B2B Marketing with Dave Gerhardt

Talya Heller, founder of Down to a T, is a B2B consultancy expert skilled in converting competitive positioning into effective sales tools. In this discussion, Talya dives into why typical sales decks and battle cards often fail and offers innovative replacements. She emphasizes the role of empathy in buyer enablement and outlines her unique framework for aligning marketing, sales, and product teams. Talya also shares insights on creating impactful assets that truly resonate with sales teams, urging marketers to consider the buyer's perspective.

Alex Fine, co-founder of Understory, shares his expertise in B2B outbound marketing, focusing on the innovative 'Allbound' approach that blends cold emailing, paid ads, and LinkedIn strategies. He discusses why traditional methods often fail and reveals effective tactics to enhance email deliverability. Listeners will discover how to craft hyper-personalized outreach that resonates with high-value prospects and learn about tools like Instantly and Clay. Fine also emphasizes keeping messaging consistent across channels for optimal engagement and conversion.

Amanda Goetz, a 2x founder and 3x CMO, dives into the nuances of personal branding and content strategy. She shares how she revamped her LinkedIn approach to boost engagement and emphasizes the importance of emotional connections in branding. The conversation touches on avoiding burnout while maintaining momentum in high-pressure roles and the rise of fractional CMOs. Amanda also explores the power of storytelling in marketing and the transformative role of community engagement in building brand identity.

In this discussion, LinkedIn ads expert Anthony Blatner and award-winning strategist Tagg Bozied share their insights on optimizing B2B LinkedIn advertising for 2025. They unravel the biggest mistakes marketers make and how to avoid them, emphasizing the rise of thought leader ads. The duo also dives into metrics that matter for brand awareness, including dwell time and frequency, and explores innovative strategies like Connected TV ads. With practical budgeting tips and A-B testing insights, they equip listeners to elevate their LinkedIn campaigns.

#242: Content Strategy | In this episode, Danielle sits down with Brendan Hufford, founder of Growth Sprints, to talk about what actually works in content and SEO today and why most B2B strategies are broken. Brendan went from high school teacher to leading content at top SaaS companies, and now helps brands move faster and build content strategies that drive real impact.They cover:Why most SEO strategies are broken - and why retainers make it worseThe content checklist that took ActiveCampaign from 200K to 240K visitors in 30 daysWhy the most lucrative SEO opportunities are hiding in plain sightBrendan’s "immortal newsletter" framework that cuts production time in half while doubling engagementPlus, check out the checklist Brendan mentioned in this episode here! Timestamps(00:00) - – Intro to Brendan (04:56) - – Lessons from teaching that apply directly to marketing (07:56) - – Why Brendan left education and entered the B2B world (09:26) - – Early agency and in-house marketing experience (11:11) - – Building a defensible career: audience, trust, and network (13:31) - – The Growth Sprints model: why retainers don’t make sense (14:41) - – Content strategy in bets, not buckets (15:56) - – Why SEO still works and where it actually drives results (17:26) - – Getting deep on audience, product, and internal dynamics (19:41) - – What marketers get wrong about internal buy-in (21:41) - – Real example: what a content sprint looks like in practice (23:11) - – The power of internal linking and content refreshes (26:19) - – How Google views internal linking and user signals (29:19) - – Why technical SEO is often overrated (32:19) - – Brendan’s hot take: most SEOs aren’t marketers (33:49) - – Why the “SEO takes 6 months” narrative is flawed (35:49) - – The problem with traditional retainers and content brief models (37:19) - – The immortal newsletter: how to mix evergreen + ephemeral content (40:19) - – Naming the problem, not just the category (41:49) - – Content should do 3–5 jobs at once: how to prioritize impact (44:19) - – The real value of competitor and alternatives pages (46:49) - – How to make content more useful for sales and buyer enablement (48:19) - – Brendan’s final mindset shift: create content that earns its keep Send guest pitches and ideas to hi@exitfive.comJoin the Exit Five Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterCheck out the Exit Five job board: https://jobs.exitfive.com/Become an Exit Five member: https://community.exitfive.com/checkout/exit-five-membership***This episode is brought to you by Webflow.If you're a B2B marketer right now, you’re probably being asked to do more with less - less budget, fewer resources, tighter timelines. And you’re expected to somehow grow pipeline anyway.That’s why more teams are switching to Webflow.Webflow is the website experience platform that helps you consolidate your stack, reduce program spend, and move faster. Instead of juggling a dozen tools and waiting on devs, Webflow gives marketing and design teams the power to build, launch, and optimize sites all in one place.No-code flexibility. Dev-level control. Built-in A/B testing, SEO, localization, and AI tools. It’s everything you need to turn your website into your highest-performing channel.It’s everything you need to turn your website into your most efficient, highest-performing channel.Check it out at webflow.com/exitfive.

Beth O’Malley, the 'email queen' of LinkedIn, Jay Schwedelson, founder of Subjectline.com and GURU Media Hub, and Jaina Mistry from Litmus delve into the evolving landscape of email marketing. They discuss why bad emails harm results and the misunderstanding of open rates' significance. The group debates resending to non-openers, the importance of deliverability, and the nuances of personalization. With a focus on building authentic connections, they highlight how to make emails effective in 2025.

In this discussion, Connor Lewis, founder of Studio Lewis and B2B video strategy expert, shares insightful strategies for crafting impactful video content. He emphasizes that production value isn't everything, offering tips on transforming blog posts into engaging videos. Connor also reveals what's currently thriving on LinkedIn for 2025 and why video ads might not be the best starting point. He introduces innovative formats like the 'reverse Rambo' hook and encourages marketers to embrace authenticity, making video approachable for everyone.

#239: Measurement | In this Exit Five live session, Dave sits down with Pranav Piyush, Co-Founder & CEO of Paramark (ex-PayPal, Dropbox, Adobe, BILL), to talk about the future of B2B marketing measurement.Spoiler alert: it’s not clicks.They break down why the old way of doing attribution doesn’t cut it anymore and why leading B2B teams are shifting toward incrementality, experimentation, and marketing mix modeling.Dave and Pranav also cover:The gaps in the old way of doing attributionWhat the best B2B marketing teams are doing now for attributionThe key questions CMOs face from boards and execs about measurementThree things you can do this quarter to improve your measurementTimestamps(00:00) - – Intro to Pranav (04:11) - – The Purple Cow mindset: why differentiation matters more than ever (05:51) - – Pranav’s background (PayPal, Dropbox, Adobe, BILL → Paramark) (06:56) - – “Measurement is Robin. Creative is Batman.” (08:11) - – Why click/touch attribution is flawed and misleading (11:41) - – The 95/5 rule: most of your audience isn’t in-market…yet (14:26) - – How top brands (Asana, DoorDash, P&G) measure beyond attribution (15:51) - – What is incrementality and why it’s more useful than attribution (18:11) - – Why revenue isn’t always the right KPI - especially in long sales cycles (20:11) - – Intro to marketing mix modeling (MMM) and how it works (22:11) - – Visualizing baseline vs. incremental impact on pipeline (23:26) - – Geo testing: how to prove a channel’s impact without attribution tools (25:26) - – The branded search trap: why you should test turning it off (29:04) - – Even Meta, Google, LinkedIn admit attribution is flawed (29:49) - – How to measure untrackable stuff (organic, content, social) (33:19) - – Why “credit” kills performance (35:09) - – Measurement for startups (38:04) - – What to do if all you track is closed-won revenue (39:49) - – Why attribution software is overkill under $100K in spend (41:04) - – Should you ask “How did you hear about us?” (43:49) - – How to carve out budget for channel testing (46:29) - – Don’t skip audience research (49:49) - – Creativity is still your #1 growth lever (measurement just supports it) (51:19) - – Wrap-up and final takeaways Send guest pitches and ideas to hi@exitfive.comJoin the Exit Five Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterCheck out the Exit Five job board: https://jobs.exitfive.com/Become an Exit Five member: https://community.exitfive.com/checkout/exit-five-membership***This episode is brought to you by Webflow.If you're a B2B marketer right now, you’re probably being asked to do more with less - less budget, fewer resources, tighter timelines. And you’re expected to somehow grow pipeline anyway.That’s why more teams are switching to Webflow.Webflow is the website experience platform that helps you consolidate your stack, reduce program spend, and move faster. Instead of juggling a dozen tools and waiting on devs, Webflow gives marketing and design teams the power to build, launch, and optimize sites all in one place.No-code flexibility. Dev-level control. Built-in A/B testing, SEO, localization, and AI tools. It’s everything you need to turn your website into your highest-performing channel.It’s everything you need to turn your website into your most efficient, highest-performing channel.Check it out at webflow.com/exitfive.

Dmitry Shamis, former Head of Brand at HubSpot and founder of Oh Snap, shares his expertise in B2B marketing. He discusses the true essence of brand identity and how many teams become overwhelmed by busywork rather than focusing on impactful marketing. Dmitry emphasizes the importance of having a unique point of view and aligning marketing with product strategies for genuine differentiation. The conversation also explores how AI can streamline processes and enhance creativity, while reminding marketers of the value of human ingenuity.

Udi Ledergor, the Chief Evangelist at Gong, is a marketing mastermind who turned Gong into a powerhouse brand. In this engaging discussion, he reveals how courage in B2B marketing can ignite creativity and drive success. Udi shares practical lessons from scaling Gong to over $100 million in revenue, insights from his book 'Courageous Marketing,' and why a clear brand personality is essential. He also highlights the significance of innovative campaigns, like Times Square billboards, and how to measure brand impact effectively.