The Marketing Front Lines

Front Lines Media

Learn directly from B2B marketers on the front lines. Brought to you by:  www.FrontLines.io/podcast — Podcast-as-a-Service for B2B tech brands. Launch your show in 45 days.

  1. Why Bold Marketing Beats Perfect Marketing Every Time

    10H AGO

    Why Bold Marketing Beats Perfect Marketing Every Time

    In this episode of The Marketing Front Lines, we speak with Harmony Hickman Anderson, VP of Growth & Marketing at Superhuman. Fresh off Grammarly's acquisition of Superhuman in July 2025, Harmony shares her playbook for bold, outcomes-driven marketing in high-growth B2B startups. She reveals how she launched Superhuman's biggest campaign ever just six weeks into her role, why she believes entrepreneurial mindset trumps experience, and her controversial take on AI's impact on marketing roles. For growth-stage marketers navigating acquisitions, building lean teams, or fighting for every dollar of pipeline, this conversation delivers tactical frameworks from someone operating at the intersection of premium product marketing and aggressive growth targets. Topics Discussed: Navigating marketing integration during company acquisitions Building bold marketing campaigns with limited time and resources Hiring for entrepreneurial mindset over specific skill sets Evaluating companies before joining using a structured decision framework Balancing speed and quality in marketing execution Restructuring marketing teams in the age of AI Creating differentiated positioning in commoditized markets Managing up when leadership has different philosophies Lessons For B2B Tech Marketers: Treat Post-Acquisition Integration Like Your First 90 Days: When your company gets acquired, approach it as if you're starting a new role. Proactively build connections across the broader organization, integrate into new operating rhythms, and demonstrate value beyond your original product team. Keep doors open—larger organizations offer opportunities that may not have existed at your startup. Launch Campaigns Around Seasonal Moments, Not Perfect Timing: Harmony launched Superhuman's biggest campaign ever within six weeks of joining, pushing through the holidays because the seasonal moment was right. The campaign's success proved that capitalizing on timing can outweigh waiting for perfection. In fast-moving markets, boldness and speed create competitive advantage. Prioritize Entrepreneurial Mindset Over Perfect Experience: Hire people who can solve problems without hand-holding, ask the right questions, and adapt to ambiguity—even if they only have half the required experience. At startups where job descriptions change every 12 hours, the ability to navigate uncertainty matters more than checking every skill box. Use a Decision Matrix for Company Evaluation: Before joining any startup, evaluate companies across a structured framework covering product-market fit, AI-native capabilities, team culture, remote flexibility, and growth stage. This systematic approach prevents costly mistakes and ensures alignment on what matters most to your career trajectory. Balance Bold Execution with Outcome Accountability: Being bold works when you consistently deliver on targets. Harmony negotiated space for speed and risk-taking by meeting growth goals, which gave her credibility to push back on perfection paralysis. Outcomes-driven results create permission for aggressive marketing tactics. Rethink Content Marketing Headcount in the AI Era: Instead of hiring traditional content marketers, restructure teams around editors who guide AI-generated content and ensure it doesn't sound robotic. This headcount tradeoff allows investment in higher-leverage roles like product marketing or growth, while maintaining content output through scaled AI writing. Combat Marketing Jargon with Data-Driven Outcomes: Rather than billboard messaging like "AI productivity suite," focus on tangible value propositions backed by data: "4 fewer hours in email per week" or "2x your email response time." Specificity and measurable outcomes cut through the noise in oversaturated markets. Meet in the Middle Between Speed and Quality: When working with quality-obsessed leaders, find the middle ground between bold execution and craftsmanship. Acknowledge that customer-centricity and perfection matter, but negotiate on where speed can accelerate impact without sacrificing core brand values.   //   Sponsors: Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership. www.FrontLines.io The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe.  www.GlobalTalent.co   //   Don't Miss: New Podcast Series — How I Hire Senior GTM leaders share the tactical hiring frameworks they use to build winning revenue teams. Hosted by Andy Mowat, who scaled 4 unicorns from $10M to $100M+ ARR and launched Whispered to help executives find their next role. Subscribe here: https://open.spotify.com/show/53yCHlPfLSMFimtv0riPyM

    22 min
  2. How Claire Buffington turned 25 years in intelligence into a defense tech GTM playbook | OpenInfer

    4D AGO

    How Claire Buffington turned 25 years in intelligence into a defense tech GTM playbook | OpenInfer

    Claire Buffington spent 25 years in national security—as a Marine Corps intelligence officer, chief of staff at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and intelligence officer for the U.S. Capitol Police. After running continuity of government operations and writing whole-of-government counterterrorism strategies, she joined defense tech startup OpenInfer. In this conversation, Claire reveals the tactical realities of defense procurement: why traditional acquisition pathways fail startups, how to navigate unit-level vs. program office dynamics, and the specific frameworks that actually generate traction with government buyers. Topics Discussed: Strategic guidance cascades and how DOD priorities flow from national policy to unit budgets  The structural gap between Pentagon program offices and tactical operators  Commercially available off-the-shelf solutions vs. legacy procurement models  Grassroots engagement strategies at DEFCON and DOD pitch competitions  Direct engineer-to-operator iteration as a rapid acquisition pathway  Risk reduction vs. economic ROI as the primary value metric in defense  Proof of concept to pilot to contract progression in government sales  The intelligence analysis workflow challenge: 3,000 reports, 24-hour cycles, 6-7 person teams  Why venture customers matter differently in defense contexts     //   Sponsors: Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership. www.FrontLines.io The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe.  www.GlobalTalent.co   //   Don't Miss: New Podcast Series — How I Hire Senior GTM leaders share the tactical hiring frameworks they use to build winning revenue teams. Hosted by Andy Mowat, who scaled 4 unicorns from $10M to $100M+ ARR and launched Whispered to help executives find their next role. Subscribe here: https://open.spotify.com/show/53yCHlPfLSMFimtv0riPyM

    25 min
  3. The RISE Framework: Getting Found When AI Does the Searching

    4D AGO

    The RISE Framework: Getting Found When AI Does the Searching

    In this episode of The Marketing Front Lines, we speak with Ted Skinner, Vice President of Marketing at Fullintel. As AI transforms how buyers research and evaluate solutions, B2B marketers face an urgent imperative: adapt to answer engine optimization or risk invisibility. With 89% of procurement departments now starting their vendor search with AI, and the average search query expanding from 2-3 words to 23 words, the game has fundamentally changed. Skinner shares the tactical framework his team uses to navigate this revolution, explaining how marketers can position their brands to be discovered when AI agents—not humans—are doing the searching. Topics Discussed: The shift from search engine optimization (SEO) to answer engine optimization (AEO) Why 60% of Google searches now end without a click How procurement departments use AI to begin 89% of vendor searches The evolution of search queries from 2-3 words to 23-word conversational questions Integrating marketing and PR messaging across all customer touchpoints Why first-mover advantage has compressed from years to months The difference between AI as a productivity tool versus AI as a strategic threat How agentic AI is already making purchases autonomously Lessons For B2B Marketers: Research Your Current AI Visibility: Go to ChatGPT and search for your product category as if you were a prospect. Ask questions like "What are the top [your category] solutions for [specific use case]?" This reveals whether you're even appearing in AI-generated responses. Since 50% of ChatGPT queries end without further clicks, if you're not in that initial response, you're invisible to half your potential buyers. Implement the RISE Framework for AEO: Use this four-step approach—Research (audit where you appear in AI responses now), Integrate (unify messaging across marketing, sales, PR, and customer success), Scale (double down on what's working, particularly podcasts and thought leadership), and Evaluate (measure by lead quality and sales feedback, not just volume). This framework helps marketers systematically address the shift from traditional SEO to answer engine optimization. Prepare Your Data for Machine Reading: Validate your website using schema.org markup to ensure AI can properly parse your information. With the rise of "micro queries"—where AI agents ask highly specific questions about products—your technical documentation, pricing, and feature descriptions need to be structured for machine interpretation, not just human readers. Treat Sales Qualification Questions as Pre-Discovery Insights: When prospects contact you, always ask "How did you find us?" If they say ChatGPT or another AI tool, they're 10 times more likely to convert because they've completed 99% of their research before engaging. This means marketing's role shifts from lead generation to facilitating self-education through ungated, comprehensive content. Ungate Everything Except Your Demo: The traditional gated content model is dead in an AI-first world. Buyers want instant access to information without friction. Reserve gating only for your product demo, where you can ask qualifying questions and personalize the experience. Everything else—whitepapers, case studies, guides—should be freely accessible so AI can index and reference it. Integrate Marketing and PR Under One Message: The separation between marketing and PR no longer makes sense when AI aggregates information from all sources. If your marketing team speaks one language, your PR team another, and your sales team a third, prospects face a translation burden that will send them to competitors. Audit your entire customer journey from RFP to onboarding using an AI assistant to identify messaging inconsistencies.   //   Sponsors: Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership. www.FrontLines.io The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe.  www.GlobalTalent.co   //   Don't Miss: New Podcast Series — How I Hire Senior GTM leaders share the tactical hiring frameworks they use to build winning revenue teams. Hosted by Andy Mowat, who scaled 4 unicorns from $10M to $100M+ ARR and launched Whispered to help executives find their next role. Subscribe here: https://open.spotify.com/show/53yCHlPfLSMFimtv0riPyM

    27 min
  4. How Everflow Hit $28M ARR With 60% Referral Growth (and Did it While Staying 100% Bootstrapped)

    4D AGO

    How Everflow Hit $28M ARR With 60% Referral Growth (and Did it While Staying 100% Bootstrapped)

    In this episode of The Marketing Front Lines, we speak with Michael Cole, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Everflow. Everflow is a bootstrapped partner marketing platform that has scaled to $28 million in ARR through a referral-driven growth engine and exceptional customer success. Michael shares how affiliate marketing is evolving from a performance-only channel into a strategic driver of brand discovery, particularly as AI-powered search transforms how buyers find and evaluate solutions. From leveraging AI tools like Gemini and Notebook LM to building a masterclass content series that capitalizes on LLM citations, Michael reveals the tactical playbook that's working in 2025. Topics Discussed The evolution of affiliate marketing from coupon-focused performance channels to strategic brand-building partnerships that drive top-of-funnel awareness and long-term customer value How AI-powered search (ChatGPT, Gemini) is creating new opportunities for publishers and reshaping the discovery landscape through citation-based recommendations Building a 60% referral-driven growth engine through customer success excellence, agency partnerships, and community building at industry conferences Using AI tools strategically: Gemini for content creation and critical feedback, Notebook LM for analyzing sales call transcripts to extract customer insights Creating "masterclass" content by converting expert interviews into discoverable, citation-worthy articles that capture proprietary knowledge The strategic decision to scale down profitable Google Ads despite positive ROI to focus resources on channels that drive sustainable word-of-mouth growth Lessons for B2B Tech Marketers Prioritize Customer Success as Your Primary Growth Engine: Everflow generates 60% of customer revenue through referrals by investing heavily in customer success—their largest team. When you're a more advanced platform requiring onboarding complexity, exceptional support transforms customers into true fans who actively recommend you to industry peers. This creates a compounding growth loop where happy customers become your most effective sales channel. Rethink Affiliate Marketing as a Strategic Brand Channel: Traditional affiliate marketing focused narrowly on last-click revenue attribution, missing the substantial top-of-funnel value that publications like Forbes and Wirecutter provide. Track the full customer journey—engagement metrics, pricing page visits, and post-purchase behavior—to demonstrate how affiliate relationships drive higher-value customers who return and upgrade more frequently than those acquired through direct response channels. Optimize for AI Citation and Discovery: With ChatGPT and Gemini pulling answers from multiple publications simultaneously, getting mentioned in long-tail publisher content is now critical for brand discovery. Build strategic affiliate relationships with publishers not just for performance tracking, but to ensure your brand appears in their content with the right messaging and sentiment that LLMs will cite when answering category-related queries. Turn Expert Knowledge into Discoverable ContentMost industry expertise lives in people's heads and has never been documented. Use AI to transform expert conversations into citation-worthy content: conduct calls with customers, partners, and industry experts, feed the transcripts into Gemini, and create "masterclass" articles that capture proprietary insights. This content becomes discoverable by LLMs even without ranking highly in traditional SEO. Use Notebook LM for Systematic Customer Intelligence: Upload transcripts from sales calls that converted to customers, then query the collection to extract patterns about what prospects care about, which verticals they're in, and where they struggle. Use these insights to refine website messaging, sales enablement, and product positioning based on authentic customer feedback that would otherwise go unanalyzed. Scale Down Profitable Channels That Create the Wrong Growth Dynamics: Even when Google Ads generates positive ROI, evaluate whether the channel avalanches your sales team with low-intent leads and produces customers who struggle with onboarding. Bootstrapped efficiency means optimizing for sustainable, word-of-mouth-driven growth rather than maximizing short-term revenue from channels that don't compound. Choose AI Tools Based on Work Style, Not Hype: Gemini excels at providing critical, actionable feedback ("headline terrible, first section terrible") rather than being a "yes person" like ChatGPT or Claude. This makes it superior for website critiques and strategic assessments. It's also stronger for email writing due to Gmail data integration. Test paid versions of AI tools rather than free tiers, as the quality difference is substantial. Build Community Through Exclusive Conference Experiences: Host memorable parties at industry conferences exclusively for customers to build tribal identity and loyalty. When customers know they have access to the coolest events at every conference, it creates ongoing goodwill and reinforces their decision to remain customers and advocates. Structure Agency Partnerships as a Two-Way Referral System: In channels requiring specialized expertise like affiliate marketing, sending prospects to trusted agencies creates a reciprocal relationship where agencies recommend your platform to their clients. This generates highly qualified leads since prospects arrive with committed implementation partners already in place. Focus AI Implementation on High-Leverage Use Cases: Most AI applications remain hype and distraction. The two proven use cases for marketers are summarization (transcripts to content, calls to emails, research synthesis) and discoverability (creating content that gets cited by LLMs). Concentrate resources on these areas rather than chasing every new AI capability.   //   Sponsors: Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership. www.FrontLines.io The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe.  www.GlobalTalent.co   //   Don't Miss: New Podcast Series — How I Hire Senior GTM leaders share the tactical hiring frameworks they use to build winning revenue teams. Hosted by Andy Mowat, who scaled 4 unicorns from $10M to $100M+ ARR and launched Whispered to help executives find their next role. Subscribe here: https://open.spotify.com/show/53yCHlPfLSMFimtv0riPyM

    29 min
  5. Why Marketing Ops Should Be Your First GTM Hire

    OCT 7

    Why Marketing Ops Should Be Your First GTM Hire

    In this episode of The Marketing Front Lines, we speak with Amit Gupta, Senior Director of Marketing Operations at Fortanix. With 11 years of experience building marketing and sales infrastructure from the ground up, Amit shares his journey from co-founding a marketing operations consulting firm (later acquired by Deloitte Digital) to transforming Fortanix from Excel sheets to a comprehensive HubSpot-powered revenue engine. He reveals the strategic role marketing operations plays in attribution, pipeline tracking, and GTM success—and why ops should be Day 1, not an afterthought. Topics Discussed: The evolution from marketing/sales ops to revenue operations Setting up CRM infrastructure at the earliest stages of product readiness Building solution architecture for lead management, routing, and attribution Transitioning sales teams from Excel sheets to sophisticated CRM systems Multi-touch attribution and pipeline tracking methodologies The strategic importance of operations in budget allocation and campaign ROI AI's impact on SEO and content strategy for marketing operations Evaluating and selecting the right CRM for different business models Lessons For B2B Tech Marketers: Treat Marketing Operations as a Strategic GTM Function, Not a Technical Afterthought: Marketing operations should begin when your product is ready for GTM, not months later. Without proper infrastructure from day one, you'll lose critical attribution data and never understand which campaigns drove pipeline. Operations teams don't just implement tools—they create the data architecture that informs strategic decisions about budget allocation and campaign effectiveness. Implement Your CRM Before Scaling Demand Generation: Don't run events, launch campaigns, or hire sales teams without a source of truth in place. Investors want to see pipeline, but you can't track pipeline without proper stage management in a CRM. Even basic HubSpot or Pipedrive implementations are better than sophisticated Excel sheets—rows and columns make analysis exponentially harder as you scale. Design Attribution Systems with Future Data Needs in Mind: Attribution isn't automatic—every tool requires thoughtful setup to ensure timestamps and touchpoints are captured correctly. When building workflows, marketing ops professionals should think not just about current needs, but how data will look six months or a year from now. Poor attribution setup means never knowing which campaigns actually generated revenue. Hire Marketing Ops People Who Solve Logic Problems, Not Just Tool Problems: When evaluating marketing ops candidates, present them with real workflow scenarios: "If a lead comes from this source, how do you map it, where does it go, who gets assigned?" Strong ops people understand logic flows and can solve problems with any available tool, not just the specific platform you're using. They should think methodologically about connecting dots across your entire tech stack. Build Your Technical Stack Based on Business Model, Not Brand Names: SaaS companies and startups can thrive on HubSpot or Pipedrive, while complex retail operations with quote generation and multi-location management may need Salesforce's visual pages and modular structure. Don't over-engineer your stack with enterprise tools when your business model doesn't require them—focus on what supports your actual GTM motion. Prepare for AI-Driven Search by Creating FAQ-Focused Content: The shift from traditional SEO to AI search engine optimization means users want summaries, not deep blog dives. By creating comprehensive FAQ and question-answer content two years ago, Fortanix now receives over 10,000 visits monthly from AI search engines. Operations teams should drive this content strategy based on search behavior data. Position Marketing Operations as Revenue Operations Partners to the CMO: The future of marketing ops is evolving from pure execution to strategic advising. Ops leaders should sit beside the CMO with data-backed proposals on budget allocation—showing exactly how much should go to technical infrastructure versus demand gen, paid marketing, or brand awareness. Every recommendation should be supported by insights from your tool stack. Don't Underestimate Compliance and Tracking from Launch: GDPR, CCPA, and other compliance frameworks should be implemented when your website goes live, not retrofitted later. Website tracking is the foundation of all downstream attribution—if your site isn't properly tracked, nothing else in your marketing stack will provide accurate data.     //   Sponsors: Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership. www.FrontLines.io The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe.  www.GlobalTalent.co   //   Don't Miss: New Podcast Series — How I Hire Senior GTM leaders share the tactical hiring frameworks they use to build winning revenue teams. Hosted by Andy Mowat, who scaled 4 unicorns from $10M to $100M+ ARR and launched Whispered to help executives find their next role. Subscribe here: https://open.spotify.com/show/53yCHlPfLSMFimtv0riPyM

    17 min
  6. Why Marketing Lost Its Craft (And How AI Could Force It Back)

    OCT 7

    Why Marketing Lost Its Craft (And How AI Could Force It Back)

    In this episode of The Marketing Front Lines, we speak with Brandon Young, CMO of Garner Health. Brandon brings a provocative perspective on modern B2B marketing's evolution—or devolution, as he argues. With decades of experience spanning the early digital era to today's AI-driven landscape, Brandon shares unfiltered views on why marketing has lost its craft, how AI is restructuring marketing organizations, and why the pursuit of category creation has become a hollow exercise. This conversation goes beyond surface-level tactics to examine the existential challenges facing marketing leaders and the fundamental shifts required to remain relevant in an AI-augmented future. Topics Discussed: The devolution of marketing from craft to attention-grabbing  AI's impact on marketing team structure and hiring decisions  Why category creation died "a death of many cuts"  Building AI-powered marketing assistants trained on personal feedback  The erosion of entry-level and mid-level marketing roles  Grounding creative vision with CFO/COO partnerships  Creating long-form value versus chasing quick dopamine hits  Managing cross-functional relationships in remote work environments  Training custom AI models as "chief publishing officers" Lessons for B2B Tech Marketers: Train Your AI Replacement Before It Replaces You: Brandon spent 18 months building a custom AI model trained on every piece of feedback he's given his team and everything he's written over the past decade. The result: an AI that can handle 90-95% of chief publishing officer responsibilities—copywriting, brand tone matching, and content review. Rather than fearing AI displacement, proactive marketers should create their own AI assistants that multiply their capabilities. This isn't about automation; it's about building a tool that thinks like you do and can execute at scale. Become the "AI Multi-Manager" or Become Obsolete: The new marketing career path requires being an "AI jockey"—someone who can orchestrate multiple AI tools, build workflows between them, and QA outputs with deep disciplinary knowledge. Junior hires must now compete with AI capabilities, so the question becomes: can you manage AI tools better than the AI itself performs? Organizations are already replacing entire teams with one director and one person, using AI to fill the gap. Marketers must develop technical fluency (basic React, understanding code scaffolding) while maintaining strategic oversight. Reclaim Marketing as Value Creation, Not Attention Extraction: Brandon challenges marketers to create content that holds attention for four hours, not four seconds. In an era where AI can generate average marketing at scale, differentiation comes from depth and genuine value. The test: would someone engage with your content for an extended period because it genuinely enriches them? This requires resisting the dopamine-driven metrics of likes and quick engagement in favor of creating substantive, long-form experiences that establish real authority. Category Creation Requires Value Differentiation, Not Forced Frameworks: The death of category creation came from CMOs following playbooks purchased for $299, naming categories without earning the right through genuine market differentiation. True category establishment starts from delivering more value than competitors—solving problems differently enough to warrant new language. Brandon sees organizations pressured by boards to execute category creation steps without the underlying value innovation, resulting in "flaccid" campaigns where sales reps use the terminology but nothing feels differentiated. Build Your Marketing Philosophy Through CFO/COO Mentorship: While marketing mentors help with creative vision, CFOs and COOs provide the grounding that transforms dreams into executable strategy. They teach marketers how to tie vision to business value, build frameworks for organizational buy-in, and communicate ROI in language that resonates beyond the marketing department. The most effective marketing leaders combine aspirational thinking (head in the sky) with operational realism (feet on the ground)—a balance best learned from finance and operations partners. Confront Organizational Friction Directly, Especially Remotely: First-time marketing leaders often avoid difficult conversations with peers (especially CROs), perceiving normal business tension as conflict. Brandon's advice: just walk into the conversation. Remote work has eliminated the hallway moments that naturally diffused tension, so leaders must proactively create space for direct dialogue. When leaders avoid friction, their teams mirror that avoidance, creating deeper organizational dysfunction. Building vulnerability-based accountability—asking reports to call you out when you're avoiding difficult relationships—helps break this pattern. Hire for AI Orchestration Potential Over Traditional Skills: When evaluating junior hires, Brandon asks: can they outperform AI, or can they be an "AI jockey" who will likely become a CMO in five years? The latter is more valuable. Organizations are hedging against hiring mid-level roles they'll need to eliminate in 1-2 years as AI capabilities improve. The new entry point requires someone who can string together multiple AI tools, build workflows, deeply understand marketing disciplines to QA AI output, and rapidly learn from AI-as-mentor rather than learning through traditional 10-year apprenticeships.   //   Sponsors: Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership. www.FrontLines.io The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe.  www.GlobalTalent.co   //   Don't Miss: New Podcast Series — How I Hire Senior GTM leaders share the tactical hiring frameworks they use to build winning revenue teams. Hosted by Andy Mowat, who scaled 4 unicorns from $10M to $100M+ ARR and launched Whispered to help executives find their next role. Subscribe here: https://open.spotify.com/show/53yCHlPfLSMFimtv0riPyM

    25 min
  7. How to Win with Original Research Featuring SmartPM’s Alexandre Teplitxky

    OCT 7

    How to Win with Original Research Featuring SmartPM’s Alexandre Teplitxky

    In this episode of The Marketing Front Lines, we speak with Alexandre Teplitxky, Senior Vice President of Marketing at SmartPM Technologies. SmartPM operates in the construction technology space, serving an industry that employs millions and builds the physical world around us. Alexandre shares a comprehensive masterclass on executing high-impact original research reports, specifically detailing how SmartPM's State of Construction Scheduling Report became their most successful marketing asset. By combining proprietary data analysis of 70,000 schedule files with thousands of survey responses, SmartPM created a research piece that delivered 100x the results of shorter marketing assets while taking only 4x longer to produce. Topics Discussed Creating original research reports using proprietary data and survey methodology Combining quantitative data analysis with qualitative survey responses for compelling narratives Leveraging AI tools (ChatGPT) to streamline survey design and question optimization The team composition and cross-functional collaboration required for successful research projects Distribution strategies that maximize reach and engagement for research reports The gated versus ungated content debate and finding the right balance Building virality into research reports through strategic stakeholder inclusion Resource allocation: when to invest deeply versus execute quickly Lessons For B2B Tech Marketers Leverage Your Unique Data Position: SmartPM identified that they had access to 70,000 schedule files that nobody else could analyze. The key insight is recognizing when your company sits on proprietary data that can answer questions your market desperately wants answered. Don't just think about survey data - look at your product usage data, customer outcomes, or technical analyses that only you can perform. ChatGPT Has Revolutionized Survey Design: What used to require hiring specialized survey consultants and going through rounds of expert review on Upwork can now be handled in-house with AI assistance. Alexandre specifically uses ChatGPT to refine question wording, identify bias, and improve survey structure. This democratizes access to quality research methodology for smaller marketing teams without sacrificing rigor. Distribute With Orchestrated Intensity: Distribution isn't a press release and LinkedIn post - it's a multi-week orchestrated campaign. SmartPM's approach included: partnering with industry publications (Construction Dive), creating participation lists for internal company-wide social amplification, strategically embedding quotes from external authorities to give them skin in the game for sharing, running targeted LinkedIn ads, and planning content syndication. The asset is expensive regardless - distribution is where ROI happens. The Math Favors Depth Over Breadth: A one-week asset versus a one-month asset might seem like a 4x time investment difference, but SmartPM found the research report delivered 100x the results. This fundamentally changes the calculus around resource allocation. Rather than producing multiple shallow assets, concentrate resources on fewer, deeper pieces that have legitimate authority and staying power. Include Non-Marketers in Analysis: When reviewing survey results and data patterns, SmartPM intentionally brings in engineers, product managers, and other non-marketing perspectives. The reasoning: you're not marketing to marketers (unless you literally are), and different cognitive approaches will spot different patterns, angles, and narratives in the same data set. This prevents marketer groupthink from limiting your storytelling. Design Must Stop The Scroll: No matter how rigorous your methodology or insightful your findings, if the visual presentation doesn't stop someone scrolling LinkedIn, your research won't get downloaded. SmartPM's designers focused specifically on creating assets that would visually stand out in social feeds - treating boring graphs and data tables as design challenges rather than accepting them as-is. Build Virality Through Strategic Attribution: SmartPM requested quotes and testimonials from vendors, semi-competitors, and industry authorities, offering them featured placement in the report. This wasn't just for credibility - it gave these external parties legitimate reasons to share and promote the report to their own networks, exponentially expanding distribution beyond SmartPM's owned channels. Accept the Gating Paradox: Alexandre candidly admits the tension: ungated content likely builds better long-term brand equity and inbound momentum, but gated content provides the tangible metrics (form fills, contact lists) that organizations measure marketing performance against. His compromise: gate strategically while maintaining substantial ungated content, and always provide ungated access to survey participants as an incentive for completion.   //   Sponsors: Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership. www.FrontLines.io The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe.  www.GlobalTalent.co   //   Don't Miss: New Podcast Series — How I Hire Senior GTM leaders share the tactical hiring frameworks they use to build winning revenue teams. Hosted by Andy Mowat, who scaled 4 unicorns from $10M to $100M+ ARR and launched Whispered to help executives find their next role. Subscribe here: https://open.spotify.com/show/53yCHlPfLSMFimtv0riPyM

    25 min
  8. Storytelling for Technical Products w/ Debbie Soon

    SEP 19

    Storytelling for Technical Products w/ Debbie Soon

    In this episode of The Marketing Front Lines, we speak with Debbie Soon, Head of Marketing at Privy. Privy provides embedded wallet infrastructure that powers crypto applications across DeFi, consumer trading, and enterprise use cases. Following their acquisition by Stripe, Privy operates as an autonomous brand within Stripe's ecosystem, serving developers building crypto applications and enterprises requiring compliant wallet infrastructure. As the sole marketing team member managing a multi-layered technical audience, Debbie shares tactical frameworks for scaling marketing operations in infrastructure companies. Topics Discussed Operating as a solo marketing function in technical infrastructure companies Managing marketing strategy continuity through M&A integration Building storytelling frameworks for developer-focused products Segmenting messaging across technical and business decision-maker audiences Establishing cross-functional product launch processes Leveraging acquisition resources while maintaining brand autonomy Lessons For B2B Tech Marketers Build Brand Foundation as Cross-Team Multiplier, Not Marketing Deliverable: Debbie positioned brand foundation work as operational infrastructure rather than traditional marketing output. At Privy, she established brand positioning, voice, and values as shared frameworks that enable engineers writing documentation, sales teams in customer calls, and product teams at conferences to maintain consistent messaging. Her insight: "The best marketing that we have is actually every single person on the team" - treating brand guidelines as scaling mechanisms for distributed customer touchpoints. Structure Technical Storytelling Around Customer Journey Architecture: Rather than product-feature storytelling, Debbie constructs narratives around customer problem-solution journeys. For case studies, she documents why customer companies exist before demonstrating Privy's integration, creating context that resonates with similar prospects facing comparable challenges. This approach transforms technical documentation into business context, making infrastructure solutions accessible to non-technical stakeholders while maintaining developer credibility. Design Multi-Audience Messaging Through Layered Positioning Strategy: Privy serves three distinct segments: developers (integration users), enterprises (procurement decision-makers), and end users (often unaware Privy exists). Debbie maintains core positioning consistency while adapting emphasis: developers need technical confidence and implementation clarity, enterprises require reputation risk mitigation, end users benefit from invisible functionality. Her framework enables white-label implementations where Privy remains hidden while ensuring developer and enterprise messaging drives adoption. Implement "Intuition Guided by Data" Decision Framework: Debbie operates on creative intuition validated through performance metrics rather than pure data-driven approaches. This methodology enables experimentation with larger creative bets (enabled by Stripe resources) while maintaining accountability. Her approach balances creative risk-taking with measurable outcomes, particularly valuable for infrastructure companies where traditional marketing metrics may not capture long-term developer adoption patterns. Establish Pre-Launch Success Definition Alignment Process: Debbie structures product launches around upfront stakeholder alignment on business objectives, success metrics definition, and audience-specific messaging coherence. This prevents post-launch evaluation confusion and ensures engineering sprint deadlines align with marketing timeline requirements. Her process includes mapping different audience segment priorities to feature emphasis, enabling coordinated go-to-market execution across technical and business audiences. Maintain Strategic Autonomy During Resource Integration: Post-Stripe acquisition, Debbie preserved core marketing strategy while leveraging specialized resources (SEO teams) and expanded budgets for experimental activations. She retained ownership of content, product marketing, and event strategy while outsourcing technical specializations. This approach enabled scaling without losing brand voice consistency or customer obsession focus that differentiated Privy pre-acquisition.   //   Sponsors: Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership. www.FrontLines.io The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe.  www.GlobalTalent.co   //   Don't Miss: New Podcast Series — How I Hire Senior GTM leaders share the tactical hiring frameworks they use to build winning revenue teams. Hosted by Andy Mowat, who scaled 4 unicorns from $10M to $100M+ ARR and launched Whispered to help executives find their next role. Subscribe here: https://open.spotify.com/show/53yCHlPfLSMFimtv0riPyM

    22 min
See All (97)

About

Learn directly from B2B marketers on the front lines. Brought to you by:  www.FrontLines.io/podcast — Podcast-as-a-Service for B2B tech brands. Launch your show in 45 days.

Information

  • Creator
    Front Lines Media
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2025
  • Episodes
    97
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2024 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    The Marketing Front Lines