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Edition #51 | Published Nov 5, 2025 Deals that ghosted you aren’t dead — they’re just waiting for a smarter re-entry . This issue unpacks how top GTM teams are reviving stalled opps before year-end using signals, exec thought leadership, and lightweight pilots. Let’s get into it. 👉  🎙 Voices of Influence: Year End Pipeline Revival Strategy 🚀 The Pulse: Industry News You Can’t Afford to Miss We read the AI x ABM headlines so you don’t have to.  Bulk Email Crackdown = Full-funnel ABM Opportunity Cold email is getting even more headwinds in this upcoming  holiday season - new sender rules  are pushing marketers and SDRs to adopt multi-channel full-funnel ABM strategies. As Natalie Jackson (Director of Demand Gen at CBIZ) notes, "Email can’t live in a silo anymore. If marketers don’t have visibility into sales engagement, we’re limiting our ability to drive revenue." HubSpot Release New Research on Prospecting  New research  reveals a crucial shift in late-funnel behavior: when buyers say, “We need to think about it,”  only 11%  of leaders recommend more social proof — instead, 52%  advise probing directly for the real concern - "What specific aspects do you need to think through?".  Strategy:  move social proof upstream  (intent-based storytelling), and use AI orchestration mid-funnel to detect hesitation drivers, before “We’ll think about it” stalls your pipeline. Founder’s Insights - SaaS Benchmark Report by High Alpha High Alpah’s newly released Saas-benchmarks  highlighted a few interesting founder insights -  time to raise for the vast majority of respondents was between 1-6 months while a significant portion of founders spoke with fewer than 50 investors. Having more founders boosts early momentum, but solo founder companies tend to operate more efficiently, based on their survey.  Founder’s Insights - SaaS Prices Are Surging, and It’s Reshaping GTM From HubSpot to 6sense, many major GTM vendors are hiking prices. Budget constraints are now a core objection that renewal is facing. Brands can expect stronger pushback in late-stage cycles and more demand for ROI justification. SaaStr Breakdown → Zapier Drops “Human-in-the-Loop” Framework Zapier’s latest “ Human in the Loop ” puts AI agents on the frontline but with a controlled fallback to human review . Think of it as smart automation with a safety net. I believe this is a compelling model for GTM teams experimenting with AI agents without risking rogue outreach Clay Launches Web Intent: Watch Buyer Research in Real-Time Real-time website intent is becoming the new gold standard for programmatic ABM. Clay's new Web Intent  feature lets you monitor which pages (on your site or competitors’) are visited by target accounts . Signals are enriched and matched to contacts  within your CRM. HubSpot to Acquire XFunnel XFunnel’s cross-channel data stitching + HubSpot’s AI push = the makings of a serious ABM signal orchestration  contender. Official Announcement → 🎙 Voices of Influence: EOY Pipeline Revival Playbook Many B2B deals stall mid-journey (timing, budget, internal friction). Here’s the good news — those accounts aren’t dead. And with the right nudge, they’re your warmest path to Q4 quick wins. This week, I’m sharing a quick, practical play to bring high-intent (but stalled) opps back to life.You ’ve already done the hard part — discovery, alignment, access. Now it’s about reconnecting with the right signal at the right moment . Scroll for the EOY Pipeline Revival Playbook 👇 Why this works Most B2B deals stall mid-journey (timing, budget, internal friction). Q4 is prime time to revisit with fresh proof and a simpler ROI story. Buying groups are big (often 10+ contacts for large deals). Revival means re-engaging across roles  with relevance. Phase What  Tools 1 Pull stalled & closed-lost opps, enrich contacts & recent signals, rank by Fit × Signal Recency × Deal Size  (>$ is tie-breaker), top 50-100 only  CRM, Clay, Sheet 2 Identify the “why now”  reasons per account (exec or super user changes, current competitor contract up for renewal, market news, competitor M & A, engagement surge, etc. ) Claygent, Sales Nav, analytics 3 Draft Thought Leader Ads  from an exec + two emails using the Claygent “why-now” signals + HubSpot’s AI emails tools   E1 “What changed”  (using ““why now” signals”)  E2 “here’s the exact piece that fixes X”  (30s short video)   This play pairs well with our earlier edition on becoming the trusted voice buyers cite first  — the foundation for any revival strategy. Claygent → HubSpot  4 Pick one offer : micro-pilot | exec briefing | audit/diagnose, depending on the reasons why they get stalled / closed lost  5 Validate the routing is working: [defined engagement actions] → Slack alert + task  Zapier/Make, HubSpot, Slack 6 Launch E1  + exec post; optional LinkedIn Thought Leadership Ads to boost the exec post to the “Matched Audiences”  Email, LinkedIn 7 SDR/AE calls to signaled  accts; open with “why now + objection + outcome” Sales Engagement Tool, CRM  8 Send E2  only to engaged ones; include single, specific CTA Email  9 Branch: Move “hot” to Revival Live for sales actions; park silent ones to a light January nurture Re-engaged accts ≥ 35%  | Meetings per acct 10–15%   CRM views, Sheet 🔥 What’s Trending in AI Shifts  Engineering headcount reductions due to AI  are significantly higher than any other department. Back office functions like Finance, HR, and IT have been less impacted by reductions at this point. Other top impacted functions are customer success & support, and marketing.  SaaStr reports that SaaS pricing is up about 11.4% year-over-year  - nearly five times general inflation —> budget pressure and vendor leverage is increasingly high.  🚀 GTM Startups to Watch AirOps  ( $40M Series B in November ): help brands to compete in AI Search 🛠 Martech Spotlight: Cool Tools & Innovations Nimo  (unifies all your AI workflows in one infinite canvas) - I have personally signed up for using it and find its your “AI Orchestrator” value prop really compelling to me 📚 Knowledge Vault: Must-Reads for ABM Operators “ Doing B2B Account Scoring the Right Way ” from Demandbase outlines how to build actionable account‑scoring models that tie directly to sales workflows B2B and AI Trends for 2026 and Beyond  - Webinar from DemandGenReports is available on-demand ⚡ Execution Tips & Tricks https://martech.org/how-to-turn-internal-docs-into-content-that-converts/  - When your company’s Slack channels were full of sharp debates about industry trends and best practices, consider turning them into content that can convert  by Stephanie Trovato Create a smart customer support chatbot that retrieves knowledge from your documentation using Apify and stores it in Zapier Tables connected to Zapier’s chatbot, instead of expensive third-party apps.  Revisit our INBOUND edition for practical ways to boost message-market fit through relevance-first sequencing . 🎤 AI x Marketing Insider: Events We’re Attending This Week Zapier x Apify: Building AI Agents Webinar 6sense Breakthrough MarTech Fall Virtual Conference 💬 Quote of the Week “If you want more replies, stop asking, ‘Have you heard of us?’ Start asking, ‘What would make spending time with us valuable  — even if they don’t buy?’” – Seen in B2B Whales Need more credibility in your revival plays? Our earlier edition on Voices That Convert   explores how expert proof drives late-stage confidence.  ABM is your go-to-market motion, not a marketing function.  🧠 Ready to revamp your strategy? Check out our past editions  or let’s chat . 🎯 Until next time—stay bold, stay targeted.  📩 Subscribe here  | More insights for you

I recently published an article on  HubSpot’s marketing blog  — and the response has been energizing. For those of you who follow my work in AI x ABM/GTM Brief and Insights, this piece ( HubSpot Blog )  dives into one of the biggest questions I’m hearing from enterprise B2B teams:  Can you still run effective ABM for complex, multi-product Fortune 500 IT buyers - without breaking your ops team or budget? My answer? Yes —  if  you plan intentionally and automate intelligently. In my new article featured on  HubSpot , I shared what  modern ABM orchestration  looks like when powered by  real-time data and AI . Traditional firmographic- and technographic- based ABM falls short in today’s landscape, because:  🧩 Budgets are shifting constantly 🧩 Buying committees are across LOBs 🧩 Speed of signal processing matters more than just static “ICPs" That’s why my latest work focuses on  signal-layer orchestration , not just persona targeting. The Framework I Cover in the HubSpot Article - From Manual to AI-Powered ABM Orchestration Account intelligence & unified view   Buying‑committee mapping   Multi‑channel orchestration   Personalized engagement & content   Unified analytics   Plus, some practical extensions I’m testing:  signal‑layer orchestration, composable tool stacks, etc. 👉  Read the full article on HubSpot Blog Bonus Insight (not in the article) What I’m seeing in marketing is a shift toward: Programmatic intent-based tiering GTM signals as triggers  (not just filters) AI-based orchestration and contextualized personalization at scale All of these above require a  solid data and tracking foundation .  Rome wasn't built in a day.  I’m running these playbooks across live campaigns right now. The best results come when marketing  don’t just run campaigns - they build systems that solve buyer problems and scale growth . ABM is your go-to-market motion, not a marketing function. 🧠 Ready to revamp your strategy? Check out our  past editions  or let’s  chat . 🎯 Until next time—stay bold, stay targeted. 📩  Subscribe here  |  More insights for you

Edition #49 | Published October 20, 2025 What truly separates agentic marketing from traditional marketing automation?  While many AI tools today feel like smarter versions of automation: automating workflows, scheduling messages, or scoring leads/accounts, the real shift is deeper. In automation , rules are predefined, and the system reacts based on your setup. In agentic marketing , your AI agent thinks, proactively decides what to do next, and drives the next steps, without needing every action scripted in advance. This week’s edition explores the shift from reactive automation to proactive AI agents that co-pilot campaigns, qualify buying groups, and personalize engagement in real-time.  You’ll see how Clay  is unlocking signal-based conversations, how Zapier’s AI teammates  are automating next-step logic, and why more teams are adopting agent-led growth. Let’s get into it. 👉  🚀 The Pulse: Industry News You Can’t Afford to Miss We read the AI x ABM headlines so you don’t have to.  🌟 ZapConnect 2025: AI Agents Go Mainstream Zapier's recently resumed flagship conference ZapConnect 2025  made it clear: AI is an embedded teammate. Top 5 AI takeaways from ZapConnect: AI is a Connector : AI wins when it's integrated across your CRM, email, and ops. No-code AI building  is now table stakes for marketers.  Human-in-the-loop governance  is critical for bot adoption. Watch the session: Create AI Teammates in Minutes with Zapier Agents 📊 New from Demandbase: AI x ABM - The Marketer’s AI Playbook At DemandGenReports’s recent "AI Meets ABM," Demandbase laid out how AI assistants can: Real-Time Campaign Optimization : AI-powered analytics can identify underperforming campaign elements in real-time , allowing marketers to adjust budgets and focus on high-performing channels and segments mid-campaign , reducing waste and improving ROI. AI as a Marketer's Sidekick : Marketers can leverage AI assistants to automate daily tasks, answer questions, and provide support, freeing them to focus on strategic and creative work. Watch on demand: AI Meets ABM: The Marketer's Playbook 🔊 Clay: Turn Conversations Into Competitive Intelligence Clay's new playbook  unlocks structured insights  from unstructured conversations. Think: buyer objections, decision signals, and competitor mentions pulled from call transcripts and routed directly into your GTM workflows. 🔄 MarTech x Snowflake: Why Data Gravity Now Shapes Martech Stacks Per Snowflake’s newly published Modern Marketing Data Stack , the marketing landscape is being reshaped by three powerful forces: AI, data gravity, and privacy . A composable, privacy-forward, AI-enabled stack is a strategic moat.  🎙 Voices of Influence: From Automation to Agents: What Modern Marketing Looks Like Now Most marketers still think of AI as advanced automation - segmenting leads, scoring accounts, alerting sales, etc. But that’s only the first inning. The real transformation begins when AI stops simply automating tasks and starts acting as an agent  — making decisions, prioritizing efforts, and driving actions autonomously, in real time.  Here are 3 key shifts that are happening in modern marketing:  1. From Reactive Automation → Proactive Agents  Instead of waiting for quarterly reports to adjust spend, AI agents can flag underperforming audiences or accounts in your campaign mid-flight . Imagine knowing by Tuesday which accounts to pause targeting on — before wasting another cent in programmatic or paid social. This is campaign optimization that thinks ahead .  2. From Lead Volume → Pipeline Precision The best teams are already moving from generic MQLs to AI-prioritized buying groups. Using intent signals, firmographics , and behavioral context , agents can surface net-new lookalike accounts   and  rank existing ones based on true revenue potential.  3. From “Personalized” Content → Truly Contextual Touchpoints The word “personalization” is overused, until you see what AI agents can actually do. From auto-generating asset variants  for different roles and industries, to creating contextualized personalized emails at scale today, to producing low friction video intros at scale.  Thus, the central differentiator of an AI agent vs. automation is autonomy,  the ability to make decisions and take action 🔥 What’s Trending in AI Shifts  OpenAI Introduces Apps in ChatGPT : Native apps now flow within ChatGPT conversations .My previous breakdown: How ChatGPT Search Reshapes the B2B Buyer’s Journey   Paid AI Adoption in Startups Drops Again in September : September marked the second decline in paid AI adoption among startups, per Ramp AI Index .  Why AI Agents Will Be The Death of the B Player.  In almost every category, according to SaaStr  founder  🚀 GTM Startups to Watch Dreamdata  raised US $55 million Series B  on October 14, 2025 , to scale its B2B marketing analytics platform that unifies ads, website, CRM and email data into actionable workflows. 🛠 Martech Spotlight: Cool Tools & Innovations BlackBox AI :  Originally built for devs, now expanding into marketing. Their AI autocomplete helps teams repurpose past content and generate net-new assets  with context retention. Check it out!  Clay’s Sculptor and Web Intent  tools: Sculptor  lets you build workflows via natural language prompts Web Intent  tracks anonymous web visits, scores them, and alerts reps when the timing's right 📚 Knowledge Vault: Must-Reads for ABM Operators AI Meets ABM: What's Actually Working vs. What's Hype :   Insight into how Demandbase’s SVP of Demand Gen is turning AI into a force multiplier of ABM  SaaStr’s Agentic GTM Playbook : Practical sessions on building AI SDRs, GTM co-pilots, and orchestration layers. My favorite one is How to Build AI SDRs to Convert More Inbound Pipeline. Watch the GTM replays Zapier: Building an AI-first GTM Team  Read the blueprint .  ⚡ Execution Tips & Tricks Best-in-class teams start with a clear use case before sourcing AI tools. Once an addressable use case has been identified, only then have they started evaluating and sourcing different AI tools. - Source: Alicia Hale (SVP of Growth Marketing), Demandbase .  To get AI to help identify and remove bias , provide clear context about its role, perspective, and specific lens to analyze content, allowing it to flag potential inconsistencies and create more objective evaluation frameworks. By doing so, you can leverage AI's analytical power to uncover blind spots and mitigate bias in decision-making processes. - Source: Inclusive marketer — and former master in marketing  — Sonia Thompson 🎤 AI x Marketing Insider: Events We’re Attending AI Decisioning 101: 1:1 Personalization at Scale TechWeek LA Harnessing AI to Drive Go-to-Market Impact  💬 Quote of the Week “85% of what you do should be templatized, refined — checking the boxes of your strategic marketing plan,” she says. “And if you're a marketing leader, you should give your team 15% of that work to play with.” - Bryetta Calloway, Founder and CEO, Stories Seen , first seen in Hubspot Marketing Blog ABM is your go-to-market motion, not a marketing function.  🧠 Ready to revamp your strategy? Check out our past editions  or let’s chat . 🎯 Until next time—stay bold, stay targeted.  📩 Subscribe here  | More insights for you

Edition #48 | Published October 6, 2025 The way B2B buyers discover, evaluate, and trust vendors has changed in the AI-powered GTM landscape. Brands are competing to be the source of truth and mentions  AI engines cite and decision-makers trust. To meet this moment, modern GTM teams are embracing a new mindset: Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) :  Lead with clarity (your TL;DR and FAQs are your new SEO). Publish data, tools, and PoV opinions AI can’t fake. Prioritize decision-stage frameworks over generic “what is” content. And activate your most powerful visibility engine : executive voices on LinkedIn . Because in an AI-shaped buyer journey, trust is earned by being useful, human, and everywhere that matters — especially in zero-click moments. 👉 In this week’s issue, we break down how leading GTM teams are adapting their content, campaigns, and leadership messaging to win in this new era, plus all the latest AI, Marketing, ABM news, tools, and strategy shifts you can’t afford to miss. 🚀 The Pulse: Industry News You Can’t Afford to Miss We read the AI x ABM headlines so you don’t have to. G2’s 2025 Buyer Behavior Report: AI chatbots now #1 influence on vendor shortlists In a survey of 1,100 decision-makers, chatbots have overtaken traditional channels  in shortlisting influence. Also, 50% of enterprise buyers report having switched vendors for superior AI functionality. Demandbase Joins Salesforce Agentforce with Native AI Prospecting Agent Demandbase just launched its first Salesforce-native agent inside the Agentforce ecosystem  — the Demandbase Agentforce Prospecting Agent . It brings Prescriptive Sales Dashboard insights directly into rep workflows to reduce tool-switching and with guided workflows to prioritize high-fit accounts. Clay Announces Sculptor – Its New AI GTM Copilot At its annual conference, Clay launched Sculptor  — an AI copilot  designed to streamline everything from table builds to GTM play creation. It builds and refines Clay tables, recommends enrichments, answers questions like “Which ICP segments are underperforming?”, and provides instant insights, all via natural language prompts .  (Image Credits: Clay Website) DemandWorks × 6sense: New Native Integration for ABM  This newly announced partnership  connects 6sense buyer intelligence  (segments) with DemandWorks’ activation engine  for real-time, full-funnel execution (Trigger display ads, syndication, and 1:1 emails across verified buying committees).  (Image Credits: DemandWorks Website) Aviatrix CMO on automating 80% of marketing work using AI At Aviatrix, the marketing team has delegated 80% of their tasks  (content, video, analytics) to AI, freeing humans for strategic & creative work. This is a bold real-world test case of scale, featured by Business Insider in September.  🎙 Voices of Influence: Full Funnel Marketing in the Age of AEO Playbook For marketing in the Age of AEO, the next frontier of ABM is going to be about building authority and influence in the modern buyers journey powered by AI. Here’s how I’m helping clients adapt AEO for marketing: Strategy 1 - Win Zero‑click Moments Leading with clarity : start every high-value asset with a bold, quotable takeaway. Adding context : include FAQs, POVs, and data-backed statements AI can extract and summarize. Strategy 2 - Be the Sources  Generic "what is XYZ?" posts are now table stakes. AI can generate those in seconds. So instead, we focus on more expert level content that AI can’t hallucinate or invent easily:  Vendor selection frameworks Comparison guides with POV validated by SMEs Interactive tools (e.g., TCO calculators, maturity assessments work great!) Benchmarks that are created by 3rd party consultancies  Strategy 3 - Optimize for Intent  AI summaries are cutting traffic, so every click matters more  than ever. That’s why we place: Every high‑intent page leads with one clear CTA at the top (e.g. calculator, free audit, etc.)  Make sure the CTA is matching the buying stage of the prospect account (e.g. using HubSpot + Demandbase to personalize the experience at scale)  Strategy 4 - Executive Voice = ABM Amplifier The amplifier that often gets overlooked is the executive presence on LinkedIn . In the AI era, human voices still cut through. When doing it right, Executives’ posts tend to outperform brand posts in reach and trust, and they extend the life of your content far beyond search.  When working with founder-led sales teams, I align leadership posts with our broader content themes , encouraging leaders to share authentic, thought leader style insights once or twice a month. I also use tools like Clay and HubSpot’s new Data AI agent to monitor engagement from target accounts, making executive visibility and posts engagements a powerful GTM signals engine.  🔥 What’s Trending in AI Shifts  OpenAI : AI systems hallucinate because they're trained to always answer , even when they should just say “I don’t know”.  Executives on LinkedIn : It’s not optional anymore. Voice = Visibility 🚀 GTM Startups to Watch Centari  (an AI deal intelligence startup ) raised $14M Series A  on September, 2025 .  🛠 Martech Spotlight: Cool Tools & Innovations Latitude  – The 1st agent that builds agents. Your prompt -> Create the agents -> Connecting them to 2,500+ tools -> Deploying them into production.  HubSpot’s new Marketing Studio  (AI-powered campaign planning workspace) brings a Canva-style experience to B2B campaign planning. Build marketing campaigns in days, not months. I’m really excited about it!  📚 Knowledge Vault: Must-Reads for ABM Operators [Recorded] AI Meets ABM: What’s Working vs. What’s Hype Watch the ON24 session → Why AI Content Sounds the Same — and How to Fix It HubSpot’s breakdown → The Arrival of AI Browsers & the Future of Content Discovery for Demand Marketers MarTech.org report → ⚡ Execution Tips & Tricks Inspired by INsidea’s “ Top 7 RevOps Plays ”, here’s one I love: Build a cross-functional Customer Journey Map. It shows where deals stall, reveals what info buyers need and aligns campaigns to actual friction points.  Action Tips:  Map every key touchpoint: ad → SDR email → call → follow-up Overlay it with CRM data + VOC feedback Create micro-campaigns to unblock stuck roles (e.g., ROI tools for finance) 🎤 AI x Marketing Insider: Events We’re Attending Demandbase GO NYC – October 6 & 7 2025 Demand Gen Report: 2025 Strategy & Planning Series - Oct 27 - 29 HubSpot <> Claude Connector Webinar - Oct 16 To-Do List Summit - AI in GTM for Early Stage Founders - Nov 8 💬 Quote of the Week “Don’t mistake action for progress. Process beats panic. Diagnose systematically, change sparingly, and communicate clearly. Most turnarounds come from a steady core and a few small, well-aimed tests - not a total rebuild.” — Jonathan Bland , Co-founder at Omni Lab, 🎧 Source → Spotify ABM is your go-to-market motion, not a marketing function.  🧠 Ready to revamp your strategy? Check out our past editions  or let’s chat . 🎯 Until next time—stay bold, stay targeted.  📩 Subscribe here  | More insights for you

NextGenABM is excited to announce our official certification as a Salesloft Solution Partner , reinforcing our commitment to helping startups and scaling teams bridge the gap between marketing and sales. Salesloft is a leading platform for modern revenue orchestration, empowering teams to engage buyers with precision and consistency. As a certified partner, NextGenABM integrates Salesloft’s signal-based engagement capabilities into our fractional GTM programs - helping clients move from scattered outreach to synchronized, data-driven buyer journeys. “Many startups underutilize sales engagement tools in their demand generation mix,” said Océane Li, Founder of NextGenABM. “Our goal is to help them unlock Salesloft’s full potential — connecting outbound, inbound, and ABM plays into one seamless motion that drives measurable pipeline impact.” This partnership expands NextGenABM’s ability to deliver AI-powered, account-focused GTM execution for clients seeking to scale beyond founder-led sales. 📍 Explore our Salesloft Partner Listing: https://marketplace.salesloft.com/partners/nextgen-abm

By Océane Li | Founder, NextGenABM Edition #4 7  | Published September 15, 2025 After spending a week immersed in HubSpot’s INBOUND 25 , I left with a clear takeaway: in the age of AI-era go-to-market motions, relevance is the new personalization. If your idea of personalization is “Hi {FirstName},”"{CompanyName}", or similar, you’re already behind. Relevance today means building systems that anticipate intent and activate real-time context - before your team ever hits send. Let’s dive into how that played out across this year's INBOUND’s biggest stages, key sessions, and product reveals. 🧠 From Personalization to Contextual Relevance at Scale Why “just personalize it” no longer cuts it In my opinion, one of the sharpest strategic pivots at INBOUND 25 came from the concept of 1:1 relevance > personalization. In theory, anyone can personalize - drop in a first name, tweak a job title, feed in a static ICP, etc. But does that personalization really convert? Are they truly relevant to your buyers? Relevance requires DYNAMIC context, behavioral cues, and real-time buyer signals. In the session “ From Signals to Revenue , ” EJ Cho, the Co-founder and CEO of TOFU made the case for signal-based GTM : not just who your buyers are, but what they’re doing, when, and why it matters. ⚡ Some   real-life plays showed the difference: A job change + past power user = high-converting combo trigger High-intent web visitor de-anonymized → instant enrichment → agentic SDR outreach That theme continued in the “ AI Emails That Convert ” session, where HubSpot's Global Email Automation Director Ari Echt-Wilson, unveiled how it’s evolving beyond basic email personalization. ⚡ AI-Powered Email in HubSpot uses first-party data to craft contextual, behaviorally aware emails at scale. 🧬 How it works: Enroll a contact → Crawl their website → Ingest CRM + MAP signals → Send inputs to LLM → Output a personalized, relevant message. What stood out was not just the workflow, but the fact that it’s been tested for 18 months inside HubSpot’s own teams , resulting in deeper engagement, improved conversion, and more scalable outbound. Instead of “Hi {FirstName}, saw you work at {Company}...,” these AI-crafted emails reference recent behaviors, intent actions, CRM activity , and adjust the value prop accordingly. 🤖 Self-Generating Data: The Backbone of AI-Ready GTM You can’t scale relevance without signal-rich systems HubSpot’s product evolution this year centered on a major thesis: Loop-powered GTM = dynamic data context + AI orchestration + multi-channel activation. But none of that works if your CRM is dirty, fragmented, or blind to buyer signals. During the HubSpot Spotlight , Smart CRM stack - now infused with what they called “self-generating data" (captures the movement from data collection to dynamic enrichment ) was highlighted b y Karen Ng, EVP of Product at HubSpot. I consider this another major shift in this year's growth playbook in the AI-era. Why? Because AI may be everywhere now, but what distinguishes top-performing marketers isn’t how much AI they use but how well they train it  with first-party inputs, smart segmentation, and evolving ICP clarity. The marketers winning today are increasingly leveraging AI and tools to self-generate their own signal-rich data , activating it across every channel, and training their AI tools on brand voice, triggers, and workflows that scale relevance. 🧩 Some notable innovations that support this shift are: Smart CRM: Auto-enrich company + contact data, self-generating data using AI powered prompts using Data Agents or Smart Columns Data Hub (formerly Ops Hub): Connects data warehouse (e.g. Snowflack) / 1st-party product usage data, continuous dedupe, AI-powered continous enrichment without costing credits (yes, this one is pretty HUGE), etc. AI-Powered Email: 1:1 contextual emails built using CRM behaviors. Key takeaways: Your CRM needs to generate relevance signals, not just store records. First-party data is the fuel for relevance and orchestration, and marketers who own their signal pipelines will dominate . 📥 Agentic Funnels: When AI Doesn’t Just Assist From human capacity caused bottlenecks to always-on agents One of the boldest visions came from the " Agentic Funnel " track, which posed a provocative question: What if we have a SDR agent (that can do reasoning and act independently) working for marketing 24 hours 7 days? Maura Rivera, CMO of Qualified, showcased how agentic marketing workflows, powered by Breeze Agents - now qualify, enrich, and outreach without human intervention. 🔥 Key inspired use cases High-intent demo requests → AI books meetings instantly Follow up on leads who fills out high intent forms → invite for sales meeting Post-event leads → personalized 1:1 email follow-up via AI AI Agents for BDRs: Combine CRM + external data → detect GTM signals → trigger outreach Key reflections: This agentic model doesn’t replace human SDRs. Quite differently, it redefines capacity of your SDR team. It also changes the role of your demand generation and marketing ops - they are no longer just a workflow planner + builder, they become the trainer of agents. 🎯 From CRM Inputs to Full-Funnel Impact Your GTM flywheel is only as smart as the data you give it Several sessions stressed the same point: the AI GTM flywheel only spins when every part of your system is built for signal-based action. In “ Zero to Pipeline ,” we saw how Robyn Winner, CMO of Loop (an early stage AI supply chain startup), used HubSpot’s automation + enrichment + Slack integrations to successfully turn lean GTM teams into scalable revenue engines. In “Segmentation: Data + Marketing Hub United,” we saw how smart columns and spreadsheet-style workflows inside Data Hub made it easy to build segment views on the fly . And in “HubSpot Intent” teams could define their own intent thresholds, e.g., 3+ visits to a pricing page = MQL, feeding back into workflows and ad targeting. This signals a future where your marketing team owns the signal system end-to-end , not just relies on external vendors and endless external API calls. 🔁 HubSpot’s “Loop” GTM Framework: A New Growth Model Emerges Why the funnel is leaking—and how to build a LOOP instead At the heart of INBOUND was a transformative shift: the traditional funnel is leaking; the future is a LOOP. Instead of obsessing over conversion stages, marketers need to: Express who you are – define ICP, brand voice, and tone (train AI on this). Tailor messages – relevance (beyond just personalization) at scale, powered by CRM signals + AI. Amplify across channels – where buyers spend time (social, podcasts, newsletters, emails, etc.), not just on your website. Evolve in real-time – know what to measure and use AI to act faster (campaigns that adapt, re-engage, and surface across your buyer’s journey repeatedly) 🛠 Product updates supporting the LOOP: Marketing Studio (Beta): Drag-and-drop GTM asset orchestration. Content Hub AEO strategy: Optimized for AI discoverability + citations. AI Remix Tools: Take one video/image and repurpose it across channels. Breeze Marketplace: Deploy specialized AI agents for different GTM tasks. 🧭 Final INBOUND 25 Takeaway : Relevance Is the Real Differentiator After spending an intensive week in San Francisco with more than thousands of AI savvy marketers and sales leaders, I deeply believe what sets modern marketers apart isn’t whether they use AI, it’s how intentionally they train it, what data and signals they feed it, and how fast they evolve. Don’t just personalize - strategize your signals and operationalize true relevance. This is my top 1 actionable INBOUND 25 takeaway for you. ABM is your go-to-market motion, not a marketing function.  🧠 Ready to revamp your strategy? Check out our past editions  or let’s chat . 🎯 Until next time—stay bold, stay targeted.  📩 Subscribe here  | More insights for you

Edition #46 | Published September 2, 2025 Last week, we explored how peer reviews and SME voices are creating competitive advantages in AI-led GTM. This week, we zoom out to reveal a broader market shift: the move toward composable, AI-enabled GTM stacks  in marketing. Is Your Marketing Stack Truly Composable, and AI-Ready ?   We’re unpacking why this matters, how to lead with composable tools, and what’s powering high-performing GTM teams today.  🚀 The Pulse: Industry News You Shouldn’t Miss We read the latest AI x ABM news so you don’t have to. New Playbook Published: AI Meets ABM Demand Gen Report published a practical guide on weaving GenAI into targeting, orchestration, and personalization, which reveals the shift from static personas to behavior-driven signals . Worth a bookmark as you update your 2026 GTM plan.  Macro shift: AI search keeps gaining A fresh MarTech.org  research  shows Google’s share of general searches fell from 73% (Feb) to 66.9% (Aug) , while ChatGPT use nearly tripled. Pro  tips:  Optimize for Q&A and summaries  (clear headings, structured takeaways) and repurpose pillar posts into AI-friendly snippets. 6sense launches AI Email Agents to Personalize Outreach at Scale 6sense rolled out AI-generated, data-grounded emails  that pull from CRM + intent to personalize at scale, aimed at speeding first touch while staying on-brand.  LinkedIn expands Thought Leader Ads to Events You can now sponsor member posts  that link directly to a LinkedIn Event . This is a big step forward to blend more B2C strategies into B2B marketing. Pro tips:  Put your SME’s event post  in front of in-market accounts; pair with retargeting to boost lead gen leveraging LinkedIn influencer’s audiences.  LinkedIn doubles down on video for B2B Separately, LinkedIn expanded its BrandLink  video program with new creator-led series and sponsor slots, another push toward video as a demand channel  for decision-maker reach.  Demandbase Doubles Down on Custom APIs Big additions: Custom Actions  (HTTPS calls to any partner), Custom Integrations , LeanData routing automation from engagement signals, are highlighted in Demandbase’s newest release. 🎙 Voices of Influence: Is Your Marketing Stack Truly Composable—and AI-Ready? If AI is powering your GTM engine, composability is the chassis .  Industry leaders are moving away from “one-vendor does it all” toward modular, best-of-breed stacks  that stay flexible as AI evolves. Source   The teams winning now build around the CRM relationship graph  (accounts ↔ people ↔ opportunities), layer AI to interpret signals , and use orchestration  to turn those signals into actions - automatically and intelligently across channels. What leaders are saying:  Demandbase’s recent insights/updates  from Umberto Milletti ( Chief R&D Officer) also emphasize the importance of an open, composable  stack, so GTM signals can flow across tools in real time securely. That’s the architecture you want AI riding on.  Our Takeaways from an AI x Marketing perspective:  Your CRM capability is your moat.  Consider mapping power centers, influence paths, and white space in buying committee coverage, not just contacts and obvious titles.  Signals, signals, signals.  Use AI to turn messy multi-source data (intent, product usage, web, email, ads) into structured GTM signals, then use those signals to derive the next-best actions. Orchestration > channels.  Momentum comes from entry/exit criteria  and suppression logic—not blasting everything everywhere. Composable stacks make that sequencing possible.  Quick Self-Check: Is Your Stack “Composable Enough”? Can you swap parts  (e.g., enrichment or routing) without a rebuild?  Do signals travel quickly ? (Intent → CRM → routing → seller alert in minutes, not hours.)  Do you have open connectors  (APIs/webhooks) to push/pull account & people data across tools?  Do shared definitions  (fit × intent × engagement) drive one set of automations across systems?  Is CRM truly the spine ? (Clean associations: account ↔ buying group ↔ opportunity.) Here’s one example of a composable AI-ready B2B marketing stack: Layer Why it’s critical for AI-ready CRM Houses the relationship graph (accounts↔people↔opps) and the unique keys AI needs to join, trust, and act on data. CDP / Warehouse Centralizes clean, timestamped events for modeling and historical context for AI scoring and forecasting. Identity & Enrichment Adds firmographic/technographic precision so AI can judge fit and prioritize the right accounts/personas. Reverse ETL Operationalizes AI features/segments by pushing them back into tools in near-real time. Signal Scoring Converts noisy intent/behavior into fit × intent × engagement  scores Orchestration Turns scores into actions with entry/exit criteria, suppressions, and conflict rules—automation AI can trust. Activation (paid + owned + human) Delivers the right message/channel/seller step on trigger, where AI insights create revenue. AI / LLM Layer Summarizes context, drafts 1:1 outreach, and assists decisions via RAG/guardrails + human-in-the-loop. Measurement & Guardrails 🔦 Case Study We will be back next week 🔥 What’s Trending This Week 🎥 Meta just rolled out multi-language AI dubbing for video content , aiming to globalize creator reach, useful for repurposing expert videos across regions.This is great news for digital marketers!  🚀 Notable Funding Rounds in AI-Powered GTM Startups  Clay Raises $100M Series C at $3.1B Valuation Clay, a leading AI-powered GTM platform, secured $100M to scale its “GTM engineering” playbook across 10K+ customers. Source Cognition AI Scores $500M in Series C Cognition raised half a billion to advance its autonomous AI engineer agent "Devin." Source 🛠 Martech Spotlight: Cool Tools & Innovations 🚀 Claygent Navigator : Clay just released Navigator, a browser-based AI agent for “nested” data tasks: from prospect research to workflow assembly across CRM, LinkedIn, and more. ⚡ Trace.so : A no-code orchestration engine that routes GTM tasks to the right AI or human agent, based on tool integrations and context. Think Slack + Notion + JIRA meets RevOps automation. 📚 Knowledge Vault: Must-Reads for ABM Operators 🎧 Top ways to use Zapier MCP server and LLMs  by  Constance Chen 🎥 Zapier’s Guide to Vibe-Coded Revenue Ops 📊 Reddit’s B2B Webinar on Community-Led GTM ⚡ Execution Tips & Tricks Zapier + LLMs: Use Zapier’s MCP and local LLMs  to build modular GTM workflows, e.g. automating intent to action triggers across your tools. AI SDRs + CRM = Smart First Contact and Know When to Hand Off Seamless handoff to human SDRs  when conversations reach complexity thresholds. Salesforce CEO shares their practices  on how AI SDRs as the 1st qualification layer.  🎤 ABM Insider: Events We’re Attending AI Meets ABM: What’s Actually Working vs. What’s Hype: Wed, September 24, 2025 A straight-talk session on what to keep, cut, and re-compose in your stack so AI actually moves pipeline—not just decks. Register here → GTM Hot Takes Show — “No More MQLs”, Thu, September 4, 2025: Hot take meets hard data: if your stack’s composable and signal-driven, do you still need MQLs? We’ll dig in, live. Register → 💬 Quote of the Week We will be back next week ABM is your go-to-market motion, not a marketing function.  🧠 Ready to revamp your strategy? Check out our past editions  or let’s chat . 🎯 Until next time—stay bold, stay targeted.  📩 Subscribe here  | More insights for you

Edition #45 | Published August 18, 2025 Last week, we explored the balance between AI speed and human judgment  in marketing. This week, we’re zooming in on a lever that elevates both: peer reviews and SME-level voices / expert influences embedded across GTM motions. In a world increasingly driven by AI, gaining buyer trust still starts with human connection, and those authentic validation points are becoming distinct competitive assets.  This edition breaks down why that matters, how to plug it into AI x Marketing, and what we’re seeing in the field.  🚀 The Pulse: Industry News You Shouldn’t Miss We read the latest AI x ABM News so you don’t have to.  Demand Gen Report: 2025 Demand Generation Benchmark According to this newly released research, demand gen budgets are expanding - with 45%  of teams prioritizing ABM/ABX  and 41%  increasing spend on personalization . Teams are re-centering on lead quality , ops maturity , and revenue attribution . The top metrics remain as Opportunities generated, MQL/SAL conversion, and pipeline influence. Download the Survey G2: 2025 Buyer Behavior Report A massive shift is happening in SaaS buyer behavior . According to G2’s newly published research, 79% of enterprise buyers  now rely on AI or review platforms  as primary research sources, overshadowing traditional search. This underscores how vital third-party validation  and digital trust-building  have become. For SMB buyers, site reviews (38%) and AI (35%) are also key research sources.  HG Insights Launches Agentic GTM Ecosystem The new “ Revenue Growth Agentic Ecosystem ” blends AI agents with enriched market data (via TrustRadius) and relies on MadKubu ( an agentic GTM solution provider)  integration. This means teams can now activate GTM strategies automatically based on real-time signals. Madison Logic × ZoomInfo: ABM Meets Activation This new partnership bridges audience planning, contact intelligence, and activation  into one connected workflow.  The integration enables teams to identify in-market accounts faster and coordinate outreach across owned and paid channels — a strong signal of where modern ABM is heading. Demandbase Expands MAP Integration with Data Integrity Demandbase’s Data Integrity  is now available in Marketo, bringing real-time deduplication, enrichment, and data hygiene  directly into your MAP workflows. Powered by its MTV ( multi-sourced, triangulated, validated ) data approach, this update supports cleaner segmentation, more accurate scoring, and tighter downstream conversion.  🎙 Voices of Influence: How Expert Influence Still Win in 2025 AI-led GTM In a world where AI can churn out “content” faster than we can scroll, influence still comes from people. Trusted voices with a point of view build credibility, move markets, and open doors AI alone can’t. LinkedIn’s Thought Leader Ads put your execs, experts, and even customers at the center  of your paid + owned  strategy — then scale their reach with the precision targeting LinkedIn is known for. 🔦 Case Study: The Operational Reality of Building AI-First Revenue Team at SaaStr Jason Lemkin’s team at SaaStr have operationalized 10 AI agents  as core members of the revenue and operations engine - and the lessons are telling. AI agents excel in top-of-funnel lead handling, support, and scale, but human orchestration  is the real force multiplier. My key takeaways: AI agents aren’t “set‑and‑forget.” Every agent demands regular human oversight. Each morning, Jason’s team reviews performance metrics, edge‑case failures, and fine‑tunes training data.  These agents deliver what humans can’t, like zero turnover, weekend consistency, instant product knowledge, and uptime without burnout. In this case study, their lead qualification accuracy climbed by 67% , leading to $340K in sponsor pipeline generated in Q3 alone, which is pretty impressive!  Winners invest in AI‑Ops talent .  🔥 What’s Trending This Week “Vibe Coding” with GPT-5 is Ready for Marketers? Prototyping full-stack apps from a single prompt is promised by the launch , but mileage varies. Early hands-on reports show impressive speed  with uneven reliability for non-coders .  MIT’s study  flags neural, linguistic, and behavioral underperformance  with constant AI assistance. Also, see Zac Stucki ’s take on resisting “ disposable thinking. ” published on MarTech.  🚀Notable Funding Rounds in AI-Powered GTM Startups  (No additional updates in this cycle.) 🛠 Martech Spotlight: Cool Tools & Innovations Claygent + GPT-5 : GPT-5 becomes Clay’s default pick for messy web research , long docs, and nested navigation.  📚 Knowledge Vault: Must-Reads for ABM Operators Why AI Still Needs a Human Co-Pilot  - A Hubspot x GPT Case Study How to use vibe-coding to scale revenue teams  by Zapier (prompts that sound like you; consistent GTM messaging).  Video marketing assets  every SaaS needs - explainer hook, product demo, social proof  - to accelerate buying groups AI for Revenue Teams - Zapier’s Case Study on agentic workflows. ⚡ Execution Tips & Tricks for AI x ABM Success  Leaning on what you know may not get you what you need . Melissa Reeve ’s deep-research workflow  pulled non-obvious sources (Reddit, forums, review sites) that shaped sharper messaging and segmentation.   Over relying on job titles could be costly, instead of building buying persona based on titles and levels, segment them based on decision making roles . Like, Instead of building a persona for “VP of IT”, build one for the technical evaluator, the risk manager, and the champion.  🎤 ABM Insider: Events We’re Attending  📊 Data-Driven GTM Planning for 2026 Hosted by Demandbase🗓️ August 22, 2025 Register here → 🌐 Reddit Pro: Go-to-Market Tactics for B2B🗓️ August 21, 2025 Register here → 💡 RevGenius Live: AI + Community-Driven GTM🗓️ August 23, 2025 RSVP here → 💬 Quote of the Week “Visibility is the new north star. Content teams need to act like publishers—show up in more places, not just rank.” — Tom Mansell , VP Organic Performance, Crowd (Source: Marketing Dilemmas podcast ) ABM is your go-to-market motion, not a marketing function.  📩 Subscribe here  | More insights for you   🧠 Ready to revamp your strategy? Check out our past editions  or let’s chat . 🎯 Until next time—stay bold, stay targeted.

I tried HubSpot’s new GPT Deep Research integration this week — here’s what I found 👇 I’ve been curious how this would work in a real marketing workflow (and how it could benefit my clients), so last weekend, I ran tests in a sandbox version of my own HubSpot setup — side‑by‑side with GPT and Claude, to separate hype from reality. What I Tested Connected HubSpot → GPT for prospecting insights, predictive scoring, personalized follow‑ups, and dynamic campaign ideas. What I Liked (and where I’m Stuck) 1. Real-Time Data Insights Real‑time insights were 🤯 — surfaced micro‑segments and intent patterns we’d been blind to, making audience refinement almost effortless. 2. Automation that still needs a human hand Sequences ran smoothly, but I kept tweaking copy/timing to avoid “robotic follow‑ups.” 💭 Which customer signals does GPT actually read well — and what still needs prompt tweaking to feel human? 3. Privacy + compliance is still the Elephant in the Room Cool features, but I kept wondering. 💭 What guardrails keep data fully compliant? 4. Powerful… but not an exactly “plug and play” for everyone The power is real but I think many marketers may still hit friction. They know the questions to ask, but not how to phrase them so GPT understands.   💭 Will this evolve into a true no‑code tool, or keep staying ops‑heavy? 5. Dashboard + testing gaps Strong MVP, but I miss native marketing dashboards to experiment before pushing live. 6. "Deep Research" mode only Right now it only runs in "Deep Research" mode, which is great for depth, but not ideal when you just need quick questions or tweaks.   My Overall Impression: This could cut out so much those pains in “export → clean → then re‑import" and finally put GPT’s power inside a CRM marketers already know. But strong   data governance   and team readiness   for prompt‑driven workflows is key before scaling. What's your takeaways from this new Hubspot <-> ChatGPT connector? DM me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/oceaneli .

Edition #44 | Published August 4, 2025 Last issue we asked whether content should be gated in an AI‑shaped buyer journey. This week we zoom out: If there’s “an AI for everything,” where do humans still make the difference in GTM? Automation promises speed (e.g. personalization at scale within x minutes), but speed alone could be a trap. The reality often leads to missed fresh context, lack of company nuances, generic plays, and stalled deals. As SaaStr founder Jason Lemkin reminds us this month, sophisticated buyers judge your operational competence as much as your product. The real edge is balancing AI scale with human judgment . Our hands-on run with HubSpot’s new ChatGPT Deep Research connector  drives the lesson home. In this edition, we break down how to let AI handle the heavy lifting while protecting brand trust, pipeline quality, and the nuance that only humans can deliver. Let’s break it down. 🚀 The Pulse: AI in B2B Marketing Industry News You Shouldn’t Miss We read the latest AI x ABM News so you don’t have to.  Demandbase Unveils Major Buying‑Group Enhancements Demandbase’s July update introduced a set of New Buying-Group Agents , plus their super useful “ Unknown Visitor → Recommended High-Intent Buying Group Contacts from This Account ” alerts. Early users are reporting 2.6× larger deal sizes  and 65% higher CTR  when buying‑group coverage is complete.  GTM Partners Unveils “Intent Data Maturity Curve” Research New research shows multi‑signal programs outperform single‑source plays by 48%  in pipeline velocity, as putting too much weight on one type of intent is like basing your entire forecast on one weather app. The leading GTM teams go beyond and above, using AI predicts when prospects will be ready , what they care about, and how best to engage.  Demand Gen Report Released Key Trends Influencing Buyer Engagement 84% of ABM programs now rely on multi‑signal AI models , and teams personalizing beyond job title  see 30% higher opportunity rates . From a distribution channel perspective, conversational advertising represents a significant evolution beyond traditional display formats, frequently surface sales-ready opportunities significantly faster than conventional lead capture methods .  Zapier Publishes Its “AI Fluency” Framework to Assess Marketer’s Skills in Hiring  Zapier’s CEO Wade Foster defined four competency levels (Unacceptable, Capable, Adoptive, Transformative) to evaluate AI fluencies across roles . These are evaluated through screenings, async exercises, and live interviews. Signals compound across stages. Very interesting read! ChatGPT Agent is Launched  ChatGPT now thinks and acts, proactively choosing from a toolbox of agentic skills  to complete tasks for you using its own computer. The agent can also leverage ChatGPT connectors⁠ , which allows you to connect apps like Hubspot so ChatGPT can find information relevant to your prompts and use them in its responses.  🎙 Voices of Influence: Where AI Wins - and Where Humans Still Lead in Marketing The AI future isn’t going to be a handful of vendors pushing one-size-fits-all tools to the market. It’s every GTM team spinning up purpose-built agents  that solve their  specific bottlenecks.  The winners won’t be “most AI automated.” They’ll be the teams that combine AI’s scale  with human judgment and fresh context . Where does AI shine? In my humble opinion,  Heavy-lift, low-context, highly-repetitive tasks : preliminary research, basic lead qualification, first-draft copy, message optimization, etc.. Dynamic distribution : conversational ads that adapt to persona-tailored messages and capture real-time intent, far faster than static traditional ad forms. Strategy accelerators:  providing your data and tools are ready, optimized dynamic prospect lists, segment prioritization, always-on scoring models, etc.  Contextualized insight delivery:   HubSpot’s ChatGPT connector  (we tested in Sandbox) now drops tailored summaries and next-best actions directly into the CRM view. . But more AI isn’t always better. It shouldn’t be a disconnected, tactical fix for an isolated problem. Over‑implementing AI in B2B Marketing without human oversight or strong data governance, can hurt both your brand and your pipeline. Over-automation without proper human oversight and data governance can put brand trust at risk , especially when AI data privacy and security are still fuzzy.  Hyper-personalization at scale is powerful, yet SuperAGI’s latest report  reminds us the human layer is what keeps relevance from drifting into creepiness .  Bottom line here is, let AI handle speed and scale, but keep humans accountable for  fresh context,   industry nuances , data compliance , and the final “should we push send?” call . 🔥 What’s Trending This Week “Good Growth” Redefined:  SaaStr data shows 40‑60% growth  is now exceptional for pre‑$100M ARR. ChatGPT Hits 2.5B Prompts/Day :  Catching up to Google’s 14B daily searches. HubSpot Launches First CRM Connector  for Anthropic’s Claude. 🚀 Notable Funding Rounds in AI-Powered GTM Startups  Loveable  and Replit  both hit $100M ARR in 8 months. This is highlighting how successful AI‑powered startups are racing to category leadership .  🛠 Martech Spotlight: Cool Tools & Innovations Search Console Audit:  Identifies opportunities to boost traffic on Google and AI search platforms. Lindy.ai :  Smart automations connecting Gmail, HubSpot, Clay — enrich, trigger, and personalize follow‑up automatically. E.g. set up a trigger based on keywords, then move the leads into pipeline stage in Hubspot.  There’s an AI for That:  Curated directory of AI tools and workflows. 📚 Knowledge Vault: Must-Reads for ABM Operators What B2B Can Learn From Consumer Brands How to Get Recommended by ChatGPT  – Kyle Poyar Lean AI at Scale: The Official Playbook for Scale‑Ups Step‑by‑Step Guide: Using AI for Strategic Marketing Tasks ⚡ Execution Tips & Tricks for AI x ABM Success  Combine third‑party surge data  (topic research trends) with first‑party engagement signals  (e.g., pricing page visits) for stronger intent validation  before outreach. Repurpose event content  into months of LinkedIn posts using AI transcription + summarization workflows , shared by Lisa Shaw (my fellow MarTech contributor) Tap HubSpot’s AI Prompt Library  to improve campaign ideas and testing velocity. Record real conversations, feed transcripts into AI, and extract authentic content ideas   vs. generic prompts, published by Devin Reed ( Founder of The Reeder) 🎤 ABM Insider: Events We’re Attending  Ghosted to Growth: Revenue Leaders on Buyer Re‑Engagement – Aug 6 Zero‑Party Data in Action: Turning Discovery into Conversions – Aug 12 HubSpot Inbound 2025 – Sept 17‑19 ZapConnect 2025 – Sept 25 💬 Quote of the Week “The fundamental mistake today’s B2B marketers make is deploying artificial intelligence tactically rather than strategically. When AI is relegated to isolated point solutions — writing individual emails, optimizing ad creative, or repurposing content assets — it delivers incremental efficiency gains but fails to address the core challenge of engaging complex buying committees effectively.”  — Anna Eliot, CMO, pharosIQ, Source  “The most significant shift with AI isn’t tactical; it’s mental. Marketers must rethink their entire approach to the workday and workflow. Instead of asking, “How do I do this?” asking, “How can something else think or create for me so that I can focus elsewhere?”  — Madison Sofield, AI Expert at Tomorrow.io ,  Source “When you’re selling to sophisticated buyers, they’re evaluating not just your product, but your operational competence.”   — Jason Lemkin , Founder SaaStr  Source ABM is your go-to-market motion, not a marketing function.  🧠 Ready to revamp your strategy? Check out our past editions  or let’s chat . 🎯 Until next time—stay bold, stay targeted.  📩 Subscribe here  | More insights for you

Edition #43 | Published July 21, 2025 Last week, we explored how invisible buyer journeys dominate modern B2B sales cycles. This week, we’re getting tactical—with a sharp look at one of the most polarizing questions in ABM content strategy: Should you gate your content in an AI-powered buyer journey? In a world where discoverability and trust shape every pipeline, what you choose to restrict—or release—can either compound your influence or throttle it. Let’s break it down. 🚀 The Pulse: Industry News You Shouldn’t Miss We read the latest AI x ABM News so you don’t have to.  🧠 Demandbase Launches Agentbase on AWS Marketplace Agentbase, Demandbase’s new suite of GTM AI agents , is now available via AWS Marketplace. These AI agents automate campaign execution and account-level engagement, giving marketers and sellers faster paths to impact with less lift. Why it matters : You can now experiment with AI-led GTM strategies directly within your cloud ecosystem—no extra procurement headaches. 📺 MNTN + ZoomInfo: Precision Comes to Connected TV This new partnership blends ZoomInfo’s intent and firmographic data with MNTN’s performance TV platform. Expect sharper targeting, improved reach, and better ROI on your top-of-funnel B2B CTV campaigns . Why it matters : CTV is becoming an underrated ABM lever—this deal makes it more measurable and scalable for B2B teams. 🤝 TechTarget and Salesloft Link Up to Advance Buyer Engagement TechTarget and Salesloft announced a strategic partnership : leveraging TechTarget's person-level intent data and Salesloft's sales engagement platform, sales teams can now more effectively engage buyers with contextualized personalization  in outreach.  🧩 The Limits of LLMs: Why Full ABM Automation Is Overly Optimistic According to recent analysis by The Information , LLMs excel at pattern recognition but struggle with scenarios that have multiple unknown variables or that require live contextual information. This explains why full ABM automation claims, like launching campaigns with just 30 minutes of prep, remain overly optimistic . True success still demands strategic human oversight alongside AI. Watch the insightful TEDx talk: "How to Compete with AI—and Win" 🎤 Global ABM Conference 2025 – Speaker Submissions Now Open The ABM Global Conference , set for November 5, 2025, is now accepting speaker submissions . The theme focuses on technology-driven ABM methods to navigate today’s fragmented, AI-accelerated buyer landscapes .  📌 B2B Ignite 2025: The Top Insights from This Year's Flagship Event At B2B Ignite 2025 , industry leaders explored actionable strategies on how to shift from theoretical AI adoption to practical implementation in GTM strategies. Discussions focused heavily on aligning AI-driven ABM with buyer realities and stressed the importance of execution over hype. Catch the key takeaways from B2B Ignite 2025 🎙 Voices of Influence:  Gated or Ungated? Your Content Strategy Could Make or Break Pipeline Gating your content used to be a simple demand gen conversion tactic. In today’s AI-led buyer journey, it’s a brand trust decision. AI tools only access publicly available information . So if your premium resources are behind a form, they’re invisible not just to buyers, but to the AI engines that influence them. According to TrustRadius, today’s B2B buyers demand frictionless access  to high-value information, like pricing, use cases, competitive insights, before they ever talk to a rep. Does that mean everything should be ungated? Not quite. Image Credit: TrustRadius's Report " Bridging the Trust Gap: B2B Tech Buying in the Age of AI " The smart move: gate fewer assets, but make them count . Use forms on content that offers clear, immediate value to motivated buyers, like live events or strategic toolkits. And with Cloudflare’s new Pay-per-Crawl  model (which charges AI bots for content access), expect to see even more experimentation around value-based content monetization and visibility. Marketers now face the challenge of balancing openness with exclusivity. In this new environment, discoverability, authority, and owning your narrative are critical. First-party traffic is no longer enough, marketers must also prioritize their presence in AI responses and social feeds, shifting strategies toward “ credible mentions ”, by users, customers, and SMEs.  🔦 Case Study: Gated vs. Ungated Content – What Really Performs? The Juice's latest " State of Gated vs. Ungated Content " report provides some eye-opening insights: Ungated content drives 26% higher engagement than gated assets when everything else remains the same, and among the top 50 most engaged brands, 31 gate less than 3% of their content . Only Toolkits  and Event Sessions  justify a gate with engagement above 1%, as these formats naturally attract higher engagement. For ABM operators, that’s your cue. Gating should be selective and strategic , not your default. If you’re putting energy into producing standout content, put equal thought into how and when it gets discovered . 🔥 What’s Trending This Week No Longer Free : Cloudflare is enabling content owners to charge AI crawlers for access Source: Cloudflare's Blog " Introducing pay per crawl " AI Premium : AI-centric companies like Palantir and Snowflake outperform traditional enterprise solutions. Winning themes  like AI + Data Infra and Vertical SaaS are the keys.  Context Engineering - New Differentiator : Beyond prompt engineering, context engineering  emerges as the new competitive differentiator, for SaaS founders, also for tech-savvy marketers.  Reviews Win : 77% of buyers rely on peer reviews. Analyst reports? Down 60% since 2022. (Source: TrustRadius ) Lean Teams, Higher Output : ARR per FTE in early-stage SaaS is up 18% YoY. 🚀 Notable Funding Rounds in AI-Powered GTM Startups  Unify  raised $40M Series B (led by Battery Ventures + OpenAI Fund) to build AI agents that surface high-intent leads and personalize outreach at scale. 🛠 Martech Spotlight: Cool Tools & Innovations We’re testing all of them and stay tuned for more reviews!  Relay.app : Streamline cross-app workflow collaboration  by creating your GTM AI agents.  Browse Anything : AI agent for web browsing and automated task  execution, all from simple prompts, like a web assistant.  Meet Comet: An in-browser assistant  that helps users navigate and complete tasks—hands-free.  📚 Knowledge Vault: Must-Reads for ABM Operators How to spot real buying signals vs. false positives TrustRadius B2B Buyer Report : Where trust is won (and lost) ⚡ Execution Tips & Tricks for AI x ABM Success  ABM = GTM, Not a Campaign In her podcast, Catie Ivey (CRO and former leader at Marketo and Demandbase) reminds us: ABM is a strategy, not a campaign. Align across marketing, sales, ops, and CS to orchestrate journeys around the account—not the channel.  🎧 Listen here Make Email Interactive —Or Risk Being Ignored: According to fellow MarTech SME Alex Melone , interactive emails (carousels, polls, in-line pricing, videos) are turning stale nurture streams into immersive experiences. 📚 Why Interactive Emails Drive Better Funnels , 🎤 ABM Insider: Events We’re Attending  Zapier: Data Governance & Security  Clean data is your ABM engine. Learn how to balance AI integration with secure data ops. 🎥 Watch on-demand ZapConnect – Sept 18, 2025  Get hands-on with AI automations that improve GTM execution. 🔗 Explore ZapConnect Demandbase Webinar – “From MQLs to Buying Groups” (July 23) Hear from Workday and Forrester on activating full-funnel buying group strategies that outperform lead-based models.  Register for “From MQLs to Buying Groups” 💬 Quote of the Week "If you don’t shape the narrative, others will. And that impacts how fast you can move, how trusted you are, and how much support marketing gets across the business." - Florian Frese , Marketing Director at Wire, Heard from Florian's episode on Marketing Dilemmas! "The most valuable AI skills aren't about learning secret phrases or clever tricks. They're about understanding how to architect intelligent systems that have access to the right information at the right time." - Dharmesh Shah , Read from Simple.ai 's Post ABM is your go-to-market motion, not a marketing function.  🧠 Ready to revamp your strategy? Check out our Past Editions  or let’s Chat . 🎯 Until next time—stay bold, stay targeted.  📩 Subscribe here  | More insights for you

This week, we’re switching gears. Instead of a typical deep dive, I’m sharing a visual breakdown that challenges a fast-growing misconception in GTM teams: the idea that GTM Engineers can "do ABM" without strategic depth. I’ve mapped out what’s missing — and what a truly impactful GTM Engineer role should look like in an AI-powered, account-based world. Back to our regular insights next week . For now, enjoy this quick-scroll visual and let me know what resonates👇