Inside Customer.io’s B2B Marketing Strategy: Org, GTM, and Growth Channels with Jason Lyman
The Dave Gerhardt Show
Intro
This chapter explores the evolution of marketing strategies with a focus on the comeback of in-person events as crucial for engagement. The speaker shares insights from their experiences at Exit 5, including the use of a dedicated events platform to enhance management and registration processes.
#263 Marketing Strategy | Dave is joined by Jason Lyman, CMO at Customer.io, a customer engagement platform used by over 7,500 companies. Jason has led marketing at Dropbox, BetterCloud, and now heads a 30-person team driving growth across both PLG and sales-led motions.
Dave and Jason cover:
- How to structure a B2B marketing org for scale, alignment, and channel ownership
- Why events are their #1 channel and how creative formats drive real pipeline
- The KPI + OKR system they use to prioritize work and measure marketing’s impact
You’ll walk away with a clearer understanding of how to design your team, focus your strategy, and invest in channels that actually drive results.
Timestamps
- (00:00) - – Intro
- (03:07) - – What Customer.io does and who they serve
- (04:07) - – Growth story: from bootstrapped to private equity-backed
- (06:07) - – Team size and breakdown of the 30-person marketing org
- (08:07) - – Balancing PLG and sales-led within one team
- (10:07) - – How the org is structured: focus teams vs. centers of excellence
- (12:07) - – Aligning team goals to sales motions and funnel stages
- (14:07) - – How Customer.io prioritizes internal marketing requests
- (16:07) - – Avoiding the “who bangs the table loudest” trap
- (17:07) - – Cross-functional alignment with sales and product
- (19:07) - – KPI vs. OKR: how Customer.io uses both
- (22:53) - – Examples of key KPIs for the business
- (24:53) - – How OKRs cascade across the org
- (26:53) - – Why structured goal setting leads to better marketing impact
- (28:53) - – What channels are working: events are back
- (29:53) - – Examples of creative event formats that build community
- (31:53) - – Building pipeline without pitching at events
- (33:53) - – How Customer.io defines and tracks long-term influence
- (36:53) - – The decline of SEO and rise of AI-influenced buying
- (38:53) - – Why positioning is more important than ever
- (40:53) - – Product and marketing alignment in a modern org
- (42:53) - – Selling both the product and the roadmap
- (43:53) - – Jason’s one wish for marketers: better customer data
- (45:53) - – Personalization, adaptability, and breaking through the noise
- (46:53) - – Closing thoughts
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