Ashley Faus

We all know segmentation is key, but it's often limited to company firmographics. So when Clay announced their integration with HG Insights today, I have been geeking out layering in new insights to our ABM list. Instead of rattling off a bunch of features or "what this means," I'm going to explain exactly how I plan on using this to paint the picture: 1) We know which accounts we want to go after, but that's often based on things like their location, size, industry, etc. What we *don't* know is if they currently have a solution in place to solve for what we want to help them with, or if we do, it's either sketchily acquired or probably out of date 2) To create a truly relevant message, knowing what an organization does isn't enough. We need to go beyond that by understanding how they're approaching what they do today, and that execution is often a function of the tech they use 3) Enter Clay x HG Insights. I can now further prioritize our target account list by going beyond firmographics and layering in technographics. What are our prospects currently using? Which competitors are low-hanging fruit that we can beat? Which competitors are going to be uphill battles because they've got a great product? This is a huge help in resourcing our overall GTM efforts. 4) Enrich the rest of the account data appropriately. Find the relevant contacts + engage them in a HIGHLY relevant way based on all of the above. 5) Sit back and watch your win rates increase, sales cycles decrease, and your GTM team (AEs, BDRs, Marketing, etc.) breathe a HUGE sigh of relief as acquisition has just become a lot easier. HG Insights has historically only been used by companies with big budgets because it's not a cheap product. That all changes today.

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Marketing doesn’t have to be chaos. It can be an assembly line. One of my favorite frameworks came up on the pod recently with Ruth Zive, 4x CMO - and it immediately clicked for me. 👉 Ruth describes marketing as an assembly line, where each function passes critical inputs to the next. It’s a simple but powerful way to see how all the pieces connect. Here’s how she breaks it down (visual below is Ruth’s): 1) Product Marketing → Sizes the market, clarifies ICP, informs roadmap & positioning. 2) Brand → Translates positioning into clear, compelling, on-brand assets. 3) Revenue/Field Marketing → Organizes those assets into campaigns + events tailored to segments. 4) Demand → Optimizes channels (SEO, paid, email, social) for volume, quality, cost. 5) BDRs → Catch inbound + outbound into target accounts, delivering qualified pipeline to Sales. What I love about this model: It shows where the handoffs are (so you can spot bottlenecks fast). It scales - you can layer in roles as you grow. It forces clarity: every team knows their job and how it ladders to the next. 📌 Note: Ruth clarified the columns aren’t silos, and bullets ≠ headcount. In smaller orgs, one person might span multiple steps. The structure flexes depending on company stage, budget, and talent. Full credit to Ruth for this framework - and for generously walking us through how she applies it inside her orgs. 🙌 If you geek out on org design, sales alignment, and annual planning in the AI era… Episode 29 with Ruth is a must-listen. 🎙 Growth Activated, Ep 29 → check it out wherever you get your podcasts. Your turn: Where’s the biggest bottleneck in your assembly line right now? #MarketingLeadership #CMO #DemandGen #GrowthActivated

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Oh hey, LinkedIn, quick question for the community of marketers and rev ops folks here. Jon Miller, and I were on a panel at Pavilion CMO Summit (with the awesome Ray Rike) recently talking marketing financial benchmarks, which, naturally, led us to double-click on measurement. Jon (as he does) dropped a little one-liner that hit just right: “Attribution should inform your decisions, not justify them.” It echoes something I often say in same spirit, using different words: Marketing (and our partners in ops+) needs to evolve from grading to guiding. Yes, we all track attainment, ROI, CAC, LTV by channel, the usual lagging indicators of growth. Sound familiar so far? But what about the early signals? The ones that tell you something’s working before the dashboard does. If so, here’s my ask: 👉 How do YOU define a “signal”? 👉 And what’s one piece of signal tech or process you can’t live without to stay ahead of shifts in your market, audience, messaging, or channel mix? Appreciate anyone who helps make me become a little smarter than I was yesterday. Talk to me! Humbly, This CMO #MarketingAttribution #CMOlife #RevenueOperations #B2BMarketing

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The 1️⃣ question to ask before your brand takes a public stance: "Does this stance genuinely reflect who we are as a company or is it primarily performative?" – that's the litmus test I shared in a recent Forbes Communications Council piece. In an era where consumers are more values-driven than ever, performative statements are easily sniffed out and can backfire spectacularly. True alignment between your actions, mission, and public messaging isn't just about avoiding backlash; it's the foundation of genuine brand loyalty. It's about doing the right thing, not just saying it. Thanks to my co-contributors: Sara (Cziok) Payne, Rich Bornstein, Rob Robinson, Rekha Thomas, Sarah Lero, Victoria Zelefsky, Katie Jewett, Andrew Frank, Cade Collister, Toby Wong, CPACC, ADAC, Barnaby Pung, PhD, Kerry-Ann Betton Stimpson, and Bob Pearson Link to the full article in comments below 👇👇👇 🤔 What's your take on brands making public statements? 🤔

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Stop thinking about AI optimization. Start thinking about AI as a persona. Wanda Cadigan, SVP of Marketing at Cloudinary, just reframed how I think about target personas: "Traditional marketing, your personas are head of web dev or director of e-commerce... But the other persona is we have to market for chat agents, for ChatGPT, Perplexity, Grok, all of these answer engines." Read that again. ChatGPT isn't a channel. It's not a tactic. It's a persona! 🤯 And just like any persona, it has: ⭐ Preferences (fresh content, authoritative sources, clear citations) ⭐ Behaviors (how it searches, evaluates, and surfaces information) ⭐ Needs (structured data, context, credibility signals) Think about what this means for how we work: 👉 When you're creating content, you're not just asking "Will this resonate with our VP of Engineering persona?" You're also asking "Will Claude surface this when a developer asks about video API solutions?" 👉 When you're planning your PR strategy, you're not just thinking about human readers. You're thinking about whether those tier-one placements will become citations that AI trusts. 👉 When you're building your content calendar, you're considering both the CTO who visits your website AND the AI agent that answers their question before they ever get there. As Wanda puts it: "Nobody has a fever dream and wakes up one morning saying, 'I'm gonna submit a Contact Us form.'" 😆 You already know that your prospects are having conversations with AI first. Those conversations are shaping their perception of you before they ever reach your website. So the question isn't just "Are we optimizing for GEO?" The question is: "Have we added AI chat agents to our core persona set?" Because the buyer's journey now has two audiences—human and AI—and we need to build trust with both. 🤝 If you're a marketer and not listening to Erica Seidel's podcast, you're missing out! (Link in comments.) #MarketingStrategy #B2BSaaS #AIMarketing #ContentStrategy #MarketingLeadership #GEO #ProductMarketing

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