Author: Gordon Benzie

Gordon Benzie is a B2B marketing and analyst relations leader with over 25 years of experience helping technology companies increase visibility, strengthen market positioning, and accelerate revenue growth. In his current fractional roles, he works with enterprise software, SaaS, and hardware organizations to craft differentiated messaging, optimize analyst relations programs, elevate brand awareness, and leverage third-party validation to build credibility, drive engagement, and support business growth.

Are You Writing for Humans or AI? How to Optimize Content for Both

Whenever I start writing something new, I always start with a fundamental question: Who is the audience? It sounds simple, but the answer shapes everything. It influences the language we use, the messages we emphasize, and the information we include. These choices then determine whether we educate, persuade, inform, or inspire action. For B2B marketers, this question applies to virtually everything we produce. This is especially the case when AI search optimization is so top-of-mind. This concept applies to website content, sales collateral, press releases, thought leadership articles, and case studies.

But today, another question deserves our attention: Should we be writing for humans or for AI?

Increasingly, our content must serve both audiences. People still need compelling stories, relevant insights, and clear reasons to trust us. Meanwhile, AI systems are changing how buyers discover information, evaluate vendors, and develop purchasing shortlists.

The Powerful Case for B2B Blogging in the AI Era

Let me ask an uncomfortable question. Why am I writing this article?

Seriously. I am spending time researching, outlining and writing about whether anyone should still be writing articles like this one.

In the age of generative AI, couldn’t you simply ask ChatGPT, Gemini or another AI tool the same question? You could. In fact, you probably should. So perhaps I am wasting my time. And perhaps you are wasting yours by reading this … but I don’t think so.

I think b2b blogging still has an important role to play. It just isn’t necessarily the role it played five years ago.

The New B2B Marketing Strategy: AI, Trust, and Influence

For years, B2B marketing strategy followed a familiar playbook. Companies created content, optimized it for search, drove traffic to their websites, captured leads and nurtured those prospects until they were ready to talk to sales. Analyst relations sat somewhere alongside this process, with its own goals, relationships and measurements.

That model is changing.

Artificial intelligence is reshaping how buyers discover companies, evaluate technology and make purchasing decisions. It is also changing how marketers create and distribute information. The result is bigger than the rise of AI-generated content.

The entire B2B marketing model is being reconfigured.

Picking the Right Analyst Relations KPIs for Success

If you ask ten Analyst Relations professionals which key performance indicators (KPIs) they track, you’ll likely hear many of the same answers. Number of analyst briefings. Number of inquiries handled. Coverage in analyst reports. Mentions in research. Attendance at analyst events. These are all useful operational metrics, but are they the right Analyst Relations KPIs?

Not necessarily.

The problem isn’t that these measurements are wrong. The problem is that they’re often treated as indicators of success when they’re really indicators of activity. There’s an important difference between measuring what your team is doing and measuring the value your program is creating.

Why Customer Retention Strategy is the Ultimate Competitive Advantage

I recently read about research conducted by Gartner that shared an encouraging insight for business leaders. A Gartner survey of 243 CSOs and senior sales leaders found that 73% are prioritizing growth from existing customers, with 57% ranking account retention and growth as a top three priority heading into 2026. I found this to be a welcome change in perspective – and evidence that a customer retention strategy is now well recognized as a great move.

I wrote about this topic 10 years ago, from a different perspective, Is there a Link between Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty? That article provided insights on this important alignment, which still rings true today!

Just a few years ago, it seemed that a disproportionate amount of time, effort, and budget continued to be devoted to winning new “logos” rather than retaining existing customers.

It’s Time to Reinvent: Here’s Why Gartner Magic Quadrants Are Broken

The Timeline Problem

For decades, the Gartner Magic Quadrant has shaped enterprise technology buying decisions. Vendors chase placement, buyers study the charts, and executives reference them in boardrooms and budget meetings. Yet today, one difficult truth is becoming impossible to ignore: magic quadrants are broken.

That statement is not an attack on Gartner. In many ways, Gartner remains one of the most influential buyer advisory analyst firms in technology, and its research still carries enormous weight with enterprise buyers around the world.

The issue is speed.

Change Is Inevitable: Growth Is Optional in Modern Marketing

I have been a Peloton fan since the pandemic. One thing that stands out is the coaching mindset instructors bring. Their guidance often goes beyond fitness into life perspective. A quote from Emma Lovewell stayed with me. Her philosophy is simple. Change is inevitable; growth is optional.

For marketers, this idea feels especially relevant today. Change is inevitable in every part of the field. New channels appear. Algorithms shift. Technology keeps advancing. Buyer expectations evolve without warning. Yet growth does not happen on its own.

The Unseen Forces Redefining Analyst Relations and Buyer Influence

I have written several articles on how the analyst relations (AR) industry is undergoing a fundamental shift driven by AI, including How Industry Analyst Relations Is Evolving in the New Age of AI and The New Role of Analyst Relations in the AI-Driven Buyer Journey. Last week, I attended an in-person conference, KCG Connects 2026, to gain better insights into this change and its implications for my clients. What stood out most is this: the industry is no longer as unified a market, with the top three firms dominating influence and activity. It has now split into a market for Gartner and one for all other firms. This change has several implications for how you should best manage and leverage the ROI on your analyst relations program.

As a fractional AR leader, my role is to help companies navigate this divide. The forces redefining analyst relations are not theoretical. They are already shaping how influence works in real buying cycles. Staying current isn’t optional anymore. It’s how you stay competitive. Here are the key takeaways I learned from attending this event.

How Industry Analyst Relations Is Evolving in the New Age of AI

What marketers, product leaders, and technology companies need to know about the shifting industry analyst relations landscape.

I’ve spent more than 20 years working in the Analyst Relations (AR) profession. Over that time, I’ve had the opportunity to collaborate with analysts at many firms, across a wide range of industries, technologies, and engagements. I’ve worked with large global analyst organizations, boutique research firms, and highly specialized independent experts. Each relationship has offered a different perspective on how companies communicate value, how markets develop, and how buyers ultimately make decisions.

Across those two decades, the AR discipline has steadily evolved. New technologies emerged. Industries transformed. Entire categories of enterprise software appeared where none existed before. Yet even with those shifts, the core purpose of analyst relations remained fairly consistent.

Today, however, we are living through one of the most far-reaching periods of change I can recall in my career.

The driving force behind it is artificial intelligence.

The Need for Customer Focus: Why Not Every Prospect Should be Your Customer

The Growth Problem Most Teams Misdiagnose

Growth problems are often framed as execution failures. The campaigns were weak. The messaging missed. The pipeline was inconsistent. In many cases, the real issue sits higher up the strategy stack. Before tactics, before automation, before AI-generated content, there is a foundational decision to make: what is the right customer focus that your company is truly built to serve?

This is the discipline of customer focus. It is one of the most overlooked fundamentals in modern marketing, and it is one of the most powerful. As a fractional VP of Marketing, I often see teams trying to fix performance with more activity. More content. Run more ads. Do more outreach. Volume feels productive, but volume cannot compensate for a lack of focus. If you do not clearly define your Ideal Customer Profile, every downstream effort becomes diluted.