I just published a new edition of Bredemarket’s LinkedIn newsletter this afternoon. Here’s how I started it:
“For years I maintained a negative stance on generative AI-authored text. But I recently tried relaxing it. By doing this I learned what AI authors are capable of…and what they clearly CANNOT do.”
Much of the article rehashes material I’ve shared before, but I did provide a little detail on the temperamental writer’s emotional hurt when Zoominfo turned to the bots:
“My first reaction was akin to a river in Egypt. I remain a temperamental writer, you know.”
Psst…check the book title.
But at least I closed the thing with a call to action.
“But if you are a marketing leader at an identity, biometric, or technology company, and you want an experienced human to help you with your content, proposals, and analysis, why don’t you schedule a free meeting with me to talk about your needs. Visit https://bredemarket.com/mark/ to find out more.”
Although my first of my three meetings started at 7:30 am, my day actually started three hours earlier with light Things To Accomplish. Suffice it to say that the Bredemarket blog will have daily content until Monday, August 4.
I took a mid-afternoon break before my third meeting, the Inland Empire BizFest in Montclair. I wrote about that here and here, plus on the Bredemarket socials.
Log those business miles.
In fact I knew I would be so busy today that I declined a personal invite at 10 this morning. Good thing I declined, because I was neck deep in a requirements workbook (yeah, Microsoft Excel again) for a Bredemarket client’s end customer. (Can you say TOT? I knew you could.)
Anyway, I left Montclair Place before 7:30 pm and called it a night after a long day.
Thankfully the first day of August only includes a single meeting.
Tech CMOs want to move their prospects to act and buy world-changing offerings (products or services) from their firms…and I want to move my tech CMO prospects to act and buy marketing and writing services from Bredemarket. So tech CMOs, I definitely feel your pain. But how can you move your prospects…and how can I move you?
Because my client had a specific problem. The client needed its prospects to understand how its offering could solve nagging prospect problems. Riots. Car thefts. Robberies.
And my client had a specific solution. I can’t reveal the solution without giving the client away, but let’s just say the the solution simultaneously addressed the end customers’ dual needs of speed and accuracy, as well as other end customer concerns.
As for specific results, I confess I don’t know. In this case my client never got back to me and said, “John, case study 3 attracted a prospect that ended up buying an annual contract.” And my primary contact at the client subsequently moved to another firm. But the fact that the client stuck with me for a dozen case studies and some subsequent NIST FRTE analysis work indicates that I did something right.
You see what I did there. Well, as much as I could while preserving my ghostwriter status and my client’s anonymity.
What is your specific problem?
This section of the blog post is specifically addressed to tech CMOs and other marketers. The rest of you can skip this part and watch this entertaining video instead.
Bredemarket has specific solutions depending on whether your needs are short, medium, long, or ongoing. As part of my solution, I begin by asking questions and then iterate the deliverable with you.
The specific results you need? Let’s talk about them.
Now I know I’ve loaded this post with links to previous Bredemarket content that addresses the…um…specific topics in much more detail. Maybe you clicked on the links, or maybe you didn’t. I will find out.
But if you are ready to move forward, this is the one link you need to click. (“Now you tell me, John!”) It lets you set up a meeting with Bredemarket to discuss your specific needs.
(Author’s preface: I was originally going to schedule this post for the middle of next week. But by the time I wrote it, the end of the post referenced a current event of astronomical proportions. Since said current event may be forgotten by the middle of next week, I am publishing it now.)
You get a message on a platform from someone you don’t know. The message may look something like this:
“John ,
“I hope this message finds you well. I came across your profile and was truly impressed by your background. While I’m not a recruiter, I’m assisting in connecting talented professionals with a startup that is working on a unique initiative.
“Given your experience, I believe you could be a fantastic fit for their senior consultant role. If you’re open to exploring this opportunity, I’d be happy to share more details and introduce you to the team directly. Please let me know if you’re interested!”
Let’s count the red flags in this message, which is one I actually received on May 30 from someone named David Joseph:
The author was truly impressed by my background, but didn’t cite any specifics about my background that impressed them. This exact same message could be sent to a biometric product marketing expert, a nuclear physicist, or a store cashier.
The author is not a recruiter, but a connector who will presumably pass me on to someone else. Why doesn’t the “someone else” contact me directly?
The whole unidentified startup working on a unique initiative story. Yes, some companies operate as stealth firms before revealing their corporate identity. Amway. Prinerica. Countless MLMs with bad reputations. Trust me, these initiatives are not unique.
That senior consultant title. Not junior consultant. Senior consultant. To make that envelope stuffing role even more prestigious.
I got the note and the note is even clearer
But I wasn’t really concerned with the message. I get these messages all the time.
So what concerned me?
The note attached to the message by the platform that hosted the message.
“Don’t know David? Ask David to verify their profile information before responding for added security.”
The platform, if you haven’t already guessed, is LinkedIn, the message a LinkedIn InMail.
Let’s follow the trail.
LinkedIn let “David” use the platform without verifying his identity or verifying that Randstad is truly his employer as his profile states.
LinkedIn sold “David” a bunch of InMail credits so that he could privately share this unique opportunity.
Now LinkedIn wants me to do its dirty work and say, “Hey David, why don’t you verify your profile?”
Now the one thing in LinkedIn’s favor is that LinkedIn—unlike Meta—lets its users verify their profiles for free. Meta charges you for this.
But again, why should I do LinkedIn’s dirty work?
Why doesn’t LinkedIn prevent users from sending InMails unless their profiles are verified?
The answer: LinkedIn makes a ton of money selling InMails to people without verified profiles. And thus makes money off questionable businesspeople and outright scammers.
Instead of locking down the platform and preventing scammers from joining the platform in the first place.
Unless you’re in the surveillance industry, surveillance sounds like a dirty word. I once knew an identity/biometric CEO who forcefully declared that HIS company would NEVER work in the surveillance industry.
Imagen 4.
But as Goddard Technologies notes, surveillance can be useful even if you’re NOT chasing bad people.
But before I describe how, I’m going to reveal my age.
Kennedy (John) William (Smokey) Gordy
Let’s talk about a singer who went by the name Rockwell. This was supposedly to conceal the fact that his last name was Gordy (he is Berry’s son). But he didn’t really conceal the fact that one of the uncredited backup vocalists on his wonderful one hit was a man named Michael Jackson. This was in the 1980s, when Michael Jackson was kinda sorta popular. OK, now do you remember the song?
“Somebody’s Watching Me” by Rockwell.
This excerpt from the lyrics provides the sinister tone of the song:
People call me on the phone, I’m trying to avoid But can the people on TV see me, or am I just paranoid?
But that was the 1980s, when there was always a person in the surveillance loop. Even if there was a video camera hidden in Rockwell’s shower, some person was looking at the feed.
Things have changed.
Goddard Technologies’ “The Rise of Robotic Observers”
Now non-person entities (NPEs) are no longer the stuff of science fiction, and they can do things that only humans could do 40 years ago.
“While much of the attention has gone to robots that do something (cleaning, welding, lifting), there’s a quieter, equally important shift happening: the rise of robots that observe.”
But what do they observe?
“These robots navigate environments, gather data, and report back. Think of them as mobile sensors with wheels, legs or propellers that identify open doors, check for damage, verify inventory, or confirm environmental conditions.”
Kaplan then notes that there are human beings that perform similar tasks, and that therefore these observer bots “align with how many industrial jobs actually work.” After the observations are collected, then humans—or perhaps other bots—can act upon the observations.
Does this affect how you perceive non-person entities? How do you feel about non-person entities that merely collect data for others to act? This is technically “surveillance,” but it could potentially reduce costs, increase profits, or even save lives.
Do you sell robotic observers, or something equally important?
Jon Kaplan used a LinkedIn article to tell his story about Goddard Technologies’ activities with observing robots.
But maybe your firm has your own story to tell.
Imagen 4. And I have to give credit where credit is due. I asked Google Gemini to create a picture with a wildebeest-authored LinkedIn article, but the article title, “The Grass Ceiling: Overcoming Obstacles in the Corporate Savana” (sic), didn’t come from me but from Google.
Why haven’t you written a LinkedIn article about your product? This lets you reach B2B prospects who are more likely on LinkedIn than on TikTok. In fact, I wrote a LinkedIn article about LinkedIn articles. (I wrote it so long ago that I only asked my clients six questions rather than seven questions.) And I’ve also written LinkedIn articles for Bredemarket clients.
Do you need help in writing that LinkedIn article that tells the world about your product? Maybe you could become one of my clients, since I help create content for tech marketers. Contact me.
Once I answered that question (I think you can guess my answer), I talked about how you can effectively combine word-of-mouth and corporate efforts via “casetimonials“—either case studies or testimonials that allow the happy customer to have their say, while your company helps to shape the message.
Focusing on case studies, I said the following:
Case studies require more collaboration, as I found out when I wrote a dozen case studies for a firm.
We had to collaborate between myself, a few people from the firm, and representatives of the firm’s customers who could provide the facts.
My Bredemarket 400 Short Writing Service (these were short 2-page case studies) includes “access to the end customer for a 30 minute interview,” and I definitely accessed these customers.
Bredemarket 