A few years ago, the MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead) was the gold standard for measuring marketing success. But times are changing. Buyers aren’t just data points in a CRM—they’re people looking for solutions to real problems. Even Jon Miller, the cofounder of Marketo and the originator of the MQL framework, recognizes the need for a shift. As tracking and attribution become more challenging, the best path forward is focusing on how we help, educate, and build trust with buyers. It’s time to rethink success beyond lead volume and start measuring real engagement, customer trust, and long-term relationships.
1. Stop Thinking of Buyers as MQLs
A few years back, HubSpot introduced the idea of moving away from the marketing funnel towards a customer-centric flywheel. At first, I thought this was a gimmick but I am seeing a growing trend to this being the reality. We used to have tons of marketing data that fueled a desire to track and attribute everything. Today, that is becoming a lot harder and when you boil it down, we are just trying to help people decide on our ability to help them solve a problem they have. The more we think about them and their journey of making a decision, the better.
2. Combine Google Ads and LinkedIn for Lead-Gen Success
Discover how B2B and SMB companies are driving results by leveraging the unique strengths of Google Ads and LinkedIn together. Explore the strategy
3. Involve SEO from Day One in Website Migrations
In my experience with website migrations, a key thing to remember is how different CMSs handle URLs. For example, HubSpot does not add a trailing slash to URL’s which are common on sites that are currently using WordPress.
📝 Quick Marketing Tip
For a head start, check out some of the AI prompts I use for crafting text ads:
View my ad prompts here.
