Hello and welcome to the Exit Five Weekly Newsletter - read by 15,000 B2B marketing professionals around the world. Exit Five is a membership site designed to help you build a successful career in B2B marketing. Join 3,000 other members at exitfive.com.

(psst.. we're running a 24% offer right now, more about that at the bottom of this email).

Hey - Dave here.

I missed writing these. So I’m back in your inbox.

Quick note on why:

Since bringing on a COO here at Exit Five (now 45 days in) and a lot of the day to day operations off my plate, I finally have more time to do the things I like most: write and create.

So I’m going to be spending more of my time there and I’m shifting some of our budget around for some new ideas.

Shauntle (who has been writing our newsletter) has done an amazing job here over the last few months and she’s been a treat to work with. She’s creative. She moves fast. She gets shit done. She’s also been a marketing leader before so she’s not “just a content person” - she gets where content fits into a business strategy.

I’d love to help Shauntle find a few new clients and companies to work with heading into 2024 and I wanted to shout her out here in case you’re looking for content marketing help right now.

You can connect with her on LinkedIn here.

Your Success In B2B Marketing Will Come Down To This One Thing: How Well You Work With Others

I have learned this lesson the hard way.

Being "good at marketing" doesn't make you a great marketing leader.

Your success as a marketing leader (if you want to be one) will come down to your relationships inside the company:

You don't get to decide what's on the menu. You don't get to choose the ingredients and shop for the groceries. You don't get to cook the meal.

But guess what: you have to make sure people eat it 🙂

This is why so much of your success as a marketer comes down to your relationship inside the company.

• How do you work with the CEO?
• How do you work with the product team?
• How do you work with the VP of Sales?
• How do you work with Customer Success?
• How do you work with the CFO?
• How well do you manage your team? Set goals? Set expectations? Have hard conversations?

Those are the keys to being successful (and doing good marketing) and they have nothing to do with coming up with creative ideas, developing strategies, campaigns, and "doing" the marketing.

You have to be a change maker and influencer inside of your organization.

You have to be the resource people *want* to bring into conversations.

Is the VP of Product running out of a meeting with Engineering because she's excited to tell you about the new thing that's coming soon and wants Marketing to have a seat at the table and help bring this thing to life?

Or are they shutting you out, defensive, don't want marketing involved ...

I can tell you which company is going to be more successful with marketing.

- Dave

P.S. Since this is my first email back, can you reply and let me know if you read it? Or just to say hello. Or that you didn’t like this email. Or that you loved it. Or that you like my hair (I’m bald). Just reply and say hey.

🎧 Podcast #111: Podcasting Strategy for B2B - Do podcasts work? How do you measure ROI? (with Ian Faison, CEO of Caspian Studios)

My guest on the podcast this week is Ian Faison - Founder and CEO at Caspian Studios.

Caspian Studios manages 60+ podcasts and video series in a variety of industries. Ian is an Oakland native, former Army Captain, and West Point graduate and Co-founder of The Mission and co-founder of VETCON.

Ian joins me to talk about podcasting for B2B. Can it work? How do you think about ROI?

Ian also shares some of the behind the scenes from a recent show they created called Murder in HR - a narrative fiction podcast they created for the B2B SaaS brand Gympass - which reached #1 on the fictions charts in Apple podcasts and has over 1M listeners to date.

Listen to the Episode Now on Spotify

Or find it everywhere you listen by searching "Exit Five" podcast

📺 Upcoming Events

On January 31st we're hosting a live conversation with Natalie Marcotullio on "How To Improve The B2B Buying Experience With Interactive Product Demos." Natalie is the Head of Growth and Operations at Navattic, an interactive demo platform.

In 2024 buyers no longer trust traditional third-party channels like ads or white papers. Instead, they want to get first-party information upfront on your product - before jumping on a live call or setting up a free trial.

Learn how to build buyer trust through more hands-on product content, and how to tell a personalized, compelling story with those interactive demo assets.

Reserve your spot for this Exit Five Live event now.

Join us in Exit Five

Because no one goes to school for B2B marketing. 

We have a private community + content site for marketing pros like you and me if you’re looking for a peer group and discussion forum to help you grow your career in B2B marketing.

Get feedback, campaign ideas, browse templates, videos, guides, get recommendations on agencies and vendors, find contractors and freelancers, vent about your boss, find new jobs and more.

We have a 7 day free trial so you can join 100% risk free. And right now we’re running a special offer for January. Just click here and use the promo code "2024" when you signup and you can join for 24% off - which saves you $72/year on an annual subscription.