What Works Now In B2B Marketing (And What’s Next For 2026)

[00:00:00] Tessa Burg: Hello, and welcome to another episode of Leader Generation, brought to you by Mod Op. I’m your host Tessa Burg, and today I am joined by two of our B2B strategic marketing leaders, Jenelle Maddox and Hannah Woodham. We’re really excited about this time of the year. It’s when our clients start thinking about what’s next for them in 2026.

[00:00:21] Tessa Burg: So thank you ladies for joining me. I’m excited to jump into this topic and hear about what did we learn from last year and what are the big bets gonna look like for next year.

[00:00:31] Hannah Woodham: Thanks for having us Tessa.

[00:00:32] Jenelle Maddox: Yeah, excited to be here. Thank you.

[00:00:34] Tessa Burg: So before we start, we always like to get to know our guests a little better.

[00:00:39] Tessa Burg: Hannah, tell us a little bit about yourself and your role at Mod Op.

[00:00:43] Hannah Woodham: Sure. Um, so I’m the Senior Vice President of Paid Channel Strategy and Operations here at Mod Op. I have been with Mod Op for over 16 years now. Um, primarily working in the B2B space, working on all matters of clients in the energy space, electronic space, um, SaaS, FinTech. Um, really love everything B2B. Um, it is a passion of mine. I like to say that I’m a closet nerd. I love how the world works, um, and really am passionate about talking to all the, all things B2B. So …

[00:01:14] Tessa Burg: Yeah, I agree. Every time I’m in front of a client and they’re like, oh, you guys, you know, do TV commercials and all this stuff, and it’s like, no.

[00:01:23] Tessa Burg: Does Mod Op do that? Absolutely. But we are deep in B2B nerds.

[00:01:28] Hannah Woodham: We do. We love it.

[00:01:29] Tessa Burg: Yes. And Jenelle, how about you?

[00:01:32] Jenelle Maddox: Um, I, I love working with B2B nerds. Um, so I am the Vice President of Client Strategy and Success here at Mod Op. So I partner with not only a lot of our enterprise B2B clients, but also, um, help to strategize and oversee with a lot of our internal teams on how we are effectively.

[00:01:52] Jenelle Maddox: Um, positioning and proposing while also, uh, delivering upon cross channel strategies that help all of the organizations we work with ultimately achieve their business goals at the highest level. So, threading together, uh, all the great things that we’re able to help contribute to their business and help them win.

[00:02:12] Tessa Burg: Yeah, and your role is incredibly important, especially as I feel like I said this last podcast episode, but it doesn’t get old. We earned a top 1000 position on Inc. 5000’s fastest growing companies. And if anyone goes to our website, you can see we’ve grown through acquisition. So Jenelle’s role in helping us.

[00:02:32] Tessa Burg: Think about how we deliver value to clients across all of our channels, PR, digital, events, CRM, whatever it is, media. Hannah’s representing our B2B media, uh, services. It’s important for our clients to have that single point of contact and that holistic view so that not only are we delivering in the most productive way, but they too, um.

[00:02:59] Tessa Burg: Have that, have a more productive way to engage with us as an agency.

[00:03:03] Jenelle Maddox: Absolutely. And it’s really fun.

[00:03:06] Tessa Burg: Yeah. I know.

[00:03:08] Jenelle Maddox: There’s a lot we can do and help with and it’s, it’s just a great experience. I know we’ll get into some specific examples today, but B2B is definitely its own unique area, so I’m excited to talk about all the nuances.

[00:03:22] Tessa Burg: Yes, it is. And with that, absolutely. Yeah. Get into our first question because. Sure there’s some similarities and tools, but truly the B2B audience is the way that we engage and reach them is different. So when we think about 2025 and where we were last year at this time, coming outta summer, going back to school.

[00:03:42] Tessa Burg: Hannah, let’s start with you. What were some of the things that clients were thinking about, uh, you know, in 2024, thinking about what they might position in 2025 for this year?

[00:03:54] Hannah Woodham: Yeah, I think last year we were all waiting on the looming bandaid of, uh, Google deciding to deprecate cookies from third party cookies from Chrome.

[00:04:05] Hannah Woodham: Um, there was a bit of a franticness to it, um, and making sure that we were capturing all our first party data, especially in the B2B space with long buying cycles and purchase decisions and such a kind of diverse set of, of. Buying networks that make that decision. Um, we really wanted to make sure that we had good first party data in place, that it was, that it was structured in a way that was, um, that could be activated and, and used.

[00:04:30] Hannah Woodham: Um, so I think when Google finally decided to, to kind of abandon that effort, we could all take a bit of a breather, but we’re still focused in on that first party data.

[00:04:40] Tessa Burg: So when we say still focused in on the first party data, what were some of the things that we, this year. Um, that helped our clients kind of start down that track of preparing for if it ever does actually happen.

[00:04:56] Hannah Woodham: So I think, you know, there was a lot of prep work that went in 2004 and prior right, where we, we really started kind of down this road in 2021 and 2022, um, ensuring that we had active cookie policies in place, that we have privacy policies in place. That all the data capture from when the transition from Universal Analytics went into GA4 um, that, that it was all properly configured, that we were capturing that data, especially for global B2B companies because those privacy regulations can vary so much.

[00:05:26] Hannah Woodham: A lot of people and especially B2B Enterprise will take a more conservative approach, um, to those more rigid privacy regulations and just making sure that across the globe they’re adhering, um, at that level. Um. It was still a very important part of what we were doing. We wanted to make sure all of that was set up and adopting CDPs for certain clients.

[00:05:49] Hannah Woodham: Um, making sure that they had those in place, that they were capturing that, and then, and then segmenting those audiences, um, into something that, that would be usable for us to, to remarket against.

[00:06:00] Tessa Burg: Yeah. And that’s awesome. Especially ’cause CDPs have so many other benefits and it can fuel a lot of data driven strategic thinking.

[00:06:08] Tessa Burg: Uh, Jenelle, how about you? When you think back to last year, around this time, what were your clients thinking about?

[00:06:15] Jenelle Maddox: Yeah, I, the first party data was definitely top of mind, so just to echo what Hannah mentioned there, and I think we saw that also, of course, roll right into 2025 itself. As we’re thinking about how to activate upon it now, there have been a lot of changes with.

[00:06:31] Jenelle Maddox: When, what was happening with cookie deprecation and so forth. But at the end of the day, I think we’ve spent a lot of time last year and rolling into 2025 talking about, regardless of what happened, um, and the deprecation of cookies and so forth, it’s very important to still. Focus primarily on first party data that will never do you wrong.

[00:06:51] Jenelle Maddox: The value in collecting and actually activating upon first party data in order to get better performance in the market and better resonate with your audiences is still highly critical. So I definitely preach that often and uh, we’ve had a lot of great conversations on how to bring that to life. Um, outside of what.

[00:07:11] Jenelle Maddox: Hannah mentioned, uh, first about first party data. I think last year what we saw was of course, the continuing rising of AI and. AI evolves every day, right? Every single day there’s new capabilities or new learnings or insights, things that you can do. And for, from a B2B perspective specifically, I think it was, um, just people were starting to dabble in it and wondering how do we put this to good use in our organization?

[00:07:41] Jenelle Maddox: But. Perhaps not exactly sure of all the options yet. And also wanting to remain extremely compliant and respectful of their users, of their internal, you know, privacy policies and so forth. And so, um, we’ve spent some time then toward the end of last year, beginning to consult and advise on how do you effectively leverage AI in your organization in a compliant manner.

[00:08:07] Jenelle Maddox: While also putting it to great use to drive efficiencies and even enhance strategic value. Um, so that was a fun part of rolling into this year and we’ve definitely started to see that come to life much more now, which is a little bit different than where we are at, uh, last year, this time.

[00:08:25] Tessa Burg: Yeah, it definitely is a different place than last year.

[00:08:28] Tessa Burg: I remember we did a survey of our. B2B clients, some of whom are the lar, some largest companies in the world. And the consensus that came back was people recognize AI was gonna disrupt their business and the way they go to market, but not them, or maybe not in marketing. And I thought that was so interesting.

[00:08:52] Tessa Burg: And so that brings us to where we are. Today. So when we look at, you know, where clients are prioritizing marketing and communications efforts and where they wanna put budget, uh, this time, Jenelle, we’ll start with you. What, what are you seeing?

[00:09:08] Jenelle Maddox: Well, AI is definitely part of that conversation. Absolutely. I think though, to take a step back and think about the highest level, uh, a continuing challenge that we’ve had over the past few years, just in the economic landscape in general, is that marketers of any role are always continually, it seems expected to do more with less.

[00:09:31] Jenelle Maddox: And so as we’ve entered into. This year, 2025, that’s where it became exciting and actionable to think about how can we use AI to drive efficiencies and help clients to save cost and save manual hours and free up their brain space. Honestly, to be more strategic and visionary and, um, focus more on audience-centric approaches.

[00:09:56] Jenelle Maddox: So I would say that’s a huge thing that not only has come into play this year, but is also directionally informing 2026 as well. Um, how can we do more with less and how can we use AI and technology to get us there? Um, the last element I would add about that as well is that. B2B is specifically a very complex nuanced in industry where you are not on one team.

[00:10:24] Jenelle Maddox: So you’re thinking about coordinating as a marketer, coordinating with sales, coordinating with product owners, with brand leaders, with distributors, with real retailers, with channel partners, let alone, most importantly, connecting with all of your audiences in unique and personalized ways. So. Bringing all of that together, aggregating it, and then actioning upon all the different partners and collaborators you work with, as well as connecting with your audience.

[00:10:52] Jenelle Maddox: And doing that with less budget is, is an ongoing challenge, but we’ve found really great and innovative ways to help our clients scale. So that’s something that continues to be a key part of the conversation as we’re looking forward into next year as well.

[00:11:08] Tessa Burg: Yeah. And I think, you know, in the past when people thought about doing personalization, it’s, it’s always been something we’ve heard.

[00:11:16] Tessa Burg: Like, I, I wanna, you know. Meet the standard of the adage: right person, right message, right time.

[00:11:24] Jenelle Maddox: Mm-hmm.

[00:11:25] Tessa Burg: But no one ever really had the right data. And now, you know, coming into this year since we were in so many data projects, getting the right kind of quality data then allows you to stand up.

[00:11:38] Tessa Burg: Personalized marketing, personalized communications, leveraging AI paired with that in less time. Like things that used to take us six months are not being delivered. And three, and I think that’s, um, that trend is just gonna continue and if not accelerate.

[00:11:54] Hannah Woodham: Yeah, I would agree. And I, and I think too. What AI is enabling us to do is to fail fast and move forward, right?

[00:12:02] Hannah Woodham: Um, where we are constantly evolving, the industry is constantly changing. We wanna make sure that we’re keeping up with that accelerated pace. Um, so what AI is enabling us to do from a performance standpoint is to identify. What it, what it looks like quickly, whether it’s gonna meet what we’re trying to accomplish or whether we need to pivot and make changes, um, predict what that might look like through models and, and then, and then adapt to those needs and ever more complex environments.

[00:12:29] Hannah Woodham: Right. Because one thing that we always tout. Against with our clients is a single metric viewpoint, right? We’re not looking against just one thing. There’s so much surrounding all the metrics and there’s a story to tell with each of one of those things. Um, as we get more into all of these opportunities with models and things like that, is that we can add that complexity and that context around the performance of what we’re seeing to make better informed decisions, um, and do better with our, with our budgets and our dollars.

[00:12:59] Tessa Burg: Yeah, so you, you said something that we’ve heard from Forrester as well, like that metrics are changing and you know, I work with our Forrester analysts and they’ve really been, I mean, they’ve published a number of papers all around. You have to get up further in that funnel. You have to get influence.

[00:13:17] Tessa Burg: I’m wondering, are clients hearing that message or is that something that’s getting down? Like is it going to be in their plans, like, Hey, we’re gonna shift budget from, you know, historically I feel like we spend a lot of budget on increasing leads, increasing conversion, and not as much at the top of the funnel.

[00:13:35] Tessa Burg: Are we gonna see a shift in 2026 to get farther up the funnel?

[00:13:40] Hannah Woodham: Yeah, I think that is a bigger, a bigger shift of what we’re seeing. We’re hearing a lot of brand and demand, how they work together and in concert with one another. Right. Um, I think the challenge that we’re probably gonna see in ’26 coming out of this is just behavior change.

[00:13:55] Hannah Woodham: Right. We are, so in B2B we are. So reliant on the data, right? It’s good data. We got it, it’s got a, a direct attribution out. We can actually measure that performance and brand can get us a little bit into some ambiguity in some cases, right? So we have to find those metrics that help reinforce the value that brand brings in where historically, B2B companies have heavily relied on sales pipeline, MQLs, lead attribution.

[00:14:27] Hannah Woodham: Still a very important part, but we don’t wanna lose sight of the value that, that that kind of intangible brand brings alongside it in surrounding the entire audience.

[00:14:37] Tessa Burg: Yeah, I like that. Jenelle, do you have anything to add?

[00:14:41] Jenelle Maddox: I think that’s well said. I think it ties to, again, just the complexity of the B2B environment and sometimes there is a tendency in several, especially large, large enterprise organizations, where it’s almost.

[00:14:56] Jenelle Maddox: Impossible not to feel at times siloed within a certain area. And so the more effectively that we can help to bridge those gaps in conversations with brand leaders, for example, who are aiming to drive awareness about their specific brand or product or priority at the time, and connect that to.

[00:15:15] Jenelle Maddox: More of an enterprise B2B marketing strategy overall, the better because then we are providing a unified approach going to market, and now driving a lot more awareness at the top of the funnel, which, uh, can also be supported through a lot of tech. Uh, and we wanna do that in the best way so that we’re not overwhelming the audience or sending mixed signals from multiple parties internally.

[00:15:42] Tessa Burg: Yeah. Yeah. One of the tools. I’m really excited to see emerge more and more is GEO or AEO or however we wanna say it, but in plain speak, it’s I guess the science and art of increasing a brand’s visibility within in LLMs so that they are a part of the conversation when someone, when a B2B buyer is using a ChatGPT or Gemini or other large language model to explore.

[00:16:12] Tessa Burg: Solutions and I, that feels like one of the ways we can start to kind of fill that bucket at the top of brand is, you know, starting to focus on how do we get ourselves in front of, I think right now they’re saying 80% plus of B2B buyers are using an LLM at the start of their journey. Uh, are you hearing clients prioritize that?

[00:16:34] Tessa Burg: Are they concerned or is that somewhere where we, you know, want, are starting to guide on what that could look like?

[00:16:41] Hannah Woodham: Yeah, we’ve actually had tangible conversations with several of our clients, um, where we know that certain LLMs place preference on certain platforms or tools or, or, or sites, right. Reddit.

[00:16:52] Hannah Woodham: Um, they’re putting authority and, and YouTube, they’re putting authority across kind of different, different channels where we may not be present all the time in either an owned. You know, organic capacity or paid capacity. And so we’re actually having, having discussions about changing that channel marketing mix up a little bit to make sure that there is presence in those, those, um, channels that, that LLMs are placing authority in, right?

[00:17:17] Hannah Woodham: Um, that there is presence, there is brand presence there. Um, and so it may actually change what that, that channel mix looks like in terms of their budgets or what they’re focused in on for next year.

[00:17:28] Tessa Burg: Uh, yeah, I love that. Jenelle?

[00:17:29] Jenelle Maddox: I would add to that as well. In regard to the channel mix, it’s also created really interesting and valuable conversations around what type of content is needed in order to deliver within those channels, but show up on top.

[00:17:45] Jenelle Maddox: Um, so not only from the GEO perspective, but again, just tying to all the changes and how people look up information. Of course, paid search is still key. Organic is still present, um, but there are a lot of other complexities now added to the mix with AI results appearing at the top of the page. And then of course, when you go to the, uh, AI engines themselves, uh, to ask a question.

[00:18:13] Jenelle Maddox: So all of those different, uh, approaches to looking a consumer looking for information require different types of content to be, uh. Scanned and, um, brought forward by the different, um, channels and, uh, avenues that serve this information to them. So it’s really key to have a strong content strategy as well, because some longer form content best fits some channels and methods, whereas bite-sized fact-based content I know drives a lot of, um, the algorithm and results in other areas.

[00:18:49] Jenelle Maddox: So content I think is still. Very, very, very much key as, uh, we couple that with tech and channels.

[00:18:57] Tessa Burg: Yeah. And we talked about this on another episode. I can’t remember, I wish I could remember everyone I interview, but I don’t, so I’m not gonna be able to give you credit, but it was about how important the quality and the authenticity of the content is.

[00:19:10] Tessa Burg: And I feel like in the heyday of content marketing and SEO people were spitting out a lot of sameness, a lot of. I don’t have a better word than the word crap, and it was to get up the rankings. But with LLMs, when they’re looking at, you know, what is the credibility of this resource? They’re also, you know, AI is very good at identifying patterns that show it, who’s engaging with what content, and I think.

[00:19:38] Tessa Burg: Some of the greatest content on YouTube is from dorky engineers, and I would really love if that’s a part of any of our clients. Like I really love when the people who are part of the science and the engineering behind the solution talk about how they got there. Not revealing anything proprietary, but I find like the storytelling in and around science is absolutely fascinating and I, I think that.

[00:20:03] Tessa Burg: Some B2B brands don’t think they have a platform to have a personality, to have a brand with a voice, but they really do, like they have some amazing things happening with inside their walls and they don’t have to make it about the proprietary pieces of what they’re building. The people are incredible and super intelligent and have their own points of view. And uh, I just think that would be really exciting to see some super cool B2B content with authentic expertise start to proliferate. You know, what’s surfacing up in LLMs because it, there is, with AI coming, AI content creation already becoming like way too saturated.

[00:20:43] Tessa Burg: You know, we’re already seeing just a barrage of sea of sameness again.

[00:20:48] Hannah Woodham: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. It’s, it’s that shift towards that next North star, right?

[00:20:54] Tessa Burg: Yeah. Yes. You know, as much as like you talk about the importance of quality, there’s always like way too many people chasing and shiny objects.

[00:21:03] Hannah Woodham: Yeah. And I think, you know, and, and I think that that’s just naturally our human nature to, to do that, right?

[00:21:09] Hannah Woodham: Um, and I do think that, that we will never replace the human value of context in things. Um, smart people thinking intelligently, thinking strategically. Um. There are all matters of tools and things that can drive efficiency and, and spark ideas, but that’s the start point, right? We wanna, we, we, I, I still very much value the, the human element of, of everything that we do and the thought process that, that goes into, into that decision making.

[00:21:41] Tessa Burg: Mm-hmm. Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean, one of the other questions I was gonna ask is around like agents looking for information, but to your point, Hannah, like, so we’ve created agents that go out and do things on our behalf and, and one of the things that, uh, our agent behind Mod Heat does is look. For trends and look for industry data and changes in behavior about our clients and our clients’ competitors and the people they serve.

[00:22:06] Tessa Burg: And then we use AI to analyze that, but that’s not us anymore. Going out and looking for that information. Have clients started to think about how do they change the way they show up online and where they need to be. In a world where agents might be acting on behalf of some really smart humans,

[00:22:27] Hannah Woodham: I think the, the agents that we have allow us to be more nimble in a place where, where, where you’re trying to turn a big old, major ship into a new direction. It takes a lot of energy to get that going there, right? I think agency agents are gonna be able to get us to get there a little bit faster, be a little bit more nimble to make those pivots as we, as we see kind of.

[00:22:50] Hannah Woodham: Um, topics or themes surface in the market that we can then capitalize on. Um, but I think it still takes, it still takes a, you know, a, a team to be able to, I not identify those, but, but to come up with how do we capitalize on it as best we can. Right?

[00:23:09] Tessa Burg: Yep. And Jenelle, how about you? Do you think, is there any, when we think about content, anything clients are gonna be looking to do differently so that they increase their visibility to agents?

[00:23:21] Jenelle Maddox: Absolutely, and I think that’s where we’ve seen many clients also. Leverage the expertise of a trusted partner because it’s almost too much to keep up with. Uh, if you are a brand leader or if you are a marketer or an executive marketing leader within a B2B organization, the rapid pace at which. AI, let alone all things in marketing and technology is changing, doesn’t really afford you the ability to have the exact approach and know which, what algorithms are going to pick up what in your content and, and, um, frame it appropriately.

[00:24:00] Jenelle Maddox: And so that’s where I think there’s a lot of value in working with a partner as an. Extension of your business, whether that’s, um, you know, an agency or consultant or whomever. We see a lot of people bring in that subject matter expertise in order to move faster and understand as we’re building out additional content or media, whatever the case may be.

[00:24:22] Jenelle Maddox: How do we ensure that this is not only working for today, but that we’re aware of directionally, like what’s. To come so that it continues to be relevant. Um, and something else I’ll add is that this can be a very daunting topic to a lot of organizations, especially those who have highly rich, uh, large quanti quantities of, of content in multiple formats.

[00:24:46] Jenelle Maddox: And in some conversations with, uh, our clients and partners, it can be overwhelming for them to think. Where do we begin? Do we have to redo all of this? How do we, how do we even approach this? Where do we start? And. I think it’s just important overall to remember that everyone’s in this boat together, so everyone is, is thinking that right now.

[00:25:09] Jenelle Maddox: And the, the only way that you could potentially, uh, make the wrong move would be if you did nothing. So start somewhere, right? Like identify, prioritize, here’s some key campaigns, or here’s a new initiative, or we’re going to have a product launch, whatever the case may be. Start somewhere and begin to consider how are we structuring different formats of content that has quality across a wide variety of channels.

[00:25:39] Jenelle Maddox: And then you’re beginning to build yourself a library without having to go back and maybe. Redo everything in the past. Just ensure that you’re getting started, uh, and focusing on what’s meaningful, not just on everything in your quantity bucket.

[00:25:56] Tessa Burg: Yeah, so it feels like when we’re talking about this, we’re shifting from a lot of budget being allocated towards we’re gonna do this media buy and try and target off of what we’re used to targeting off of, which is like triggers or maybe more programmatic signals too.

[00:26:12] Tessa Burg: We wanna look at how do we influence this entire buying network through high quality content that emulates our expertise, our brand and across channel, and making sure that we’re hitting that entire journey. Does this start to introduce, or are we talking to our clients about measuring it differently?

[00:26:30] Tessa Burg: Like do they are, are clients coming to us with different KPIs or different goals, or is it the same and we’re just breaking it into leading and lagging indicators? Um, what are you seeing?

[00:26:43] Hannah Woodham: Go ahead, Jenelle. Do you wanna take that one first? Do you want me to?

[00:26:46] Jenelle Maddox: I I, I’m happy to, I can start. I, I was going to start pretty, pretty high level overall, I think that what hasn’t changed is all organizations are aiming to get one true picture of results.

[00:27:03] Jenelle Maddox: So even those who got close to mastering it. Again, something new comes up or we, there’s a new campaign or a channel or something thrown into the mix, and then they’re trying to figure out, ooh, how do we tie that to our performance? So for me, data collection and measurement. We know like that is absolutely critical in order to understand marketing performance.

[00:27:28] Jenelle Maddox: Um, but you also have to think holistically across your organization when you work within a B2B environment because. It’s not just going to be your seat. Again, as I mentioned earlier, there are so many different players in the mix. You have to collaborate well with, uh, and you have to understand how are brand leaders measuring their performance, what’s in market?

[00:27:51] Jenelle Maddox: Who are they targeting? And ensure that there’s no overlap or, uh, clutter or noise based on what you’re doing in order to pull all of that together into one. Concise executive summary of performance. It, it’s tricky, it’s challenging, and it’s a lot of data to pull together. So, um, we, we talk a lot about the value of data aggregation, leveraging a marketing data warehouse or CDP.

[00:28:18] Jenelle Maddox: Um, and trying not to become not only too focused on your area of the business, but also just not too, too focused on just your channel that you’re operating within, either because there’s a greater story at the end of the day. Every single channel plays a key part in driving results. And so, um, we. I really love to talk with clients about how do we just get to that executive summary where your results are all attributable to performance and revenue for the organization.

[00:28:49] Tessa Burg: Yeah.

[00:28:50] Hannah Woodham: I think a lot of clients now we have, we have become very familiar with a lot of the key KPIs in marketing. Right? And I think that some, you know, this is, this is a, a change in the industry that’s kind of flipping things on its head a little bit. So, but I think the clients are still comfortable in, in looking at the data right now, not necessarily having defined KPIs quite yet, uh, of, of, of how they’re gonna look at it holistically.

[00:29:15] Hannah Woodham: Some of those will maintain, some of them may shift or change, um, but we’re in a big moment of change in general. So with that kind of allows us to, to kind of look at the horizon, you know, um, of, of what’s to come and evaluate what’s gonna be our best way forward.

[00:29:32] Tessa Burg: Yeah, I, something interesting that I’ve seen is the top challenges for marketers have not changed at all.

[00:29:41] Tessa Burg: They want more revenue, more leads, and to be able to measure ROI, and we’ve heard, you know, that’s decades and decades and decades, but. It’s almost like when you start to back out, the way you get there is when the metrics get really different. So before it used to be, well, how many leads are we getting?

[00:30:00] Tessa Burg: How many impressions? And the quantity and the more impressions we get, there’s this direct correlation, we get more leads. And now when we look at where can AI play a role in that, to what you said earlier, Jenelle doing more with less. You can have learning within your CRM that’s getting better and better at knowing the quality of leads and only passing on high quality leads.

[00:30:25] Tessa Burg: So it’s less about the number coming in and more about the number of quality conversations that comes out. So then you’ll be able to attribute back to your point, Hannah. What channels are we seeing that maybe aren’t giving us the quality that we need? And now we, we, that quick learning is happening.

[00:30:45] Tessa Burg: Okay, that’s not working. We pivot, move on. And I just remember back in the day when like changing a campaign was kind of like a massive deal. You know, like now it’s like flip on and off a squi switch, or it’s in the same platform, you’re just moving the dollars. But you remember like you would launch a campaign and it would run, and then you would just get the results months later.

[00:31:07] Hannah Woodham: Right?

[00:31:08] Tessa Burg: Like we’re learning in real time, like, okay, we now have this quality score. We’re getting higher quality here. The budget is shifting and moving and go, you know? And it’s connected to another agent that spins up dynamic headlines and email follow ups that exactly match this persona or this segment’s needs and wants.

[00:31:26] Tessa Burg: So it’s really, I, I think that it’s exciting that even though you’re probably getting the same, Hey, we need to grow this year. We need to make more money. We need to measure the ROI on our efforts. It’s the how we’re doing it is completely different. And I know we’ve said the word quality a gazillion times, but it, it’s kind, it’s more, I think it’s just like way more exciting because, not that we, I, I ever faked buying media impressions, but when the, when the bar was to get the most impressions.

[00:31:54] Hannah Woodham: Yep.

[00:31:54] Tessa Burg: It was a low bar. Jump over.

[00:31:56] Hannah Woodham: Yeah. Yeah. It doesn’t matter, right? You can, you can get, you can get [email protected] all you want, right? In terms of a lead, but is that really a lead, right? Um, and so making sure there’s balance in the quantity and the quality is always something that we’ve had focus into.

[00:32:14] Hannah Woodham: I think it kind of, in that same, that same vein is. Understanding the value of which channel brings what, right? We’re not measuring every channel against the same bar. Um, certain channels are geared more to drive that top of funnel, to drive that, that mid funnel. Right? But they are influencing down at the bottom to, to, it’s solely focused on intersecting at the bottom where they’re ready to contact.

[00:32:41] Hannah Woodham: You’re missing out on the whole network and influence above. But to your point, Tessa. Uh, clients are still needing to report out on how many MQLs do we have, what’s the return of our performance. And so there still is this, this desire to focus in on the things that we’re comfortable with, but we’ve got to get to the point where we can explain the full attribution and model the influence of the, of that full funnel, um, into what we’re doing for B2B, and I think that’s where AI can really help us identify those and model, model that attribution, um, in better, more advanced ways than we’ve seen, um, um, up to this point.

[00:33:26] Tessa Burg: Yeah, I agree. Uh, so we’re at time. This has actually flown, I think we went well over the recording time, but before we jump off, if you had to give your clients.

[00:33:39] Tessa Burg: One thing to think about as they go into strategic planning for 2026, what would it be? Take a minute, and then Jenelle, if you wanna go first.

[00:33:54] Jenelle Maddox: Going into strategic and fiscal planning. For me, I don’t think that approach necessarily, from my perspective, has changed when it comes to. Thinking about first and foremost, what are the company’s goals for next year? At the highest level, what are the business, not marketing goals, but what are the business goals?

[00:34:18] Jenelle Maddox: Every single thing that you then need to strategize or budget for as a marketer. Has to ladder up to those business goals. And if you know that from your executive leadership team and certain targets have been set or even directional targets so that you have a rough idea that is your North Star. So it helps to guide you and keep you focused because I think.

[00:34:44] Jenelle Maddox: As marketers, we are probably all also guilty at times of shiny objects and cool new things we can do. And as long as you are focused on, wait a minute, is this going to contribute to our business goals next year or not? That can help you start to whittle down exactly what you want to do to move the needle.

[00:35:05] Jenelle Maddox: Um, and I also think it’s really important as you’re considering those things and considering. Your, not only your strategy, but how you’re gonna more effectively leverage your budget. Do not be afraid of leveraging AI or tech. And, uh, it, it’s, it’s definitely something. I think there’s maybe still a little bit of hesi hesitancy around, not everywhere.

[00:35:27] Jenelle Maddox: I think we’ve come a very long way and many of our clients are very open to leveraging it. But if you’re not, um, I think it’s just a learning process. And there, there are people who can help to provide insight on. Safe and compliant ways to leverage AI. That way you can free up a lot of your manual time to focus on strategic things next year, uh, if you invest in the forefront in putting like some automation and tech to work for you.

[00:35:56] Tessa Burg: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I love that. Hannah.

[00:35:59] Hannah Woodham: Um, I would say that this doesn’t really change from what we’ve said in the past, but try to avoid being a jack of all trades and a master of none. There’s so much opportunity out there and to just scratch the surface at all things isn’t gonna help you move the needle deeply.

[00:36:18] Hannah Woodham: Right. Um, so it kind of, you know, aligns with what Jenelle was saying that that really focus in on what’s important. Do it well, do it deeply. Make sure that you’re really actionably moving the needle in, in the right direction rather than trying to sporadically, you know, touch everywhere.

[00:36:38] Tessa Burg: Yeah, I love it.

[00:36:40] Tessa Burg: Thank you both for being guests today. I hope clients enjoyed getting this insight from what we’re seeing across the board in our B2B digital marketing practice. If you are interested in contacting Hannah and Jenelle, you can reach ’em at their mod op email addresses or find them on LinkedIn. And if you wanna hear more episodes from Leader Generation, go to our website, modop.com and click on The Vanguardian.

[00:37:06] Tessa Burg: Whatever that heading is and scroll to Leader Generation. But thanks again. Uh, and we’ll have to do another follow up next year to see what we learned and, and what’s trending in 2027.

[00:37:20] Hannah Woodham: Thank you.

[00:37:21] Jenelle Maddox: Great to be here. Thank you.