Marketing Fast Takes - March 2025: Smarter Strategies & Stronger Connections
"When you master the delicate balance between efficient automation and human creativity, you'll understand the fundamental need for strategy, trust, and innovation to remain firmly in human hands."
This month, we're diving into the social evolution of B2B sales, streamlining workflows, and leveraging social selling for relationship-building to replacing outdated metrics like MQLs with revenue-driven KPIs.
We also dive into the rise of zero-click content, the increasing need for trust-based engagement on social platforms, and the role of AI-powered teammates like "Jenney" in reshaping fractional marketing.
Whether it's using AI-driven insights, refining LinkedIn engagement strategies, or adopting more effective measurement frameworks, one thing is clear: adaptability is the key to B2B marketing success in 2025.
Is your marketing strategy keeping up? Now is the time to embrace change, experiment with new tactics, and position your brand for long-term growth.
AI Does the Heavy Lifting, But Human Creativity Seals the Deal
"Human judgment and creativity will remain essential, but gen AI can do much of the scut work."?Doug J. Chung
Generative AI is revolutionizing sales and marketing, automating time-consuming tasks, analyzing data at scale, and accelerating workflows. But while AI can handle the "scut work"—think lead qualification, content drafts, and customer segmentation—human creativity, strategic thinking, and emotional intelligence remain irreplaceable. As Doug J. Chung puts it in?Harvard Business Review, “Human judgment and creativity will remain essential, but gen AI can do much of the scut work.”
This shift means sales and marketing teams must rethink their roles. Instead of spending hours on repetitive, low-value tasks, professionals can focus on high-impact initiatives—crafting compelling narratives, building authentic relationships, and making strategic decisions that drive revenue. The real power lies in combining AI's efficiency with human insight. Marketers can use AI to generate content ideas, but storytelling and brand voice refinement require a personal touch. Sales teams can leverage AI-driven insights, but the ability to read a room, build trust, and close deals remains a uniquely human skill.
The key to success is balance. Organizations that integrate AI into their processes while empowering their teams to apply creativity and judgment will be the ones to thrive. The future of sales and marketing isn't about replacing people with AI—it's about giving professionals the tools to be more effective, efficient, and impactful. Those who master this hybrid approach will outpace competitors still bogged down by manual processes and outdated workflows.
Are you leveraging AI to optimize workflows while keeping creativity at the core? It’s time to rethink how your team works—so AI does the heavy lifting, and you deliver the strategic wins.
Zero-Click, High Impact: The Future of B2B Social Media Engagement
"Currently, studies show that over 40% of consumers prefer to find brands on social media rather than traditional search engines, so B2B public relations professionals must find their way through the changes and have a clear social media policy."?Jamie Knightley
Simply maintaining a presence on LinkedIn isn’t enough anymore.? B2B social media marketing is shifting toward decentralized platforms, zero-click content, and an increasing reliance on social media for brand discovery. Audiences are engaging in new ways, and marketers need to adapt or risk falling behind.
One of the biggest shifts? Buyers—especially Gen Z decision-makers—are turning to social media over traditional search engines to research companies and products. This means B2B brands need to position themselves as thought leaders?where?their audience is already consuming content, whether that’s LinkedIn, Bluesky, Threads, or even TikTok. The rise of the Fediverse—a decentralized, user-controlled network—offers new opportunities for engagement, while TikTok continues to redefine professional storytelling with short-form video content.
Another game-changer is zero-click content. Social platforms are deprioritizing external links in favor of content that keeps users on-platform—like native posts, infographics, and short insights. These posts receive 6x more engagement than link-based content, proving that value-driven storytelling beats traditional click-through strategies. B2B marketers must rethink content distribution to drive engagement?within?the platforms their buyers are using, rather than relying solely on website traffic.
The takeaway? B2B social media is no longer a box to check—it’s a dynamic, evolving strategy that requires agility, experimentation, and a willingness to meet audiences where they are. By diversifying platform presence, prioritizing engagement over clicks, and leveraging new content formats, brands can build stronger, more authentic connections in an increasingly competitive digital world.
How is your business evolving its social strategy? The time to adapt is now.
The Death of the MQL Model - Why B2B Companies Must Move On
"Marketing efforts rarely yield immediate sales results. In most B2B markets, there is a significant time lag — often spanning 9 to 15 months — between initial marketing spend and the corresponding revenue impact."?Mark Stouse
For years, Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) have been the foundation of B2B marketing strategies, but in 2025, it's clear that this metric is no longer serving businesses. MQLs were created as a way to bridge the gap between marketing and sales, but in reality, they’ve become a vanity metric that fails to drive real revenue.?
MQLs encourage marketing teams to optimize for volume rather than quality—leading to misalignment, wasted resources, and frustrated sales teams.
The real issue? The MQL model ignores how modern B2B buyers actually behave. With longer sales cycles (often spanning 9 to 15 months), AI-driven analytics exposing outdated metrics, and increased financial scrutiny on marketing performance, businesses must pivot to revenue-centric KPIs like sales-qualified opportunities, pipeline velocity, win rates, and deal size. Causal AI is also redefining how GTM teams measure success by identifying what truly drives revenue rather than relying on correlation-based attribution.
Beyond inefficiency, clinging to MQLs now presents legal and financial risks. A recent Delaware ruling expanded fiduciary responsibility to corporate officers, meaning that CMOs and CROs can now be held personally liable for misleading performance metrics. In a world where AI-driven transparency is inevitable, marketing teams that continue to rely on MQLs risk being exposed—either by technology, finance leaders, or even legal action.
The future of B2B marketing demands a shift away from lead generation and toward revenue causality. Forward-thinking GTM leaders will embrace causal AI, advanced attribution models, and full-funnel accountability to ensure their marketing efforts deliver real business impact. The companies that take action now will gain a significant competitive edge—those that don’t risk being left behind.
The Human Edge in B2B Social Selling
"Growing your personal brand or closing deals is all about creating a human connection. In order to get things done, people need to know, like, and trust you."?Lester Mapp
B2B deal-making isn’t happening in cold emails or mass outreach—it’s happening in the DMs. Social selling is shifting, with platforms like LinkedIn evolving into the premier space for building relationships and closing deals. But here’s the catch: it’s not about bombarding prospects with sales pitches. It’s about trust, authenticity, and showing up as a real person.
The traditional sales funnel is giving way to a more organic, relationship-driven approach. Buyers don’t want to be sold to; they want to engage with brands and people they trust. That means creating high-value content, positioning yourself as an expert, and actively engaging in conversations—long before the sales pitch ever happens.?
As Lester Mapp puts it,?“Growing your personal brand or closing deals is all about creating a human connection. In order to get things done, people need to know, like, and trust you.”
So how do B2B professionals make this shift? The key is showing up consistently with original insights, leveraging video and live content to build real connections, and engaging thoughtfully (not just dropping “great post” comments). Social selling isn’t about automation—it’s about being human. The brands and leaders who master this will be the ones who thrive in the new era of B2B marketing.
Meet Jenney—Your Newest Fractional Marketing Team Member
"Your newest fractional marketing team member is GenAI. Call her Jenney, to make her more human. She's rapidly developing super-human intelligence, and she's ready to apply it to ramp up your marketing."
She’s always online, never takes a break, and can juggle data, content, and strategy at the same time.? Meet Jenney—your newest fractional marketing team member. But here’s the catch: Jenney isn’t human. She’s GenAI, and she’s redefining what it means to have an agile, high-performing marketing team.
Unlike traditional AI tools that simply automate tasks, AI agents like Jenney are evolving into proactive teammates. They analyze market trends in real time, craft personalized content, optimize campaigns, and even collaborate with human marketers to refine strategy. The best part? They never stop learning, constantly improving to deliver more value.
Jenney isn’t here to replace human expertise—she’s here to amplify it. By handling the heavy lifting of data analysis and execution, AI agents free up fractional CMOs and marketing strategists to focus on creative problem-solving and high-impact growth initiatives. Companies that embrace AI-driven collaboration will gain an edge, scaling their marketing faster and smarter than ever before.