There is a saying that goes, “There is no educational value… to the second kick from a mule.”

Marketing your small to mid-sized business is hard, and it's getting harder. It was not too long ago that the only way to get your business noticed was to play in the Google sandbox. Google's business pages, website rankings, SEO, and paid advertising were the only ways to get found on the internet. Sure, you could try promoting via social media, but it's also dominated by paid advertising.

In terms of advertising revenue, Google earned $67 billion in 2015, $147 billion in 2020, and $273 billion in 2024. Meanwhile, Facebook generated $18 billion, $84 billion, and $135 billion in those same years.

We live in a digital world where companies compete for our attention. Traditional advertising relied on a spray-and-pray model, where digital advertising allows us to target down to a very specific demographic profile. The more people post to social media, the more our lives are being captured and dissected to help the companies provide precision targeting.

Can we really compete with organic posts, business pages, and SEO rankings with bigger businesses and big-time advertisers?

Now, those same advertising companies are embracing Artificial Intelligence. WHY? Because they are becoming the next frontier of advertising. SEO is being enhanced and arguably replaced by AEO (Answer Engine Optimization). It won't be long before your ChatGPT, Google, Claude, or Perplexity query will have a sponsor associated with the answer.

While these companies have an arms race for your attention, online marketers are encouraging you to optimize your websites for AEO.

So how can we compete for attention in an AI world without getting kicked by the advertising mule for the second time?

It Starts with Data

Trying to outsmart billion-dollar companies or outspend your competition is an option, but we have found a better alternative that delivers better ROI for your business. One thing to note is that B2b businesses will have way fewer customers than any consumer company, so that should make managing data simpler.

As software and apps become more AI-aware, it makes sense to use them to help you mine your own data. It starts with the people and businesses in your arena, whom you already know and communicate with.

The two most important pieces of data any business can have and focus on are its customer and email lists.

Although the two should share some commonalities, your CRM and email list will likely include both customers and prospects.

Accounting for Your People

Your accounting software is designed to help you with business numbers, not people. You will want to export your customer's business information to your CRM. From there, you want to add every individual you or your staff personally deal with.

I consider the three most important pieces of information to be their phone number, email address, and LinkedIn profile link. That information can be automated or manually imported, depending on the number of customers you actually serve.

If you only have a few dozen customers, that should be enough. If you have more than that, it may make sense to further segment and categorize them.

Start by asking yourself questions. What industry do they work in? What products or services do they buy from you? Are they consistent repeat purchasers, or just annual or occasional buyers? The more you can categorize, the better you can see segments and trends. That is best done in a CRM or spreadsheet.

Segment Your Emails

Now that you have added segments to your customers' emails, you can add or import them to your broadcast email list. Make sure the customer stays subscribed. If they bounce or unsubscribe, you want to export that and update your CRM with unsubscribes. Bounces should trigger a personal outreach to confirm they are still with the company or to determine whether it was an error or a technical issue.

Those same segmenting attributes should be added to all prospects on your email list and in your CRM, if possible. Segmenting your lists lets you send more targeted emails. Yes, you will send more, but segmenting will not overwhelm people with emails and information that doesn't pertain to their specific needs.

This also means you may have to create more content to match segment interests. Or, you can use AI to replace words to better target groups.

For example, let's say you have two customer segments: the Food Industry and Electronics manufacturing. You can create generalized blog content, then adjust the email teasers to encourage people to read more.

I.E., “We have seen improvements in speed with Food Industry clients,” and “We have seen fewer operator errors with Electronics manufacturing clients,” or whatever trends seem to interest different groups.

Link Up on LinkedIn

I mentioned that I see LinkedIn profiles as an important data tool. That's because we found it to be a primary connection point and social media tool that works for B2b companies.

You should try to find and connect with customers in your CRM or email list via LinkedIn. By ‘you,' I mean the collective you, as in staff who have personal relationships. It doesn't make sense (and can be kinda creepy) if every person in your company sends a connection request to a person. If you, a salesperson, and a CSR all personally work with a person, they could all try to connect.

Connections with customers and prospects not only enhance business relationships but can also amplify your messages, especially when your staff is unified and consistently shares your company's content.

The Social Media Amplifier

LinkedIn connections serve multiple purposes. First, you can post your thought leadership content to your staff profiles (with their permission). That becomes a touchpoint that is enhanced by the emails you send.

Also, you can use LinkedIn ads to promote the same content. That segmenting data goes a long way toward helping you niche down and better target your audience. Then, the ads will not only be seen by prospects, but since your current clients are in that demographic, there is a good chance they will see them as well.

We also take that same content and post it as a LinkedIn Newsletter, which, when subscribed to, will create a LinkedIn-branded email that is sent to subscribers with valid email addresses.

Remember, we are in a war for attention, and the more people see your content, the more likely they are to interact with it and thus your company.

Closing Thought

Although you want to pay attention to the new trends in AI marketing and optimize your website content for AEO, you have no control over whether your information is accessed, displayed, and attributed to questions being asked via multiple AI platforms.

What you do have control over is your data, email lists, and who you connect with on social media. Think about how much you spend on advertising, and allocate some of that to segmenting, personalization, and human-to-human communication.

With billions and billions of dollars being spent by AI companies building tools and LLMs, they need to make money somewhere. There is no reason to get kicked by the advertising mule twice.

If you have questions or would like to discuss how we can help you achieve more successful marketing, CONTACT US (Click Here)

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Comment below and share your thoughts, ideas, or questions about business-to-business sales and marketing today! Do you have a sales or marketing communications strategy that works for you? What tips or techniques can you share that work for you and your business?

To learn more about this and other topics on B2b Sales & Marketing, visit our podcast website at The Bacon Podcast.