Identity/biometrics/technology marketing and writing services
In reality, job applicant deepfake detection is (so far) unable to determine who the fraudster really is, but it can determine who the fraudster is NOT.
Something to remember when hiring people for sensitive positions. You don’t want to unknowingly hire a North Korean spy.
Want more powerful results?
Engage your people.
Bredemarket can help. https://bredemarket.com/mark/
Another SoCal Tech Forum presentation on Saturday, this one on banking technology from Carey Ransom of BankTech Ventures.
Only a small reference to financial identity, but excellent nonetheless. While I live-posted the event here on my personal LinkedIn account, I wanted to summarize my three main takeaways from Bredemarket’s perspective.
Yes, community banks need to differentiate. Perhaps back in the 1980s before the advent of national banks, community banks could offer a standard suite of services for their communities. But now they’re competing against national banks that do business in their prospects’ communities, and in their prospects’ phones. (We will get to phones in a minute.)
One example Ransom gave: why do community banks offer credit cards? Are their credit cards better than the credit cards from the Really Big (Banking) Bunch? Probably not.
But unlike the Capital Ones and Chimes of the world, community banks know their communities. And they know what local businesses need, and are ideally suited to deliver this. (We will get to services in two minutes.)
Yes, I know that Bank of America may have someone attending and sponsoring your local events, but that person is not Brian Moynihan. And if you don’t know who Moynihan is, your prospects don’t know him either.
Some time ago I wrote a post about shifts in the banking industry, most notably from imposing branch buildings to locations within grocery stores to your mobile phones.
But John, you may be saying to yourself, you can’t bank on a phone. How do you deposit checks? And how do you get cash?
Well, let’s look at this:
In fact, bank branches are so irrelevant to today’s—and tomorrow’s—bank prospects and customers that Ransom referred to a $3 million dollar bank branch as a really expensive billboard. Probably none of the people who are reading this post WANT to go into a bank branch.
And those that do? Here’s a little secret: if the average age of the people who bank at your bank is in their 70s, they will…um…not be long-term bank customers. The 18 year olds that will bank for decades? They’re opening accounts on their phones. Can they use a phone to open an account at your bank? And why would they do so? (See the differentiation discussion above.)
One way a bank can differentiate is via the services they offer.
At the most basic level, a bank can make money by loaning the funds they receive from deposits.
But they can offer many more services to 21st century clients, thanks to legislation such as the Gramm-Leach-Billey Act that allow financial holding companies to own financial or complementary firms.
And not just investments and wealth management.
Ransom provided an illustrative example: cybersecurity.
Banks need to have expertise in cybersecurity to stay alive, and to comply with Know Your Customer and other financial regulations.
So why not offer cybersecurity services to their customers?
This not only gives the banks another revenue stream, but also reduces the risk that their own customers will experience fraud from hacks.
I know I said there were three takeaways. I lied.
Ransom also noted that CapitalOne spends 20% on marketing, including everything from TV ads to cafes. Your typical community bank spends much less, maybe 1%.
How are your prospects going to know what differentiates your bank if they don’t have awareness of those differentiators?
Perhaps you need content such as case studies or white papers. Even blog posts help ensure that your firm comes up in LLM answers. Your prospects aren’t watching ABC, CBS, or NBC commercials.
Or perhaps you need proposal or analysis services.
Bredemarket, a provider of content, proposal, and analysis services to technology (and identity) firms, can work with you to create the words you need. Learn about my offerings and book a free meeting here.
During Saturday’s monthly meetup, the SoCal Tech Forum displayed a list of upcoming events.
January 3rd’s “Fraud Detection in FinTech” presentation looks promising.
Details here.
And on Monday I will have more to say on the meeting I attended yesterday.
This is a follow up to “Arguments for Blogging: Visibility…and Revenue.”
When I converted it to video form, for once I chose a 21st century song.
Well, it was from a 20th century band.
So visit https://bredemarket.com/mark/.
Repurposed from Facebook and LinkedIn.
(Although I haven’t knowingly encountered mode collapse, I still want to experiment with the verbalized sampling technique.)
“Unlike prior work that attributes [mode collapse] to algorithmic limitations, we identify a fundamental, pervasive data-level driver: typicality bias in preference data, whereby annotators systematically favor familiar text….
“[W]e introduce Verbalized Sampling (VS), a simple, training-free prompting method to circumvent mode collapse. VS prompts the model to verbalize a probability distribution over a set of responses (e.g., “Generate 5 jokes about coffee and their corresponding probabilities”).”
https://www.verbalized-sampling.com/
My trial Google Gemini prompt:
“Generate three AEO-friendly titles for a blog post about using Verbalized Sampling to generate better LLM responses, and their corresponding probabilities”
The response:
And now you know where I got the title for this post.
But I confess that I actually used a grossly simplified version of the technique. The authors of the Verbalized Sampling paper recommend this format:
I’ll have to remember to try this technique for future prompts. I have no idea whether the probability estimates have any basis in reality, but at least the LLM attempts to justify the probabilities with a rationale.
Have you ever written a series of documents, and then realized that you need to augment that series…years after the fact? Here we are.
Back in February 2022, I wrote a four-part series of blog posts on Bredemarket’s proposal services:
All these were pretty good…for February 2022.
But I need to revisit the first one.
Not because it’s wrong in any way. It accurately covered several topics.
Such as the need for RFx response services.
“RFx” is shorthand for a number of “request for” items, including requests for proposals, requests for information, and requests for comment. These RFx documents ask entities to submit a formal response in the format dictated by the RFx document. The response may be one page long, five pages long, or one thousand pages long.
And the differences between Requests for Information (RFIs) and Requests for Proposal (RFPs).
In the Request for Information stage, you still have an opportunity to shape the final procurement (if a final procurement takes place). For example, if you offer a green widget and your competitors do not, your RFI response will make an important point about how the customer will benefit from a green widget, and a solution without a green widget is substandard.
(One important point here. I didn’t say that the RFI response should say that XYZ Company offers a green widget that is a technological marvel. I said that the RFI response should say that the customer will benefit from a green widget.)
In the Request for Proposal stage, the time to shape the final procurement has already passed. (This is why you engage with a customer years before the customer issues an RFP.) At this stage you have to go all out and win the business, telling the customer how they will benefit from your solution.
And some of the mechanics that Bredemarket uses to assist my proposal clients.
The mechanics of writing an RFx response have varied between my clients. In some cases, I have worked with one or two people to come up with the response, and the client then sent it out. In other cases, I have worked as part of a team of dozens of people in multiple companies to come up with the response, and followed multiple processes to ensure that the proposal is not only sound, but is approved at the corporate level of the client. Some processes are dictated by the client, but some clients have no processes which means that I need to implement a simple one to get the job done.
I guess you can be forgiven for thinking, like Ed McMahon did many times in the past, that John (actually Johnny) covered EVERYTHING that there was to say about RFx responses.
And you probably remember that John (actually Johnny) usually told Ed that he was WRONG.
Because I never talked about full-fledged proposal MANAGEMENT.
It’s one thing to write a little piece of a proposal. Subject matter experts do it all the time. They turn in their little bit, and then they’re done.
But I have also spent years managing proposals, including these six aspects.
An RFx response is an entire project, and just like any other project, it has deadlines.
But these deadlines are not internally set; they’re externally set.
I’ve run into many times where the DWHB or its equivalent has set due dates to their own convenience. For example, a proposal will be due on January 2. The DWHB doesn’t care that this means you’ll lose your Christmas holiday to complete the proposal. The DWHB wants completed proposals to read when they get back from their holiday.
Combine that with your company’s internal processes. For large companies, those can become very onerous. If you work for the U.S. branch of a multinational that is headquartered in a European country, then proposals with certain prices and/or margins require headquarters approval. And that doesn’t happen in an hour.
So how do you ensure that your RFx response reaches the customer by the due date?
By managing the project.
Work backwards. If the proposal must be submitted electronically by 4:00 pm Eastern Time on January 2, and if you want to account for issues with the electronic submission system, and if your proposal needs approval from Paris, plus all the executive approvals at your own firm, and if people need to review it, and if subject matter experts need to contribute to it, and if you have to account for modificiations to the RFx from the question and answer period…well, you’d better get started in November.
Anyway, someone needs to look at what needs to be done, set a schedule, communicate the schedule, and force people (including executives) to stick to the schedule.
Often, that project manager has been me. And over the years I may have sent a strongly worded email or two when people don’t get their act together for my proposal.
Yes, MY PROPOSAL. Often the proposal manager is the only person who can focus on the project. So I do.
I previously alluded to the question and answer period. For most RFx documents, potential bidders get the opportunity to ask clarification questions. The dates for this process are outlined in the RFx schedule:
And between you and me, sometimes these answers are very helpful, and sometimes they’re not.
Bidder question 35: Section 7 of the RFx says that the system will process 100 subjects an hour, while section 9 says that the system will process 200 subjects an hour. Which is correct?
Answer to bidder question 35: Please refer to RFx sections 7 and 9.
Normally the answers aren’t that bad, and sometimes the answers provide important clarifications, or perhaps even a relaxation of onerous requirements.
And let me spill one secret: sometimes, even when my company had decided NOT to submit a proposal, we ended up asking questions anyway, just to make things difficult for the competitors who WERE responding.
Now if you talk to the Shipley folks and everyone else, a winning proposal has to tell a story that sets the bidder apart from the competition. But you still have to make sure you meet the basic requirements or you’ll get thrown out.
Some of you have heard this story before, but once upon a time I was managing a proposal in which the RFx clearly stated that the agency would not pay a dime until the system was completely delivered and operational.
I was told by management that my proposal HAD to include a down payment at contract signature…so I submitted our proposal that way.
Well, in the same way that bidders can ask agencies questions before the proposal is submitted, agencies can ask bidders questions after the proposal is submitted. And the first question we received from the agency was basically, “Didn’t you read our RFx, you idiots? No down payment!”
Anyway, someone needs to read the RFx, figure out what is necessary to be compliant, and determine whether the bidder and the bidder’s solution actually IS compliant.
That someone has been me. I won’t go into details, but I’ve had to raise red flags when our proposal would NOT be compliant. Sometimes we changed the proposal. Sometimes, such as in the case above, we didn’t…and paid the price.
Rather than go into detail here, I’ll just make a single point: your proposal has to read as if it came from a single company. Yes, proposals usually DO come from a single company, but if you have a lot of subject matter experts, they’re all going to write differently. They may even use different names for your product or your company itself. Yes, you can issue a style guide for all proposal writers, but that’s no guarantee that the writers will follow it or even read it. So allow some time for edits.
Sometimes proposal submission stories are scarier than any Halloween story. It doesn’t matter whether you’re submitting by paper as we did in the 1990s, or if you’re submitting electronically as we do today. Something can always go wrong.
Such as the time when two companies were working together on a proposal, and the work took up to the very last minute. As in “assembling the proposal in the taxicab” last minute. And the companies didn’t deliver the proposal before the deadline. Sorry.
I’ll share one that has a happier ending. I recently worked on a proposal that was due at a particular date and time. EASTERN time. Just to ensure no hiccups, I decided early on that we would submit the proposal the day before the due date. Which is good, because as we were filling out the electronic submission forms…we encountered something unexpected that prevented us from submitting the proposal that day. We stepped back and requested rework from a subject matter expert, and regrouped on the due date…early in the morning Pacific time, to make sure it was done before the expiration. (We were.)
One of the drawbacks of the proposal world, and the reason why I left Proposals twice, is because there are too many cases in which you’re called in when the RFx drops, and dismissed when the proposal is submitted.
That can be really unfulfilling, which is why I once became a product manager (to manage things for successful proposals) and I once became a strategic/product markter (to set the stage for successful proposals).
But sometimes I’ve had the opportunity to continue with a customer after a successful proposal. There are benefits to everyone from this, because I already know the subject matter from working on the proposal and don’t need a lot of time to get up to speed.
One way to employ proposal managers post-proposal is to have them work on the requirements.
“Wait a minute, John,” you may be saying. “There’s already an RFx, and already your proposal. Don’t those two documents dictate EVERYTHING about what needs to be done?
Cue Johnny.
Often there are further clarifications that are required above and beyond the proposal, and a document (such as a requirements document) resolves those nagging issues.
I’ve been writing requirements documents for decades, dating back to my days as Omnitrak product manager, so I’m a natural at writing requirements documents for a particular customer implementation.
Especially when I’m already familiar with the underlying proposal.
For the past year-plus, Bredemarket has worked on multiple proposals for fingerprint hardware and software company Integrated Biometrics.
Before you jump to conclusions, let me point out a couple of things.
But Bredemarket has managed multiple proposals, including successful ones, for Integrated Biometrics. This work has included project management, questions and answers, compliance, writing, submission, and post-proposal requirements management.
And David Deady, “The Fresh ‘Prints” and Director of Marketing for Integrated Biometrics, was kind enough to provide Bredemarket with this endorsement.
(From David Deady, Director of Marketing at Bredemarket client Integrated Biometrics, October 2025)
John,
You got big props on the huddle tonight (our exec team meeting). We are very grateful for the quality of your work and your ability to know what needs to be done with a quick turnaround. The FBI RFI response was mentioned specifically, but all projects have been equally appreciated. Thank you.
And thank YOU.
If you are with a fingerprint firm and need support for federal government proposals, I probably can’t help you.
But if you need proposal support that doesn’t create a conflict of interest for me, let’s talk.
Technology product marketers know that you don’t just throw together a go-to-market plan in three days. You need to plan all the external content—and all the internal content—that you use for your go-to-market effort.
Usually you create a checklist of what you need. Or better still, a go-to-market processs that defines the internal and external collateral you need for different tiers of releases. For example, a Tier 1 go-to-market effort may warrant a press release, but a Tier 3 effort may not.
In the best case scenario, the product marketer is able to coordinate the necesary content so that all external stakeholders (prospects, customers, others) and internal stakeholders (sales, customer success, others) have all the information they need, at the right time.
In the worst case scenario, some content is shared before other necessary parts of the content are ready.
For example, it’s conceivable that a company may host a public webinar about its product…even though the company website has absolutely no information about the product for prospects who want to know more. Yes, this can happen.
If you need help with go-to-market strategy, Bredemarket has done this before and can discuss your needs with you.
We constantly hear the stories about companies that (sometimes literally) paid the price when they delivered AI-generated work replete with hallucinations.
Unlike these companies, most of my internal AI-generated work does NOT suffer from hallucinations.
Why not?
Because I only feed bits to the generative AI tool.
I was applying to a job at Company X, but I had to apply for the job at a website other than that of Company X. I thought it a little odd, but I continued with no worries.
Until I got to the part where the website told me, “Now’s the time that we create a resume for you.”
Rut roh.
The resume it created was filled with hallucinations that I had to edit out, making the whole process more trouble than it was worth.
So I’ll keep control of my projects myself and just give the tool little bits, thank you very much.
This post includes an unprecedented level of name-dropping. As can be expected in a post on the positive effects of a blogging cadence, I mention Robert Scoble and Shel Israel. But I also mention Loren Feldman, Neil Patel, me, Bredebot, Roland Fournier, and Dean Nicolls.
So let’s begin.
Ever read the book Naked Conversations?
I never have, but I imagined that it went something like this.
Robert: I’m naked.
Shel: I’m naked too.
Robert: Let’s talk.
(An aside for those who are fans of repurposing content: the dialog itself was adapted from a comment of mine on a Loren Feldman short.)
Actually, the book isn’t like that, the famous (and patented) shower picture to the contrary.
Here’s the synopsis of Naked Conversations:
“According to experts Robert Scoble and Shel Israel, blogs offer businesses something that has long been lacking in their communication with customers — meaningful dialogue. Devoid of corporate-speak and empty promises, business blogs can humanize communication, bringing companies and their constituencies together in a way that improves both image and bottom line.”
Of course, the book was written in 2006. And therefore we know it’s no longer valid in 2025, and that blogging is dead.
Or is it?
Neil Patel’s NP Digital just completed a study of companies that blog vs. companies that don’t.
And the companies that blog saw an 18.2% decline over 12 months in SEO traffic.
But the companies that don’t blog saw a 39.7% decline in SEO traffic over that same period.
So while SEO traffic is declining, blogging helps mitigate the decline.
Not that you care about SEO. That’s old school. LLM traffic is what you want to optimize these days. And the companies that don’t blog saw a 12-month increase of 6.5% in LLM traffic.
But…the companies that do blog saw an 85.8% LLM traffic increase.
And as for revenue growth…well, you’ll have to read the article for that. Or just look at Neil’s pretty picture.
But why is blogging so beneficial to SEO traffic, and LLM traffic, and revenue?
“The stark contrast in outcomes suggests that search engines and AI systems are increasingly prioritizing recently updated, actively maintained content sources over static websites….
“The 85.8% increase in LLM traffic correlates with AI systems preferring sources that demonstrate ongoing expertise and current knowledge, not just historical authority.”
Bredemarket (well, with Bredebot’s help) has successfully maintained a daily blogging cadence for the last several months now. Since late March, as a matter of fact.
Along with nearly-daily cadences on many of Bredemarket’s social channels, this has increased Bredemarket’s SEO and LLM presence.
And it may yield comparable revenue impacts.
Especially from those companies that haven’t blogged in months or years, and are just now beginning to realize how this hurts them.
And how Bredemarket can help.
Talk to me if you want to kick your blogging into high gear and attract prospects. After all, Bredemarket creates content.
Bredemarket