Writing
Selected writing
Nearly three decades of thinking about how companies get understood, or fail to. New essays on the Clarity Gap and go-to-market, alongside selected columns from my long-running MarTech series on strategy, email and lifecycle, and AI. Gathered here so you can read them without leaving.
Original
The Clarity Gap
Most stalled-growth problems are clarity problems in disguise. The gap has two faces, inside and outside. Here is how you find which one you are looking at, and what it actually takes to close it.
From the MarTech column
A selected archive
A tight set that traces the thinking behind the Clarity Gap.
Why you should always ask why: Strategy must lead tactics
Strategy has to lead tactics. The why comes before the how, every time, or you waste money on things that do not work.
Is your marketing department the ‘useful idiot’ of your business?
If you cannot say where your revenue comes from, you are running on luck. Know your data, and you know which levers to pull.
Marketing is more than KPIs, it’s service
Think about the customer first, not the marketing objective. Serve them, and the sales and the loyalty follow.
A new KPI for marketers: Humanity
The one capability a machine can emulate but never replicate. We have to be humans first and marketers second.
Your company may be slow with AI, but you can’t afford to be
Do not wait for the committee. Teach yourself now, on a real problem, so you are ready when the company finally moves.
3 ways to reduce bias in AI with better context
Better context, less bias. The quality of the answer is set by the quality of what you feed the model.
Don’t be too quick to dismiss established best practices for email
The best practice is your template. Respect the craft, then adapt it to your needs, rather than torching it to make a name.
Why marketing success requires failure (and how to handle it)
Tests are designed to fail sometimes. Treat failure as something to accomplish, not avoid, and it makes you sharper.
Email platform decisions require more than the latest innovation
Choose the platform for the strategy, not the shiny feature. The newest thing is rarely the reason to switch.
We need more humanity in email, especially at unsubscribe
Even goodbye is a brand moment. How you handle the exit says as much as how you handled the welcome.
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