The Razor in the Apple — a B2B Halloween story

It’s Halloween here in America, where the fate of democracy hangs in uncertainty for another five days each year, presumably because a pumpkin saw its shadow.

It’s also the time of year Americans, especially those who are children or who are the caretakers of young children, to worry about nefarious strangers who hand out drug-laced candy to unsuspecting trick-or-treaters. When we’re told by news anchors, government officials, and a myriad of authority figures to check kids’ candy, beware of any sign of tampering.

If you’re hearing about this for the first time and starting to feel sick to your stomach, relax. Don’t panic.

Strangers with poisoned candy are about as real as the inflatable ghosts littering the front lawns of homes across the United States this and every October.

When sociologists Joel Best and Gerald Horiuchi dug into decades of reports (1958-1985), they found two documented cases of tampered Halloween candy were perpetrated by family members — not mysterious strangers lurking in the shadows.

Yet year after year, the warnings persist. The myth spreads.

Lost in the matrix of B2B content misattribution

B2B marketing has its own widespread misbeliefs.

Take, for example, the endless chain of unchecked facts and recycled statistics that bounce from article to article like a game of telephone gone wrong.

A 2024 article cites a 2014 post that references a 2003 study that... well, you get the point. The original source? Lost to time, if it ever existed at all. But that doesn't stop these "facts" from being treated as gospel, reshared by well-meaning marketers who are just trying to back up their points with data.

This frustrating experience is so common it might as well be a rite of passage for content marketers. But the never-ending hunt for original sources, however, is a just small benign symptom of a bigger issue in B2B content.

When Tommy Walker's Content Studio released "The State of (Dis)Content" earlier this month, it shed light on something many of us in content marketing have been feeling for a while now.

If you haven't read the report yet, do yourself a favor. The analysis of over 500 content marketer survey responses uncovers a lot of interesting correlations that begin the demystify the dark cloud of disillusionment looming over content marketing in 2024.

One thing that jumped out at me when I read the report is that executive buy-in for content is at an all-time high today.

Under any other circumstances, this would be tremendous news — especially when you consider it wasn't long ago that executives associated "blogging" with unsophisticated activities like personal journaling and therefore something a serious business would never consider. But it's not.

Regrettably, what executives have bought into is a myth — a myth that content should deliver instant results, as if customers read a blog post then purchase the product or sign up for a demo (spoiler: that rarely happens, if ever).

And it's a myth that's been tearing B2B marketing apart for more than a decade.

The oldest lie ever told on the internet, debunked

Statistical goose chases and widespread misbeliefs aren't unique to B2B marketing, though.

In fact, Kurtzgesagt — a delightful animated science education YouTube channel — published a video this week that makes the plight of B2B content folks helplessly searching for original sources seem infinitesimal.

In "We Fell For The Oldest Lie On The Internet," they recount their years-long journey to identify a source for a "fun fact" that human blood vessels stretch a staggering 100,000 kilometers.

TL;DW: for over a century, people believed (and many still do) that the human circulatory system is long enough to wrap around the Earth twice. It's been repeated in textbooks, cited in academic papers, shared in classrooms. The only problem? It's not true. Not even close.

Here's where this all gets interesting — and, for me, concerning.

If we can't correct a basic anatomical fact that's been wrong for over 100 years, what hope do we have of fixing the fundamental misconceptions plaguing B2B marketing? In an era where content is being created faster than ever, where AI can generate "facts" at scale, how do we even begin to address this?

I've wrestled with these questions for years — yes, years.

And the lack of answers have brought me to the brink of quitting marketing more times than I care to admit.

Ronnie goes to Hollywood: Part 2?

When I quit my full-time role at OpenPhone in April without another job lined up, I considered walking away from marketing altogether again.

In fact, a few days after leaving OpenPhone, I caught up with a movie producer who introduced me to all his friends and singlehandedly opened the door for me right after film school. When we got to the topic of where I wanted to take my career, I mentioned my dream of being a producer and having a vague idea of how to make it happen.

"Come work with me," he said, nonchalantly. "In five years, you'll have a film producer credit to your name."

For the first time in years, the timing of me wanting to quit marketing aligned with an offer to get out for good. It was almost too good to be true. Especially when I considered how much his career progressed in my absence.

I'm not going to lie. It was temping. Very tempting. But I decided not to do it. Not yet, at least.

You see, when I mentioned my dream of being a producer to him, it wasn't a pull to go back into the belly of the beast. My vague idea for how to make it happen and become the producer I always envisioned was within B2B marketing — one, perhaps last, attempt to bring my showbiz experience and know-how to content marketing, just like the editorial word nerds did a couple of decades ago.

Here's the rub. B2B marketing isn't broken because of bad actors or malicious intent. It's broken because we've lost sight of the fundamentals.

We've accepted shortcuts, embraced oversimplification, and allowed ourselves to be seduced by quick fixes and "best practices" that aren't actually best for anyone.

Worst of all? The relentless pressure to expedite ROI in the pursuit of quick wins has pushed content closer and closer to the point of purchase. Meanwhile, customers' decisions are getting locked in before they're even in the market for solutions.

You hear that right. And if you didn't, let me rephrase it to make sure it sinks in.

Ahem — the moment customers enter the market, the solutions that are top of mind win 9 out of 10 times — and if yours isn’t on their day one list, the competition for their business is already over.

Unlike drug-laced candy and the centuries-long misbelief about the length of our circulatory system, this is verified fact by the same people who gave us the net promoter score — Bain & Company.

Which brings me to an announcement...

This is a call to all misfit marketers 🤙

Today, I'm opening the books at Neutral Ground Labs — a marketing consultancy for ambitious, capable marketers who are done with recycled strategies and ready to compete for the lion's share of demand in their categories.

Think of it as your invitation to step outside the marketing echo chamber and onto neutral ground, where we'll develop strategies built on insights and practices your competitors don't know about (and won't find in their LinkedIn feeds).

Go here to grab time with me to get down to brass tacks about what it means to "think like a broadcaster" in the new era of content marketing.

But wait! That's not all.

I'm also launching a special offer: half-priced 1:1 coaching sessions for a limited time, to help you jumpstart the change you want to see in your marketing strategy. Interested? Schedule a coaching sesh here.

And last but certainly not least, there's the Neutral Ground Neighborhood.

Think of the neighborhood as the third place, an exclusive community for misfit marketers to connect, learn, and grow. A Pavilion for the rest of us.

The first members will be consultancy, coaching clients, and the first cohort of students who enroll in the Neutral Ground Neighborhood School for Misfit Marketers' inaugural course — a program that will fundamentally change how you think about B2B marketing aptly named Content Reorientation.

Stay tuned for the School for Misfit Marketers open enrollment announcement or sign up for the waitlist here.

As for Marketing Under the Influence. Don't worry — this newsletter isn't going anywhere. In fact, it's about to become part of something bigger: the Neutral Ground Network.

The media network has always been the overarching "master brand" — the Beehiiv url has always been ngn.beehiiv since the beginning. And I'm committed to finishing Volume 1 of the podcast when all of the above is in place. But Marketing Under the Influence will soon be part of a three-part programming strategy 👇

Neutral Ground Network programming lineup:

1. Marketing Under the Influence — the publication you're reading now, which will continue to explore the influence media has on us and extract lessons for marketers to wield media without a playbook.

2. Marketing All Hands — a publication and upcoming livestream covering news, interviews, and events relevant to busy marketers packaged in a format that's more like a late night talk show than your company's boring all hands.

3. Dammit, Marketing! — a publication with a regular cadence that offers a mix of memes, job openings, and other miscellaneous curation that doesn't necessarily fit in the premise of the other two.

You can subscribe or unsubscribe to those in your subscriber preferences today.

TL;DR: I'm on a mission to unf*ck B2B content once and for all. You in?

Step outside the marketing echo chamber and onto neutral ground

Just like the neutral grounds in my hometown of New Orleans — the medians where different paths converge and unexpected connections happen — Neutral Ground Labs and all these initiatives are a space where ambitious marketers can come together, share real insights, and build strategies that break away from the stagnating, outdated practices holding us back.

Ready to join the misfit marketing movement and reestablish the role of content in B2B? Here's what to do next:

• Book a free consultancy call [LINK]

• Schedule a coaching session [LINK]

• Get on the waitlist for Content Reorientation

The treats might be questionable this Halloween, but I promise you this: what we're building at Neutral Ground Labs is the real deal.

Until next time,

🤟 Ronnie