #2 source of inbound at Reachdesk.

This stuff compounds.

Here's the playbook:

1. Build your list with intent

Use your CRM to filter by customers who actually use the product, not one-off senders. The goal isn't to cherry-pick positive reviews. It's to get feedback from people with enough experience to give you something useful.

2. Write the email like a human

No corporate speak. Keep it simple: thank them, ask for the review, offer a gift when it's live.

3. Make confirmation easy

Instead of screenshots, I added a form where they drop their review link. Less friction. Easier to verify.

4. Send real gifts

Not gift cards. Actual things. The Amazon integration within Reachdesk lets me send stuff that feels personal, not transactional.

Conversion rate this time: ~40%.

But collecting reviews is only half the job.

Most teams let reviews sit on G2. That's a waste.

Here's how to activate them:

→ Tag by use case. Sales, marketing, CS, events. Now you have proof for every vertical conversation.
→ Mine for language. Customers describe your value better than you will. Use their words in ads, decks, and outbound.
→ Route feedback to product. Complaints are free research.
→ Identify champions. Detailed reviewers are case study and reference candidates.
→ Build a proof bank by objection. Sales should have reviews organized by the concerns they answer.

Reviews on G2 are social proof. Reviews organized and activated are a sales weapon.

Word of mouth being our #2 inbound source isn't just G2. It's the team doing great work across CS, product, and marketing. But reviews are one piece of the flywheel that compounds when you stay consistent.

The biggest mistake I made going fractional wasn't pricing.

It was saying yes too fast.

When you're solo, every "maybe" feels like revenue. So you take the call. You scope it live. You promise speed. You think you'll "figure it out."

And then 3 weeks later you're stuck in:

→ vague goals
→ 6 stakeholders
→ 0 decisions
→ "can you just…" requests at 9:47pm

So I built a filter.

Not a vibe check. A decision check.

Here are the 3 things I look for before I take on a fractional client.

1) A real owner (not a sponsor)

I don't mean "the CEO likes marketing." I mean a single person who:

→ owns the outcome
→ shows up every week
→ can say yes/no without a committee
→ will actually ship with you

If they can't point to an owner in the first conversation, here's what happens:

You become the owner.

You're chasing feedback. You're herding calendars. You're translating marketing into English for six different people.

Fractional doesn't fail because you didn't do enough.

It fails because no one inside the company is accountable for decisions.

Question I ask:
"Who is the person that will make the call when there are tradeoffs?"

If they hesitate, that's the answer.

2) A decision they're trying to make (not a hope)

"Grow awareness" is not a decision. "Do more demand gen" is not a decision.

A decision has a fork in the road.

Examples:

→ "We're choosing one ICP and building the Q2 plan around it."
→ "We're picking one primary channel for 90 days and committing."
→ "We're fixing activation or we're fixing pipeline, not both."
→ "We're repositioning the offer and changing the site copy."

If there's no decision, the engagement turns into activity: posts, decks, tweaks, random campaigns, busywork.

And you can't create leverage from busywork.

Question I ask:
"What's the decision you want to be able to confidently make 30 days from now?"

If they can't answer, you'll end up writing strategy that no one uses.

3) Protection for your time (constraints that make fractional work)

Fractional works when everyone respects the constraint.

Because your leverage is not "being available." It's making the right calls with limited time.

So I look for evidence they can operate like adults:

→ one Slack channel, not 12
→ weekly working session on the calendar
→ async updates in one place
→ a turnaround SLA (ex: feedback within 48 hours)
→ no "urgent" requests unless revenue is on fire

If they want full-time responsiveness on a part-time engagement, they don't want fractional.

They want an employee they can't afford.

Question I ask:
"How do you want to handle requests between meetings: async doc, Slack, or a weekly queue?"

If they say "we're pretty ad hoc," what they mean is: "You'll be on call."

I still lose deals because of this.

Good.

The goal isn't to be booked. The goal is to be booked on terms that let you do great work.

If you're solo/fractional right now, which part breaks most often: ownership, decisions, or time protection?

Most teams use AI to write the email.

Wrong use case.

Use it to QA the email.

The fastest way to kill conversion is a mismatch you can't see anymore:

→ Email promise says one thing
→ Landing page delivers another
→ CTA is a vibe
→ You ship it anyway

Here's the exact prompt I use before I send anything to a list. Takes 5 minutes. Catches the dumb stuff that costs you pipeline.

👇 Copy this

GTM PREFLIGHT PROMPT

You are a B2B conversion editor. Your job: find mismatch, friction, and marketing fluff before I ship. Be direct. Be specific. Quote the exact line that triggered each issue.

PASTE YOUR ASSETS BELOW:
- ICP description:
- Offer (what they get, terms, price):
- Email draft:
- Landing page copy:

RULES:
- Assume the buyer is senior, skeptical, and skimming
- No generic feedback. Every suggestion includes the exact replacement copy
- If something works, say nothing. Only flag problems.

OUTPUT:

1. PROMISE ALIGNMENT
What does the email promise? What does the landing page promise? Score alignment 1-10. If under 8, write one revised email sentence that matches the page.

2. FIRST 10-SECOND OBJECTIONS
List the 5 reasons a skeptical VP would bounce before scrolling. For each: the triggering line → the objection → one rewrite.

3. FLUFF DETECTOR
Flag up to 4 lines that sound like marketing. Rewrite each to sound like an operator wrote it.

4. CTA CHECK
Is the current CTA a clear next step or a vague ask? Rewrite the CTA 3 ways. Each should name a specific action and timeframe (e.g., 'Book 15 min this week', not 'Let's chat soon').

5. TRUST KILLERS
Flag anything that feels exaggerated or salesy. Give the safer version.

6. PRIORITY FIXES
The 5 edits that will move conversion most, ranked.

---

If you try this, what did it catch that you would have shipped anyway?

Most teams pick gifts by guessing.

Scroll through a catalog. Hope it lands. Cross fingers it feels personal enough.

That's not strategy. That's wishful thinking.

Personalized gifting works. We know this. The problem has always been the tradeoff: do it right and it takes forever, or do it fast and it feels generic.

Gifty removes that tradeoff.

It's an AI assistant built into Reachdesk that handles the research, matches gifts to role, region, budget, and goal, and drafts a note that actually sounds like you thought about it.

What used to take 15-20 minutes per send now takes a few.

That changes the math on when gifting makes sense.

You can use it for the high-value T1 plays you're already doing. But now you can also use it for the moments you'd normally skip because they weren't worth the time. The no-show follow-up. The deal that went dark. The post-event touch that usually gets deprioritized.

More personalized sends. Same bandwidth.

That's the unlock.

DM me if you want to see it in action.

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The Battle

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The Battle

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Nick Bennett

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Erin Balsa's LinkedIn Performance

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