Leading B2B Marketing for the First Time: Strategy, Budget, Content & Team with Jess Cook скачать в хорошем качестве

Leading B2B Marketing for the First Time: Strategy, Budget, Content & Team with Jess Cook

#266 Marketing Leadership | In this episode, Matt is joined by Jess Cook, Head of Marketing at Vector, a platform pioneering the contact-based marketing category. Jess has spent her career building standout content strategies at B2B brands like LASSO and Fastly, and she recently made the jump from Head of Content to first-time Head of Marketing. Jess and Matt cover: How content marketers can transition into marketing leadership and what gaps to prepare for The strategy behind building a brand that stands out in B2B (and why Vector leans into being “a little unhinged”) How Jess built her first marketing budget from scratch and sold it in using storytelling, not spreadsheets You’ll walk away with tactical insights on running a modern B2B marketing org, from content and brand to budgeting and team structure. Timestamps (01:00) – Jess’s B2C roots at McDonald’s and Kellogg (04:34) – Jumping into B2B and growing through content (06:19) – Why she moved from Head of Content to Head of Marketing (08:54) – Hiring product marketing first (and why it matters) (13:04) – How Vector built a bold B2B brand with personality (17:04) – What Jess looked for in her first marketing hire (20:24) – Building and pitching her first full marketing budget (25:49) – Creating a 30/60/90 plan that actually drives buy-in (27:19) – Category content, SEO, and early wins with AI (30:04) – The podcast pivot: ditching “Funnel Cake” for something better (33:44) – How she knew Vector was the right fit (37:24) – Going all-in on YouTube and video-first strategy (41:34) – Short-form content, brand building, and trust (44:04) – Biggest lesson: balance long-term planning with quick wins (48:34) – Leading with action and setting the tone as a new marketing leader (50:34) – How Jess communicates vision and builds internal alignment (54:04) – Wrap-up and final takeaways Send guest pitches and ideas to hi@exitfive.com Join the Exit Five Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter Check out the Exit Five job board: https://jobs.exitfive.com/ Become an Exit Five member: https://community.exitfive.com/checko... *** Today’s episode is brought to you by Zuddl. We’re halfway through 2025, and one thing’s clear: events continue to be one of the highest performing marketing channels. Niche meetups, conferences, curated dinners, networking - you name it. Everyone’s leaning in. Events are a core part of our playbook this year at Exit Five. So far, we’ve hosted two virtual sessions each month, one large virtual event, one in-person meetup, and we’re deep in the weeds planning our Drive conference coming back to Vermont this September. Zuddl helps us run a smarter event strategy - from driving registrations, managing invites, automating comms, reminders, analytics, tracking. Their Salesforce integration also makes it simple to report on pipeline and revenue from events without pulling in ops. On top of that, the differentiator with Zuddl is how their team is insanely good at supporting us. They always go above and beyond for us - and that’s how we’ve been able to keep the momentum going with 12+ events already this year, with plenty more to come. If events are part of your marketing strategy, you need to look at Zuddl to see how companies like Zillow, CrowdStrike, and Iterable are using the top event platform for Business events in 2025. Head over to zuddl.com/exitfive to learn more. *** What is The Exit Five CMO Podcast (Hosted by Dave Gerhardt)? Dave Gerhardt (Founder of Exit Five, former CMO) chats with top marketing leaders and CMOs. Join 5,000+ members in our private community at exitfive.com.