Growth Strategy

Old content marketing: - Find high-volume keywords in your industry - Write articles starting with the lowest DA - Make sure your Yoast light turns green - Post a link to the article on all socials New content marketing: - Understand your audience and their pain points - Find product- and pain point-focused keywords - Take time to learn the searcher's true intent - Write great content with distribution in mind - Embed a content upgrade to capture emails - Turn the article into your next email newsletter - Create videos to promote on TikTok/YouTube/Instagram - Write a Twitter thread and promote the blog at the end - Screenshot the Twitter thread for a LinkedIn carousel - Extract and write 5+ LinkedIn posts from the article - Extract and write 10+ Twitter posts from the article - Repurpose and redistribute every 3+ months Do new content marketing in 2025. 1 long-form → 20+ short-form 1 channel → Multi-channel distribution Publish → Promote and repurpose forever

In a fragmented world, scale is power. For Europe, scale can only come from unity. The global economy is being reshaped. Tariffs, energy shocks, supply chain disruptions and rising security tensions are not isolated crises, they signal a systemic shift. The challenge for Europe is no longer how to respond, but how to position itself in a world increasingly organised around continental-scale power. Today, as the European Commission is set to present its Single Market roadmap to the European Council, the 𝐉𝐚𝐜𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬 𝐃𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 launches a new policy paper: “𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞, 𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭.” This work is the result of a joint effort bringing together the Jacques Delors Institutes, in Paris and Berlin, AREL Single Market Lab and Friends of Europe. Our message is clear: Europe’s greatest vulnerability is its internal fragmentation - across capital markets, energy systems and digital spaces - with real costs for companies, consumers and Europe’s global influence. The response must match the scale of the challenge. Building on the momentum of the One Europe, One Market agenda, the paper sets out a concrete path to complete the Single Market by 2028, centred on three priorities: 🔹 a Savings and Investments Union 🔹 a genuine Energy Union 🔹 innovation, connectivity and scale for European firms These are supported by regulatory simplification, a stronger European research base, and a social and territorial dimension to ensure the benefits of integration are broadly shared. The choice is increasingly stark: deepen integration and act at scale or accept a gradual loss of relevance. Completing the Single Market remains Europe’s most powerful strategic asset. 👉 We invite policymakers, institutions and stakeholders across Europe to engage with this agenda and help turn ambition into action. This is only the starting point. 🔗 Read our "One Europe, One Market" paper here: https://lnkd.in/eKar5v-Q #DelorsFoEFoundation #OneEuropeOneMarket #SingleMarket #FutureOfEurope #EUCO IE University I IE School of Politics, Economics & Global Affairs I Jacques Delors Centre I Jacques Delors Institute I Friends of Europe I AREL Single Market Lab I Borja Santos Porras I Tullio Ambrosone I Odysseas Konstantinakos I Catherine E. de Vries I İlke TOYGÜR, PhD I Daniel Fernández Kranz I Pablo Marco Blanco

𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲’𝘀 𝗹𝗮𝗴𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗥&𝗗: 𝗠𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗸 𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗲𝗱 ‼️ Last week the International Monetary Fund published a very interesting and comprehensive paper about the need for more venture capital in Europe to tackle our continents challenges. To name a few: ✔️productivity per hour worked is app 30% lower in 🇪🇺compared to the 🇺🇸 ✔️R&D investments are still way below the target of 3% per annum ✔️Within the top 100 tech companies worldwide merely a handful are European Is it all about 💶 I here you say? No it is about keeping up our welfare for future generations. And about a liveable planet. And increasing our innovation and competitiveness are crucial to do so. Which is also the key message of Mr. Draghi’s report I hope. The IMF report takes a deeper dive into the underlying issues: ✔️ VC investments are only 0,4% of GDP. In the US it is 3x as much ✔️Europeans park their savings in bank accounts. And banks are very risk aversie when it comes to financing hightech startups. ✔️Long term savings go primarily via pension funds, who hardly invest in VC in Europe (despite some positive signs recently) ✔️The EU has fewer and smaller VC funds leading to smaller rounds, less opportunities for scale-up financing and limited exit options ✔️ European scale-ups end up listing in the US instead of Europe itself ✔️ National fragmentation within the EU leads to a lot of barriers for scaling What has to be done? ✅ Increase efforts on a real single European market, for example by consolidating stock market exchanges and diminishing cross border red tape ✅ Make it more attractive for pension funds and insurers to step into VC ✅ Enhance the capacity of European Investment Bank (EIB), European Investment Fund (EIF) and national promotional institutes, like Invest-NL ✅ Implement preferential tax treatments for equity investments in startups and VC funds ✅ Encourage more funds-of-funds And I would like to ad to the findings in the report two things: 1️⃣ We need a cultural mind shift, more urgency and embracing true entrepreneurship 2️⃣ We have to step up our game when it comes to tech transfer. Transforming our high quality academic knowledge into economic and societal impact via startups.

…Venture Capital firms quietly becoming Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs). …RIAs Incorporating Venture Capital into their client offerings. What in the Sam Hill is happening?  ...a potentially seismic shift in investment management? First, what’s spurring this VC to RIA revolution: • As an RIA, a VC firm is no longer tied to the “2 & 20” fund model. • VCs can advise Family Offices, manage SMAs, and act more like asset managers than startups' best friends. • It gives VCs recurring AUM fees instead of binary carry payouts. • It provides VCs more control over capital, and less reliance on LP fundraising cycles. For some VC firms, becoming an RIA may be defensive in nature. LPs are tightening. Exits are down. Traditional VC economics are looking less attractive. Other VC firms are taking a more offensive approach… They’re not just becoming RIAs - they’re building full-stack wealth ecosystems: • Multi-asset strategies (VC + credit + public equities) • Wealth advisory for founders post-exit • GP-led co-investments for ultra-HNWIs • Access products for retail and semi-institutional investors Second, why have RIAs begun adding Venture Capital to their investment mix: • Market differentiation - Helps advisors compete against automated platforms and traditional firms by offering exclusive investment opportunities unavailable elsewhere • Risk management - VC performance moves independently from stocks/bonds, providing protection when public markets decline • Client engagement - Younger investors and tech enthusiasts prefer participating in startup funding over conventional investments • Relationship building - Long-term fund structures create deeper advisor-client bonds and prevent impulsive trading decisions • Growth potential - Access to high-growth companies before they go public can generate outsized returns for risk-tolerant clients For RIAs, VC investments help advisors attract new clients, retain existing ones, and offer sophisticated alternatives that classic advisors simply don’t offer. Now, is this VC/RIA amalgamation the beginning of the end of investment management as we know it?     Maybe, Maybe not… The lines between venture, private wealth, and asset management are in fact blurring, but this hybridization (on paper) does appear to offer material benefits to all parties involved. Hybridization allows RIAs to offer exclusive startup investments that differentiate them from competitors while giving VC firms access to broader capital sources and regulatory flexibility, ultimately providing clients exposure to high-growth private companies previously reserved for institutions.

Guten Tag from Europe, where there’s an important contribution today to the debate about making the continent more competitive. Not only do we need to boost growth and productivity, we need an unprecedented degree of investment to stay resilient and relevant. A competitive and robust European banking sector is essential to fund this. This is a topic I have championed for years, and I am pleased to see a new report from Oliver Wyman and the European Banking Federation makes a timely contribution to this critical debate. One statistic lays bare the scale of what we’re facing: Europe faces an annual investment gap of €1.4 trillion to finance our collective digital, security and sustainability ambitions. Yet, as the authors rightly recognise, our issue is not a shortage of capital, but the barriers that prevent it from being deployed effectively. These include a fragmented and overly complex framework for financial markets as well as banking regulation that is too focused on risk avoidance, but not enough on also enabling growth. For years, I have said that regulation, while necessary for stability, in some cases overshoots the mark, weakening European banks in global competition. If we continue like that, we will deprive our economy of urgently needed capital to fund our ambitions. The report reinforces this view, showing how layers of complex and overlapping rules constrain European banks' ability to support the investments that are vital for innovation and competitiveness. This study comes two years after the landmark Draghi report made many similar points. Now we need bold, decisive and urgent action. It is encouraging to see the so-called E6 (Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain) determined to go ahead with the Savings and Investment Union. Ideally, Europe as a whole should come along, because we cannot afford to wait. The report’s seven recommendations provide a clear roadmap, focusing on critical levers such as: ➡️ Rethinking how capital requirements are calculated, removing overlaps and duplications, and ensuring they are appropriately calibrated to the level of risk in order to expand financing capacity ➡️ Deepening capital markets to convert Europe’s idle savings into growth through a genuine Savings and Investment Union and accelerating reforms to boost the use of securitisation by banks to recycle capital into new lending ➡️ Fostering scale and integration by removing barriers To be clear: this is not a call for deregulation. It is a call for a smarter, more efficient, and coherent framework that preserves resilience while enabling growth. The cost of inaction is lack of growth and declining relevance. Europe has the capital and the innovative companies, and the banks to succeed. We need action to connect them. You can find the report here https://lnkd.in/gJjb7VYS

Across Europe, business investment is under pressure. In France, after a long period of expansion, investment has been broadly stagnant for several years. This is particularly visible in machinery and equipment, as companies protect margins, but also delay decisions that shape their future productivity. A similar pattern can be observed in Germany. This matters because the first half of 2026 confirmed a deep tension for business leaders: weak growth exposed to repeated shocks, record levels of business insolvencies, and the rapid expansion of data and AI-driven technologies. In such an environment, cost control is necessary but underinvestment can also quietly become a strategic risk. When uncertainty becomes a permanent feature of the operating environment, the question is no longer only how much to cut. It is where to keep investing. I believe the companies that will emerge stronger from this period are those that continue to strengthen their ability to anticipate risk, understand their ecosystem, and make better decisions faster. Data and technology are not support functions anymore. They are becoming strategic infrastructure for resilience, productivity and competitiveness. What we observe at Coface reinforces this conviction. As we pass the halfway point of our Power the Core strategic plan, we have already met or exceeded our main financial objectives. This gives us the capacity to make a deliberate choice: to continue investing in Business Information, data and technology, rather than manage this activity against short-term contribution targets that no longer reflect the medium-term value creation potential. Backed by a strong balance sheet, we will compensate this choice through a higher dividend payout in 2027. But the broader lesson goes beyond Coface: in a slower economy, protecting performance cannot mean freezing the investments that prepare the next cycle. Because in an economy shaped by recurring disruptions, sustainable value creation depends less on predicting the future than on building the capabilities to keep deciding well when the future becomes harder to read.

Turning Europe’s Industrial Genius into Scale Adoption Industry is at a pivotal moment. As part of Orgalim’s i.AM Campaign, our European association published an essay I authored on a defining challenge for Europe: scaling the adoption of industrial AI and electrification to restore competitiveness. Europe has world‑class engineering talent, but competitiveness today is about speed of execution, not innovation alone. While it can take 3–5 years to bring new industrial products to market in Europe, elsewhere it takes 7–11 months. That gap is now holding us back. From my experience at Schneider Electric,  where we operate over 180 factories worldwide, I know this challenge is not theoretical. Modernising a mid‑size factory can be achieved with around €2m over 2–3 years, if policy, finance and capabilities are aligned. This matters because mid‑size manufacturers, representing 30–40% of EU factories, are the backbone of our industrial value chains, yet often fall between support schemes. Our message is clear: -Speed is the new competitiveness -Europe has the technology - adoption at scale is now the priority -Funding must shift from pilots to platforms Smart manufacturing at scale can turn ambition into outcomes: higher productivity, strategic autonomy, lower emissions and good industrial jobs Read the full essay here 👉 https://lnkd.in/eWUNdb3P

What companies get wrong about content marketing Most businesses approach content like this: → Write a blog post about circular economy principles → Share it once on LinkedIn → Wonder why nobody engaged → Conclude "content marketing doesn't work for us" Here's what's actually happening: Your content is for you, not for your audience. You're writing about what you think is interesting (circular economy theory) instead of what your potential clients are actually struggling with (how to comply with new regulations without blowing their budget). You're using language that makes sense to you (technical jargon, industry acronyms) instead of language your clients actually use. You're answering questions nobody's asking. Good content marketing starts with listening. What language do they actually use when describing their problems? What keeps your ideal client awake at 3am? What questions do they ask in sales calls? What objections do they have? Then you create content that addresses those real concerns. In their language. On their timeline. One blog post shared once isn't a strategy. It's a Hail Mary. A strategy is: → Understanding your audience's actual pain points → Creating content that addresses those specific challenges → Showing up consistently, not just when you feel like it → Building trust before asking for anything → Making your expertise accessible, not impressive Sustainability companies have the expertise. They have the solutions. What they're missing is the bridge between what they know and what their clients need to hear. That's what marketing does. And when it's done right, it doesn't feel like marketing at all. It feels like having a conversation with someone who actually gets it.

Most B2B companies treat thought leadership as a PR function. Alex Lamascus, Workato's first dedicated thought leadership hire, treats it as a revenue driver. One of the first things he did was move the function off the comms team and closer to the sales floor. His reframe is simple: "The primary value of content is not only gaining attention. It's building business infrastructure." That changes how you build it and how you measure it. Instead of stopping at reach and downloads, his team tracks win rates for deals with key thought leadership assets attached, deal velocity, and average sales price. The mechanism isn't publishing more. It's getting the right perspective in front of buyers at the moments that actually change minds, including the internal stakeholders who can quietly speed up a purchase or kill it. A few ideas worth borrowing: 1) Perspective before product. Thought leadership lives at the opinion layer, meaning your vision for how the market should work. That's a different job than lead gen. As AI commoditizes content marketing, an original point of view becomes the thing that sets you apart. 2) Skip the quick win. If you sell leadership on one early campaign, that single result decides whether you keep your mandate. Build flywheels instead, with room to experiment and fail. 3) Run like a media company. Podcasts, books, a newsroom, all built by talking to people inside your ICP rather than writing in a vacuum. The insight and credibility come first. Traffic follows. The marketers who pull ahead will be building something that drives real pipeline and didn't exist before. Read the full interview with Alex Lamascus on State of Brand here: https://lnkd.in/dvb9czbB

If you're a sales leader in a food and beverage company, growth and profitability are always challenging, even with the ongoing boom of online sales in the grocery category. 📍With the ongoing CAGR of 19.2% between 2022-2025, global eCommerce food and beverage total sales is expected to reach $857B next year. Traditional sales growth levers such as increasing the sales headcount, increasing marketing spend, or adding more training programs to the existing salesforce will not cut it. Instead, it will only increase the cost of sales in the current environment of price wars between the omnichannel commerce giants. Concentrating on the identification and thoughtful segmentation of new customers can eliminate the need for additional sales personnel or costly training programs for expansion. Even better, advanced pricing technology solutions allow sales leaders to maintain a growth-oriented sales team by providing clear insights into pricing strategies and discount practices. Technological solutions play a pivotal role in maximizing the utility of #data and maintaining awareness of financial metrics, enabling businesses to focus on areas that require more attention. ++ What I see in Food & Beverage Space Today ++ 📍Not every omnichannel retailer is the same; deep customer understanding, not just in company size or industry segment but also the department level, purchase behavior, and market positioning granularity, enables more precise targeting and personalized pricing strategies for F&B brands. 📍Utilization of robust pricing solutions that integrate internal and external data is highlighted to automate decision-making processes. These technologies will reveal insights into #sales and discounting practices, leading to more efficient #revenuemanagement. 📍The discussion has been pivoting away from traditional methods of revenue growth, such as increasing headcount or training. Instead, it's concentrating on pricing solutions that make the existing sales force more effective without additional costs. ++ 🔭 What's On the Horizon 🍻 ++ 💡Focus on 4 essential KPIs with the power of data and pricing technology solutions: win rate, revenue vs. discounts, sales size, and customer lifetime value. This will provide a clearer picture of where to focus sales efforts and how to adjust pricing strategies with each client. 💡Food and beverage brands should invest in advanced pricing software that optimizes pricing based on real-time market conditions and customer data, optimizing profitability. 💡Building predictive analytics capabilities will enable brands to forecast future purchasing behaviors and price sensitivities. This forward-looking approach should anticipate market trends and customer needs, allowing for proactive rather than reactive pricing decisions. Follow #ecommert for daily #ecommerce #digitalshelf, #retailmedia and #brand insights. #pricingoptimization #pricinganalysis #cpg #foodandbeverage