The Equifax data breach that was revealed last week has so far been an unmitigated disaster – for the company. While we could spend the entire show talking about the firm’s missteps, we just touch quickly on the lowlights, including poor IT management, the lousy breach notification, a confusing website that was constructed in haste and with overwrought legalese, the lack of quality reporting from the general and security trade press about the incident, and how hard it is to find out whether your own personal information has been compromised. Sadly, this breach will be a case study of what not to do in marketing communications for years to come.

We move on to something that we both have spoken and written about frequently, keyed to a piece that ran this week on Sam Whitmore’s Media Survey (We’d give you a link, but the site is behind a paywall.) It’s about David’s attitude toward PR pitches. He and Paul go over some of his their preferences on things like the length of pitches, whether to mention competitors, how pitch use metaphors and the value of third-party support endorsements. One thing we agree on: Re-pitching – or following up on an earlier pitch – is a good way put yourself in the doghouse. and end up in the deleted email pile.

This week Paul Gillin and I talk to Crowded Ocean’s partners Carol Broadbent and Tom Hogan. The two have written The Ultimate Startup Guide, the foundation of which is their work with 47 different startups over the past 10 years. Ten of those companies have had successful exits, and only two went out of business, so our guests have credibility.

We invited them to join us after we read their piece in VentureBeat about “marketing-as-a-service.” Most organizations hire their CMOs first, but the duo recommend that this should actually be the last position to be filled by a startup. “Most CMOs have a bulls-eye painted on their backs, they have the shortest tenure, and often startups hire the wrong species,” they said.

Instead, Carol and Tom suggest that you examine more closely the different component skills that make up marketing, and staff accordingly. These include product management, corporate marketing, product marketing and IT fluency. The evolved CMO has the backbone of the marketing department, the breadth and understanding of the customer experience and the depth of a new key organizational growth pillar that shapes their point of view. Our guests suggest that the initial full-time marketing insider should be someone that they call “Seth” who is a 28-year-old numbers jockey who can give their sales organization demand generation data.

Other recommendations: Hire a stable of reliable contractors rather than fulfilling every need with full-timers. Simplify your website’s message. “Too many startups want to display all their great ideas and technology on their website, turning it into a library of brochure-ware that a prospect has to wade through,” they wrote in VentureBeat. And design online content and structure that can be useful on mobile devices.

Carol and Tom’s recommendations challenge a lot of the conventional wisdom, but they have the track record to justify them. Listen to our 21 min. podcast here:

Danielle Cooley has spent more than 18 years applying a number of user experience (UX) research and design techniques to a wide variety of applications, including hardware, Windows, web, telephone and mobile. Her work has benefited such organizations as Pfizer, Navy Federal Credit Union, Fidelity Investments, Hyundai, Graco, Enterprise Rent-a-Car and more. She is a frequent conference speaker at professional UX gatherings and holds several technical degrees.

Paul Gillin and I talked to her on our latest podcast about rookie UX mistakes, such as popup come-ons and autoloading videos, the difference between UX and user interfaces, and how marketers should consider the UX maturity model of their organizations when developing their programs.

Danielle also ranted a bit about the “hamburger menu” of three parallel lines that are often shown in many mobile apps (including my latest website redesign, oops!) and how they have become a cover-up for bad navigation. Here’s a presentation on what to do instead.

Danielle and I wrote this article for a UX journal where we use the example of four data breaches (Cici’s Pizza, Home Depot, Wendy’s Restaurants, and Omni Hotels) to see how each firm tried to regain its customers’ trust.

Paul Gillin and I talk to Dermot O’Connor who is the VP of product and co-founder of Boxever, a marketing big data automation company. We discuss the changing nature of customer experience (CX) and how the rise of the online world of Google, Amazon and Facebook have changed customer expectations about their interactions with suppliers. Big data is essential to improvement for marketers. We also cover the differences between these two approaches and how difficult it is to incorporate the technology solutions that are required to implement the best CX, and how marketing departments need to get a handle on what data they have about their customers too.

Dermot offers his suggestions for how to create “Micro Moments” along the journey, a concept introduced in this Google blog. That’s about making each touch point with customers a part of crafting the best experience. O’Connor thinks the next phase of CX will center around micro-design and suggests ways in which himbrands can bring micro moments to life.

You can listen to our 12 min. podcast here:

It isn’t surprising that millennials are less satisfied with their jobs – given that they change them so frequently. Perhaps they have unrealistic salary or promotion expectations. This survey, the Data Snapshot: 2017 Career Outlook for Tech Marketers, of several hundred marketers from both the US and UK is worth looking at, not just because it points out generational differences but it also shatters some myths too.

Are vendors paying freelancers to place stories in reputable publications they write for? David Berlind thinks so. We describe what motivated him to post a complaint about how freelancers are double-charging for their stories, being paid by both a vendor client and their editors.

Next, Anindya Ghose’s Tap: Unlocking the Mobile Economy should be on every B2B marketer’s reading list for how to understand mobile ecommerce and mobile transactions. It is a rare book that provides solid research and is enjoyable to read. He shows that the balance between advertising and peer group recommendations for purchasing products and services is shifting to more of a mix, and this book will help guide marketers to understanding how to play that mix to their favor without alienating consumers. He covers the nuances of location-based advertising and how mobile phones access this information. B2B marketers have to get better at using mobile technologies. And the smartphone has become the glue between online and offline channels, so marketers need to understand how this glue is applied and how to become more effective at using it.

Finally, this post from Buffer (We Made These 10 Social Media Mistakes so Don’t Have To) is well worth reviewing. Many of us have made most of the mistakes on this list, and some of them are worth discussing with your social media team to try to prevent them in the future.

Listen to our podcast here:

This week Paul Gillin and I are guests on Shel Holtz’ For Immediate Release podcast.  We talk about these topics:

• In a follow-up to a report last week, a PR agency owner takes issue with the Center for Public Relations’ survey on the industry’s view of White House communications.
• Real estate site Zillow sent a cease-and-desist letter to a blogger who, it turns out, wasn’t violating their intellectual property at all. Still, there are lessons here for bloggers and companies.
• While media outlets are increasingly interested in data journalism, PR doesn’t seem to be pitching many data stories.
• A UK organization accidentally sent members an email telling them their passwords had been reset. That was just its first mistake.
• Voice search and smart audio are coming to the enterprise, which means it will have a place in the B2B world.
• Venture Capital CEO Dave McClure was outed in the New York Times for inappropriate behavior with a woman who was hoping to work for his company. He penned an apology. He should have done a few other things instead.
• Tech correspondent Dan York reports Instagram’s new anti-spam tools, Facebook’s penalties for people who post too many links, Alibaba’s plans to compete with Amazon’s Echo, and new widgets in WordPress 4.8.

You can listen to our hour-long podcast here.

There’s no shortage of people willing to bash bad PR practices, but we prefer to take a more positive tone. This week we speak with someone who does B2B PR very well.

Beth Winkowski has had her own PR firm for decades after working for leading edge tech companies back in the 1990s. Both Paul and I have had tremendous respect for her, not just for the quality of her communications but for the very skillful way in which she handles journalist relationships. She sends out press releases for all events announced by her clients but only asks for press briefings occasionally. Both Paul and I know that when Beth asks for a briefing, the announcement is important. Her clients are well prepared, with PowerPoint decks that explain but don’t overwhelm. She sends a confirmation the morning of the  call along with the final press release. She always includes graphics. These sound like small things, but it’s amazing how few agencies attend these small details.

When we first contacted Beth about being a guest, she demurred, saying that she only seeks publicity for her clients and not for herself. She has no website because she doesn’t want to appear to be promoting her own interests ahead of those of her clients. It’s these kinds of philosophical details that are important. Beth had a lot of wisdom to impart on our show, and while most of it is common sense, it is a reason why she is the consummate PR pro.

Listen to our 19 min. podcast here.

The “circular economy” is about more than just sustainability or preserving the environment. It’s a new economic model based upon the idea of maximizing the lifetime value of resources for as long as possible, whether through recycling, reuse or sharing. It’s a concept that underscores the growth of the so-called “sharing economy” and is paying benefits in the form of new product concepts and improved customer engagement.

The Conference Board recently published a report that defines the circular economy and offers examples of how it’s changing the way some businesses work. Thomas Singer (left), who authored the report, joins Paul Gillin and I to summarize its findings and discuss the long-term impact on businesses and marketers.

Thomas is a principal researcher in corporate leadership at The Conference Board and author of numerous publications, including “Driving Revenue Growth through Sustainable Products and Services” and the comprehensive corporate sustainability benchmarking report “Sustainability Practices.”  You can listen to our 19m podcast here: