If you’ve ever stared down a sea of bland AI content and whispered, “Is this my job now?”, You’ll enjoy this master’s roof: “The amount of blog post written with AI is on a constant … and it’s all garbage.”
Ross Simmonds joins us with some spicy acquisition of experimentation, distribution and AI. And I promise: It’s not the trash.
Ross Simmonds
Founder, Foundation Marketing; Digital marketing strategist, entrepreneur
- Fun Fact: He once rapped a 20-story building in slacks and dress shoes.
- Claim of fame: Simmonds have done something that most marketers would be afraid of even trying – he has made the front of Reddit six times in the last few years and has helped clients do the same.
Lesson 1: Dedic 20% of your budget and time for experimentation.
Here it is at Marketing Team: We love a good spreadsheet, a strong quarterly plan and the warm, unclear sense of “proven tactics.” But Ross Simmonds wants you to spice things up.
Don’t worry, we’re not talking about being completely unhinged. “Eight percent of your work must be low to mid-risk, But cut 20% for the things your competitors are too scared to try“Simmonds tells me.
In other words, treat experimentation like Guac on Chipotle: It costs a little extra, but it’s worth it.
Simmonds suggests assigning time to your team’s calendar for experimentation in the same way you would block a week in the Caribbean.
One way to do this is an “experiment week” where everyone experiments with another channel for a few hours every day – Tiktok, Reddit, you name it. The teams then present to the bigger org, and everyone votes for a winning idea.
If it makes your Bowtie-made, type-A data analyst uncomfortable and your creative director excited, you’re on the right track.
This lesson is mainly about not falling into the safe zone. Pushing the boundaries and playing bold is the only way to stand out.
Lesson 2: Let AI nurture your prospects while you sleep.
I would never waste your time by blasting on how AI helps create scalable content.
This lesson has already been hammered in the ground. But Simmonds offers a sharper, more human take: The real winners will be the brands that allow their marketers to create content that is insightful, data -driven, emotional and uplifting.
“Content that gives hope and inspires people – who will win in the middle of the mediocrity we will see on the internet,” says Simmonds.
So where does it leave AI? Ecclesiastical in the lead room.
“The most value in B2B that we have ever seen will be unlocked when we allow people to create ridiculously valuable content and then give AI the opportunity to study other people that connect with these stories and care for these conditions in scale. And then AI can bring these two people back together to do business. “
Simmonds sees a world where by using tools such as HubSpot (Jep, Shameless Sticks), Clearbit or Koala could AI help “disconnect” anonymous visitors by finding out where they work or who they might be. When it knows, it could automatically reach out to them – like sending an E email or a LinkedIn message – with something that feels personal and relevant.
“And when these things happen while everyone sleeps,” Simmonds says with a smile, “it will be fascinating.”
Lesson 1: “Create once, distribute forever”.
Simmonds is notorious for gathering the marketing frase “Create once, distribute forever.”
(As a page I would very much like to know how I am famous for having patterns of something. I have ideas. “Procrastibaking,” for one.)
This phrase essentially means that too many marketers spend hours creating content and little-to-nine time or energy that promotes it. Which, Simmonds claims is the wrong approach.
He suggests that marketing people need to use way More time to get the valuable content in front of the right audience – and recycling or re -spreading as they find appropriate.
For B2B marketers, Simmonds says LinkedIn is your go-to channel for distribution.
But his suggestions for B2C are a little different: “On a B2C lens you can connect and scale in Tiktok in a ridiculously effective way. And the content you distribute through Tiktok is actually very reforms of each channel: YouTube shorts, X, Instagram wheels. You’ve set yourself up to success because your content can spread across all these different channels.”
If you “create once, distribute forever”, this may look like spending five hours creating and editing a Tiktok and 15 hours over the next few months distributing it on Tiktok and across other video hosting platforms.
Because people don’t sit and impatient waiting for your next content to launch. They are busy and over -stimulated. It can just take 15 hours for you to finally get in front of them.
Lingering questions
This week’s question
You always say ‘Create once, distribute forever’ – what is a piece of content you’ve milked longer than anyone has to reasonably admit? And why it? —Jay Schwedelson, Founder, Subjectline.com; Host, Try this, not that! Only for marketing people!
This week’s answer
Simmonds say: A piece of content I have absolutely milked? A tweet I wrote in 2019 simply said “Create once, Distribution forever” and it was a hit. It wasn’t even intended to be a flagship idea back then – just a brain dump about recycling strategy.
But I continued to refer in conversations, transformed it into a slide, a workshop, a tweet wire, the title of my book and finally the cornerstone of how we approach content on foundation.
Why it? Because the concept resonated deeply not only with marketers but with entrepreneurs, creators and leaders who realized they were sitting on gold without mining it. It gave people permission to stop chasing new and start maximizing what they already had.
This message is stuck and I have doubled ever since.
Next week’s question
Simmonds asks: What is a marketing tray you will die on … even if the data or trends say otherwise?
