RJ Licata

For professional services marketers, one of the toughest things to do is *not* follow all the advice you find from B2B product/SaaS marketers. Most of it is plain wrong for a service business. The product peeps are selling widgets. You're selling relationships that will last for years (ideally). They're obsessed with website traffic because their customers can and do buy right on their website. Buyers of professional services don't do that. The sales process is much longer. It requires building a trust-based relationship, something that doesn't happen with a website visit. They need to sell thousands and thousands of seats. You need your next five clients. But there's *so much* B2B marketing advice that comes from SaaS marketers and while it's smart for them, it's wrong for you. You're playing a different game, so don't follow their rules. *** Find this post thought-provoking? There's more where that came from - sign up for our emails at https://lnkd.in/e2-iNhcs

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Action Items for the Growth Marketer: Leverage AI-driven data insights to optimize both inbound and outbound marketing strategies. Balance your efforts on new customer acquisition with strategies focused on customer retention and expansion. Let JoeMarketing assist you with your PLG motion. Learn more about our GTM, PLG, and SLG services here, or contact me here. #PLG #ProductLedGrowth #GTM #GoToMarket

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Stop treating martech vendors like trusted advisors—they're not. Why do so many marketers act like they're your friends? These companies are not your trusted advisors, they’re not your partners, and they sure as hell aren’t sitting around strategizing about how to make you more successful. They’re trying to sell you a product, period. Yet somehow, we’ve fallen into this delusion that martech vendors are here to guide us on our marketing journey like a wise, benevolent sage. Let me break it to you—they don’t give a damn about your pipeline, your ROI, or your KPIs unless it helps them hit their quota. Martech vendors are salespeople. And like any salesperson, their ultimate goal is to get you to sign on the dotted line. Whether it’s for their CRM, their automation platform, their shiny new AI tool—it doesn’t matter. The bottom line is they exist to sell, and every interaction you have with them is designed to move you toward that sale. That “personalized demo” you just had? It wasn’t tailored to your needs—it was scripted to hit the same talking points they’ve used on a hundred other companies this week. That “free trial” they’re offering? It’s not a gift—it’s a hook to get you dependent on the product before you even realize you don’t actually need it. Here’s how it works: Step 1: They convince you that your current tech stack is inadequate. Step 2: They manufacture a problem you didn’t even know you had (oh, you don’t have predictive lead scoring?!). Step 3: They position their product as the magical solution to this problem they just made up. Before you know it, you’ve bought into a tool that costs more than it’s worth, overcomplicates your processes, and adds another line item to your budget without driving any real impact. Quit putting these snake oil salespeople on a pedestal.

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There's a critical distinction between positioning early-stage and growth-stage B2B tech products that I worry people don't understand. In the early days, positioning a product on capabilities alone is enough. You align your product to what buyers want, dig in, and get your business off the ground. But once you hit scale, the rules change. Having differentiated capabilities is great, but capabilities alone rarely lift a company to the top of its category. Here's what I think does: -Differentiated product capabilities ...plus a combination of some or all of these: -Differentiated credibility -Differentiated convenience -Differentiated cost A product that is easier to trust, easier to buy, and delivers more value for the dollar is far better positioned than a product that only has differentiated capabilities. Category leaders know this. It's how they build formidable moats. But I absolutely think challengers can win this way, too. I witness it daily.

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🎯 Pro tip for businesses: Focus on client retention as much as new client acquisition. Retaining customers costs up to 5x less than acquiring new ones and can increase profits by 25-95%. At B2BGrowthToday, we specialize in creating retention-focused marketing strategies that build long-lasting customer relationships. 💼 Ready to boost your retention? Head to b2bgrowthtodayllc.com to learn more. #CustomerRetention #GrowthHacks #B2BGrowthToday #DigitalMarketing #SEO #WebsiteDesign #LeadGeneration #PPC #Advertising #GoogleAds #FacebookAds #InstagramAds #YouTubeAds #RevenueGrowth #ProfitGrowth

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Brilliantly put—leads as a trailing indicator is such an overlooked truth in B2B marketing. Focusing solely on leads without understanding the broader ecosystem of touchpoints is like celebrating a flower without acknowledging the soil, water, and sunlight that made it grow. Shifting the mindset to value leading indicators like brand visibility, trust-building interactions, and non-commercial engagement is the real key to sustainable demand generation. Without this foundation, the "ROI" conversation turns into a vicious cycle of short-term wins and long-term losses. Spot on!

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Are you chasing vanity metrics instead of real business growth? Impressions, clicks, likes—none of these pay the bills. If your marketing reports are full of great results but your sales aren’t growing, you’ve got a problem. It’s time to shift focus to metrics that matter: lead quality, conversion rates, customer lifetime value. Stop chasing the wrong numbers. Start chasing results. #DigitalMarketing #MarketingStrategy #BusinessGrowth

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For Marketo users, increasing form conversion rates may be as simple as integrating with another tool. Find out how one of our clients pulled this off here: https://bit.ly/4eba9ne #Marketo #Drift #Marketing #MarketingAutomation

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Recently ran an email marketing experiment with interesting results. Setup a basic autoresponder for a local service based business. A four email sequence, each email separated by a day. Signed up with two separate email addresses. 𝗜𝗻𝗯𝗼𝘅 𝟭 - Opened every email sent 𝗜𝗻𝗯𝗼𝘅 𝟭 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘀: The first email landing in my primary inbox. The next 3 did not (but weren’t marked as spam). 𝗜𝗻𝗯𝗼𝘅 𝟮 - Opened and clicked on every email sent. 𝗜𝗻𝗯𝗼𝘅 𝟮 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘀: All emails landing in my primary inbox. This is a simple experiment but a great reminder that opens aren’t enough. They never have been. But now the email service providers (ESPs) are respecting them less. Clicks will definitely ensure your emails are landing where they can be seen. However, I almost forgot...replies trump all. In all of your doing, be sure to have a CTA early in your email sequence asking your contacts to reply. ESPs will give you top tier reputation and white glove service to the primary inbox every time. Email isn’t dead folks, it has evolved and so should your strategies.

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As you scale DTC - customer acquisition costs will increase...AND you'll make more $. Revenue growth doesn't come from acquisition growth - it comes from retention. Stacking customers is how we help build multiple 8 figure brands. So focus on increasing order value - it won't be impacted the next time Instagram goes down... #dtc #customeracquisition #shopify #digitalmarketing #facebookads #googleads #tiktokads Everything Bagel

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For Marketo users, increasing form conversion rates may be as simple as integrating with another tool. Find out how one of our clients pulled this off here: https://bit.ly/3UbKS3x #Marketo #Drift #Marketing #MarketingAutomation

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For Marketo users, increasing form conversion rates may be as simple as integrating with another tool. Find out how one of our clients pulled this off here: https://bit.ly/3MhfT2v #Marketo #Drift #Marketing #MarketingAutomation

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The right ageny partner can literally make or break your #abm program. Your partner needs to be capable of shouldering commercial accountability and driving tangible outcomes, not only the functional delivery of an ABM program. Check out Orla Murphy's latest blog on the art of scaling... https://lnkd.in/g9ikvF7C Seeblue

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