Pipeline Brew

Brewing Success with Lee Densmer: Simplifying Content Strategy Without Sacrificing Impact

matthew.hummel@gmail.com (Lee Densmer, Matt Hummel) — Thu, 2 Apr 2026 13:00:00 +0000

Many content marketing teams often view complexity in their programs simply as maturity. But what if the very systems built to scale your strategy is the reason it’s disjointed and underperforming?

On this episode of Pipeline Brew, Matt is joined by content strategist and Founder of Globia Content Marketing, Lee Densmer. Having literally written the book on the most common B2B marketing mistakes enterprises make today, Lee shares her experience auditing over 20 established content programs to figure out where businesses go wrong.

From bloated editorial systems to outdated processes to surface-level research and misaligned messaging, Matt and Lee unpack why overcomplexity eats away at ROI and team morale. You’ll also hear why the term “thought leadership” is overused, how to actually provide content of value versus spicy takes, and ways in which your organization can scale your content programs with simplicity without losing nuance.

If you’re a content leader navigating AI, personalization pressure, and increasing executive scrutiny, this episode offers a practical framework for simplifying your strategy, strengthening your foundation, and driving clearer business impact.

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Guest Bio

Lee Densmer is a content marketing strategist who helps B2B teams fix the costly content breakdowns that stall revenue growth. After digging into more than 20 established content programs, she identified the 40 recurring issues that consistently sabotage performance—and (literally) wrote the book that shows teams exactly how to solve them.

With 20 years in B2B marketing, Lee created an efficient 3x5 Content Strategy to simplify content marketing so busy teams can do more with less and finally see results. Known for her straight talk and clarity-first approach, she gives marketing leaders the tools to cut through complexity, reduce stress, and build content engines that drive growth.

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Guest Quotes

“The other thing that I find in established content programs is that they've become overly complicated over time. So in other words, somebody painted the car over and over again without removing the previous layer of paint. You've just got these layers, somewhere it got over complicated with legacy junk. And the right foundations aren't in place.”

“Thought leadership is grossly misunderstood and overused as a way to describe content. Not all content is thought leadership. A bottom of the funnel pricing piece is not thought leadership. A middle of the funnel how to piece is not thought leadership. It is identifying who in your organization has done some deep thinking about customer problems and has unique and interesting ideas about it. Thought leadership also involves taking a risk.”

Quality content, in its most simple form, answers buyer questions in a clear, easy to understand way. [But] there's more to it than that because you can have a clear piece that doesn't answer a buyer question or that doesn't have any purpose. Back to the client who had the quality problem, I was reading the pieces and they were clearly written, but they didn't answer buyer questions and they didn't have a strong path for the reader to follow, for the buyer to follow.”

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Time Stamps

00:00 Episode start

02:00 Lee’s background and entrepreneurial journey

06:35 What’s broken in modern content programs?

08:55 Tackling legacy systems and outdated processes

12:05 Identifying strong buyer personas

15:00 Volume vs. value

21:00 Balancing demand content with thought leadership

27:05 Managing complexity across products and personas

31:00 Advice for content marketers in 2026

32:30 Getting content a seat at the executive table

34:20 What’s on tap for Lee Densmer

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Links

Brewing Success with Rick Nendza: Redefining Product Marketing as the Connective Tissue of Growth

matthew.hummel@gmail.com (Matt Hummel, Rick Nendza) — Thu, 5 Mar 2026 14:00:00 +0000

Product marketing often operates behind the scenes, but is it actually the most important growth lever in your organization? Rick Nendza, longtime B2B tech marketing leader believes it might be. On this episode of Pipeline Brew, he breaks down what product marketing really is and why its role as the connective tissue across departments has never been more critical.

Matt and Rick unpack the biggest misconceptions about PMM, how to measure impact without getting “KPI’d to death,” and why internal adoption of messaging and enablement content is just as important as external performance metrics. Drawing on decades of experience and multiple roles where Rick was the first PMM hire, he shares practical advice for building the function from the ground up and navigating blurred lines across organizations.

You’ll also hear what Rick means when he refers to AI as a “super-eager intern,” how content strategy is shifting as search continues to evolve, and why strong messaging and positioning remain foundational in modern B2B. If you’re a marketing leader trying to align teams, prove out ROI, or take your GTM to the next level, this episode delivers thoughtful, tactical insights you can put to work immediately.

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Guest Bio

Rick Nendza has over 25 years of experience in product and content marketing in the B2B tech space. He currently has a contract role with Forrester, researching and writing Total Economic Impact (TEI) reports for the analyst firm’s clients - and is a fractional product and content marketing consultant “doer” for tech GTM teams.

Rick’s experience has specialized in SaaS product marketing in startup/scale out environments. In 20+ years at TechTarget, he was a key member of the team that launched Priority Engine, the publisher’s flagship SaaS platform. He also delivered content audits for tech customers – combining proprietary data with observed best practices to advise on demand gen content strategy. Since then, he’s initiated the product marketing function at two companies, working closely with demand gen teams in developing positioning and content for SaaS product launches.

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Guest Quotes

“Product marketing is the connective tissue between the executive level, sales, marketing, customer success and product. Being naturally collaborative is one thing, but you sort of have to be super focused in terms of how you're gonna get folks from around the organization to collaborate and to agree on things, and be really mindful and methodical on how you approach that from the start.”

“The way that product marketing is measured is ultimately going to be on pipeline and sales, right? But I think that there's two extremes that I've seen. One is: You're gauged on how the company is doing and you know, you're not the CEO, so it's not granular enough to give a fair assessment of what you're doing. On the other side, the product marketing function can be KPI’d to death.”

“If you've got messaging and positioning and you've got AI tools, the key really goes back to create the best content. Step back and say the way that content is being found is changing, so let's just refocus on creating the best content and stuff that's interesting and sounds different from things that your competitors are saying and something that somebody might find. Whether it's posted on social or on your website, or a sales rep is using it, have it be something that everybody is excited about sending.”

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Time Stamps

00:00 Episode start

02:00 Rick’s background and career journey

05:00 Product marketing as the connective tissue

08:45 Common misconceptions about PMM

12:30 Measuring impact with healthy KPIs

15:00 Sales enablement and internal adoption

19:45 Advice for the first product marketer

22:00 Blurred lines across marketing roles

27:00 AI as a “super eager intern”

33:00 Content strategy in the age of AI search

36:45 What’s on tap for Rick Nendza

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Links

Brewing Success with Ben Henson: Reimagining the Buying Journey with AI

matthew.hummel@gmail.com (Matt Hummel, Ben Henson) — Thu, 5 Feb 2026 15:00:00 +0000

Can AI make B2B buying more human? Ben Henson, Co-Founder and CRO of Peel AI, thinks so. On this episode of Pipeline Brew, he shares how his team is using AI to flip outdated sales motions on their head and create genuinely helpful, buyer-first experiences.

Matt and Ben talk about what’s broken in the traditional buying journey, and where sales and marketing teams can look to fix it. Drawing from decades of experience leading revenue teams, Ben sheds light on the rise of offline buying behavior, the limits of content formats such as PDFs and white papers, and why the phrase “nobody wants to be sold to” has never rang more true.

You’ll hear why Ben believes that Voice Experience (VX) is the next step in leveraging AI to create real connection throughout a buyer’s journey alongside the lessons he’s learning as a founder operating in today’s rapidly changing climate. If you’re under pressure to do more with less or rethinking how your team actually helps buyers buy, this conversation is packed with smart, tactical insights you can apply today.

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Guest Bio

Ben Henson is a seasoned B2B revenue leader and entrepreneur, having co-founded Peel AI in 2024. Serving as CRO, Ben is helping to redefine how buyers engage with brands by bringing AI-driven conversational experiences to static content and sales motions.

Prior to Peel, Ben spent over two decades leading sales, marketing, and GTM strategies to drive growth in B2B. Throughout his career, he has focused on creating more effective ways to connect and communicate, blending practical GTM experience with consistent innovation.

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Guest Quotes

“Nobody wants to be sold to. I think that in our consumer lives, I think that in our professional lives, I think if you feel like you're being sold to, your antennae pick up and you're like, wait a second, what's happening? Conversely, everybody wants help buying. So if they know that they want to do the thing, then it's like, okay, well let's figure this thing out.”

“If you don't know the answer to a question, ask your customer. You want to adjust your pricing? Ask your customer. You want to add a new product? Ask your customer. The basics, the fundamentals, still come into play here in a very meaningful way.”

“Go try [AI]. Go get better at it. Have fun with it. Don't get rigid. We're in a brave new world, and marketers have the flexibility and the ability to try new things and figure out how we can communicate well to somebody else. How can we give them good customers, and this is the place that you really get to play, that you really get to stretch your legs.”

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Time Stamps

00:00 Episode start

01:25 Icebreaker

04:05 Ben’s background

06:20 What inspired Peel

10:00 Enabling buyers at the moment of curiosity

13:35 Asynchronous research and content clarity

16:20 Rethinking content hubs and deal rooms

19:45 Building a GTM engine with limited budget

23:50 The power of real thought leadership

25:15 UX to CX to VX

28:45 AI, voice, and the rise of interactive selling

33:00 What success looks like at Peel

34:45 What’s on Tap for Ben Henson

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Links

Brewing Success with John Eitel: Turning Sales + Marketing into One Growth Team

matthew.hummel@gmail.com (John Eitel, Matt Hummel) — Thu, 8 Jan 2026 14:00:00 +0000

What happens when growth stalls and alignment breaks down between marketing and sales? John Eitel, Chief Growth Officer at Orum, has made a career out of solving just that. In this episode of Pipeline Brew, John joins host Matt Hummel, CMO at Pipeline360, to share how CGOs think differently about scale, structure, and strategic focus.

From his early days scaling Rackspace to leadership roles at Canva, Demandbase, and now Orum, John opens up about the biggest changes he’s seen when it comes to building high-performing GTM teams. He dives into the pressures revenue leaders face today, the value of brand in a demand-heavy world, and why sales-marketing tension is still so common.

You’ll also hear why John believes onboarding is more listening than doing, the steps modern distributed teams can take to build trust, and why alignment starts with shared KPIs and honest communication. If you’re responsible for growth, or accountable to it, this episode is a blueprint for leading with clarity, empathy, and measurable impact.

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Guest Bio

John Eitel is a seasoned revenue and go-to-market leader with over 20 years of experience accelerating growth in B2B SaaS, cloud, and digital businesses. He’s built and scaled high-performance teams across sales, marketing, operations, and customer success in both emerging startups and large enterprises exceeding $1 billion in revenue.

Known for transforming underperforming organizations and launching successful market expansions, John combines strategic vision with operational discipline and a people-first leadership philosophy. He’s passionate about coaching leaders, aligning cross-functional teams around outcomes, and driving measurable business impact.

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Guest Quotes

“Not to say we abandon all other numbers and metrics, but at the end of the day, that shared understanding that pipeline is everyone's problem is so important. I think if you can get that common agreement . . . that really does force a good, healthy dialogue.”

“In that first month of onboarding, remember you have two ears and one mouth. Listen more than you talk. Resist the urge to just take action right out of the gates and start kind of showing up with your point of view. Ask a ton of questions, take a lot of notes, listen, absorb; people will notice.”

“I learned early in my career the power of when [marketing and sales] are aligned. It's a magical thing. But many folks never ever get to see that, right? I now have responsibility for sales and marketing, and so this has been fun for me to lean out of my comfort zone and bridge that gap even more so and really put my money where my mouth is.”

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Time Stamps

00:00 Episode start

01:25 Icebreaker

03:00 John’s background

06:15 Finding alignment across distributed teams

09:45 Marketing misunderstandings on revenue

13:00 Closing the sales/marketing gap

16:20 Finding the balance between brand and demand

20:05 Aligning sales and marketing around pipeline

28:10 The one metric that ties everything together

34:40 Advice for new GTM leaders

39:00 How customer trust shapes sustainable growth

42:15 What’s on Tap for John Eitel

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Links

Brewing Success with Chloe Thompson: Making Content Matter Across Marketing, Sales, and Revenue

matthew.hummel@gmail.com (Chloe Thompson, Matt Hummel) — Thu, 4 Dec 2025 14:00:00 +0000

With content teams being asked to do more with less, how can marketers build a strategy aligning brand and revenue which actually leads to business outcomes? Today on Pipeline Brew, Matt is joined by Chloe Thompson, Director of Content Marketing at Visier, to discuss what it takes to build high-impact B2B content.

Chloe shares her journey from journalism to content marketing, her role in scaling Reward Gateway’s blog into a content engine that supported two private equity events, and how she leverages subject matter experts across the business. She breaks down what content should own, how to partner with demand gen, and why storytelling must align with business outcomes to be respected internally.

Chloe also discusses how content teams can move beyond vanity metrics, build influence with data, and embed themselves in go-to-market strategy. Whether you’re a solo content marketer, scaling a team, or trying to prove your impact in a revenue-driven world, this episode delivers practical frameworks and hard-won lessons for content that actually moves the needle.

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Guest Bio

Chloe Thompson is the Director of Content Marketing at Visier, a workforce intelligence platform. With over 15 years of experience turning editorial storytelling into a growth engine for brands, Chloe has a long background in HR tech with prior roles at Reward Gateway and Compt. A J-school grad turned marketer, she’s built and led global teams, launched research programs that generated millions in pipeline, and helped fuel a $1.4B acquisition.

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Guest Quotes

"When people first start out in their career, you should say yes to every opportunity that you get. I think being the first one to raise your hand in the room gives you a lot of visibility and a lot of opportunity, and I think that's also a lesson that you have to kind of turn on its head as you get more senior in your career and be the one to be able to say no to things strategically."

"I think that content fueled a lot of the things that we did at the organization, but of course it was also our product, our sales, the incredible 750+ people that I worked with across the different markets that really just created a differentiated brand and a vision for the company. But I think content played a really big part in terms of trying to elevate our internal subject matter experts and really making the case for being an ally for our HR audience."

"The subject matter experts that I've worked with in the past, they're so passionate about what they do. Like you find someone who loves what they do, who loves their job, that's passionate about it, they want to share their knowledge. They want to help, but it needs to be in a way that feels natural instead of feeling prescriptive and like it's another thing on their to-do list."

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Time Stamps

00:00 Episode start

01:15 Icebreaker

03:00 Chloe’s career journey and early lessons

07:30 Building the content function at Reward Gateway

10:30 Clarifying the line between content and demand

12:45 Content’s impact on a $1.4B acquisition

15:30 Strategic advice for new content marketers

17:15 Working with SMEs across the business

21:20 Content metrics that prove value

24:00 Connecting content to revenue and brand

28:00 Making the case for content at growing companies

33:00 What’s on Tap

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Links

Brewing Success with Reed Hansen: Prioritizing Human Connection Over Software

matthew.hummel@gmail.com (Reed Hansen, Matt Hummel) — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 14:00:00 +0000

With today’s marketers bogged down by overflowing tech stacks, where can they cut complexity to focus on what drives measurable growth? In this episode of Pipeline Brew, Matt sits down with Reed Hansen, Owner & Chief Growth Office of the Illinois based agency, MarketSurge, to explore what it means to lead with strategy over software.

Reed shares his shift from SaaS sales to entrepreneurship, the decision to buy MarketSurge, and how he transformed it from a CRM implementation shop into a growth engine powered by strategy and human connection.

Reed also reveals how his podcast, Inside Marketing with MarketSurge, became an unexpected growth lever—fueling client acquisition, partnerships, and sharper thinking. He explains why showing up in public conversations builds more credibility than traditional sales outreach, and how authentic, human-first marketing can outperform any tech stack.

Whether you’re leading your own agency, navigating the chaos of MarTech overload, or looking for practical ways to drive results without losing authenticity, this episode delivers sharp perspective and actionable ideas for marketers who want to scale smarter.

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Guest Bio

Reed Hansen is a seasoned marketing leader and growth strategist recognized for his ability to scale businesses through visionary leadership and data-driven innovation. As Chief Growth Officer at MarketSurge, Reed leads with a clear mission: to help businesses transform marketing chaos into streamlined systems that drive predictable growth.

With a career spanning startups to Fortune 500 companies, Reed has held leadership roles at Northwestern University, Punchkick Interactive, and Solstice, where he built and guided teams that delivered high-impact digital products and record-breaking revenue growth. Prior to MarketSurge, he founded Million Dollar Studio, where his leadership extended beyond strategy into operations, mentoring, and building resilient teams.

Known for his ability to blend creative problem-solving with operational discipline, Reed has become a trusted authority in digital marketing and organizational growth. His leadership style emphasizes clarity, collaboration, and empowerment — guiding teams and clients alike to see marketing not just as a cost center, but as a powerful growth engine.

Beyond his executive role, Reed is the host of Inside Marketing with MarketSurge, where his leadership voice extends to the broader business community through conversations that challenge assumptions, explore innovation, and inspire action.

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Guest Quotes

“There's a tremendous opportunity to approach marketing like a white-glove business: results-focused rather than tool-focused. Clients don’t care about a line item list of platforms. They care about growth, leads, and pipeline. And marketing leaders today need to adapt to that mindset shift.”

“Podcasting is like the new city square or barbershop. It’s where people go to be heard, to connect, and to spark ideas in a space that feels casual but still meaningful. It’s helped me synthesize ideas, build partnerships, and even get clients. I didn’t expect that, but it’s been a tremendous growth lever.”

“I would spend much more time on creating great content and making sure to get myself out there and doing more networking conversations. The content that I can generate is a bigger determination of our business success and growth than any of the traditional sales efforts.”

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Time Stamps

00:00 Episode start

01:25 Icebreaker

03:00 Reed’s journey from sales to entrepreneurship

07:05 Diving into MarketSurge

11:55 How podcasting became a top tier growth lever

14:25 Marketing with purpose

16:20 From tools to service

19:15 Elevating the human side of marketing

24:30 What’s on Tap

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Links

Brewing Success with Steven Pritt: Leadership for a New Era of Content Marketing

matthew.hummel@gmail.com (Steven Pritt, Matt Hummel) — Thu, 16 Oct 2025 13:00:00 +0000

How do you lead modern marketing teams through disruption without losing purpose, clarity, or connection? In this episode of Pipeline Brew, Matt is joined by Steven Pritt, VP of Content Marketing at Thomson Reuters, where he’s built a high-performing content function that balances scale, creativity, and authenticity.

With a career spanning creative agencies, sales, and enterprise marketing, Steven shares why today’s best leaders act as stewards, not gatekeepers, and how a clear sense of purpose aligns individuals, teams, and strategy. He breaks down the difference between tension to solve vs. tension to manage, why marketing silos shouldn’t be tolerated, and what it takes to create content that’s both measurable and meaningful.

Listeners will hear Steven’s take on AI as a force multiplier, how to foster team culture from any role, and why friction is often a sign of movement, not failure. Whether you’re scaling a content team, navigating leadership challenges, or rethinking how marketing delivers value, this episode delivers practical insights for marketers leading through change.

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Guest Bio

Steven Pritt is an award-winning marketing executive with over a decade of experience in the information technology and services industry. As the VP of Content Marketing at Thomson Reuters, he has spearheaded the creation of a center of excellence that integrates content marketing, creative services, organic social media, and SEO.

Steven's leadership is characterized by his innovative approach to developing and executing comprehensive content strategies that drive engagement and conversion. He is also recognized for his expertise in team building and leveraging generative AI to modernize the content supply chain.

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Guest Quotes

“I think a demand for more authentic content is going to be really, really important. Not even just personalized content, but content that is really providing a service. Is it coming out of an attitude of really serving up information? Is it really servicing the need of what the customers are asking versus putting it out there just for a hook or a barb?”

“I think my view of leadership is really where can I bring clarity? Where can I remove obstacles for my team members? And then along the way, if I can give away as much credit, I feel like I'm doing a successful job.”

“Businesses want to use AI, they just don't know how to use it in the right way or in a more meaningful way. And I think the content marketers who can demonstrate that or show that propensity will definitely have a leg up. It's beyond just, ‘Do you know how to use ChatGPT?’”

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Time Stamps

00:00 Episode start

02:00 Icebreaker

04:15 Purpose, clarity, and team alignment

06:05 Building Thomson Reuters' content center of excellence

08:15 Centralization vs. personalization in content marketing

10:35 Managing vs. solving tension in marketing teams

13:20 Why you need a little friction

15:25 Creating culture at every level

17:05 The evolving role of content in a post-AI world

20:30 Truly authentic, high-impact content

24:25 Advice for navigating career changes

27:40 Embracing AI as a value-add, not a threat

31:10 What’s on Tap

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Links

Brewing Success With Fiona McKenzie: What the C-Suite Expects from Marketing

matthew.hummel@gmail.com (Fiona McKenzie, Matt Hummel) — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 13:00:00 +0000

How do you build B2B marketing programs that move beyond short-term lead counts and actually deliver lasting impact? In this episode of Pipeline Brew, Matt is joined by Fiona McKenzie, CEO of Revere, a UK-based agency known for its “marketing with meaning” approach.

With nearly two decades in B2B technology, Fiona shares why today’s most effective CMOs are as commercial as they are creative. She walks through outcomes that the C-suite cares about, how to reset strategy around shared definitions, and frameworks like Revere’s Wheel of Consideration, which reimagines the buyer journey beyond outdated funnel models.

Listeners will also hear Fiona’s perspective on bold creative, selling big ideas internally, and the role of AI as “accelerated intelligence” that removes friction without replacing human judgment. Whether you’re a marketing leader rethinking measurement, a strategist tasked with growth, or a brand builder looking to stand out in crowded markets, this episode offers a roadmap for making marketing more meaningful — and more impactful.

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Guest Bio

Fiona McKenzie is the Chief Executive Officer of Revere, a strategic B2B marketing agency in the UK. With nearly 20 years in B2B technology, she leads teams that combine buyer insight, brand, and demand to create “marketing with meaning” programs that build trust and long-term growth.

Fiona believe’s the best way to produce great integrated work for clients is to have a tightly integrated team, with a relationship founded on trust, collaboration, and transparency.

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Guest Quotes

“Marketing with meaning is really the ethos that drives everything we do day to day at Revere. It’s about making sure that marketing is driving long-term programmatic approaches that deliver results. It’s all about taking marketing from being seen as short-term lead generators to long-term impact drivers. That’s what resonates with marketers, moving from tactical thinking into long-term campaigns and initiatives.”

“The buyer journey has become overly simplistic. At Revere we’ve built a new model called the Wheel of Consideration, which helps marketers see where activity really sits in the buyer journey and how to connect with customers in meaningful ways.”

“We accelerated speed of delivery on an insane level. Historically, what would’ve taken months upon months, we delivered it in six to eight weeks with an 87% reduction in investment. That’s why I call AI accelerated intelligence, not artificial intelligence.”

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Time Stamps

00:00 Episode start

01:10 Icebreaker

02:35 Fiona's career journey in B2B marketing

04:20 Lessons from stepping into the CEO role

07:15 Defining “marketing with meaning”

09:20 Why strategy must get commercial

11:40 Resetting strategy and reporting for the C-suite

14:15 How to build ROI-driven plans on a page

17:55 Selling bold creative to executives

22:40 Positioning creative work as business growth

24:50 AI as accelerated intelligence in marketing

29:55 What’s on Tap

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Links

Brewing Success with Avalara: B2B Marketing at Scale, Evergreen Content, and Lead Maturity

matthew.hummel@gmail.com (Stephanie Almeida, Matt Hummel) — Thu, 4 Sep 2025 13:00:00 +0000

How do you scale campaign strategy across a complex product suite without overwhelming both your audience and your sales team? In this episode of Pipeline Brew, Matt is joined by Stephanie Almeida, Senior Marketing Manager of Demand Generation at Avalara, the automated tax compliance software powered by AI.

With over six years at Avalara and an extensive background spanning both agencies and in-house teams, Stephanie shares what it really takes to build sustainable, high-performing B2B campaigns in today’s noisy landscape. Some of the topics covered in their conversation include incorporating agility into new product lines, why content, messaging and sales should be aligned around campaigns, and how paid syndication is a still winning strategy.

You’ll also hear Stephanie’s advice for educating sales on top-of-funnel expectations, and why she says every marketer should advocate for bold, emotion-driven brand work. Stephanie brings a practical, tested perspective that’s especially relevant for marketers navigating multi-product complexity and shifting buyer behavior.

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Guest Bio

Stephanie Almeida is a seasoned professional with over 20 years of experience in the technology sector, specializing in marketing and advertising. She currently serves as the Senior Marketing Manager at Avalara, where she leads a team in developing innovative campaigns and strategies that drive brand growth and business performance.

Prior to her role at Avalara, Stephanie held key positions at several leading advertising agencies, including VML and Razorfish. Her expertise spans across various domains, including digital marketing, brand management, and integrated advertising campaigns. Stephanie is known for her ability to bridge the gap between creative teams and business stakeholders, ensuring that marketing initiatives not only resonate with target audiences but also align with company objectives and market trends.

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Guest Quotes

“As a CFO or a finance leader, tax compliance is usually not their full-time job, it’s a portion of what they do. So really making sure they have the education they need and can feel confident in that area is a lot of what we focus on. That’s where our campaigns need to meet them.”

“I believe that paid syndication should definitely be a part of a holistic marketing strategy and plan. We have seen that we typically have really strong website traffic, but just like everybody else, we've seen some declines in paid and organic search. Now with the AI answers being within the platform and getting people what they need there, it's really helpful to balance out your overall lead gen strategy.”

“You can't just go out there and be super generic with your messaging. You need to tap into people's feelings and emotions. Be funny, be something that stands out. You gotta be bold.”

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Time Stamps

00:00 Episode start

01:15 Icebreaker

03:05 Stephanie’s career journey

05:00 What is Avalara?

06:35 The challenge of scalable campaign strategy

09:05 Aligning with sales across complex product lines

12:05 How Avalara builds content around core pain points

14:05 Why paid syndication still matters

17:00 Educating sales on top-of-funnel leads

18:30 The role of brand in demand generation

20:00 Standing out in a crowded messaging world

21:20 What’s on Tap

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Links

Brewing Success with Thinksmart Marketing: Balancing Global Consistency and Local Impact in B2B Marketing

matthew.hummel@gmail.com (Janine Pares, Matt Hummel) — Wed, 13 Aug 2025 13:00:00 +0000

How can you enable your marketing teams to do more with less while still maintaining brand relevancy and impact? In today’s episode of Pipeline Brew, Matt welcomes Janine Pares, Founder & CEO of Thinksmart Marketing to explore why strategy and brand positioning have become even more critical differentiators in today’s market.

Having founded Thinksmart in 2014, Janine’s agency specializes in strategy-led marketing across content, digital, brand and product to help global companies stand out while driving growth. Drawing from her experience across B2C and B2B, Janine shares insights on the challenges of balancing centralized global strategies with the unique demands of diverse regional markets like APAC.

Additionally, you’ll hear why strategy starts with what you choose not to do, how to get C‑suite buy‑in for brand investment, and why the best content often has a longer shelf life than marketers think. Janine also explains the role AI can play as an enabler, freeing up human creativity and critical thinking while keeping teams agile.

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Guest Bio

With 30 years experience, the first 17 years of Janine’s career was forged in corporate marketing for some of the world’s leading B2C & B2B brands across global, regional and national remits in Australia and abroad. With a commercial focus and strategic approach, Janine founded Thinksmart Marketing in 2014 and today leads the team to partner with enterprises and scale up B2B brands across APAC.

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Guest Quotes

"Strategy more often than not [is] about the things you choose not to do [rather] than the things you choose to do. And having a really focused vision on what success looks like, and then focusing the energy resourcing around those things, that makes a huge difference. And I think in the context of budget cuts and resource cuts and all the rest of it, we need to be very selective about what we actually do."

“What does your brand mean in the minds of your audience? How do people understand you and what you stand for, and what value you bring in comparison to others in often saturated marketplaces? When that is not clear, salespeople aren't able to articulate the value prop, and cross-sell doesn't happen as easily. [You] can't get as much traction with net new, [you’re] not progressing deals through the pipeline.”

“APAC is the most diverse region that exists when we think about everything from not just languages, but cultural differences. Market maturity is often very different. Value systems are very different. The way of doing business and selling is actually very different across a lot of these regions. And so the diversity that exists within APAC is huge."

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Time Stamps

00:00 Episode start

01:05 The power of sticky notes

03:00 Icebreaker

04:30 Janine’s career from corporate to agency

07:15 Doing more with less

11:25 AI as an enabler, not a replacement

16:20 Securing C-suite buy-in for brand

19:00 Regional nuance and complexity

24:00 Balancing centralization and localization

27:00 Quality over quantity in content strategy

31:10 What’s on Tap

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Links

Brewing Success with Ping Identity: Scaling Smarter with Branded Demand and Real-Time Optimization

matthew.hummel@gmail.com (Emanuela Mafteiu, Matt Hummel) — Thu, 24 Jul 2025 13:00:00 +0000

How can marketers drive meaningful demand in today’s complex B2B landscape? In this episode of Pipeline Brew, Matt is joined by Emanuela Mafteiu of Ping Identity to unpack how you can go beyond MQLs and start building pipeline that truly converts.

Emanuela is the Head of Digital and Demand, EMEA at Ping Identity, a leading identity security platform serving over half of the Fortune 100. Together, she and Matt dive into the evolving role of demand generation by aligning tightly with sales, localizing content, and embracing AI with intention. Emanuela provides actionable takeaways from her own team’s experience with pod-based collaboration, persona-driven campaigns, and agile feedback loops to deliver real business outcomes across EMEA.

Additionally, you’ll learn why your content needs to provide real education, how to effectively pivot campaigns mid-flight, and where AI can make the biggest impact on your team. Emanuela also shares practical SEO insights from BrightonSEO and explains why she believes localized marketing is easier than ever and well worth the investment.

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Guest Bio

Emanuela Mafteiu is an all-around marketer with a strong background in brand strategy and campaign management. She is skilled at translating corporate visions into engaging marketing communications and content, ensuring alignment with strategic portfolio development. As the Senior Digital Marketing Manager at Ping Identity, Emanuela leverages her expertise to drive digital growth and optimise return on investment, making her a key contributor to the company's success.

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Guest Quotes

“Progressing pipeline is as important as generating pipeline. In Demand Gen, we're always thinking about generating demand, but we don't always focus on how to move that pipeline forward. One of the strongest shifts we’ve made is creating real alignment with sales. It’s not just about MQLs anymore, it’s about MQAs and activating buying behavior.”

“We stopped calling it awareness, we now call it education. Because our goal is to create content our audience can use, not just read. Whether it’s identity professionals or security leads, they all want clarity, relevance, and value. When we focus on education, the results speak for themselves.”

“AI helps us move faster and scale smarter, but it’s not a replacement for strategy, creativity, or customer connection. We use AI for segmentation, testing, and even language optimization, but we still validate everything with human insight. It’s about reducing friction and focusing human time where it matters most.”

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Time Stamps

00:00 Episode start

02:15 Icebreaker

04:30 Aha moments in Demand Gen

08:20 Branded Demand in action

12:25 Pivoting in real time

14:45 Everyone owns pipeline

17:00 Results from localization

19:25 Getting closer to buyers with AI

24:35 The future of SEO in a post-AI world

31:15 What’s on Tap

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Links

Brewing Success with Troy Sandidge: The Evolving Role of CMOs and Community Building

matthew.hummel@gmail.com (Matt Hummel, Troy Sandidge) — Thu, 3 Jul 2025 13:00:00 +0000

What does it take to succeed as a modern CMO? In this episode of Pipeline Brew, Matt is joined by Troy Sandidge to discuss how marketing leaders can stay relevant in an era of shifting playbooks, AI disruption, and growing pressure to deliver both brand and demand.

Troy is the Chief Strategist and Founder of Strategy Hackers, a strategic marketing consultancy that builds sustainable, scalable, and profitable strategies to drive engagement, advocacy, and revenue growth. Together, Troy and Matt explore the real challenges CMOs face right now including outdated playbooks, pressure to master AI, and the balancing act between vision and execution.

Additionally, you’ll hear what it takes to tackle these challenges, and where you should be focusing your efforts most. Troy advocates for further investments into your brand and most importantly, your community. He believes real, authentic community building serves as a premium insurance policy when faced with market uncertainty.

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Guest Bio

Known as the Strategy Hacker®, Troy Sandidge is an award winning growth strategist specializing in building sustainable, scalable, and profitable strategies, systems, and solutions for world-class brands, generating over $175 Million in client revenue and successfully launching 35+ brands worldwide.

The 5x Agency Builder, 4x CMO, 3x Startup Founder, 2x COO, Board Advisor, Fractional CMO, Keynote Speaker, Investor, Author, & Marketing Consultant brings over 15 years of experience infusing psychology, sociology, business anthropology, cultural ethnography, and behavior science with growth marketing, demand gen, go-to-market, sales enablement, brand positioning, content marketing, and community development strategies helping brands achieve next level results using what he refers to as Conscious Growth Pathways™.

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Guest Quotes

“Strategy isn’t about knowing everything of what to do. It’s knowing what not to do. As you expand your career and hit different milestones, you realize there's so much more we shouldn't be doing. That takes experience and stepping back to look at things from a 50,000-foot view.”

“CMOs need to understand their four currencies: time, money, knowledge, and skill. If you don’t have the skills, you need to bring in the right people, otherwise, you’re going to get left behind.”

“Community is legitimately an insurance policy. When you have it, they understand you, they trust you, and they’ll stay with you even during tough times. Imagine asking your community, ‘What do you want us to do?’ and they give you the million-dollar idea. That’s the power most brands are sleeping on.”

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Time Stamps

00:00 Episode start

01:40 Icebreaker

02:39 Troy’s career journey across marketing, nonprofit, and politics

04:50 Why great strategy starts with knowing what not to do

06:50 The driving factors behind the evolution of the CMO

10:30 Advice vs. Reality: The gap between thought leaders and practitioners

14:50 The makings of a great CMO

18:15 How AI can enable operational transformation for marketers

24:00 Is AI an option or necessity

27:00 What to do when marketing budgets freeze

30:00 Community as an insurance policy

33:45 What real community building looks like in B2B

38:30 What’s on Tap

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Links

Brewing Success with Forma: Using Story, Strategy, and Culture to Elevate Marketing

matthew.hummel@gmail.com (Matt Hummel, Amanda Verdino) — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 13:00:00 +0000

What does it take to craft content that truly connects in today’s crowded B2B landscape? Amanda Verdino, Director of Content Marketing at Forma, shares how a story-first philosophy and culture-driven marketing can transform the impact of your programs.

With over 15 years of experience spanning agency leadership and in-house roles, Amanda breaks down the frameworks she uses to guide her work in this new era of GenAI. She and Matt explore strategies to move beyond transactional content to build and deliver authentic messaging, tying storytelling directly to strategy.

You’ll also hear how Amanda transitioned from the agency world to her role now with Forma, why culture and collaboration are key to high performance, and how content marketers can partner with executives to elevate brand voice. Whether you’re leading content, building brand, or aiming to align teams around marketing’s value, this episode is filled with perspective for modern B2B marketers.

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Guest Bio

Amanda Verdino is a B2B marketing leader with over 15 years of experience driving pipeline and elevating brand narratives. Known for blending creative storytelling with strategic execution, she’s led high-impact content and communications programs for startups, growth-stage companies, and Fortune 500 enterprises. Amanda currently serves as Director of Content Marketing at Forma, where she helps shape the voice of the brand and connect with audiences in meaningful, measurable ways.

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Guest Quotes

“Over the past several years, I’ve tried to carve out moments to define how I really feel about content marketing. What I believe in, not just what deadlines require. That’s where the idea of ‘story, strategy, stuff’ came from. If we don’t know what story we’re telling or why we’re telling it, then no amount of strategy or content will really matter.”

“I had done the agency thing for nearly a decade, and while we did great work, I started to feel like I was missing something deeper like real team culture and long-term ownership. I wanted to go beyond just delivering assets and actually be part of something where I could help shape the story and see it through.”

“We talk a lot about job satisfaction in marketing, but not enough about how it actually affects performance. When you feel seen, when you feel trusted, you don’t just show up, you contribute differently. That’s been my experience at Forma, and I think that’s why our content connects the way it does.”

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Time Stamps

00:00 Episode start

01:25 Icebreaker

03:00 How Amanda defines herself as a storyteller

09:05 Generative AI’s impact on content marketing

10:50 Why Amanda left agency life for in-house marketing

17:00 Why Forma feels like a dream job

21:25 How talking to customers builds better content

24:20 Connected job satisfaction to individual performance

27:15 Forma’s values and authentic culture

32:00 Growing your CEO’s LinkedIn presence

36:55 What’s on Tap

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Links

Brewing Success with Thomson Reuters: Rethinking Brand, Attribution, and Buyer Groups

matthew.hummel@gmail.com (Matt Hummel, Adam May) — Thu, 22 May 2025 13:00:00 +0000

How do you drive over $160M in pipeline impact with strategic marketing? Adam May, Director of Account-Based and Field Marketing at Thomson Reuters shares how ABM, field marketing, and sales alignment make it possible.

With a background that bridges graphic design, startup growth, and enterprise marketing, Adam shares the key experiences that have shaped his journey and where he sees opportunities in today’s B2B landscape. He emphasizes the critical blend of art and science in ABM which requires balancing creativity with deep data fluency. He also breaks down how his team strategically maps buyer groups, enables sellers, and creates personalized programs that align to complex sales cycles.

You’ll also hear Adam’s perspective on field marketing at scale, what it means to truly achieve sales-marketing alignment, and how brand reputation drastically can impact your pipeline. Whether you’re looking to scale ABM or integrate marketing more deeply into revenue strategy, this episode is packed with insights for modern marketers navigating enterprise complexity.

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Guest Bio

Adam May is a veteran marketer with experience planning, organizing and executing multi-channel programs that drive pipeline. He's a highly curious individual with a combination of creative, analytical and project management skills and a history of creating B2B demand engines that strengthen relationships between marketing and sales to drive revenue. Adam has experience working in fast-paced environments with cross functional teams in highly regulated markets.

Valuable addition to any company softball or volleyball team and cooks a mean steak.

"Best Son Ever" Award - 2021

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Guest Quotes

“If someone told 22-year-old Adam how much time he'd spend in Excel, I wouldn’t have believed them. But today, data drives every decision we make. You need creativity to stand out, but it’s data that justifies the direction and earns trust internally.”

“Brand perception doesn’t just influence whether someone reads an email. It shapes whether they’re willing to attend your event, trust your messaging, or even consider you as a serious solution. In a crowded market, your reputation often gets you in the room before any campaign does.”

“Alignment isn't a transaction, it's a relationship. You don’t just set it and forget it. It requires regular check-ins, shared goals, and mutual accountability. The best marketing-sales partnerships are built on empathy and a common focus on pipeline and performance.”

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Time Stamps

00:00 Episode Start

04:04 Adam's marketing journey

08:55 What ABM really means in 2025

15:51 Field marketing and ABM collaboration

21:40 Sales and marketing alignment

24:53 The importance of shared KPIs

27:38 Understanding attribution models

32:18 Brand’s role in pipeline impact

40:27 What's On Tap

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Links

Brewing Success with Arthur Yu: Leaning Into Brand Marketing

matthew.hummel@gmail.com (Matt Hummel, Arthur Yu) — Thu, 1 May 2025 13:00:00 +0000

Today on Pipeline Brew, Matt sits down with the seasoned advertising expert, Arthur Yu, whose career spans over twenty years supporting tech and media giants such as Disney, Google, and AWS. Their conversation covers his unique journey, from starting as a finance coordinator to where he is today as a prominent leader in the ad space.

In today’s digital-first landscape, Arthur talks about what he calls the “one-second audition,” emphasizing how brands now have less time than ever to capture consumer attention. The solution? Increasing your investments in brand marketing.

Listeners will also gain Arthur’s perspective on incrementality and the statistical methods essential for measuring true marketing impact. His clear explanations of market mix modeling, conversion lift, and match market testing equip marketers with practical tools to prove ROI in a rapidly changing environment.

Later on in the conversation, Arthur shares his personal journey battling and beating cancer. For anyone else who might need help, support, or advice on their own journey, Arthur encourages you to reach out to him on his LinkedIn.

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Guest Bio

Arthur Yu is a global marketing expert responsible for over $3B in media spend and held leadership positions in NAMER, EMEA, APAC, and LATAM. His most recent experience focuses on driving digital sign-ups and revenue for tech clients (Google, Amazon Web Services, and Meta), but he also has a long history of brand campaigns for entertainment (Disney/Fox/Lionsgate) and automotive clients (Hyundai motors).

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Guest Quotes

“I’d say depending on the organization, brand marketing can mean two things. It's amplifying the strength of what your brand stands for. Or it could be finding out what your product strength is, distilling it down to a core idea, and communicating that to your customers.”

“The force view medium still exists. That's why you're seeing a lot of attention on live sports and podcasting. So, the advertisers that do it best really use that precious time effectively.”

“20 years ago, because of the linear nature of mass media, marketers had basically 30 to 60 second forums to force feed your message to a captive audience. But today, because of the reduction of forced view mediums and the flood of opt-in messages, brand marketing must really pass the one second audition. So that's capturing your audience's attention within an increasingly short amount of time.”

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Time Stamps

00:00 Episode Start

01:27 Icebreaker

02:17 Arthur's journey in advertising

05:44 The evolution of brand advertising

07:04 The one second audition

08:45 The importance of brand equity

16:21 Measuring incrementality in marketing

20:36 Classic marketing tactics in a digital world

22:09 The importance of live sports in advertising

23:29 The evolution of account-based marketing (ABM)

25:21 Balancing strategic, opportunistic, and greenfield accounts

28:35 The impact of a post-cookie world

31:18 AI's role in media and advertising

32:47 What's On Tap

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Links

Brewing Success with Steve Rubel: Amplifying Content in a Competitive World

matthew.hummel@gmail.com (Matt Hummel, Steve Rubel) — Thu, 10 Apr 2025 13:00:00 +0000

This week on Pipeline Brew, Matt sits down with media analyst and communications strategist, Steve Rubel, who brings a wealth of experience from his nearly 20-year tenure at Edelman, where he served as EVP of Media Insights and Strategy.

Steve shares how his early passions of media, sports, and technology have led him to where he is today. As he touches on the evolving world of PR, Steve highlights just how much the field has evolved to what it is today, where influences, creators, and journalists are increasingly intertwined. Similarly, Matt & Steve explore the dichotomy between screen time and content creation – despite more channels for advertisements than ever before, brands are often losing attention due to the stark rise of content hitting smartphones.

To counteract today’s media noise, Steve emphasizes the importance of crafting authoritative and engaging content, offering insights on how companies can effectively harness both earned and owned media strategies.

Stick around to hear “What’s On Tap for Steve Rubel.” With their conversation taking place prior to the AFC & NFC championships, Steve successfully predicts who would go on to win the 2025 Super Bowl.

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Guest Bio

Steve Rubel is a dynamic media analyst, innovation catalyst, and communications strategist with decades of experience in anticipating trends and shaping actionable insights that help organizations stay ahead in an evolving media landscape.

During a 19-year tenure at Edelman, Steve provided strategic counsel to hundreds of global corporations and nonprofits, earning consistently high marks from client CEOs, CCOs, CMOs, as well as the firm's workforce.

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Guest Quotes

“Smartphones fill every pocket of your day. At the same time, there's been an explosion in content. And if you want to be seen, you have to amplify it through a paid channel. And if you're not thinking about that in a holistic way, that content may not be seen.”

“Media companies, they seem to be in two camps when it comes to the AI platforms. Some of them are partnering with the Perplexities, the Anthropics, the Open AIs of the world. Some of them are suing them. And the ones that are partnering, I think could benefit, because we've seen that when these major platforms come along and they start to throw news sites’ a lot of traffic…some of them right away figure out how to take advantage of that.”

“[B2B content] can't be boring. It cannot be boring. And some of these topics are inherently boring, even for people who are reading them and thinking about them all day. And so [there] just needs to be a little bit of a point of differentiation to it.”

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Time Stamps

00:00 Episode Start

00:58 Icebreaker

03:39 Steve's background and passions

05:41 The blurring lines of media and influencers

10:14 The evolving PR landscape

18:18 The role of trade press and AI

24:17 The disruptive potential of generative AI

25:51 Exploring Muck Rack and its uses

30:13 The PESO model and content strategy

32:44 Challenges in B2B demand marketing

34:42 The importance of engaging content

38:22 What's On Tap

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Links

Brewing Success with Stuart Giddings: Reinventing the Agency Model

matthew.hummel@gmail.com (Stuart Giddings, Matt Hummel) — Thu, 20 Mar 2025 13:00:00 +0000

Today on Pipeline Brew, Matt is joined by Stuart Giddings, marketing veteran and CEO of Beettoo, the B2B specialist agency focused on driving better value for B2B marketers through a more expert, agile and accountable agency model. With over 30 years of experience with global agencies such as Dentsu and Gyro, Stuart founded Beettoo in 2021 to deliver impact differently.

Early in their conversation, Stuart shares his passion for B2B, while others might call it “the boring end of marketing,” Stuart thrives in the complexity that often comes with the territory. This excitement is what led to his own evolution of the agency model and creation of Beettoo, which balances content and data alongside brand and demand to add real value to their clients. This model combines employed resources, curated freelance talent, and specialist partners to offer more agile and effective solutions for modern marketing challenges.

Matt and Stuart also dive into the new partnership between Pipeline 360 and The Expert Network (TEN), which now enables a fully managed, turnkey Demand-as-a-Service (DaaS) solution that addresses end-to-end demand generation needs, from strategy and execution to performance measurement.

Don’t forget to listen out for “What’s On Tap,” where you’ll hear about Stuart’s love for cars – and specifically which custom build he is designing for his granddaughters.

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Guest Bio

With over 35 years of international marketing experience, Stuart Giddings has held leadership roles across publishing and advertising agencies worldwide. He has led

five international agencies, including two based in the U.S.

In 2010, Stuart joined Aegis Media (later Dentsu), where he spearheaded the development of the group’s global full-service B2B offering under Carat Enterprise. He also led multiple global agency acquisitions, integrating them to create the world’s largest and most awarded B2B agency network, which he led for five years. Stuart was also a member of Dentsu’s global leadership team and a former UK executive board member.

Stuart’s client portfolio spans global brands to start-ups, with campaigns executed across more than 40 countries.

In 2021 he founded the Beettoo Group.

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Guest Quotes

“People often look at B2B as being the more boring end of marketing, and I totally disagree. I think it's fascinating. I think it's more of a challenge.”

“If you can really blend brand and demand effectively, you're gonna drive better conversion, you're gonna drive long term engagement or valuable engagement. I think everyone broadly accepts that. Actually making it happen, I think is much more challenging.”

“B2B has some very savvy buyers. They're gonna say, ‘Okay, is this a really intelligent buyer? Is this actually gonna save me money? Make me more efficient?’ Whatever it might be. So I think that's where challenger brands have got a really strong case, but they've gotta convey that. And that won't come without the brand element being connected to demand. It's vital.”

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Time Stamps

00:00 Episode Start

00:23 Meet Stuart Giddings

02:11 Stewart's career journey

04:01 Aha moments and lessons learned

06:01 The Beettoo agency model

08:36 The Expert Network

12:46 Balancing brand and demand

18:04 Content strategy insights

22:47 What's On Tap

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Links

Brewing Success with Tony Uphoff: The Future of Marketing with Demand-as-a-Service

matthew.hummel@gmail.com (Matt Hummel, Tony Uphoff) — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 14:00:00 +0000

On this very special episode of Pipeline Brew, Matt welcomes Tony Uphoff, CEO of Pipeline 360. Their conversation spans topics such as Tony’s extensive career in tech & media, the transformational potential of Gen AI, and why we might be witnessing a shift away from SaaS orgs as buyers work to untangle themselves from platform overload.

Tony’s experience leading organizations like Thomasnet.com, UBM TechWeb, and Business.com offer the conversation a unique lens on how disruptive technologies reshape industries. This perspective helps him draw parallels between Gen AI and the early days of the internet. Both technologies experienced rapid adoption with their fair share of critics early on.

Additionally, Matt and Tony discuss critical shifts in business models driven by the millennial workforce and the digital first purchase process. We may no longer be living in a SaaS era as companies begin to lean into simpler service offerings, with Tony advocating for “demand as a service,” or outsourcing marketing complexity to achieve better outcomes.

Stick around to “What’s On Tap” to hear Tony’s experiences as a grandparent and his first impressions of Matt during a memorable snowy encounter in Boulder.

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Guest Bio

Tony Uphoff is Chief Executive Officer of Pipeline360. He also serves as an analyst at Cloud Wars, a technology analyst firm that covers the latest trends and best practices in digital transformation. He additionally serves as an advisor and mentor to several tech and digital media companies. Prior to joining Pipeline360, Uphoff served as President and CEO at Thomasnet.com, where he led the turn around, growth and successful sale of the company to Xometry, a publicly traded, on-demand manufacturing marketplace for $300M in December 2021.

Uphoff has a strong track record of building, growing, and leading tech, data, media, and marketing services companies, with other notable leadership roles at UBM TechWeb, VNU Media, The Hollywood Reporter, InformationWeek and Business.com. 

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Guest Quotes

“On its own, the internet is just a compute layer. Artificial intelligence is simply a compute layer. It's how you use it. And interestingly enough, one of the things that we've been tracking is that as the mainstreaming of AI takes over. And particularly through Gen AI, you've seen this resurgence of channel partners. Because what a channel partner can often do is, they understand your domain. It's the domain expertise of being able to say, ‘Oh, I know how to apply Gen AI to a demand gen business. Here's how you would do it.’”

“We believe that there's an interesting from/to shift that's taking place here that companies are gonna start to move away from licensed platforms. They wanna strip out the complexity and what they're looking for is really outcomes. They want a service. 'I don't want to license another platform. I want the outcome of what that platform should be delivering for me.’ In our part of the world, demand generation, we think of this as ‘demand as a service.’”

“There's a high degree of risk in a B2B purchase. Very different than most consumers, most retail products. There's not that much risk if I end up buying the wrong shirt or I end up buying the wrong soda, right? If I sign up for the wrong B2B service and I make a decision on behalf of my company that's wrong, I could be risking my job. So understanding the type of content that is going to not just engage somebody, but to give them the confidence to take the next step. To give them an understanding of both your brand and your offering simultaneously. That I think is really where content needs to go.”

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Time Stamps

00:00 - Episode Start

01:14 - Ice Breaker

02:29 Tony's Career Journey

04:47 The Impact of Technology on Business

07:07 The Rise of Gen AI

13:35 The Future of B2B Digital Marketing

20:36 Evolution of Software as a Service

21:18 Service as Software: A New Paradigm

21:34 Demand as a Service and AI Integration

24:37 The Role of Content in B2B Marketing

30:51 Balancing Efficiency and Effectiveness in Marketing

35:37 What’s On Tap

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Links

Brewing Success with Jim Gilkey: Blending Creativity and Data in Marketing

matthew.hummel@gmail.com (Matt Hummel, Jim Gilkey) — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 14:00:00 +0000

This week on Pipeline Brew, host Matt Hummel is joined by marketing expert and fellow podcaster, Jim Gilkey. Jim hosts the podcast Account Based Beverages, and is a veteran with experience at massive companies like Salesforce and 7-person startups like trueU. Matt & Jim’s conversation covers topics including ABM, demand gen, sales and marketing alignment, and the current state of AI in marketing.

Jim argues that ABM isn't just a rehash of demand generation but a strategic approach that aligns highly personalized campaigns with specific buyer needs. He provides examples to demonstrate how ABM can seamlessly integrate with demand gen strategies, creating a powerful marketing synergy.

The discussion takes a practical turn as Matt asks Jim to share his wisdom on sales and marketing alignment. His advice is practical: listen to sales calls and identify common queries to tailor content that addresses real customer concerns. This approach not only bridges the gap between sales and marketing but ensures that messaging is both relevant and impactful.

Beyond marketing tactics, the conversation reveals Jim's dynamic career journey and personal passions, including his love for bourbon and music. His firsthand experience as both a marketer and an account executive offers a unique perspective, making this podcast a must-hear for aspiring marketers and seasoned pros alike.

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Guest Bio

Having worked on all sides of the go-to-market team, Jim Gilkey is a dynamic speaker who pulls from his experience as a salesperson, account manager, marketer, and leader to give practical advice that GTM teams can leverage for immediate results. He has experience working for both industry giants like Salesforce and startups like Odyssey and trueU.

Jim is passionate about unlocking potential in others, which he does through his podcast, Account Based Beverages, and through speaking at universities and conferences.

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Guest Quotes

“ We can get so into a project that we're working on for marketing, that we forget that there's a human on the other side of it. There's a lot of data that shows what design would work or what messaging or call to action, or even some of the colors. But we don't often enough step back and think, ‘What would I feel if I went to this website and saw these pieces?’ And so for the biggest lesson in my career, it has come from learning empathy. The empathy of putting myself in other people's shoes and seeing through their eyes puts me in a place where I want to be helpful to them without any expectation of receiving something on the other end.”

“If you imagine you're walking through the mall and you hear somebody yell, ‘Hey Matt!’ You'd probably turn and look, but if you didn't see something that would continue to get your attention, you're going to very quickly go back to what you're doing. The companies that focus on tactics are the ones that think if we just have this company's name on our website, that's enough. But it really isn't.”

“If you want to create content that you know is going to have a huge impact right away, why not create that content around pieces that people are already asking questions about? It can allow you to move some of these accounts that are maybe on the fence or in the research phase further down toward wanting to meet with your team because a lot of the things that they are trying to find the answer to, you're already providing that for them.”

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Time Stamps

00:00 - Episode Start

00:51 - Ice Breaker

02:51 - Jim's Background

05:36 - Art vs. Science in marketing

07:28 - Lessons from Jim's career

09:50 - Account Based Beverages

12:35 - ABB to ABM

14:58 - Can ABM & Demand Gen coexist?

21:03 - Know your audience

24:22 - One piece of advice to start a new ABM program

28:49 - Engineering serendipity

32:12 - Aligning sales and marketing

35:18 - Tactical ways to leverage AI today

40:25 - What's on Tap

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Links

Brewing Success with Laura Goodey: The Art of Storytelling in Marketing

matthew.hummel@gmail.com (Matt Hummel, Laura Goodey) — Thu, 30 Jan 2025 14:00:00 +0000

This time on Pipeline Brew, host Matt Hummel sits down with Laura Goodey, Founder & Partner of Story & Tellers, to explore her marketing journey and what led her to start her own agency. With over two decades of prior experience advising global powerhouses like Oracle, Riverbed, and Vodafone, Laura has always placed audience understanding at the core of her strategies. She dismantles the outdated "content is king" approach, arguing instead that true marketing excellence emerges from deep empathy and genuine connection with your users.

Laura’s philosophy emphasizes the critical importance of creative boldness and strategic flexibility, encouraging marketers to assert their value within organizational structures. Her unique agency model, Story & Tellers, stands out by pairing teams tailored to each of their clients’ specific needs. Laura and Matt also explore topics such as the dynamic between brand and demand marketing, and how modern marketers can create strategies to cut through the noise.

Laura’s story serves as both a practical guide and an inspirational call to action for marketing professionals seeking to elevate their craft beyond mere transactional interactions. Stay tuned in to hear where Laura loves to travel and her advice for those wanting to explore Berkshire, England.

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Guest Bio

Laura Goodey, Founder and Partner of Story & Tellers, brings over 20 years of expertise to her role as a strategic marketing partner for B2B businesses. Her impressive client roster included global giants like Oracle, Riverbed, and Vodafone. Laura's passion for marketing, which began during her college years, blends her fascination with people, art, and storytelling to craft powerful marketing strategies.

At the heart of Laura's innovative approach lies empathy-based marketing, where she places customer and audience insights at the forefront of her work. This method allows her to create resonant campaigns that truly connect with target audiences.

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Guest Quotes

“ People were often told over time that content is king, but it absolutely isn't. The audience is and always will be king. They've really got a choice whether they engage with you and it's up to us to make the messaging interesting, relevant, and valuable enough for them to think about what it is that the client's trying to say. And also, you're not competing with your competitors. You're really competing with all of life. So the tasks that people have got to do, the problems that they have, all the things that are bringing them fear and worry, joy and happiness in their life. And I think once that clicks and you realize how precious that attention is, you really understand the scale of the task at hand.”

“ The noise is increasing, unfortunately. In terms of what's driving it, obviously technology is a huge factor. It's been a gift in a lot of ways, but a big by-product has been this urge for everybody to just talk and talk and talk. When actually what they need to be doing is to connect to their audience in a more meaningful way to understand them.”

“ I think businesses do have a lot of stories to tell. They've got stories about their purpose, stories about what they can do. [Stories] of their customers, their people, what makes them different. So it really feels like an area where clients do need the most help.”

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Time Stamps

00:00 - Episode Start

01:00 - Ice Breaker

03:21 - Laura’s Background

05:42 - Audience is king

07:15 - The art of collaboration

09:35 - Be bold

12:02 - The origin of Story & Tellers

14:49 - Adjusting to the world around you

16:40 - Why you can't solve market noise by just shouting louder

20:08 - Empathy based marketing

22:46 - Brand vs. Demand

27:36 - Advice for organizations wanting to leverage an agency

28:55 - What's on Tap

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Links

Brewing Success with Andrew Beckman: The Intersection of Brand, Design & Marketing

matthew.hummel@gmail.com (Matt Hummel, Andrew Beckman) — Thu, 9 Jan 2025 14:00:00 +0000

On this episode of Pipeline Brew, Matt is joined by Andrew Beckman, Design Director of his own agency, Beckman Design Studio.

Our first guest with a design focus, Andrew shares his journey from agency work to going independent and highlights some key lessons learned along the way. With many marketers often overlooking the importance of brand, today’s conversation focuses on its relationship with design and marketing in a holistic way.

Andrew is able to provide a unique window into the contrasting challenges faced by B2B & B2C organizations. He describes how larger and established consumer brands provide strict guardrails to work between whereas the world of B2B often offers more creative freedom from a design perspective.

Throughout their conversation, Matt and Andrew stress how critical authenticity and meaningfulness is to standing out, especially in the saturated world we find ourselves in today. They also discuss the impact of AI on the design process and the critical role of strategy in successful branding. Stick around to hear how Andrew stokes his creative fire outside of his work.

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Guest Bio

Andrew Beckman is a design director passionate about drawing, music, storytelling, and the great outdoors. His curiosity drives a multidisciplinary skillset in brand identity, art direction, illustration, and motion. With 15 years of experience, he has led cross-functional teams and developed processes to build over 50 brands, driving impactful business outcomes, IPOs, and earning creative awards independently and with agencies.

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Guest Quotes

“ You only get one first impression, and one of the cool aspects of getting to work on the visual identity portion of a brand is that we are kind of the first impression. It should connect with people. It should draw them in, and not just because it's beautiful, but because hopefully there's some kind of spark from that simple message or that core idea.”

“ I think whether it's AI or it's some other new technology, it's always going to be a struggle to keep up, because technology and business is just constantly changing. Which is why I always just fall back on brand. If you have a sound strategy that's rooted in a human truth, there is a timeless aspect to it.”

“ I feel like whatever the solution is, it should be rooted in some kind of meaning. It should have a reason for existing. Great design should resonate with people. And make them feel something. Try to set out to conjure a feeling and create something that's worthy of being remembered, and have this kind of clear, compelling, intentional feeling.”

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Time Stamps

00:00 - Episode Start

00:57 - Ice Breaker

02:44 - Andrew's Background

08:33 - Key lessons throughout Andrew's career

11:51 - What is brand?

18:10 - Standing out in a crowded market

20:30 - Is B2B brand design different?

22:19 - Meaning, resonance, craft, context

26:24 - Brand update frequency

30:32 - AI's impact on design

35:40 - What's on Tap

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Links

Brewing Success with Kompetently: AI’s Role in Transforming Marketing

matthew.hummel@gmail.com (Mark Ogne, Matt Hummel) — Thu, 12 Dec 2024 14:00:00 +0000

On this episode of Pipeline Brew, Matt welcomes Mark Ogne, Founder & CEO of Symplexity.AI and Chief Marketing and AI Officer at Kompetently.

With over two decades of global marketing experience and five successful exits, Mark shares his journey from sales to pioneering the integration of AI in marketing. The two cover the transformative potential of AI not as a mere efficiency tool, but as a means to enhance marketing effectiveness by enabling businesses to pursue their “200% better ideas.”

Mark also advocates for a shift in focus from prompt engineering to purpose-built AI tools that truly comprehend your business context, making AI a powerful ally in driving meaningful outcomes rather than just streamlining tasks. This is the focus of Mark’s own venture, Symplexity.AI, which aims to bridge the gap between AI's potential benefits and current adoption inertia.

Mark's blend of marketing mastery and forward-thinking mindset to AI offers valuable lessons for marketers looking to embrace the rapid evolutions in the current technological world. Stick around to hear his thoughts on parenting, and why he’s learned to cherish each stage of his children's lives.

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Guest Bio

Mark has more than 25 years experience as a marketing leader for publicly traded companies as well as start ups. Known for defining and executing strategies that have delivered industry changing innovation, he’s recognized as being among the first to launch market-focused commerce operations, and more recently, he developed positioning, strategy and product solutions for the pioneer of multichannel testing and targeting.

Led by passion and guiding principles of collaboration, Mark has directed corporate and marketing communications, social media strategy and execution, multichannel and search agency practices, acquisition / demand generation, product marketing, product management, site usability, and ecommerce initiatives.

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Guest Quotes

“Now, my hypothesis and experience is that every organization has a 200% better idea. Rather than focusing on, 10% or 20% percent better, step back and really evaluate, ‘What should I be doing? And why does that make more sense?’ And so that's efficiency versus effectiveness. Focus on the effectiveness side. Then you can become more efficient at it over time.”

“Whether it's new digital platforms and technologies or whether it's AI, I tend to look at things and try to find, ‘When have we crossed this road before? Do we have things that we can look back to and figure out, as a guide, where should we go?’ And I think that AI, we shouldn't see it as being completely new. What's really new about it is just how fast it's changing.”

“If you just spam the crap out of everybody by sending more emails than anybody else, was that helpful? Well, it was efficient, right? That's a very good analogy to AI. If you focus solely on efficiency, you'll never find the effectiveness component. So you'll be the spammer.”

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Time Stamps

00:00 - Episode Start

00:56 - Ice Breaker

04:04 - Mark's Background

06:04 - Sales and Marketing Alignment

10:15 - Symplexity.AI & Kompetently

16:58 - The bleeding edge of AI

25:44 - Who owns AI in the business?

29:18 - Why change management is key

32:43 - Efficiency to Efficacy

36:58 - Picking your battles

38:10 - What's on Tap

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Links

Brewing Success with Writer: Generative AI, Customer-Focus, and Human Connection

matthew.hummel@gmail.com (Andrew Racine, Matt Hummel) — Thu, 21 Nov 2024 14:00:00 +0000

This time on Pipeline Brew, Matt is joined by Andrew Racine, VP of DemandGen and Growth at Writer, the full-stack generative AI platform for enterprises.

Andrew shares the journey he’s taken through the SaaS industry to where he is today, including how he got his start with HubSpot originally as an SDR. His transition to other major organizations such as MongoDB and Fivetran are a reminder of how career paths are seldom linear, especially in marketing.

One consistent highlight from their conversation is Andrew's emphasis on the importance of human connection in marketing, a refreshing take in an era dominated by automation and data-driven strategies. Andrew underscores the necessity of understanding customer needs deeply, distinguishing Writer’s approach to create GenAI applications that can tackle business problems and amplify human effort, not replace it.

Marketers looking to level up their own career should keep an ear out for two pieces of advice: the power of empathy and the long-term importance of brand over short-term metrics. Also stay tuned to hear about baseball, parenting, and the west coast.

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Guest Bio

Andrew Racine is a seasoned marketing professional currently serving as the VP of Demand Gen and Growth at Writer, a leading generative AI platform. With a robust background in demand generation, he has previously held significant roles at Fivetran, Turbonomic (an IBM company), and MongoDB. Racine's expertise lies in helping companies scale their marketing efforts effectively, leveraging his experience from various high-profile organizations. He holds an MBA from Babson College and has a history of driving growth through innovative marketing strategies.

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Guest Quotes

“People want to be heard. They want to be understood and they want to spend their time on things that are going to help them advance. And so you need to have those in mind, not in a selfish way, but in a way that will help them achieve their goals. And if you can help them do that, hopefully they pick you again and it's a win-win.”

“We're just really trying to get people to understand how we can help them solve a specific problem. And then our job in marketing is just getting really good at understanding their problems and those use cases that make it a no brainer to invest in something like generative AI. So that focus – it is fast because we have to keep at pace with the market, and maybe even be a little bit ahead of it. But [also] we need to be focused on what really matters to folks and not get swept up into all the noise.”

“If you're constantly playing those growth hack games, I just think you're constantly going to be looking for more and more silver bullets and it'll take you away from the long term investments. And so, I think fundamentally Demand Gen needs to be looked at from a long term view. And the one thing that I've learned is just the importance of brand and that's not always in the purview of a Demand Gen Marketer.”

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Time Stamps

00:00 - Episode Start

00:55 - Ice Breaker

03:02 - Andrew's Background

06:38 - Early lessons in empathy

07:52 - What is Writer?

11:22 - How Writer stays connected to their customers

13:43 - Leveraging field marketing

15:30 - Drinking your own champagne

18:37 - "Writer Speed"

20:45 - Start with the problem

24:13 - How to maintain the human element

26:39 - Bring it back to brand

33:17 - What's on Tap

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Links

Brewing Success with Content Monsta: How Content Strategy Drives Marketing Success

matthew.hummel@gmail.com (A. Lee Judge, Matt Hummel) — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 13:00:00 +0000

On this episode of Pipeline Brew, Matt welcomes A. Lee Judge, Co-Founder of Content Monsta, a content marketing, video, and podcast production agency specializing in the production of content that drives business.

Lee shares his journey from a DJ and photographer to a marketing entrepreneur, emphasizing how his foundation and early experiences led to his successful career in marketing. He also talks about what inspired him to start Content Monsta and the story behind the name.

Throughout their conversation, Matt & Lee discuss the ongoing debate of “Quality vs. Quantity” in regards to content and what strategies organizations should be taking. Rather than saying the two are mutually exclusive, Lee introduces the Quality vs. Quantity (QVQ) funnel strategy, outlining that it’s more important to target each stage of the funnel differently to have the most impact.

Touching upon the crucial topic of sales and marketing alignment, Lee underscores the need for cohesive collaboration between these two departments to create a seamless customer experience. Read more about this in his upcoming book, CASH: The Four Keys to Better Sales, Better Marketing, and a Cohesive Revenue Machine.

Later on, you’ll hear more about Lee’s personal life and what he drinks to avoid a hangover.

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Guest Bio

A. Lee Judge is the Co-Founder and CMO of Content Monsta, a digital content agency. He also serves as Global Digital Marketing Manager, at Hexagon Geosystems. Previously, Lee served as Sr. Digital Marketing Director at B2B customer service software company Jacada, connecting the organization’s Sales and Marketing Operations. Focused on B2B marketing for over 20 years, Lee is both a digital marketing practitioner and creative content entrepreneur. He is a leading LinkedIn video creator, Forbes Agency Council member, and engaging event speaker providing training on digital marketing, content creation, social selling, and sales enablement from the Marketing point of view.

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Guest Quotes

“I realized that there was a gap there in terms of what the market needed. I was a marketer who needed video, who didn't have a $10,000 budget, who needed to do more than just one video a month. And so I launched Content Monsta to begin creating content for businesses at a faster pace, better economy.”

“Quantity doesn't mean you have to lose quality. And fast doesn't mean cheap and low quality.”

“While you're saying: ‘But it wasn't in the studio, but it doesn't have our logo behind this, the quality isn't there.’ Meanwhile, your consumer is consuming all of your competitors' content, and they're not judging it by the type of camera. They're judging it by: ‘Did they move me closer to doing business with them?’ And that's what your competitor is doing.”

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Time Stamps

00:00 - Episode Start

00:47 - Ice Breaker

02:29 - A. Lee Judge's Background

04:32 - From analogue to digital

07:55 - What is Content Monsta?

12:35 - Balancing content quantity and quality

17:29 - Creating content for each stage of the funnel

21:18 - Impressions are everything

23:25 - Repurposing content

27:35 - Lee's advice for others

33:03 - What's on Tap

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Links

Brewing Success with CognitivePath: Navigating the AI Hype

matthew.hummel@gmail.com (Greg Verdino, Matt Hummel) — Thu, 10 Oct 2024 13:00:00 +0000

Today on Pipeline Brew, Matt is joined by Greg Verdino, Founder & Chief Operating Officer of CognitivePath, an AI consulting firm that guides organizations through this new era of artificial intelligence.

Greg takes us on a journey through the AI landscape, debunking the myth of AI as a miracle worker and framing it instead as a trusty sidekick that elevates your marketing game only if you stick to the fundamentals. From AI's mimicry potential to the importance of good data, Greg sheds light on how to avoid the AI bubble trap by aligning tech with tactical goals and crafting authentic content that speaks from the soul.

Additionally, Greg and Matt touch on the allure of any shiny new tech tool, and how marketers need to resist the siren call of innovation without intention. It's all about getting back to basics—knowing your audience and letting AI be the Watson to your Sherlock. Greg shares a few tactical pieces of advice on how to channel AI effectively, harnessing its power for genuine transformation rather than getting caught up in the tech hype.

As always, the conversation wraps up with some personal stories, where Greg shares some stories from his parental life and his experience running the content consultancy, VERDINO, with his partner Amanda.

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Guest Bio

Greg Verdino is the author of Never Normal: Uncommon Ideas for Leaders Who Won’t Settle for the Status Quo (2020) and microMARKETING: Get Big Results By Thinking and Acting Small (McGraw-Hill, 2010). And as the co-creator of The Adapt Manifesto, Greg is leading a movement to align leaders around a core set of principles that help organizations reliably and repeatedly adapt to the changing environment in which they operate.

His perspectives have been shaped by 30+ years spent working at the forefront of change. Over the course of this career he has advised hundreds of organizations including more than 50 of the Fortune 500; has served in senior leadership positions at a half-dozen technology start-ups; and has launched innovative products, lines of business, and divisions from within traditional companies. Through his work speaking, writing, and consulting on digital strategy, business transformation, and adaptability he helps leaders build thriving, future-ready companies.

Greg is also the founder of CognitivePath, a strategic AI consultancy that helps organizations harness the transformative power of generative AI to enhance productivity, unleash creativity, improve performance, and create strategic advantage.

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Guest Quotes

“There have been some unreasonable expectations set around what today's generative AI tools are actually capable of delivering.”

“Content is a complex beast. It's easy to put words on paper. It's much more difficult to ensure that those words bring real insight, perspective, point of view, and something new to the market.”

“AI is not a miracle machine, but a mimicry machine. It's been trained on all of the world's data, and what that means is at the end of the day, pure AI content brings to the table a raw average of everything else that's ever been produced.”

“Good content is about answering your prospects or customers’ most burning questions.”

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Time Stamps

00:00 - Episode Start

00:54 - Ice Breaker

01:21 - Is AI a miracle machine for marketers?

05:36 - What makes great content

08:47 - Prediction vs. Generation

11:29 - Your AI is only as good as your data

16:03 - Don't become obsessed with the shiny new object

18:48 - Are we seeing the bubble starting to burst?

23:13 - Greg's advice for marketers looking to capitalize on AI tools today

26:22 - Learnings from CognitivePath's AI Maturity Model

29:49 - What's On Tap

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Links

Brewing Success with Miro: Delivering Value, Customer Engagement, and Strategic Selling

matthew.hummel@gmail.com (Zach Diamond, Matt Hummel) — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 13:00:00 +0000

In this episode of Pipeline Brew, Matt Hummel welcomes Zach Diamond, Strategic Program Manager at Miro, who shares his exciting journey from food tech to championing innovation workspaces.

Miro, formerly known as RealtimeBoard, is a digital collaboration platform designed to facilitate remote and distributed team communication and project management. Having been with the organization for nearly four years, Zach discusses his role and how personalized customer engagement and strategic discovery can significantly impact demand generation and product marketing. He also emphasizes the importance of understanding customers' specific needs and using that insight to create value-driven, bespoke solutions that resonate on a deeper level than traditional metrics might indicate.

Additionally, Matt & Zach talk about Miro's Discovery Center, an innovative space designed to foster deep customer relationships and immersive experiences. By offering a unique blend of in-person and remote engagements, the Discovery Center has become a crucial tool in Miro's approach to building trust and loyalty among its clients.

Be sure to stick around to the end of the episode to learn about one of Zach’s other passions…caviar!

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Guest Bio

Zach Diamond is a Strategic Program Manager at Miro, a leading online collaboration platform based in Austin, Texas. In his role, he focuses on enhancing customer relationships and driving strategic initiatives within the Miro Discovery Center, where he works to optimize user experiences and maximize client value.

With a strong background in software development, Zach effectively bridges the gap between technical teams and business stakeholders. His expertise in program management and demand generation allows him to identify growth opportunities and implement strategies that enhance customer engagement and satisfaction.

Passionate about fostering collaboration and innovation, Zach emphasizes open communication and teamwork within his projects. Outside of work, he enjoys exploring Austin's vibrant culture and staying updated on the latest trends in technology and business, reflecting his commitment to continuous learning and personal growth.

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Guest Quotes

“When I advise other companies, I really push them on how to get customers in the door without a sales rep. And I think the exception to the rule would be if you're doing like hardware, or data storage, or something like cloud architecture, where you really do need to be face to face talking to a person.”

“What my team does is show instead of tell. I always bring it back to: ‘Why are you doing this?’ Not: ‘How do you do it?’ So we start off every session with a session called Voice of the Customer. And this is just strategic questioning. And it's one of my favorite parts of the job because it snowballs into a massive conversation.”

“I think you said it with sales folks struggling to strategically sell or leading with value. In a lot of ways, we've forgotten the gift of the gab. You know, we got so used to selling over Zoom calls and not going in person that we've forgotten how much that matters to a customer who's trusting you with a ton of money every year.”

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Time Stamps

00:00 - Episode Start

000:51 - Icebreaker

02:29 - What is Miro?

04:12 - Zach's role with Miro

08:13- Is the PLG model here to stay?

12:05 - How to do evangelism marketing right

16:26 - The power of executive briefing centers

21:26 - Zach's journey to marketing

25:19 - Don't forget to sell yourself

27:35 - Avoid a one size fits all approach

30:39 - Balancing the human experience with the metrics

34:17 - What's On Tap?

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Links

Brewing Digital Success: Hannah Jordan on Sales & Marketing Alignment, Chatbots, and Red Bull

matthew.hummel@gmail.com (Hannah Jordan, Matt Hummel) — Thu, 5 Sep 2024 13:00:00 +0000

In today’s episode of Pipeline Brew, Matt is joined by Hannah Jordan, the Director of Digital Marketing for Demandbase. The two discuss the rise of the self-service buyers journey, how to leverage AI with customers tactfully, and why it’s critical to align yourself around your fellow teams.

What’s the benefit of fostering a self-service buyer journey? Hannah emphasizes that allowing customers to initiate conversations on their own terms can significantly improve their experience, pointing out that constant prompts to engage can often repel potential clients, whereas a more subtle approach respects the client's timeline and autonomy. Additionally, Hannah underscores the necessity of customizing content based on the customer’s journey stage. She advocates against a one-size-fits-all approach, highlighting that knowing where a customer is in their decision-making process allows marketers to provide the right information at the right time.

For those who have yet to implement any sort of AI or automations until their daily life, Hannah offers some great anecdotes and practical advice on how she leverages them. You’ll also hear why she was awarded with the “Make Sales Love Us” award recently at Demandbase and how she views the marketing-sales relationship as a whole.

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Guest Bio

Hannah Jordan is the Director of Digital Marketing at Demandbase, where she specializes in account-based marketing strategies. With a strong focus on enhancing campaign effectiveness, she has been instrumental in rethinking audience engagement and leveraging data-driven insights to optimize marketing efforts. Her expertise in digital marketing is complemented by a passion for exploring innovative advertising techniques, which she shares through webinars and industry discussions.

In addition to her role at Demandbase, Hannah actively engages with the marketing community, sharing her insights and experiences on platforms like LinkedIn. Her journey into account-based advertising reflects her commitment to continuous learning and adaptation in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. Through her work, she aims to inspire others in the field to embrace new methodologies and drive impactful marketing results.

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Guest Quotes

“The one thing that's been kind of close to home lately is actually in the customer side of marketing. I feel like digital marketing sometimes gets very focused on new business. And so sometimes I think the focus and the effort behind that customer love does kind of go away. And so I'm trying to personally take a big step up and kind of recenter myself.”

“I'm a firm believer in the self-serve buyer's journey. If they want to chat with us, the option is there and they will click it. Someone jumping in and saying, ‘Hey, chat with us!’ It's just annoying at a certain point. And so we've really automated it based on what journey stage an account is at, and then being able to offer content based on that journey stage.”

When it comes to leveraging digital to effectively engage the modern buyer, Hannah’s advice is to “Meet the buyer where they're at and provide value rather than trying to push a sale.”

“I think chat is one of the more underutilized channels that people don't necessarily think about incorporating in their marketing strategy.”

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Time Stamps

00:00 - Episode Start

01:10 - Icebreaker

02:15 - What makes a good digital strategy

05:12 - Aligning around key accounts

09:07 - The best way to engage the modern buyer

12:29 - Using chat to enhance, not annoy

14:57 - How Hannah leverages AI beyond content

17:42 - Don't forget about your current customers

21:23 - Make sales love us

25:32 - What's On Tap?

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Links

Brewing Success with Howard Sewell: Insights from Lead Gen to Hazy IPAs

matthew.hummel@gmail.com (Howard Sewell, Matt Hummel) — Thu, 22 Aug 2024 09:00:00 +0000

In this episode of The Pipeline Brew, host Matt Hummel sits down with Howard Sewell, President and Founder of Spear Marketing Group, to discuss the foundational principles that drive successful marketing strategies.

Howard brings 25 years of B2B marketing experience to the table to discuss topics spanning content, account-based marketing (ABM), demand gen, AI, and more. Throughout the interview, you’ll hear an emphasis on the importance of providing value to your customer. Whether you're creating surveys, white papers, promoting analyst reports, or even podcasts, your goal should always be to address the consumer's pain points and offer insightful solutions.

Matt also leverages Howard’s knowledge from Spear to discuss what enables the most powerful client-agency relationships. To any teams out there looking to supercharge the work they create with their agency, Howard suggests rethinking the relationship to be akin to a true partnership. It's not all about churning out content; it’s about crafting innovative, solution-driven ideas that resonate. Successful marketing hinges on these symbiotic partnerships that encourage creativity and strategic thinking.

Lastly, Matt and Howard share their thoughts on the blending of demand generation and account-based marketing. By combining broad outreach with targeted, personalized tactics, you can better engage and convert leads.

The takeaway? Your marketing can only benefit from being versatile and adaptable. Clear, value-driven content will not only capture attention but also build lasting connections with your audience.

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Guest Bio

Howard J. Sewell is a 25-year B2B marketing veteran and president of Spear Marketing Group, a leading B2B demand generation agency. Named a “Top 50 Influencer in B2B Marketing,” Howard is a respected blogger, speaker, and marketing practitioner, and writes frequently on topics including email marketing, marketing creative, and marketing technology.

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Guest Quotes

“AI has created this torrent of very ordinary content. The opportunity for marketers is to develop content that creates information of value that is going to appeal to people facing the problem you can solve.”

“AI has only accelerated a kind do it yourself trend in marketing.”

“Lead generation is important and it's always important to be filling that top end of the lead lifecycle. But just as important is what happens after someone downloads that white paper, registers for the webinar.”

“Demand gen is finding people that have the pain that you can solve, whether or not they know they have that pain.”

“One of the primary reasons to hire an agency is because you're looking for that fresh set of eyes.”

“An analyst report is a great tool for a potential buyer to get a sense of who the players are in the market, what the different advantages, pluses, minuses, et cetera. That's how I would market an analyst report, not find out why Gartner thinks we're so great.”

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Time Stamps

00:00 - Episode Start

00:46 - Icebreaker

02:50 - Howard's Background

04:32 - Are leads as valuable as they once were?

08:49 - ABM vs. Demand Gen

12:00 - You can't create demand where it doesn't exist

17:12 - How true partnership is a value-add

21:52 - Is DIY marketing here to stay?

25:48 - What makes effective content?

32:05 - What's On Tap?

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Links

Introducing Pipeline Brew

matthew.hummel@gmail.com (Matt Hummel) — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 22:17:47 +0000

Welcome to Pipeline Brew, the podcast that meets at the intersection of people and pipeline. Hosted by Matt Hummel, VP of Marketing at Pipeline 360, each episode will feature fun, yet insightful conversations from marketing experts across various industries.

Be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts to be notified as soon as each episode is live.