108 - Our Biggest Thoughts Heading into Q4

Rich: Hey, Zach. Another week, another episode. We're here.
Zac: Yep. And we're closing you on the end of the year. Playing for 2026 is starting.
Rich: And today we're going to break down some thoughts, trends, challenges, things that we think you should know heading into Q4. And everything's going to be marketing related, obviously.
Zac: Yeah, of course. Marketing related. And I changed my microphone because I had to put it on, so now I think it's probably in the frame for some people, depending on how you crop this. But hopefully that doesn't bother anybody.
Rich: But yeah, so budgets are going to close. Like they're probably in the budgeting process right now. Campaigns are like peaking, trying to make it through the end of the year.
Zac: 2026 is coming like tomorrow. So it's really insane. We're going to break down the trends, challenges, and opportunities we think you should be paying attention to in Q4.
Rich: We've each got a couple of those that we brought separately. There's a couple of things that should be a good time.
Zac: Yes. And for Q4, since this will be the first episode of Q4, you can expect more seasonal cocktails this time. I really focused on actual seasonal stuff, so you're going to get a lot of fall flavors in October, November, and December is going to be all the holiday flavors. So I went outside on my normal sites.
Rich: Today's drink is a pumpkin spice white Russian. This is a cocktail recipe from the countryliving.com. As they say, it's everything you want in a fall drink. It's kind of like your 5 p.m. version of a morning pumpkin spice latte without having to wait in line.
Zac: I think that's the most important part. So you're saying you can't have this in the morning? Like you have to wait until 5 p.m.?
Rich: Oh, you can have it whenever you want. I mean, there's coffee in it. There's definitely some coffee notes, lots of pumpkin pie flavors, honestly, good richness.
Zac: Yeah, honestly, I looked at this and I was like, this is when I'm actually going to have to like roll my sleeves up and go try because I'm a big pumpkin spice guy. Okay. I guess I'm admitting that publicly. Zach is a basic bitch. There you go.
Rich: But yeah, no, I was really happy about this one. Like it looks really good. I'll do one or two like pumpkin spice lattes in the fall, but like they're just so sweet.
Zac: So I have to do like half pumps on those like they're just it just gets overwhelmingly sweet for me. And that's a sensitivity I have. But this seems less sweet though, which is good.

Zac: All right. How do we make this? We take four ginger snap cookies. You've got to crumble them for the rim. Honestly, if you're going to use them on the rim, I would recommend a food processor and just grind those babies down to a powder. That's going to be really great. You need a teaspoon of honey for the rim as well, because those ginger snap cookie crumbles have to stick in some way.

Rich: So as you get into the recipe, you need three-quarters cup of coffee liqueur, such as Kahlúa will work. Starbucks has a coffee liqueur that's really good. There's a couple of other ones out there that I really like.

Zac: Two-thirds of a cup of vodka, one and a half teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice. We just have to admit that's not really a thing. It's a combination of other spices, but okay, we'll call it pumpkin pie spice because you can buy that at the store. Trader Joe's has it. All your grocery stores have it. And then three-quarters of a cup of heavy cream. So hopefully you're not lactose intolerant.

Rich: So to make this thing, you place your crumbled cookies on a plate, you rub the rims of four glasses with honey and then dip in the cookie crumbs to coat. So that is fantastic.

Zac: And then unlike a lot of these, this one is a whisking. It's more like baking than like making a cocktail. So no shaker. You whisk together the coffee liqueur, vodka, and pumpkin pie spice in a measuring cup. Just get it all nice and combined. That's really all you're going for.

Rich: You don't have to like make whipped cream or anything out of it. Pour it into the prepared glasses, divide it evenly and add ice and then top each one with the heavy cream and serve immediately.

Zac: Okay. So this is an interesting one because it's like that heavy cream float on it, which I guess when you get like your Starbucks drink or whatever, that's how their lattes are, right? The coffee is always on the bottom and the milk and foam are always on the top.

Rich: Yeah. It's basically just like a white Russian pumpkin spice latte. And you could, I think you could dust it with a little more pumpkin spice if you wanted to, or a little fresh nutmeg might be nice.

Zac: Yeah, I was going to say some freshly grated nutmeg maybe. But no, yeah, I love pumpkin spice, so definitely want to try this one.

Rich: All right. Well, I think it's interesting. I'm like, I'm mixed on pumpkin spice.

Zac: I get it. Like a lot of people like it though. This is what I would try though. I would 100 percent try this because it doesn't seem like it's super overly sweet. Really your sweet element is the cream and then the honey on the rim. That's about it.

Rich: So, all right. So that's the cocktail for fall. And I'll be curious to see what else we have for fall. And as we get into holiday, what those drinks are. I've got a few holiday ones too if you need some recommendations, but it sounds like you've got them all planned out. So we'll just go with it.

Zac: Yeah.

Rich: All right. Should we talk about Q4 and what people should be looking for, expecting, and kind of how things are going to ramp up?

Zac: Yeah. Let's talk about Q4. Welcome back, Zach. Time to get into this Q4 stuff.

Rich: So I know you've got at least a couple of things here. I've got a couple of data points that I think will not surprise anybody. Marketing emails are going to ramp up considerably as you get closer and closer to Christmas. They go up about 14% in total compared to Q3.

Zac: And then the worst thing for B2B marketers is like, you don't really have that holiday offer. Like, we don't run holiday specials on retainers. You know, "get your SEO at 40% off." Those aren't really things for B2B. B2C marketers are going to start discounting super deep and then jamming inboxes like crazy.

Rich: That's something to watch out for. If you've got clients who keep their work and personal life separate, that's a little less of an issue. But we still get email fatigue, even if it's from a personal email address. Just going through and clearing all those out can impact engagement. And it is going to be unsubscribe season. People start unsubscribing because they get too many emails. So something to watch out for there.

Zac: Yeah, no, definitely. I'm definitely ready to get a lot of emails in my inbox.

Rich: So mine's a little unrelated to that. Just curious, Zach, how many hours do you think generative AI saves marketers per week on average?

Zac: Six?

Rich: That was really close. It's actually five hours per week on average per person. Putting that into perspective, generative AI and implementing AI into your existing workflow is going to be something big to look out for.

Zac: Yeah, I think what's interesting is generative AI is AI that creates, right? It generates something. So the other one that's going to be more interesting as we get into Q4 is agentic AI. AI that acts like a team member, because that can do a whole lot more than generative AI.

Rich: Generative AI is still great for first drafts, right? It's great for things like starting ideas. But agentic AI is doing research for you. Those I think are huge. Agentic AI could technically make a shopping list for me and map it out in Google Maps, I suppose.

Zac: I would have to take a look at that. You have to build that agent to do that.

Rich: I think agentic AI will start saving people more time than generative AI. AI is an accelerator, not a replacement, is correct.

Zac: Correct.

Rich: Another interesting stat: nearly 88% of marketers are already using AI in some capacity. And 93% of them say it helps generate content faster.

Zac: Which, as a content marketer, makes sense. I don't think AI is a replacement. It helps with research, first drafts, ideas. But quality is still more important than volume. AI can help create tons of blogs or posts, but if you lose the human touch—refining tone, fact-checking, connecting authentically—you're missing what AI can do.

Rich: Yeah. Let AI do what AI is good at, and humans do what humans are good at.

Zac: Funny side story: a friend sent me a string of like 15 emojis. I threw it into ChatGPT to interpret, and it wrote a fantasy story treatment. At the end, it even offered to write a whole children’s book based on it. I was like, no, I just wanted to decode emojis.

Rich: Exactly. Garbage in, garbage out. If you give it context, AI works better. Like having it find the right photo from our photo library for a blog post versus generating a wild fantasy photo. That’s where I’d use AI to speed things up.

Zac: People need to start looking into where AI can speed up different parts of their processes. AI isn’t going away. Ignoring it sets you back. 88% of marketers are already using it, so keeping up without AI is hard.

Rich: That dovetails into technology and platforms. Optimizing how you use them—automating workflows, taking routine tasks from discovery to pricing to reporting, research, creating workflows so they happen automatically.

Zac: For B2B, a good example: AI can research a prospective company—pulling info from sales reports, LinkedIn, employee counts, etc.—and give you a summary. What took 45 minutes or an hour can happen in 10 minutes. Analytics too: AI can summarize what happened and give insights, but humans decide the “so what.”

Rich: Yeah. AI can process massive data, but humans decide the insights. Hybrid approach is key.

Zac: Absolutely. At Inbound, hybrid AI + team approach is huge.

Rich: Another one of my biggest thoughts relates to content. Personalization is becoming a bigger thing. Nearly 4 in 10—39% of US consumers—expect brands to personalize their online experience or emails. If they aren’t getting that, they turn away.

Zac: Tailoring content and messaging to your specific audience is always important, but AI now lets you do it in a very detailed way. You can target subsets of people more precisely.

Rich: Over 80% of consumers are comfortable with some level of personalization. Providing value in a moment that speaks directly to them, rather than pushing a broad message, is way more effective.

Zac: And that ties to using AI for CRM updates. For example, having a LinkedIn URL for a prospect lets AI pull profile info to help personalize messages.

Rich: Exactly. Quality of data matters. Large amounts of data don’t help if it’s unstructured or messy. AI can help summarize unstructured data like emails, blog posts, or LinkedIn profiles so it’s usable.

Zac: Moving on to consumer behavior and values: economic pressures are real, and they’ll probably get worse in Q4 during holiday spending. Consumers think more about value—affordability, savings, perks. Businesses are too, and loyalty matters.

Rich: Gen Z in the workforce wants authenticity. They respond to genuine, relatable messaging. User-generated content (UGC) is big in B2C and is starting to appear in B2B. Authenticity, mistakes, and little quirks make your messaging resonate.

Zac: Purpose-driven marketing is key. Some brands face backlash when they misalign with their audience values. Gen Z especially pays attention. You won’t make everyone happy, but defining who you are and standing by it attracts the right audience.

Rich: We saw this on a discovery call today. The client liked our vibe, our authenticity, and felt we were listening. Being genuine in B2B can win clients who are the right fit and avoid mismatched ones.

Zac: Messaging matters too. Many voices in B2B sound the same. An authentic human voice, connecting with people instead of just selling a service, sets you apart.

Rich: People are doing research before contacting you. The first impression matters.

Zac: Exactly. I went to a B2B trends session at Inbound. The speaker compared the “first impression rose” on The Bachelor to B2B marketing. Whoever makes the strongest early impression is far more likely to win. Raise awareness early, be memorable—then your follow-up impressions are stronger.

Rich: Savvy decision-makers already know a lot about you. Your brand awareness and messaging before they engage is crucial.