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Welcome back to Marketing Qualified! Here’s what we’re talking about this week:

• The 5 mistakes quietly killing your B2B content

• The fastest way to stand out in B2B

🤫 The 5 mistakes quietly killing your B2B content

You don’t have a content problem. You have a decision problem. Most B2B content dies because it has no distribution plan, no point of view, and no connection to pipeline.

Look at what actually works. Notion doesn’t spray blog posts. They productize content with templates and tutorials that map to real jobs to be done, then seed those assets across communities, YouTube, and their own template gallery. Datadog leans into deep, technical walkthroughs that solve specific monitoring headaches, then slices those into docs, webinars, and sales enablement.

Here are the five mistakes to stop making and how to fix them:

1) No POV
Mistake: Vanilla listicles that could be written by anyone.
Fix: Pick a stance buyers can disagree with. If your post couldn’t get you fired, it probably won’t get you shared.

2) No owner for distribution
Mistake: Publish and pray.
Fix: Assign a channel owner before you write. Plan 3 distribution paths per piece: partner newsletter, SME on LinkedIn, and a community post.

3) Writing for search engines instead of stages
Mistake: Chasing volume keywords that attract tourists.
Fix: Build a content ladder for each stage: problem aware, solution framing, product proof. Map CTAs to the next step, not a demo jump scare.

4) Ignoring product and customer input
Mistake: Content brainstorms with zero field intelligence.
Fix: Pull 10 real support tickets or sales call snippets and write to them. Your best topics are hiding in your pipeline, not in a keyword tool.

5) Measuring vanity metrics
Mistake: Celebrating impressions that never convert.
Fix: Track content-assisted revenue, influenced opportunities, and sales usage. If sales won’t share it, rewrite it.

Memorable takeaway: Make fewer, sharper pieces that ship with distribution baked in or don’t hit publish.

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Whether you’re building AI-powered products, scaling LLM features, or just want to get more value from your AI stack — Narrow streamlines your workflow so you can focus on innovation, not iteration. Learn more and book a demo today at getnarrow.ai

🗞️  In the news this week.

🔍 Google explores AI Overviews opt-out and new site reputation abuse safeguards in search

💸 HubSpot: B2B content budgets shift to owned media as long-form research outperforms webinars in 2026

📧 Email deliverability crackdown continues: Gmail and Yahoo rules push senders to tighten authentication and list hygiene

🤳 TikTok expands Lead Gen with native forms and CRM integrations for business accounts

🛒 Amazon Ads introduces B2B buyer segments and Sponsored Display options for SaaS trials

⏰ The fastest way to stand out in B2B: Build an AI POV and ship proof

Crowded market? Join the club. The only way out is to say something sharp and back it up fast.

You do not stand out by listing features. You stand out by owning a POV and proving it with visible, useful artifacts. AI makes this easier if you use it to produce proof, not fluff.

Before: Generic positioning, feature dumps, blog posts nobody remembers.
After: A named point of view, a simple AI-powered proof, and relentless distribution.

Try this 5-step playbook:

1) Name your POV: Write a 1-sentence stance that picks a fight.

Example: "Forms slow revenue. Conversations speed it up." Keep it under 15 words. Make it disagreeable to someone.

2) Pick the proof: What is the smallest AI thing that proves your stance? Options include:

• A benchmark that ranks your category on the outcome you care about

• A grader that scores prospects on that outcome

• A simulator that shows the delta between old way and your way

3) Build the “micro-product” in 2 weeks: 

Use off-the-shelf LLMs plus your data. Ship ugly but useful. Add a CSV upload and a shareable result link.

4) Turn proof into content fuel:

• Weekly teardown: spotlight one result and what it means

• Monthly report: aggregate the data into trends

• Customer stories: 3 screenshots, 3 sentences, one metric

5) Distribute with discipline:

• Ads and LPs use the POV name in headline

• Sales deck opens with the benchmark chart, not your logo

• Retargeting promotes the grader or simulator, not another ebook

Real-world signals:

• HubSpot named “inbound” early, then built data reports and product features to reinforce it.

• Drift took a stand on “no forms” and launched a simple chat widget as living proof.

• Cloudflare runs public “Innovation Weeks” that ship small utilities and benchmarks to make their speed story obvious.

Attention follows evidence. Make your claim, then show the receipts every week.

Memorable takeaway: If your POV has no proof, it is just a vibe.

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