Field Notes
Sharper Stories.
Better Pipelines.
Practical writing on B2B messaging, positioning, AI search visibility, and why most homepages don't convert. Written from inside the work, not the conference circuit.
Greg Rosner
Founder of PitchKitchen · Author of StoryCraft for Disruptors
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Anchor · Magnetic Messaging Framework
How do I know if my B2B messaging is broken, not just underperforming?
Underperforming B2B messaging needs tuning. Broken B2B messaging needs rebuilding. The difference between them decides whether the next $50,000 you spend lifts pipeline or just amplifies the silence. Three tests, 30 minutes, no agency, tell you which one you're actually looking at.
9 min read
Anchor · Magnetic Messaging Framework
What changes about B2B positioning when AI is doing the buyer research?
The buyer changed and so did the first-pass evaluator. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity now summarize, rank, and filter B2B vendors before the buyer ever clicks a homepage. Three diagnostic prompts tell you in 20 minutes whether AI buyer research has already filtered you out.
10 min read
Anchor · Magnetic Messaging Framework
What does it mean when my marketing spend is going up and my pipeline is going down?
When spend climbs and pipeline falls, the problem is almost never the tactics. It's bottlenecked marketing ... stuck behind a positioning problem upstream. Five diagnostic questions you can run this week, and the four moves that fix it, in order.
10 min read
Anchor · AEO Strategy
Why does AI recommend our competitors and not us?
When ChatGPT or Perplexity names your competitor and skips you, it's repeating whichever company the web describes most clearly and consistently, with a reason attached. Here's the real mechanism, seven tests that show which gap you have, and how to get recommended instead.
11 min read
Anchor · Sales-Marketing Alignment
Is my B2B sales cycle slow because of sales execution or because of my message?
Most B2B founders blame sales execution when cycles stretch from 80 days to 120. The cause usually sits one layer up. If your message isn't doing the work, your reps have to do it inside every call, and the deal slows under the weight of the explaining. Five tests to separate message-caused friction from execution-caused friction, plus the order to fix it in.
11 min read
All Insights
The Ultimate Marketing Engineering Agency Buyer's Guide
Every decision in buying a marketing engineering agency, in order: what it is, whether you need one, agency vs. in-house, provider type, budget, shortlist, evaluation, questions, RFP, scorecard, red flags, contract, the first 90 days and picking the winner.
The Best Marketing Engineering Agencies for Enterprise Companies
We checked about 25 firms on their own sites in October 2026 and kept 16 that build marketing systems for enterprises, sorted by layer: global transformation, platform implementation, governed AI operations, ABM, AI search and measured media. Plus the security and AI governance questions that decide the shortlist.
The Best Marketing Engineering Agencies for Startups
Compare startup agencies by stage, budget and the work they build, including PitchKitchen for post-PMF B2B positioning, websites and AI visibility. Before product-market fit, keep founder-led selling first.
The Best Marketing Engineering Agencies for B2B SaaS
Compare 16 SaaS-focused firms plus PitchKitchen, a broader B2B option for positioning, website rebuilding and measured AI visibility. Published prices, best-fit situations and limits.
What Should a $25K, $50K or $100K Marketing Engineering Engagement Deliver?
What a fair marketing engineering engagement should produce at $25K, $50K and $100K: the baseline, the brain, how many live systems, how long the agency runs them, what each budget can't buy, and how to tell a build fee from a full first year.
What Should a Marketing Engineering Agency Build in the First 90 Days?
A week-by-week plan for the first quarter of a marketing engineering engagement: the baseline, the brain every agent reads, the first live system by week six, hardening and measurement, and the handoff kit. With checkpoints at day 14, 30, 45, 60 and 90, team-time estimates, and what a plan shouldn't include.
Marketing Engineering Agency RFP Template
A pasteable sixteen-section RFP for hiring a marketing engineering agency: company context, the problem in your words, one business number, your stack, build and AI requirements, twelve security questions, ownership, budget range, references, and response instructions with weights. Plus a sizing rule, a four-week timeline, and the six mistakes that make good firms decline.
Marketing Engineering Agency Scorecard: How to Compare 5 Vendors
A weighted thirteen-criterion scorecard for comparing marketing engineering vendors, with 1-3-5 anchors, a four-item must-have gate, five weight presets by buying situation, a fair process for running five vendors through it, and a worked example where the arithmetic changes the winner.
The 15 Red Flags of a Bad Marketing Engineering Agency
Fifteen red flags sorted by when you'll see them (pitch, first 90 days, exit) and how badly they hurt. Each one with what it looks like, why it costs you, a one-minute test and the fair exception. Four are walk-aways; seven are fixable in the contract.
How to Tell Whether a Marketing Engineering Agency Can Actually Build
Seven proofs that separate firms that build from firms that configure: the architecture diagram, the repository, the change history, integration failure handling, tests, monitoring and the runbook. Plus a five-rung build ladder, a 90-minute build audit and a 21-point score.
How to Evaluate an Agency's AI Marketing Capabilities
Fifteen AI capabilities in five layers, each with the artifact to ask for instead of the answer to listen to. A weighted 0-3 scoring sheet, four red lines, a two-hour review agenda, and the public rules an agency should already know in 2026.
Marketing Engineering Agency vs. Hiring an In-House Marketing Engineer
Agency or in-house hire for marketing engineering? Year-one cost math from published 2026 data, a seven-option comparison, and a six-question decision tree for $5M-$75M B2B companies.
10 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Marketing Engineering Agency
The ten questions that separate firms that can build from firms selling a slide, with why each matters, what a strong answer sounds like, what a red flag sounds like, and the follow-up probe to use.
How Much Does a Marketing Engineering Agency Cost?
Most marketing engineering agencies charge $3,000-$15,000 a month or $10,000-$45,000 for a fixed build. Here's what each dollar buys, published 2026 price examples, a year-one budget formula, and the hidden costs to ask about.
How to Choose a Marketing Engineering Company
Name the job first, then make every finalist build one small piece of the system live, in your accounts. Here are the ten areas to evaluate, a weighted scorecard, the contract terms that protect you, and where PitchKitchen fits.
You built something new. Your website still describes the old business. Here's how to close the gap.
PitchKitchen's Greg Rosner on the most expensive gap in B2B: real progress inside the company that buyers and AI assistants can't see, and the two jobs that close it.
Does switching your CMS fix stale website content? Not usually.
WordPress carries the same share of stale B2B sites as fresh ones. PitchKitchen's Greg Rosner on why a new platform rarely fixes a frozen story, and what does.
AI Marketing Agency vs. Marketing Engineering Agency: What's the Difference?
An AI marketing agency sells output AI helps produce. A marketing engineering agency builds the system that does the work, and you keep it. Here are the five kinds of firm behind the AI label, an eight-question depth test, and which one fits your situation.
Marketing Engineering vs. Growth Marketing vs. RevOps: What's the Difference?
Growth tests, RevOps runs, marketing engineering builds. Here's how the three differ on responsibilities, deliverables, skills, technology, KPIs, the typical hire and the typical agency, plus a decision table for which one a $5M-$75M B2B company needs first.
What is a verbal identity? (And why your visual identity can't do its job)
A verbal identity is the agreed, written story of who a company is for, what it stands for and why it matters. PitchKitchen's Greg Rosner explains how it differs from visual identity and how to build one.
What did the stale website scan actually measure? (And what it didn't)
PitchKitchen scanned 32,574 B2B homepages. Here is exactly what the copyright-year finding measures, what it doesn't, and what a CEO should do with it.
April Dunford vs. other positioning consultants, and how to pick by the job
April Dunford is the benchmark for B2B positioning, and she earned it. Here's a fair comparison of her workshop against Fletch PMM, Play Bigger, Punchy, StoryBrand and PitchKitchen, by the job each one is best hired for, using their own published prices.
How do I get product and marketing aligned on positioning?
Product and marketing align when both build against one written problem statement: who the buyer is, their problem, and what changes when you win. Here's the five-step sequence, and why only 21 of 302 scored homepages finished the buyer's half of the story.
How do I position a new product?
Position a new product by naming the old way it replaces, the buyer who feels that pain most, and how it strengthens the story your company already tells. Here's the six-step method, and why 75 of 176 clear-product homepages never say what standing still costs.
Who should own positioning in a B2B company?
The CEO should own positioning. Product, sales and marketing each own an input, and one written record owns the result. Here's who owns what, and why 61 of 302 scored homepages describe the product perfectly but never lead with a problem.
How do I use win/loss data to improve our positioning?
Read win/loss data one positioning decision at a time: lost deals show your real alternative, fast wins show your best-fit customer, buyer words show your value. Here's the method, plus why 278 of 302 scored homepages never name the alternative.
What should our company be known for?
Your company should be known for one problem, one buyer and one belief, said in seven words anyone can repeat. Here's how to find it, test it, and why only 12 of 302 scored homepages get there.
How do I turn positioning into messaging?
Positioning is the decision. Messaging is that decision said in your buyer's words, format by format. Here's the translation, piece by piece, and the six-step process to close the gap.
Why does our sales team struggle to explain our value?
Your reps can describe the product. What they can't describe is the buyer's before: what the problem costs today and what changes after you. Here's how to write it down so they can say it.
How do we answer "why should we choose you over competitors?"
Stop starting with features. A five-part answer that moves the comparison onto the buyer's problem, names the old way, proves one difference and says who you're wrong for.
How do we figure out what makes our company different?
Your difference is already hiding in deal stories and your best customers' words. A five-step way to dig it out, the questions that work, and why AI engines need it in your own language.
How do we know if we have a positioning problem?
You have a positioning problem when buyers can't say who you're for, what you replace, or why they'd pick you. Seven symptoms, a 30-minute leadership test, and how to tell positioning from messaging.
Who should we hire for B2B product positioning?
Positioning help covers three different jobs: making the decision, documenting it, and carrying it. A straight hire-X-if-Y answer, an honest credit to April Dunford, and why the product marketer comes second.
How do we position an AI product?
Lead with the problem you end and the buyer you built it for, then describe the AI as a mechanism a buyer can check. Five steps, the AI-in-the-category question, and data from 105 AI-category homepages.
How do we create a differentiated sales pitch?
A differentiated sales pitch names the buyer's old way, what it costs, and a point of view a competitor wouldn't co-sign, before the product shows up. Five steps, the competitor-rep test, and data from 302 scored homepages.
What category should our B2B product be in?
Your B2B product belongs in the category your buyer already types into ChatGPT and Google, with the problem you solve named inside it. Four tests to pick it, with data from 302 scored homepages.
How do we turn product features into customer value?
You turn features into customer value by running the chain backward: start with the problem the buyer already feels, in their words, then show the feature that ends it. Here's the five-question method, with data from 302 scored homepages.
How do we position a product in a crowded market?
You position a product in a crowded market by changing what buyers compare you on: pick the slice you win, name the old way, and stand against it. Here's the method, with Dunford's three styles credited and data from 302 scored homepages.
Why does our messaging sound like everyone else's?
Your messaging sounds like everyone else's because it was built from the same inputs: the product's features, the category's vocabulary and a committee's edits. Here's what that looks like in 302 scored homepages, and how to fix the inputs before the copy.
How do we identify our best-fit customers?
Your best-fit customers are already on your customer list. Here's how to sort them by behavior, what to ask the champions, and how to write a profile your team and your AI tools can both use.
How do we know if our company is ready for AI marketing agents?
You're ready for AI marketing agents when your company has a brain: documented context every agent reads first. Here's the five-check test a CEO can run in an hour.
How do we create a compelling B2B value proposition?
A B2B value proposition compels when the buyer recognizes their own problem in it, before they ever see your product. Here's the four-line method, where the raw material comes from, and three tests to run this week.
How do we create differentiated B2B messaging?
Differentiated B2B messaging starts with what you're different from, not with better adjectives. Here's how to find the difference, write it down once, and keep AI from averaging it away.
Why do our AI marketing agents sound like everyone else?
AI marketing agents write generic work because they start every job with nothing of yours to read. Marketing engineering, the role Greg Isenberg is putting a name on, starts with the brain. In B2B, where you sell to a few hundred accounts, the brain matters even more. Here's what goes in it and which agents to run first.
The 20 Best Marketing Engineering Companies in 2026
There's no single best marketing engineering company. We researched 20 GTM engineering, RevOps, AI search and messaging-first firms in October 2026 and mapped each one to the buyer situation it fits, with pricing signals and honest watch-outs.
The Best Marketing Engineering Agencies for AI Search and GEO
There's no single best AI search firm, and none can guarantee ChatGPT will recommend you. We researched 11 firms that genuinely do GEO and AEO work, what each costs where it's published, who each is best for, and where PitchKitchen honestly fits.
What Does a Marketing Engineering Agency Actually Do?
A marketing engineering agency builds the machinery behind your marketing: data, CRM, routing, AI agents, content systems and AI search tracking. Here's every function it might touch, what actually gets built, which parts are strategy versus implementation, and who usually owns each one.
Shared space or MCP: how do we keep every AI on our story?
Your reps draft in ChatGPT, marketing writes in Claude, and every tool tells its own version of your story. There are two ways to give them one source of truth. Here's when a shared space is enough, and when it's time for Brand Twin over MCP.
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