40/40 Marketing: What It Is and Why We Need It Now

Marketing is being rewritten in real time. AI isn't just another tool, it's a new operating model. Everyone wants it, but no one is telling us how to make it tangible.

40/40 Marketing is designed to help CMOs and their teams go 40% faster, with 40% less effort and hopefully be 100% smarter.

What 40/40 Marketing Is

• A practical framework for modern teams to apply AI where it drives the highest leverage
• Empowers marketers to think fast and execute in real time
• Redesigns how the work gets done so your people focus on judgment and creativity while AI handles volume, iteration, and speed
• Gives you the room to start and stop to meet your business needs

Why We Need It Now

Recently I've spoken with multiple CMOs and CEOs who all said versions of the same thing: "We know we need to use AI … we just don't know where to start."

One CMO told me confidently that her team "has all the AI tools." When I asked how they were using them, she paused and then changed the subject. Not because she didn't care. Because she didn't have the space or system to make it real.

That's where most organizations are right now: AI everywhere in theory, nowhere in practice.

Everyone knows the core marketing functions — SEO, email, PMM, brand, ads, analytics. What matters is how you approach AI to each one with the goal of going 40% faster, 40% more efficient and be 100% smarter along the way:

1️⃣ SEO, AEO & Web

AI can turn slow content production into instant AI consumable content that drives answers to your prospects question the way they are doing research now vs. 5 years ago.

2️⃣ Email & Lifecycle

AI can personalize tone, timing, and message for every individual.

3️⃣ ICP & Product Marketing

AI can read buyer signals and help you create content specifically for them. Or maybe just create the core content you need.

4️⃣ Brand & Human Voice

AI scales authentic employee storytelling, the most trusted form of marketing.

5️⃣ Advertising

AI can test more creative and audiences in a week than a team could in a year.

6️⃣ Intelligence

AI turns scattered data into a unified signal layer that recommends actions, not dashboards. This combined with a strategy to monitor what your AI agents are doing will set you on the right path.

40/40 Marketing isn't about doing more. It's about doing the right things faster, easier, and smarter. Redesigning workflows around AI instead of bolting AI onto old processes. 40/40 Marketing gives you the freedom of doing them one at a time, so you learn as you go. (Spoiler: Some of these are easier than others, start where you like.)

Over the next few posts, I'll break down each of these marketing functions and share how others are making 40/40 Marketing come to life.