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Marketing success often hinges on factors beyond a marketing team's control, yet CMOs continue to take the fall when unrealistic growth targets aren't met. In this refreshingly honest conversation, Mike Griffin and Chris Newton dissect this common pattern where leadership demands impossible acceleration in growth, fires the marketing team when numbers miss, brings in new marketers who also fail, and finally realizes the core issue lies with product-market fit.

The hosts dive into Rand Fishkin's viral post claiming "90% of your growth problem is product, not marketing," offering their own experiences and tactical advice for marketing leaders caught in this trap. They share a framework for creating data-driven models that can help marketers have those difficult conversations with leadership before committing to unattainable goals.

We also investigate a trending LinkedIn claim about ChatGPT conversations becoming a "massive SEO goldmine" when indexed by Google. Through live testing during the episode, Chris reveals potential technical contradictions in the claim and raises serious privacy concerns about sensitive information being publicly searchable without users fully understanding the implications.

This episode highlights the dangerous tendency for marketers to chase the "next shiny thing" while neglecting proven strategies. As Chris pointedly observes, "Some of the saddest and most angry people that I know are those that chase trends," emphasizing that successful marketing often relies on fundamentals that have worked for decades.

Whether you're struggling with leadership expectations, evaluating new marketing trends, or simply need validation that you're not crazy for questioning impossible targets, this conversation provides both practical guidance and the reassurance that you're not alone in these common marketing challenges.

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Marketing and sales alignment has always been a struggle, but in this particularly candid conversation, we unpack two major sources of tension between these departments that rarely get addressed publicly.

First, we dive deep into how Glassdoor has transformed from a valuable resource for transparent company reviews into something that increasingly resembles LinkedIn's worst aspects. What started as a platform for honest feedback has morphed into yet another space for performative professional posturing. We propose practical improvements that would make Glassdoor genuinely useful again, like department-specific reviews and expanded C-suite accountability metrics that would help prospective employees understand what they're really getting into when joining a company.

The conversation takes a passionate turn when discussing a common friction point between marketing and sales: PowerPoint presentations. Why are salespeople, who typically receive extensive presentation training in their education, constantly asking marketing teams to create or beautify their slides? This practice pulls marketers away from their core responsibilities like lead generation, creating a vicious cycle where sales teams then complain about insufficient leads. We challenge the outdated notion that slide-heavy presentations add value in an era where prospects have already researched extensively before engaging with sales.

We also examine the myth of the "typical salesperson," noting that some of the most effective sales professionals aren't the stereotypical extroverted personalities but rather thoughtful listeners who adapt conversations based on customer needs. This realization points to a broader truth about effective communication in business: authentic, customer-focused dialogue trumps rigid processes and generic pitches every time.

Ready to challenge your assumptions about marketing-sales dynamics and professional networking platforms? This episode offers both validation and practical insights for anyone navigating these complex relationships. Stay tuned for next week when we'll put our money where our mouths are and pitch fictional products to see if we could cut it in sales ourselves!

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Have you ever clicked a link only to be bombarded with pop-ups demanding you download an app instead? We're diving into this frustrating digital experience epidemic, with Meta as our primary case study.

When Chris tried to view content Mike shared from Instagram, he discovered Meta had implemented a new policy forcing mobile users into their app – no browser viewing allowed. This isn't just an isolated annoyance; it represents a calculated strategy by tech companies to bypass increasing browser privacy protections and collect more first-party data directly through apps.

"I know why you're forcing me to use the app, and it's not because it's a better experience," Chris points out during our conversation. "It's because you get to gather more data about me." This lack of transparency creates a growing trust gap between platforms and users who increasingly recognize what's happening behind the scenes.

While some apps genuinely offer superior functionality (banking apps got our stamp of approval), many companies intentionally cripple browser experiences to drive app adoption. The debate between browser versus app preferences reveals a fundamental tension: do you prioritize convenience or privacy? For privacy-conscious users, browsers provide greater control and fewer tracking mechanisms – precisely why companies are working so hard to push users toward app experiences they can more completely monitor.

We lighten things up with two entertaining games: "Buzzword or Bullshit" challenges our ability to distinguish legitimate business terms from complete nonsense (harder than you might think!), while our brand name quiz reveals surprising origins behind household names. Did you know Betty Crocker never existed, but Chef Boyardee was a real person?

Subscribe to Marketing Qualified for more honest conversations about marketing strategies, digital experiences, and the sometimes absurd world of corporate communications. We promise to keep it real – unlike Betty Crocker.

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Digital interfaces are becoming increasingly customizable, but is this enhancing our experience or just masking intrusive marketing? Mike and Chris take us on a fascinating journey through app personalization, starting with Starbucks' customizable icons and exploring how seemingly minor features can drive significant engagement.

Ever wished your weather app had personality? The hosts introduce "Carrot," a weather app that lets you adjust its tone from professional to downright profane. It's a perfect example of how even the mundane can become engaging through creative personalization. This sparks a deeper conversation about what makes users actually want to open an application repeatedly.

The most mind-bending segment explores Google's Notebook LM, an AI tool that transforms websites and documents into realistic-sounding podcast conversations between virtual hosts. The implications for content creation are enormous – and potentially concerning. The episode even includes a demonstration where the AI creates a podcast about their own show notes! The line between authentic human communication and AI-generated content continues to blur in ways that marketers must navigate thoughtfully.

The discussion takes a critical turn when addressing notification strategies that frustrate users. Both hosts share personal experiences with apps that force an all-or-nothing approach to notifications, preventing users from receiving only the alerts they actually want. Using examples from banking apps, they advocate for contextually relevant communications that respect users' actual situations rather than generic promotions.

The episode concludes with "Hack or Whack," a rapid-fire evaluation of marketing tactics ranging from incentivized demos to competitor search ads. Their candid assessments cut through the hype to focus on which strategies actually deliver results in the real world.

Ready to transform your marketing approach? Subscribe now and join the conversation about where the line falls between innovative engagement and digital harassment.

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Mike and Chris explore how artificial intelligence might be making us lazier thinkers while discussing the evolving landscape of digital marketing in 2025. They dissect everything from frustrating LinkedIn engagement tactics to surprising platform effectiveness and emerging B2B influencer trends. Other topics covered include:

• Is using ChatGPT for basic ideation making us intellectually lazy
• The ubiquitous "comment for resource" LinkedIn tactic that rarely delivers
• Why Instagram is surprisingly effective for some B2B marketing campaigns
• Reddit's emerging importance in SEO strategy despite lack of first-party data
• The challenges and opportunities in B2B influencer marketing
• HubSpot implementation challenges and the importance of executive summaries
• Why testing channel effectiveness trumps assumptions about platform demographics

Leave us a comment to let us know what you think about the discussion!

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Chris and Mike run an experiment by secretly introducing an AI-generated guest named "Naomi" to test how long it takes to spot a synthetic podcast participant, highlighting important questions about authenticity in marketing communications. Also in this episode: 

• AI guest "Naomi" claims to be a VP of Marketing who deleted her LinkedIn account, immediately raising suspicion because no VP could have an ego small enough to actually do that
• The guys discuss how a "What the Sistine Chapel taught me about B2B sales" post on LinkedIn showcases the forced business analogies plaguing professional social media
• Apologies for the (inexpensive) inconvenience: Handling internal company complaints about seeing their own ads 
• Why session recording tools like Microsoft Clarity often capture non-representative user behaviors that get cherry-picked to support predetermined narratives
• To Mike's surprise, Instagram outperformed LinkedIn as a lead generation channel in a recent campaign, reinforcing the importance of continuous channel experimentation

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Anyone who's worked in B2B marketing or sales has likely experienced the love-hate (mostly hate) relationship with Salesforce CRM. This passionate, unfiltered conversation dives deep into why this "necessary evil" causes so much frustration despite its dominance in the market.

Mike and Chris explore the fundamental paradox at the heart of Salesforce - why its extreme customizability becomes its biggest weakness. When companies need dedicated administrators making six-figure salaries just to keep their CRM functional, something's fundamentally broken. The hosts share war stories about extracting usable data, navigating clunky reporting tools, and the absurdity of Salesforce not even using certain features of their own platform because they're too complicated!

The guys also discuss when to (not) use lead gen forms, advocate for product led growth, and lament over dumb attribution challenges. 

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Mike and Chris explore workplace challenges through the lens of humor, examining how corporate structures often lead to ineffective management and misaligned priorities.

• The Peter Principle suggests people get promoted to their level of incompetence
• The Dilbert Principle argues incompetent workers are deliberately promoted to management to minimize damage
• QBRs (Quarterly Business Reviews) would be unnecessary with proper data management and process adherence
• Retention marketing should be rebranded as customer marketing to better reflect its purpose
• Customer retention should be a company-wide responsibility, not siloed to specific departments
• Marketing professionals often take too much individual credit for company growth that's truly a team effort
• Return-to-office mandates often stem from management's inability to define clear outcomes and lack of trust
• Performative work culture values talking about accomplishments more than actual achievements

Let the guys know what you think about the above by reaching out to [email protected]

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Ever stared at your phone during a show with a billion-dollar marketing budget behind it? That's exactly what happened to Chris and Mike with Amazon's Rings of Power, sparking a crucial conversation about marketing's limitations. Despite global campaigns, celebrity endorsements, and prime placement across every imaginable platform, no amount of marketing magic can salvage a fundamentally flawed product.

This principle extends far beyond entertainment. In today's hyper-competitive SaaS landscape, the era of marketing your way around mediocrity has ended. We explore how this reality shapes career decisions for marketers—why researching product quality before accepting positions has become non-negotiable. As Chris aptly notes, "99% of the job is demand capture," not creation. The most brilliant campaigns can't generate sustainable interest in something customers fundamentally don't want.

Chris and Mike also dive into marketing's daily frustrations: the project management nightmares where simple tasks require multiple tickets across different departments, and the productivity drain of scattered meetings. Chris shares his strategy of clustering all meetings into a single day to protect focused work time—a technique worth considering if you find yourself constantly context-switching.

The conversation takes an interesting turn as we discuss "coffee badging"—the emerging practice of employees who badge into offices just long enough to grab coffee before leaving, technically fulfilling attendance requirements while working remotely. This creative response to Amazon's five-day office mandate highlights the growing tension between traditional workplace expectations and outcome-based evaluation.

Think Rings of Power is the greatest show ever? Got a different take on the biggest marketing PITA? Let the guys know via email. And don't forget to like and subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes. 

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Marketing tools come and go, but which ones are actually worth your time and investment? Mike Griffin and Chris Newman cut through the hype to examine three marketing staples that might be delivering less value than you think.

The conversation kicks off with a provocative question: is website chat functionality dead? While once heralded as the future of lead generation, both hosts share their skepticism about chat's effectiveness as a marketing tool. Chris notes, "From a marketing standpoint, I've never really seen much success with just using chat to close a deal." This leads to a deeper discussion about aligning your digital touchpoints with your audience's actual preferences rather than following industry trends.

Company newsletters face similar scrutiny as the hosts admit they rarely read company newsletters themselves – not even their own! This honest assessment reveals why most newsletters fail: they're poorly segmented, overstuffed with irrelevant content, and compete for attention in already crowded inboxes. Drawing from newsletters they actually enjoy like Morning Brew, they outline what makes a newsletter worth opening: respect for readers' time, genuinely useful content, and an engaging approach that builds trust rather than constantly pushing for conversion.

Perhaps most eye-opening is their breakdown of pay-per-lead programs, where Chris shares a cautionary tale about spending $4,500 on 100 supposedly qualified leads that resulted in absolutely zero sales meetings. "We might as well just start reporting on impressions," he says, highlighting how focusing purely on lead volume without considering quality can waste both money and sales resources.

Whether you're questioning your marketing tech stack or looking to optimize your demand generation strategy, this episode provides the practical guidance you need to make smarter decisions about where to invest your marketing resources. What marketing tools are you clinging to that might need reevaluation? Listen now and join the conversation.

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