ISSUE #269

B2B marketing has a context problem.

Your prospects see your endless demos and product walkthroughs, but they struggle to connect those features to their workflows.

They know what your product does, but not when they'd use it or how it solves their specific problems.

Which creates an interesting opportunity: do you keep explaining features in isolation, or do you show your product solving real problems in familiar contexts?

In this week's roundup, we cover:

• Why influencer marketing is a big bet for B2B → influencers bridge the trust gap in B2B by showing real-world use cases that spark "a-ha" moments, not just technical features.

• How to measure success → Treat influencer marketing like a performance channel

• What content should you try → Co-create reports, events, and tutorials where influencer credibility makes your GTM stories both useful and believable.

Let's dive in!

(P.S. I’m A/B testing Friday vs Sunday open rates)

Ian at SaaS Weekly

THIS WEEK IN SAAS
Trends across the industry

🏛️ Government contracts | Uncle Sam is shopping for AI deals - is software next?
Just a week after OpenAI offered ChatGPT Enterprise to federal agencies for $1 per year (TechCrunch), Anthropic escalated by offering Claude to "all three branches of government" for the same price (TechCrunch).

Box followed suit, signing a GSA OneGov deal to provide AI agents across federal agencies with discounted terms through August 2026 (The Register).

Why it matters: Not every SaaS company can sell to government agencies, but those positioned to do so should consider it a primary channel. Especially as standardized procurement processes reduce traditional sales friction.

📈 Marketing trends | SEO isn't dead, but the playbook is changing fast
Despite dire predictions, SEO still drives results for 91% of marketers, with Google search growing 21% in 2024 (Backlinko). But the channel is shifting from "fairly priced" to "overpriced attention.”

Why it matters: Traditional "write content + sprinkle keywords" SEO is becoming commoditized. Growth teams need to optimize for both search results and AI-generated answers through Generative Engine Optimization (GEO).

🧠 Leadership | Should we be adding friction back into marketing workflows?
If AI makes us "10x marketers," what happens to skill development for junior team members (LinkedIn)?

AI helps us automate the grunt work that historically built strategic thinking muscles. Array formulas, manual campaign analysis, and red-pen editing sessions may have been inefficient, but they developed judgment.

Why it matters: As AI handles more execution, leaders need intentional strategies for developing junior talent. One idea, adding "productive friction" into their workflows.

BUILDING THE PLAYBOOK
Frameworks and resources to design your growth play

Influencer Marketing Strategy

🤳 Influencer marketing | 5 min read | Link in Bio by Rachel Karten
The ABCs of Notion's B2C2B influencer strategy

In theory: Most B2B marketing is feature-focused. Product videos, spec sheets, and webinars that detail what the tool does. Useful, but flat – they don’t always help a buyer imagine themselves using the product.

Notion took a different approach. They realized the fastest path to enterprise adoption starts with individual "a-ha" moments.

Instead of traditional product demos, Notion partners with creators to showcase real workflows. A startup founder shows how they manage their fundraising pipeline, while a job seeker documents their interview prep system.

The impact runs deeper than reach metrics. It's a trusted person showing the real-world context of how they solved their problem with our product. That's the a-ha moment we can't manufacture in a studio.

In practice:

• Source creators who already use your product. Notion uses Archive for social listening to find people organically talking about their tool, then builds relationships from there. Authentic usage beats manufactured endorsements.

• Ask creators about their projects, not just your campaigns. Instead of pitching brand goals, Danielle asks what creators are working on and finds ways to authentically weave Notion into their existing storylines.

• Design for platform-specific engagement. On LinkedIn, they avoid links in posts (algorithm penalty) and use tools like ManyChat to drive sign-ups through comments instead.

My take: This approach works because it solves the trust and context problem that most B2B marketing faces. Audiences trust the creators they follow – more than your company’s messaging.

The magic is recognizing that horizontal products like Notion need story-driven marketing to show value. You can't demo a workflow tool in a 30-second ad, but you can show someone building their dream startup's entire operating system inside it.

📈 Influencer Marketing | 12 min read | Elizabeth Melton at Product Stack
How do you measure the impact of B2B influencer marketing?

In theory: Traditional B2B attribution is straightforward: ad spend goes in, MQLs come out. Influencer marketing requires tracking both immediate pipeline impact and the harder-to-measure trust acceleration that shortens sales cycles.

In practice:

• Tag everything with UTMs and promo codes. Zapier tracked each micro-influencer's blog posts back to specific MQLs through clear attribution paths.

• Track trial-to-pipeline conversion. Efficient App's YouTube reviews include affiliate links in descriptions - every signup tracks straight to closed-won revenue.

• Benchmark CAC vs other channels. Success isn't follower count - it's whether influencer MQLs convert at higher rates than your paid search programs.

🎬 Influencer Marketing | 10 min read | Maja Voje at GTM Strategist
What content should you try with B2B influencers?

In theory: Influencers bring trust and context that brand content can't replicate, but the collaboration format matters: sponsoring a post might drive impressions, while co-creating a webinar, launch, or tutorial builds credibility and pipeline.

In practice:

• Launch collaborations that boost credibility. Amplitude teams with influencers to co-create and review new report launches - the influencers share personal takes that make the content more relevant and extend reach beyond Amplitude's own channels.

• Event partnerships that double registrations. Userpilot saw webinar signups double or triple once they added influencer guest speakers, proving that familiar names drive attendance better than solo company presentations.

• Hybrid creator programs that compound. Clay pays creators a small fixed fee plus 20% commission, incentivizing them to produce tutorials and new use cases that build an evergreen content library while generating ongoing pipeline.

TOP READS FROM LAST WEEK

1. GTM 3.0 = Humans + Agents + Multi-Agent Workflows (GTM Strategist)

2. Here's my take on what's happening in gtm tech-land latel (Brendan Short)

3. What AI means for the future of B2B content (Kieran Flanagan)