Spotlight on B2B Marketing

Karen Lloyd

Welcome to Spotlight on B2B Marketing.Join me as we embark on a journey through the ever-evolving landscape of B2B marketing, featuring engaging interviews with industry leaders and C-suite decision-makers. Listen as we uncover the strategies, insights, and success stories where marketing has helped to drive revenue, innovation, and growth in the exciting B2B space.

  1. How to Create Customer Advocacy That Directly Impacts Revenue with Faith Wheller

    11/26/2025

    How to Create Customer Advocacy That Directly Impacts Revenue with Faith Wheller

    Customer advocacy is no longer just a nice-to-have—it's a revenue driver. But how do you build a systematic approach that turns happy customers into active revenue generators? And more importantly, how do you make this everyone's responsibility, not just marketing's? In this episode of Spotlight on B2B Marketing, host Karen Lloyd welcomes Faith Wheller, VP of Global Marketing for TeamViewer, to explore how to build customer advocacy programmes that directly impact your bottom line.  With over 25 years of marketing experience and a track record of managing 700,000 customers, Faith shares the frameworks and strategies that transform customer satisfaction into measurable business growth. From creating tiered advocacy programmes to making customer advocacy an organisation-wide responsibility, Faith provides practical insights that CEOs and marketing leaders can implement to reduce acquisition costs and accelerate sales cycles. What You'll Learn in This Episode: ✔️ How to build a systematic customer advocacy platform that tracks and rewards customer actions ✔️ Why customer advocacy must be an organisation-wide responsibility beyond marketing ✔️ How to identify your advocates using existing platforms and customer signals ✔️ Strategies for rewarding advocates beyond traditional swag (sustainable and meaningful incentives) ✔️ The business case for customer advocacy: ROI, brand awareness, and diversity goals Whether you're a CEO looking to reduce customer acquisition costs or a marketing leader building advocacy programmes from scratch, this episode is packed with practical takeaways to turn your customers into your most effective sales force. Connect with Faith on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/faithwheller/ Connect with Karen on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lloydkaren/ Brought to you by Armstrong Lloyd - your go-to solution for recruiting marketing, sales, and business leaders in B2B. Want to know more? Discover more at armstronglloyd.co.uk

    37 min
  2. From Code to +£15M ARR: Bootstrapping and Scaling a Tech Startup with Nick Mason

    11/11/2025

    From Code to +£15M ARR: Bootstrapping and Scaling a Tech Startup with Nick Mason

    Every founder reaches a point where they realise they don't know what they don't know. But how do you scale a business when there's no manual to follow? In this episode of Spotlight on B2B Marketing, host Karen Lloyd speaks with Nick Mason, co-founder of Turtl, about his remarkable journey from writing a few lines of code with his co-founder whilst on a project at Oxford University to building a revenue-generating content platform now supporting hundreds of brands. Nick shares the honest reality of bootstrapping to £1M ARR with no funding, navigating the leap from software engineer to CEO, and competing with giants like Adobe in the crowded MarTech space. From identifying critical knowledge gaps to building a marketing team that influences product strategy, Nick reveals the hard-won lessons that separate founders who scale successfully from those who get stuck. The conversation also explores how ABM teams can demonstrate ROI through better measurement, personalisation at scale, and creating feedback loops that drive continuous improvement. What You'll Learn in This Episode: ✔️ How to bootstrap a tech startup from initial concept to 1M ARR with no funding ✔️ Strategies for identifying and overcoming "what you don't know you don't know" ✔️ How to compete with major players when you're a smaller company ✔️ Why marketing must be intrinsically linked to business strategy, not siloed ✔️ The importance of mentors, advisors, and continuous self-education in scaling ✔️ How to navigate from bootstrapping to Series A funding ✔️ The value of being noteworthy and differentiated in a crowded market ✔️How ABM teams can scale programmes, set up feedback loops, and connect content to pipeline Whether you're a founder navigating early-stage growth, a CEO looking to understand marketing's strategic value, or an entrepreneur facing challenges you've never encountered before, this episode offers practical wisdom and inspiration for your scaling journey. Connect with Nick on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/nickmasonsays/ Connect with Karen on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lloydkaren/ Find out more about Turtl at turtl.co Brought to you by Armstrong Lloyd - your go-to solution for recruiting marketing, sales, and business leaders in B2B. Want to know more? Discover more at armstronglloyd.co.uk

    34 min
  3. AI Search is Eating Your Traffic - Here's How to Win It Back with Kyle Byers, Semrush

    10/14/2025

    AI Search is Eating Your Traffic - Here's How to Win It Back with Kyle Byers, Semrush

    Your customers are making buying decisions in ChatGPT before ever visiting your site—and your analytics can't see it happening. We reveal why traditional attribution is broken, how the "great decoupling" is misleading marketing leaders, and what you must do now to show up where buyers actually research. In this episode of Spotlight on B2B Marketing, host Karen Lloyd explores the seismic shift in search behaviour with Semrush's Kyle Byers, a leading voice on winning in the age of AI.  Discover why your traffic is declining even when rankings improve, how conversion rates from AI search are 4.4 times higher than traditional SEO, and why cutting content budgets now could be catastrophic for your brand visibility. What You'll Learn in This Episode: ✔️ Why traffic declines even when rankings improve (the "great decoupling") ✔️ How customers conduct entire research journeys in AI search before reaching your site ✔️ Why conversion rates from ChatGPT are 4.4x higher than traditional SEO traffic ✔️ The attribution crisis: why your best marketing shows up as "direct" or "unknown" ✔️ Why ChatGPT will become the most powerful paid acquisition channel ever created ✔️ Which off-site platforms are now critical for B2B visibility From understanding how ChatGPT secretly relies on Google results to learning which platforms (Reddit, Quora, YouTube) are now essential for B2B brands, Kyle shares the tactical shifts marketing leaders need to make immediately.  Whether you're a CMO defending your SEO investment or a CEO trying to understand where your customers have gone, this episode provides the clarity and actionable strategies you need. Connect with Kyle on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kylebyers Connect with Karen on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lloydkaren/ Brought to you by Armstrong Lloyd - your go-to solution for recruiting marketing, sales, and business leaders in B2B. Want to know more? Discover more at armstronglloyd.co.uk

    31 min
  4. Diagnosing What's Wrong in Your Marketing Strategy and How to Fix It with Dani Smallbone

    10/01/2025

    Diagnosing What's Wrong in Your Marketing Strategy and How to Fix It with Dani Smallbone

    When growth stalls and something feels "off" with marketing, how do you diagnose the real problem? Is it the demand generation engine, the positioning, or something deeper in the business itself? In this episode of Spotlight on B2B Tech Marketing, host Karen Lloyd sits down with Dani Smallbone, a transformational fractional CMO specialising in turning underperforming marketing functions into strategic growth engines. With experience scaling companies from start-up to £40M ARR, Dani shares the diagnostic frameworks she uses to identify what's truly broken and the practical steps to fix it. What You’ll Learn in This Episode: ✔️ The telltale signs that indicate a marketing function needs transformation versus incremental improvement ✔️ How to diagnose whether your issue is product marketing, brand messaging, or demand generation ✔️ Real case studies of successful pivots including climate tech and HR tech transformations ✔️ How the CMO's role as diplomat and educator drives cross-functional alignment From pivoting climate tech companies into new markets to rebuilding demand generation from scratch, Dani reveals the patterns that indicate when transformation is needed versus incremental improvement—and why marketing can never be the sole engine of growth. Brought to you by Armstrong Lloyd - your go-to solution for recruiting marketing, sales, and business leaders in B2B. Want to know more? Discover more at armstronglloyd.co.uk

    32 min
  5. The Hidden 70% Pipeline Opportunity Most CEO's Are Missing with Oren Greenberg

    09/09/2025

    The Hidden 70% Pipeline Opportunity Most CEO's Are Missing with Oren Greenberg

    When CEO’s tell marketing advisors they want to become thought leaders, there's often a stark disconnect between their goals and their execution.  In this episode of Spotlight on B2B Marketing, host Karen Lloyd welcomes Oren Greenberg, a B2B marketing expert who has uncovered a pipeline opportunity that most leaders are completely overlooking. In analysing over 13,000 LinkedIn profiles, Oren's data is striking: some companies are generating up to 70% of their pipeline through personal branding and LinkedIn activity, whilst the majority of CEOs remain virtually invisible on the platform.  Personal profiles consistently outperform company pages by 5x for reach and engagement, yet most company pages struggle with an average of just 4 likes per post. What You’ll Learn in This Episode: ✔️ How some CEOs and CMOs generate 70% of their business pipeline through LinkedIn activity  ✔️ Why personal LinkedIn profiles perform 5x better than company pages for reach and engagement  ✔️ The psychological barriers that prevent successful leaders from building personal brands  ✔️ AI-powered personalization vs automated AI SDRs: What works and what doesn't  ✔️ Why the shift from traffic-driven to attention-based marketing is reshaping B2B strategies From the power of personal profiles over company pages to building modern marketing frameworks that actually work, Oren shares actionable insights that could transform how you think about B2B growth. Connect with Karen on LinkedIn Connect with Oren on LinkedIn or discover more about his work at orengreenberg.com Brought to you by Armstrong Lloyd - your go-to solution for recruiting marketing, sales, and business leaders in B2B. Want to know more? Discover more at armstronglloyd.co.uk

    34 min
  6. The Risks of Trying to Rush Quick Marketing Wins with Bianca Bass

    07/29/2025

    The Risks of Trying to Rush Quick Marketing Wins with Bianca Bass

    The pressure to deliver immediate marketing results has never been more intense. But what if chasing those quick wins is actually limiting your long-term success? In this episode, Bianca Bass, CMO of Privalgo and one of the Top 30 Most Influential Fintech Marketers, reveals why the most successful marketing leaders resist the temptation to rush results. Having transformed marketing functions across multiple fintech scale-ups, Bianca shares the strategic frameworks that create sustainable competitive advantage over flashy quick fixes. From her methodology for deep customer understanding to her evolved approach to team building, discover why patience and strategic thinking build marketing functions that truly scale businesses. What You'll Learn: ✔️ Why rushing to prove immediate ROI can backfire on long-term impact ✔️ How to shift from tactical activities to legacy-building marketing strategies ✔️ Strategic frameworks for sustainable B2B growth that withstand market changes ✔️ Why AI makes strategic thinking more valuable than ever for marketers ✔️ How to build internal stakeholder confidence without chasing vanity metrics Perfect for CMOs, marketing directors, and anyone leading marketing functions who want to build lasting impact rather than just hitting short-term targets. Connect with Karen on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lloydkaren/ Connect with Bianca on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/biancabass/ Brought to you by Armstrong Lloyd - your go-to solution for recruiting marketing, sales, and business leaders in B2B. Want to know more? Discover more at armstronglloyd.co.uk

    39 min
  7. From Solo Marketer to AI-Powered Team: Scaling with Wendy, Roger & Custom GPTs with Russ Somers

    07/15/2025

    From Solo Marketer to AI-Powered Team: Scaling with Wendy, Roger & Custom GPTs with Russ Somers

    Growing an early-stage company from zero to $30 million is one of the most challenging journeys in business—and it's where most marketing "playbooks" struggle. In this episode, industry veteran Russ Somers reveals what it really takes to drive explosive growth in early-stage companies. With multiple zero-to-$30M journeys under his belt, Russ brings a refreshingly honest perspective on startup marketing, sharing both heartbreaks and remarkable successes. From why he believes marketers should think like explorers rather than mechanics, to how he's building an AI-powered marketing team of custom GPTs, Russ challenges conventional wisdom while providing practical frameworks that actually work in the messy reality of start-up growth. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN: How to evaluate early-stage opportunities and avoid companies that are "too good to be true"Why $30M is the "magic number" where everything changesWhy marketing "playbooks" often fail and what successful early-stage marketers do insteadHow Russ built an AI-powered marketing team using custom GPTs named Wendy and RogerRuss shares the unvarnished truth about what it really takes to drive explosive growth in early-stage companies. Perfect for startup marketers, founders, and anyone tired of cookie-cutter marketing advice. Connect with Russ on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/russsomers/ Connect with Karen on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lloydkaren/ #marketing #podcast #russsomers #techstartup Brought to you by Armstrong Lloyd - your go-to solution for recruiting marketing, sales, and business leaders in B2B. Want to know more? Discover more at armstronglloyd.co.uk

    33 min

About

Welcome to Spotlight on B2B Marketing.Join me as we embark on a journey through the ever-evolving landscape of B2B marketing, featuring engaging interviews with industry leaders and C-suite decision-makers. Listen as we uncover the strategies, insights, and success stories where marketing has helped to drive revenue, innovation, and growth in the exciting B2B space.