#270 Strategy | Dave is joined by Holly Xiao, Head of B2B Marketing at HeyGen, an AI video generation platform that helps teams produce personalized, high-quality content, fast. Holly has led marketing at high-growth startups and now runs the enterprise GTM motion at HeyGen, where she blends strategy, creative execution, and AI-powered workflows to reach modern B2B buyers.

Dave and Holly cover:

The 4 channels her lean team is betting on to drive enterprise pipeline (and what’s not working anymore)
How B2B marketers are using AI video for event marketing, sales enablement, onboarding, and beyond
Why SEO is falling short and how HeyGen is shifting focus to webinars, events, and YouTube instead

If you’re figuring out how to use AI in your marketing or just trying to do more with less, this one’s full of practical ideas to help you think differently about team structure, channels, and strategy.

Timestamps

(00:00) - – Intro
(03:48) - – Holly’s nonlinear path to marketing
(06:48) - – Getting started in marketing ops
(08:48) - – Why she joined an AI startup
(10:48) - – How HeyGen’s marketing org works
(13:48) - – PLG vs SLG: Key differences
(15:48) - – The 4 channels driving pipeline
(17:48) - – What’s working: Events + webinars
(19:48) - – Booth strategy that stands out
(24:23) - – Brand vs demand events
(26:23) - – Building community and user events
(27:53) - – SEO is declining. Now what?
(30:23) - – Running marketing in 2-month sprints
(33:23) - – Aligning product and marketing cadence
(35:23) - – Her daily AI tools
(36:53) - – ChatGPT vs Gemini workflows
(38:23) - – Real AI video use cases
(40:23) - – Personalized event promos with avatars
(41:23) - – Support, training, and onboarding videos
(42:23) - – Fortune telling and music videos?!
(43:23) - – Why AI won’t replace marketers

Send guest pitches and ideas to hi@exitfive.com
Join the Exit Five Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter
Check out the Exit Five job board: https://jobs.exitfive.com/
Become an Exit Five member: https://community.exitfive.com/checkout/exit-five-membership

***

Today’s episode is brought to you by Walnut.

Why are we pouring all this effort into marketing just to push buyers to a “request a demo” or “contact sales” button?

Come on, today’s buyers don’t want to talk to sales right away. They want to explore your product themselves, see how it works, and understand its value before booking a meeting.

That’s where Walnut comes in.

Walnut empowers marketers and GTM teams to create interactive, self-guided product experiences in minutes. Embed these experiences on your site, in emails, or anywhere in your funnel to let buyers engage on their terms, from awareness to close and beyond.

That's the beauty of Walnut - you're getting a platform that your sales and CS colleagues can use to showcase the product too.

And the best part? You get real intent data—see which features prospects love, where they drop off, and what’s actually driving pipeline. Demo Qualified Leads are the new MQL.

Over 500 companies, like Adobe and NetApp, use Walnut to drive 2-3x higher website conversion rates and 7 figures in pipeline on a yearly basis. So do you want to drive more leads, shorten sales cycles, and actually show your product instead of hiding it behind another typical B2B CTA?

Go check out Walnut.io. And if you tell them Dave from Exit 5 sent you, they'll build out your first demo for free!

Real-World Evidence vs Clinical Trials