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Feeding Armbrain What It Can't Find Itself

3 min read

Feeding Armbrain What It Can't Find Itself

Armbrain knows what happens inside client meetings and emails. It doesn't know what's happening in the outside world. Your job is to be its eyes and ears.

Why This Matters

When your CMO walks into a meeting and says "I saw your competitor just launched a new product line - how are you thinking about that?" the client is impressed. They think the CMO is paying close attention to their industry. They are - because you fed that information into Armbrain before the meeting.

What to Watch For

Set up monitoring for each client. Google Alerts and 15 minutes a day cover most of it.

SourceWhat to WatchWhy It Matters
Google AlertsClient company name, competitor names, industry keywordsCatches news mentions, press releases, regulatory changes
LinkedInKey stakeholders at the clientJob changes, promotions, posts about wins or frustrations
Client's social mediaTheir own posts and engagementShows what they're proud of and what they're promoting
Competitor websitesProduct launches, pricing changes, new hiresCompetitive intelligence the CMO can reference
Industry publicationsTrade news, market trends, regulatory updatesContext that makes the CMO sound informed

How to Ingest What You Find

When you find something relevant, don't just bookmark it. Put it into Armbrain so it shows up in meeting prep:

"Switch to Acme Corp"
"Quick note: Acme's main competitor BrandX launched a new enterprise tier at $299/mo on April 3rd. Could affect Acme's positioning conversation next quarter."
Storing competitive intelligence as a quick note
Storing competitive intelligence as a quick note

Good notes include:

  • What happened (the fact)
  • When (the date)
  • Why it matters to this client (the context)

Bad notes are just links with no context. "Interesting article about BrandX" tells the CMO nothing.

The 15-Minute Daily Scan

Add this to your morning routine after the client briefing loop:

  1. Check Google Alerts (2 minutes)
  2. Scan LinkedIn for key stakeholders across your top 3-4 clients (5 minutes)
  3. Quick check of competitor sites or industry news feeds (5 minutes)
  4. Ingest anything relevant into the right client mind (3 minutes)
Morning intel scan - storing findings across multiple client minds
Morning intel scan - storing findings across multiple client minds

You won't find something every day. That's fine. When you do, it might be a competitor acquisition, a stakeholder leaving, or a regulatory change. That's when your CMO looks like a genius.

What's Worth Ingesting vs. What's Noise

Not everything needs to go into Armbrain. Use this filter:

  • Would the CMO mention this in a client meeting? Yes - ingest it.
  • Does this change anything about the client's strategy or situation? Yes - ingest it.
  • Is this just industry background noise? Skip it.
  • Is this about a person the CMO interacts with? Usually worth noting.

When in doubt, ingest it with a quick note. Better to have it and not need it than to miss something the CMO wishes they'd known.