Liam Moroney

Co-Founder, Storybook Marketing | Full-service demand generation agency

I lead Storybook Marketing, a consultancy that specializes in brand marketing strategy, to help companies become the brand that buyers think of, using an evidence-based approach to marketing.

We offer customized services, consulting, team workshops and training, to level up marketing programs so they are capturing market share and not just leads.

Founder

When we apply a performance marketing mindset to the top of the funnel, we can end up putting a lot of effort and expense into building an audience that often isn't big enough, and sometimes isn't even real.

In B2B tech I'm increasingly seeing this happening, especially with the new obsession to rank in AI search results. 

Where the effort is on trying to reach Goldilocks prospects who haven't been influenced by competitors yet, or even ones who haven't come to realize they need a solution yet, so we can come along and become their only solution.

While a very attractive concept, it's often an expensive effort to build an audience of unicorns. 

The research in B2B continuously shows that most buyers are experienced ones, or at least part of their buying group is. Kerry Cunningham frequently talks on the topic, and his research at 6sense continuously shows it.

Blank slate buyers who are problem aware but not solution aware are a fringe group, if they even exist at all. Most of our addressable market knows and has experience with the category, and have some form of a consideration set in mind.

The job in marketing isn't to find the undiscovered buyers, but to win the underserved ones. 

Our growth comes from people that exist in the big group in the middle, who have familiarity with the category and most of its players, have likely bought from at least one of them in the past, and don't need "educating".

They need a better alternative - and we have to show up often and relevantly to position ourselves in their consideration set.

Brand Marketer | Storybook Marketing | MarTech contributor

Brand gets underinvested in because it doesn't show up clearly enough in our attribution models, but should it?

Should attribution really be the central and core method for measuring marketing?

I'm not in any way anti-attribution, but I get incredibly frustrated at how much it's come to be how we, and especially leadership, believes that marketing works and gets measured.

What never gets measured in attribution is the underlying conditions that determine how well any of our efforts grow:

❓ How many potential buyers know we exist, and are we continuing to create awareness in new buyers over time?

❓ How effectively are we getting our brand to be thought of as an option to consider - something that becomes existential when purchase risk increases?

❓ How successfully are we being thought of by those buyers when they actually do come in market?

None of this shows up in attribution tools, and yet those conditions determine just how much of an upper limit there is in the effectiveness of our demand gen and performance marketing efforts.

Brand is very possible to measure in a growing variety of ways, and has been for a long time, but it requires leadership understanding and belief in how it works.

When we force it to show up in a measurement tool designed for something else entirely, we set it up to fail.

It's like trying to measure climate change with a thermometer - it will very easily miss the bigger and more existential trends because it's too narrow a view.

Brand is measurable. It's the leadership understanding that's lacking.

This race towards “AI visibility” is feeling like a gold rush without any guarantee of gold, but shovels of all shapes and sizes for sale. 

Everyone is obsessed with being mentioned or cited by LLMs, but it seems like those two things might not even be related - though you’d hardly know it from the confidence of those showing up as AI experts. 

Rand Fishkin has been raising some really important points and insights about how makes up the AI answer may not even necessarily be sourced from the citations. 

Rather it’s looking like citations are often post-hoc ways to support the answer and not what actually always informs it. 

Which, from a user standpoint is hardly reassuring, since AI might be using citations to make the answer look accurate as opposed to actually being accurate. 

And, from a brand point of view, this leaves a potentially massive delta between being part of the answer and beyond a supporting act to prop it up. 

We could easily be targeting metrics that don’t actually mean much, but the train is fully out of the station to try. 

And all of this is before we address whether being the true source of answer drives real brand value and exposure, or how much less value again a barnacle cited link might bring. 

Just like old-school SEO, more backlinks don’t guarantee more business, and not all search visibility is equal. 

All we know for sure is that none of us know for sure yet. 

It’s the Wild West out there - beware overconfident AI experts bringing their data and selling their shovel.

It's often said that "brand drives performance, and performance builds brand", but in many cases only the first half of that statement is true.

Which is problematic when you have a program whose budget heavily favors performance marketing.

Brand definitely should drive performance, and should make existing performance work better, since it's ideally creating more and better awareness of the solution to a broader group of people with at least some of them in-market now or very soon.

And performance marketing is a critical part of a healthy program, activating on people who are in-market and ensuring those hard-build brand memories get activated.

But, performance marketing often has little brand benefit since it's so volatile and opportunistic.

An ad trying to get you to take action on something you're not currently looking for is usually either totally ignored or very temporarily remembered. Our brains simply don't waste valuable cognitive energy and space on things that aren't relevant to us.

Much of performance marketing is about a moment-in-time ask - sometimes it's a price discount, sometimes just a request to take a demo.

There is little about creative like that that is remembered, if it's ever even paid attention to at all by people who aren't in-market.

It's not to say performance marketing isn't valuable - it's a critical part of an efficient program - but on its own it frequently doesn't have any lasting memory value at all. 

And, when you have programs where 70-80% of the budget is trying to nudge people to take action, you can end up with a program that is failing to build any real brand value, no matter how many logo impressions get served.

Marketing does all work together in a complex and integrated way, but it doesn't mean one type of creative is a good substitute for the other.

And when that nuance is missed, we can end up with a very ineffective and inefficient program even with a very healthy budget.

There is still a big brand marketing gap in the industry and the massive push to use AI isn't solving it. 

Most of what's being done to attract business with AI right now is reactive marketing - showing up in answers being asked in LLMs, and being mentioned as a solution when people are seeking one.

While it's important to make sure we place our brand where interest and traffic is happening, this doesn't solve the much harder job of proactively making the brand more familiar and considered before people are even there.

A lot of the buying searches happening in AI search are comparisons, where consideration search is anchored around the brands who are known, and where buyers are comparing them against others.

In essence, AI is mostly helping to do the digital equivalent of merchandising. 

We're putting the brand on the new shelves, and betting rather big that those new shelves are where most of the future buying will happen, which remains to be seen. 

But, just like getting on the shelf in a physical store, it still doesn't guarantee that you get bought even when it exposes you to active buyers. Plenty of brands have spent a fortune to make the shelves of Walmart, Target, etc, only to find that they need to spend even more on discounts to make up for the lack of awareness.

Most of what grows brands happens before the browsing moment, especially when the good being sold requires some consideration. 

It's not enough to occupy a shelf space - you also have to occupy a market presence and usually at a much larger ratio.

The truth about promotion is that it's not efficient. 

We have to get the creative in front of as many people as we can, the majority of whom aren't actively buying, and we have to keep pushing the message to overcome the reality that most won't get seen. 

To quote Les Binet, "If I had to choose between having a great ad with no money behind it and a good ad with a massive budget – I’d probably go for the good ad with a really big budget because media spending and share of voice really matter."

And because it's inefficient, it's often unpalatable to much of leadership, and so marketers get pushed towards things that feel much direct response - and we find ourselves in the advertising "Doom Loop" that David Tiltman and WARC have so eloquently described.

So here we are, where getting placed in an AI overview is taking up massive attention and effort in tech companies, while the underlying problem of being known and remembered is still neglected.

We might end up much better at being found when people are looking, but no better at being sought out by whose who aren't.

Fran Brzyski

Co-Founder @ Hark

Co-Founder/CEO

Hark is a new CX Channel that allows for customers to easily get in touch with their favorite brands post purchase. 

By using video/audio asynchronously, Hark helps brands better understand their customer's point of view and seamlessly collect all relevant information up front.

Hark is backed by top VC firms including: Riverpark, Lightbank & M13.

Since starting Hark, we've always been in a co-working space.

This weekend, that changes.

We are moving into our own spot! 

Doing some remodeling over the weekend - so here's a quick "before" shot.

CEO @ Hark | Unlocking a New Era of Customer Feedback: Powered by Stories, Not Surveys

Quick update on the new office...

New floors, Fresh paint, etc. 

Kids had a blast helping out 😊 

Anytime you move, there is a shift in energy and it comes at a good time for everything flowing at Hark right now.

New space. New energy. Let's go.

Launching something today I'm really excited about. Focused (of course) around our customers.

Specifically, the ones who believed in us early.
These are the people who leaned in when we were still figuring things out...

Wouldn't be here without them... truly.

When Lisa Eng joined, she saw the unique relationships we have with those we work with and wanted to structure something around our earliest believers.

Meet the Founders Club.

Over the next few weeks, we'll be spotlighting each of these 14 leaders. Their work. Their perspective. What it truly means to put the customer's voice first.

Stay tuned 👀

Caitlin Logan
Cate Marques
Chris Sabadlab
Emily McArthur
Jessica-Rose Garcia
Keisha Bartrem
Lauren Schorr
Leeor Cohen
Michael Ludwig
Patrick Carney
Ren Fuller-Wasserman
Roma Y.
Sandy Sloan
Stephanie Abramovici

I bet my house on the belief that surveys are broken.

4 years of building Hark later... I've learned a lot about what actually works. So I'm putting it all in one place.

Introducing... Feedback with Fran (I thought of this without AI, btw)! 

It will be a weekly newsletter breaking down how the best companies actually listen to their customers.

The first issue is my origin story which is a bit of a wild ride, but I think it sets the foundation for why I'm here.

Every month, I get to speak with 100's of operators. So, I'll share some insights from those conversations around:

- Real feedback teardowns from companies driving revenue through listening
- The metrics that matter (and the ones to ignore)
- What's working and what's not

It's free. Link in comments. Would love for you to read, provide feedback & subscribe!

Would mean a lot if you subscribed — and even more if you shared it with someone who cares about CX.

There's a big shift happening in the dynamic between CX and Marketing leaders.

Next week at Shoptalk, I'm joining David Glenister (Gorgias), Mercer Smith(Boldr), and a few other industry vets to dig into this at the Rebuy Engine booth!

(Appreciate the legendary, Sarah Hatter!!)

The panel: "The State of CX in Ecommerce"
📍 Las Vegas | March 24-26 | 11:00 AM

We're going to get candid about:
→ What's actually working in CX right now
→ What's broken (and why)
→ How top brands are bridging CX and Marketing to understand what's driving loyalty

That last one is what I'm most excited to unpack.

If you're at Shoptalk, come through! Would love to connect in person.

Sometimes timing just works out...

I recently kicked off a search for Head of Sales. Really important role for our company.

Shortly after I did, I was able to reconnect with Karen Darling... someone I've known for a couple years now. She was rested, energized, and ready for her next chapter.

The interview process went extremely fast which was driven by her passion for what we're solving. This, for me, is quite humbling given Karen has deep domain expertise across all facets of customer experience and the client journey. 

She strongly believes (as I do) that Hark has an opportunity to define a new category here.

What made her stand out wasn't just sales instincts. It's how deeply she understands our customers, their pain points, and how our platform completely transforms a facet of their business.

She's also been early stage before. It takes a certain kind of energy to want to do that again (IYKYK).

And then there's the team... Throughout the interview process, so many of my team members got to meet Karen. Calls went long. People were digging in. The energy was consistently real. "We need to be working with her"

She started today, hit the ground running, and already feels like part of the team.

With Lisa Eng driving marketing and Karen now leading sales, I'm excited about taking Hark from a best-kept secret to helping the market better understand where Hark fits and how we can help our customers change how they engage with their customers.

Karen, welcome to the team as our first Head of Sales!! 😊 

If you're part of our community, please give her a warm welcome!

2026 continues to be a defining year... 🚀

Expectation vs. reality at eTail West this week:

☀️ Preston Ames enjoying Palm Springs, drinks in hand, meeting some of our favorite customers.

🥶 Me... snowed in on Long Island

We'll make the best of it. 

Preston's got it covered out there... please reach out to him if you're attending!

I'll be here... shoveling my way to the couch.

Lisa Eng just shipped a pretty big project she's been working on...

And she crushed it.

We've got a whole new look! https://www.sendhark.com/

This is a much better reflection of who we have become and the customers we're lucky to work with.

Speaking of which... a few of them are highlighted on there 🙂

YuJin Yong Jessica-Rose Garcia Hannah Madsen Ren Fuller-Wasserman Cate Marques Sandy Sloan Michael Ludwig

What do you think?

Open article: Hark: AI Voice of Customer Platform | The Surveys Alternative by sendhark.com

Hark: AI Voice of Customer Platform | The Surveys Alternative

After MANY conversations around storytelling through customer feedback, I decided to write about it...

Just sent out my second "Feedback with Fran" - this one's about why CX deserves a seat at the table.

Shoutout to Michael Bair for contributing to our VoC playbook a while back. His perspective on what it actually takes to earn that seat made it into our "key insight" section.

Still experimenting with the format and flow. Hoping you find something useful in it.

Link in comments 👇 ... if it resonates, please feel free to share!

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The Battle

Liam Moroney

Fran Brzyski

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Liam Moroney's LinkedIn Performance

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