Look Left @ Marketing Look Left

Each year, thousands of content marketers make their way to Content Marketing World to gain insight from a wide variety of experts. For the first time, the show moved from its original home in Cleveland to Washington, D.C. Look Left’s David Sprague and Skylar Cohen spent two days attending multiple sessions that covered many emerging—and traditional—content-related topics.  
To no one’s surprise, the most talked-about topic was generative AI, which has created a  whirlwind of disruption in the content marketing sector in recent months. As you’ll hear, most at the conference stand firm in their belief that human beings are necessary to harness the power that AI can give a marketing team.  
02:53 - On “Evolve,” the theme of Content Marketing World 2023 
06:36 - Skylar and David share their favorite sessions: SEO, AI and editing 
12:26 - Insights from Content Marketing World that can be applied to our client service 15:32 - The most common theme at Content Marketing World: AI needs humans 
20:34 - Content needs to be more personalized 
20:10 - Making content more accessible 
25:53 - Many sessions contradicted each other in a healthy way 
Resources 
Content Marketing World David Sprague’s CMW takeaways Skylar Cohen’s CMW takeaways 

For those dwelling on the dirt and worm sides of rocks, the term “generative AI” probably doesn’t spark a conversation. For the rest of us, there hasn’t been a day over the last year when we didn’t talk or read about it. Almost every company is trying to figure out where they fit into the AI conversation and how to use it to their advantage.
As a B2B tech marketing and PR agency, we get a ton of questions about generative AI from our clients (but not our moms—they still don’t understand what we do for a living). In this edition of the Look Left @ Marketing Podcast, we grabbed three of our Smartypants—Geena Pickering, Matt Raven and Bryan Scanlon—to answer some of the most common queries we get about this disruptive technology.

3:08 - Dispelling the notion that AI will make B2B tech marketers obsolete.
7:30 - Generative AI can save time, but efficiency shouldn’t supersede content quality and accuracy.
11:52 - Using human smarts and generative AI to develop messaging.
14:43 - Companies positioning themselves as an AI company should do so with caution.
17:34 - AI can help with SEO and content marketing, but sweat equity is necessary to achieve desirable results.
21:50 - Generative AI will compete with search engines moving forward.
22:43 - Companies must be vigilant about having an AI policy to address copyright and data privacy issues.

Resources:
Look Left blog: How We’re Using Generative AILook Left blog: Is AI the New Mail Merge?Look Left blog: AI Prompt Engineering to Produce Better OutputsLook Left blog: How to Edit AI-Generated Content in B2B TechLook Left blog: The Impact of ChatGPT on Your SEO Strategy

For B2B tech companies, rebranding exercises are incredibly involved and require expert teamwork, creativity and decision-making. Look Left recently underwent a rebranding, and we decided to use the podcast to share some of our most important learnings.
Look Left’s David Sprague, Liesse Jayalath and John Masserini offer lessons learned from the Look Left rebrand project and touch on other topics like expanding AI budgets and (ridiculous) child-to-parent litigation stories. 

3:07 - David, Liesse and John start with an icebreaker: The fast emergence of generative AI

9:27 - The impetus for Look Left’s rebranding process.

11:40 - The importance of ‘starting with the why’ in a rebrand

13:25 - Before you tell the world about you, it’s critical to determine the right SEO keywords

15:49 - Creating a rebranding team that represents a diverse group of people

19:30 - Everyone’s opinion should be welcomed, but there should be a single decision-maker

20:48 - Tips for sticking to your rebranding timeline

22:58 - Once a decision is made, you have to move forward and be all-in

25:36 - One key to launching a rebrand successfully and on time is internal empathy

26:49 - Maintaining ‘the why’ and consistency throughout the rebranding process

30:04 - Updating the rebrand after the launch

32:50 - The roundtable shares things that made them LOL recently


Resources:
AI spending report Lex Fridman podcastRASCI responsibility frameworkLook Left blog: The Ultimate Rebranding Project Plan to Bring a New Brand to LifeLook Left blog: How to Build a Successful Website Migration Strategy

Cybersecurity expert Deb Radcliff returns to the Look Left @ Marketing podcast. Since 1996, Deb has been embedded in the hacker and law enforcement communities learning the techniques, lifestyles, and philosophies that make them unique.
This conversation covers current cybersecurity topics as well as Book 2 of Deb’s exciting Breaking Backbones trilogy, which is now available. Deb still writes articles and does research, and she hosts the Cy Beat podcast from ITSPmagazine. 
Here are some highlights:
01:01 - Overview of the Breaking Backbones trilogy
03:55 - Breaking Backbones has been in the works for 25 years
07:10 - How the case of former Uber security chief Joe Sullivan impacts the role of CISOs
11:20 - CISOs need documented processes and indemnification before taking jobs
17:00 - A look ahead to RSA 2023 
22:15 - New cyber threats like “deep fake” phone calls
24:20 - Awareness of cyber threats is higher, but criminals are finding new ways to wreak havoc 

Over the past 45 years, Wayne Rash has covered every inch of the tech space. 
Among his many notable posts, Wayne was executive editor at eWEEK, eWEEK.com, and Ziff Davis Events. He was a senior contributing editor and a senior analyst in the InfoWorld Test Center. Additionally, Wayne worked as a reviewer for Federal Computer Week and Information Security Magazine. He also ran the reviews and events departments at CMP's InternetWeek and was a long-time columnist for Byte Magazine. Today, Wayne is based in Washington, DC, and contributes to Forbes, U.S. News & World Report, CNN_Underscored, and Red Ventures. 
In addition to his work as a reporter, editor, and reviewer, Wayne has authored five books, including Politics on the Nets: Wiring the Political Process, a 1997 work examining the emerging role of the internet in politics. Wayne also pioneered the use of big data analysis in his reporting. As part of his coverage of the 2016 presidential primary season, he was able to show a likely win for Donald Trump. 
Wayne is a retired naval officer and a former news director for a number of radio and television stations in Virginia.  
In this episode of the Look Left @ Marketing podcast, Davida Dinerman gets Wayne Rash’s insights on a wide variety of topics. Here are a few of the highlights: 
01:51 - 20 years of service in the U.S. Navy
03:31 - Technology advances through the years
04:45 - Early online communities that foreshadowed social media
05:48 - Tech that had promise but went bust
06:53 - The current state of tech journalism
09:52 – How content properly generated by companies can be helpful and influential
11:45 - How to break into the news business
13:29 - The best way to grab the attention of a tech journalist
16:59 - Predictions for what’s ahead in technology
20:29 - The problem with building security into products
22:18 - The bleak outlook for tech journalism

Welcome to the second part of our conversation about aligning content with lead generation. In the previous episode, Bryan Scanlon and Matt Raven examined the ways that different types of content appeal to prospects at different stages of the sales funnel. In this episode of the Look Left @ Marketing podcast, the sixth in our content marketing series, Bryan and Matt take a look at pillar pages and the importance of focusing on retention after a customer is on board. Here are a few of the highlights: 
00:41 - The importance of pillar pages
05:01 - Don’t force marketing structures on prospects
08:38 - Delivery and experience are more important later in the funnel
10:31 - The value of complete honesty, even about a product’s weaknesses
16:56 - The sales funnel doesn’t end at conversion. Retention is as important as conversion.
18:30 - Show the ways your product solves real-world problems