This episode features an interview with Emily Campbell, CMO at Blackline, a leading provider of cloud software that automates and controls critical accounting processes.

In this episode, Emily discusses their shift to lifecycle marketing and her focus on doing fewer things better to drive efficiency. She also dives into her approach to experimentation, and how she’s allocating 50% of her budget to experiments as a way to future proof their organization.

Key Takeaways:

• It’s important to understand how the customer behaves at each stage of the buying journey and to build lifecycle campaigns accordingly.
• A connected content strategy that builds on itself is an important component of lifecycle campaigns and streamlines retargeting efforts.
• Experiments are a way to future-proof the marketing organization, and pushes the team to try new ideas and to take calculated risks.

Quote:

• “It's probably more like 50 percent of our budget is for experiments this year. I really think about that as an investment in future-proofing our marketing organization. And I want to make sure that the team doesn't get super comfortable in what they're doing. So, I think that innovation really helps push them outside of their comfort zones. But I think we need to be testing new ideas. We need to be taking the, I'll say, calculated risks. We don't want to be throwing money away, but we need to learn what works and what doesn't. And, you know, one of the things that I'm trying to bring to the team is a sense of, we're going to celebrate successes and failures because those failures provide as much learning as the successes, if not more. And so we are very focused on fail fast, learn fast, try more. And, again, still fewer things better, but try new things that we haven't had a lot of experience with in the past.”

Episode Timestamps:

*(02:27) The Trust Tree: Lifecycle campaigns and understanding customer behavior
*(12:11) The Playbook: Relevant content at the top of the funnel
*(33:43 ) The Dust Up: Competitors that advertise on your key terms
*(35:35) Quick Hits: Emily’s Quick Hits

Sponsor:

Pipeline Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for pipeline pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more.

Links:

• Connect with Ian on LinkedIn
• Connect with Emily on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Blackline
• Learn more about Caspian Studios
• Blackline Customer Look Book

This episode features an interview with John Schneider, CMO at Betterworks, a performance management solution HR professionals rely on for increasing employee engagement, manager efficiency, and business impact.

In this episode, John shares insights into how he transformed Betterworks' content strategy to cut lead costs by 65% and why establishing a trusted sub-brand has been crucial to their success. He also talks about the importance of strategic experimentation and understanding the multidimensional levers in marketing.

Key Takeaways:

• By focusing on a content-first approach rather than paid-only channels, you can significantly reduce lead acquisition costs. BetterWorks achieved a 65% reduction in cost per lead over John’s time as CMO for the company.
• There are benefits to building a sub-brand to house content that resonates with your audience. It can help differentiate the company and attract significantly higher engagement.
• Strong content can engage the full buying committee across personas. Making quality, accessible thought leadership content engages a company at multiple touchpoints, resulting in an easier sales process.

Quote:

• “You have to realize in marketing, you are absolutely not playing checkers. You're playing chess and you're probably playing some multidimensional version of chess. And you can't expect immediate results from everything you do. If it was easy to do what you're going to go do, they would not have hired you because the former person would still be there. And all those things have probably been tried in different capacities. And what is really important is to balance the tension between taking action but also doing it in a quality way and with some strategic foresight. And that's where the experimentation really comes in, understanding the scenarios and the outcomes. It's good to experiment and it's okay not to know what the outcome will be, but you need to know which lever you're pulling or you're not going to have a result that you can then fix against.”

Episode Timestamps:

*(04:12) The Trust Tree: Auditing when you step into a new role

*(23:23) The Playbook: Content as the lifeblood, shared through a sub-brand

*(35:37) The Dust-Up: Having a say in pricing and packaging

*(38:37) Quick Hits: John’s Quick Hits

Sponsor:

Pipeline Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com. Qualified helps you turn your website into a pipeline generation machine with PipelineAI. Engage and convert your most valuable website visitors with live chat, chatbots, meeting scheduling, intent data, and Piper, your AI SDR. Visit Qualified.com to learn more.

Links:

• Connect with Ian on LinkedIn
• Connect with John on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Betterworks
• Learn more about Caspian Studios

This episode features an interview with Shannon Duffy, CMO at Asana, the enterprise work management platform that connects company-wide goals, strategic initiatives, and the execution of work in one place.

In this episode, Shannon discusses their evolution from product-led growth to targeting enterprise clients, and the challenges and successes of expanding up market. She also shares her thoughts on thinking beyond the data.

Key Takeaways:

• While data-driven decisions are critical, marketers should trust their intuition when the data isn’t conclusive or when exploring new market directions. This flexibility allows for creativity and risk-taking, especially when data lags behind rapid market changes or emerging client needs.
• Moving from product-led growth to targeting enterprise clients isn’t just about scaling product features; it demands a shift in how marketing teams understand customer pain points. It’s essential to align messaging to resonate with decision-makers who prioritize company-wide impact and long-term strategic value.
• Personalized outreach can make a significant difference, but it can be a challenge to create campaigns that feel personalized yet can scale across multiple accounts. Achieving this balance helps each client feel uniquely addressed without overloading marketing resources.

Quote:

“I do think a lot of PLG companies have a lot of data and so that's good in a lot of ways because the data can help guide you. Everyone's like, yeah, no kidding, Shannon. The flip side of that though is, sometimes the data can't tell you everything. And that's when, if you've been doing enterprise marketing for a long time, or you have a background there, there is some pattern matching that needs to be layered over the data, if that makes sense. Like there are certain things that work, and so how do you take the data to guide you, but you don't wait for the data to tell you everything when you know there are tried and true things that work? For example, Asana now has a live in person event. Asana had never done that before, and there was no data I could point to that says, yes, this event will be successful. There just wasn't. So a little bit of it was like a trust fall of pattern matching of enterprise software selling, enterprise software marketing, being like, this will work. It will start small and we will build. And we did. And so last year we did our first event ever, had 150 people. This year we're doing it in New York. We're going to have a thousand, right? Like those are the things that like the data can't help you, so you need to be mindful of what the data will, but also trust sort of the enterprise marketing playbook for things that will make a big difference.”

Episode Timestamps:

*(02:43) The Trust Tree: Cultivating relationships with different personas

*(29:44) The Playbook: Brand is the only thing that helps with both PLG and enterprise markets

*(41:23) The Dust Up: Challenge your long-held assumptions
*(43:45) Quick Hits: Shannon’s Quick Hits

Sponsor:

Pipeline Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com, the #1 Conversational Marketing platform for companies that use Salesforce and the secret weapon for pipeline pros. The world's leading enterprise brands trust Qualified to instantly meet with buyers, right on their website, and maximize sales pipeline. Visit Qualified.com to learn more.

Links:

• Connect with Ian on LinkedIn
• Connect with Shannon on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Asana
• Learn more about Caspian Studios