Beyond B2B Marketing

Sangram Vajre says most B2B companies don't have a marketing problem, a sales problem, or a product problem. They have a go-to-market problem. In this episode of Beyond B2B Marketing, host Lee Odden talks with Sangram Vajre, CEO of GTM Partners, Wall Street Journal bestselling author of MOVE, and the operator who helped pioneer account-based marketing at Pardot and Terminus. The conversation is a clear-eyed look at why go-to-market alignment, not more leads, decides which companies grow and which stall. Sangram makes the case that the CEO owns go-to-market as a transformational process, not a campaign, and explains why 68 to 78% of the go-to-market leaders his firm surveys name a lack of clarity, not competition or AI, as the thing stopping them from hitting their numbers. He also shares the data that reframes how B2B marketers should think about growth: Why systems beat goals: "people do not rise to the level of their goals, they fall to the level of their systems." The Salesforce lesson on predictable revenue, where 80 to 85% of next year's number is already in the bank through retention and expansion. A G2-sourced study showing a company that paused brand investment for a single quarter took four more quarters to recover its cost of acquisition, the evidence behind "brand drives demand." The NRR math most founders have never run: at 120% net revenue retention, you can double revenue every 3.8 years without adding a single new customer. For B2B marketers being asked to prove brand's value, wrestling with lead-gen pressure, or trying to earn a strategic seat at the executive table, this episode connects trust, systems thinking, and revenue in a way that reframes the role of marketing itself. Guest: Sangram Vajre, CEO, GTM Partners, Author of MOVE and ABM Is B2B Host: Lee Odden, CEO, TopRank Marketing Subscribe to Beyond B2B Marketing for conversations with the practitioners defining how B2B companies become the best answer for their buyers.

AI search is changing how B2B buyers discover, evaluate, and trust brands. As platforms like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini increasingly answer questions directly, marketers face a new challenge: optimizing not just for rankings, but for how AI understands, cites, and recommends their B2B brand. In this episode of Beyond B2B Marketing, host Lee Odden talks with Trevor Pyle, Head of Marketing at Profound, about what B2B marketers need to know to improve AI search visibility and influence AI-generated brand perception. Drawing on Profound's analysis of more than 10 billion AI citations, Trevor explains why visibility is only the beginning. AI systems don't just retrieve information. They interpret it, summarize it, compare brands, and often form opinions that shape buyer decisions before someone ever visits your website. Key Takeaways from this conversation: How AI search is changing B2B discovery and the buyer journey Why visibility, accuracy, and sentiment all matter in AI-generated answers The role of original research, first-party data, and expert content in AI search optimization Why influencer and third-party content can improve AI visibility Whether marketers should focus on SEO, AEO, GEO, or AI Search Optimization How to optimize content for ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Claude, and Gemini The emergence of the "Marketing Engineer" and how AI is changing marketing roles Practical steps every B2B marketing organization can take to improve AI search performance Whether you're responsible for SEO, content marketing, demand generation, thought leadership, or digital strategy for your B2B company, this episode provides actionable insights for helping your brand become the best answer wherever buyers turn to AI for information. Be sure to subscribe to the Beyond B2B Marketing podcast for conversations with leading marketers, creators, analysts, and entrepreneurs exploring how brands can build visibility, trust, and influence in an increasingly fragmented and AI-powered world. Learn more about how to become a Best Answer Brand with integrated influence, AEO/SEO, experiential content and unified analytics solutions from TopRank Marketing.

Search is changing faster than most B2B marketers realize. AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Reddit, YouTube, influencers, podcasts, and social platforms are fragmenting how buyers discover information and evaluate solutions. At the same time, traditional metrics like rankings, traffic, and even clicks are becoming less reliable indicators of marketing impact. In this episode of the Beyond B2B Marketing podcast, host Lee Odden sits down with Rand Fishkin, founder of SparkToro, co-founder of Moz, and co-author with Amanda Natividad of Zero Click Marketing, to discuss what marketing looks like when discovery happens without a website visit. Rand shares insights from his latest research on search fragmentation, audience behavior, AI search, and why marketers need to rethink long-held assumptions about attribution, content, and visibility. The conversation explores why traffic is becoming a less meaningful KPI, how marketers can identify where buyers are actually paying attention, and why brand building may be more important than ever. Rand also shares his perspective on influencer marketing, audience intelligence, AI-generated content, trust, and the growing disconnect between AI visibility metrics and actual business outcomes. Here are five important takeaways from this conversation about search fragmentation, AI, and Zero Click Marketing: Traffic is no longer the best measure of marketing success As more discovery happens directly within search engines, AI platforms, social networks, and communities, marketers need to focus less on clicks and more on visibility, reach, influence, and business outcomes. You do not need to be everywhere to win Many B2B marketers feel pressure to maintain a presence across every channel. Rand argues that most organizations are better served by identifying the one, two, or three platforms where their audience pays the most attention and investing deeply there. Brand building remains one of the strongest drivers of growth While demand generation remains important, the companies that consistently outperform competitors tend to invest heavily in brand awareness, reputation, and long-term audience trust. AI makes human expertise and originality more valuable, not less As AI-generated content becomes abundant, marketers can differentiate through original research, unique perspectives, creativity, authentic expertise, and memorable experiences that cannot be easily replicated. AI visibility is not the same as business impact Many organizations are focused on tracking mentions and visibility within AI tools. Rand challenges marketers to focus on whether those efforts actually drive awareness, consideration, pipeline, and revenue rather than treating AI visibility as an end goal. Be sure to subscribe to Beyond B2B Marketing for conversations with leading marketers, creators, analysts, and entrepreneurs exploring how brands can build visibility, trust, and influence in an increasingly fragmented and AI-powered world. Learn more about how to become a Best Answer Brand with integrated influence, AEO/SEO, experiential content and unified analytics solutions from TopRank Marketing.

Creativity has always mattered in B2B marketing. But in an time where AI can create content, images, videos, and even entire campaigns, human originality may be more valuable than ever. In this episode of Beyond B2B Marketing, Lee Odden sits down with Reuben Webb, B2B Editorial Lead at The Drum and former Chief Creative Officer at Stein IAS, for a thought-provoking conversation about the evolution of B2B creativity and why marketers must continue fighting the battle against boring-to-boring marketing. Drawing on more than 25 years of experience shaping B2B creative strategy, Reuben shares his perspective on the industry's progress, the clichés that still persist, and how AI is changing the role of human creativity. Together, Lee and Reuben explore the relationship between brand and demand generation, the growing importance of trust and influence, and why distinctiveness is becoming a competitive advantage in a world increasingly filled with average content. The discussion also covers: Why B2B marketing is still struggling with sameness Lessons from Reuben's influential book 101 Clichés How AI is reshaping creativity, content creation, and marketing careers The importance of originality in the age of generative AI Why trust, creators, influencers, and expert voices are becoming more valuable The future of B2B marketing measurement in an AI-powered search environment Differences between B2B creativity in the UK, Europe, and the United States Practical advice for the next generation of B2B marketers One of Reuben's most compelling insights is that AI doesn't diminish the value of creativity. It amplifies it. As technology makes average content easier to produce, human originality becomes one of the few sustainable differentiators. If you're interested in B2B marketing, creativity, AI, influencer marketing, content strategy, brand building, demand generation, thought leadership, or the future of marketing, this episode offers both inspiration and practical perspective. Connect with Reuben: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reuben-webb-269a465/ Connect with Lee Odden: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leeodden/ Learn more about TopRank Marketing: https://www.toprankmarketing.com #B2BMarketing #B2BCreativity #AIMarketing #InfluencerMarketing #ContentMarketing #DemandGeneration #ThoughtLeadership

AI is changing B2B marketing fast, but as customer expectations rise and B2B marketing tactics become commoditized by AI tools, the real competitive advantage is customer context. In this episode of the Beyond B2B Marketing podcast, Lee Odden talks with Heidi Bullock, Chief Marketing Officer at Tealium and former marketing leader at Marketo and Engagio, about why real-time customer data has become foundational for modern B2B marketing, personalization, AI-driven experiences, and revenue growth for B2B brans. Heidi shares insights from nearly 25 years in B2B marketing leadership, exploring how customer context powers more relevant buyer experiences, stronger personalization, better sales and marketing alignment, and more effective AI-powered marketing. The conversation also looks at how fragmented discovery across AI search, Reddit, YouTube, communities, review platforms, and dark funnel channels is changing how marketers think about visibility, trust, and buyer engagement. Here are 5 important takeaways from this conversation about customer context: Customer context is becoming the real competitive advantage in AI-powered marketing As AI models and tools become increasingly commoditized, the quality, freshness, and contextual relevance of customer data is what differentiates buyer experiences and marketing performance. There is no such thing as a "perfect" buyer journey anymore Modern B2B buying journeys are dynamic and nonlinear, requiring marketers to respond to real-time behavioral signals instead of relying on static funnels and rigid nurture tracks. Real-time data is fundamentally changing personalization The shift from rules-based personalization to AI-powered orchestration enables marketers to deliver more relevant content, messaging, and experiences based on current buyer behavior and intent. Trust depends on consented, connected customer data Strong customer experiences require accurate, unified, and permission-based data that reduces friction, improves relevance, and builds confidence throughout the buying journey. AI increases the importance of human judgment, not decreases it AI can accelerate execution and improve efficiency, but marketers still need human expertise for strategy, creativity, governance, differentiation, and maintaining brand integrity. Be sure to subscribe to Beyond B2B Marketing for conversations with B2B marketing industry leaders about how B2B companies can become Best Answer Brands by building visibility, trust, and decision confidence with buyers and those that influence them.   Learn more about the B2B influence, SEO/AEO and creative content marketing solutions from TopRank Marketing.