Mike Ward

Soapbox incoming... Dear marketers - If you’re hosting an event and your entire keynote stage is filled with your own executives and a handful of analysts, with zero customers... You don't just have a "programming" problem, you have a YOU problem. Your audience isn’t flying in or logging on to hear your executives repeat the company vision they’ve already seen in the press release or webinar. They want good stories. They want proof. They want to know: Does this THING actually work? Who's winning with it? What's possible for me? And nothing builds credibility faster than a customer sharing how they overcame a challenge, grew their business, or transformed their team with your product. Skip the customers, and here’s what you’re really signaling: >>> You don’t have champions willing to stand on stage with you. >>> You care more about control than authenticity. >>> You think thought leadership is something you declare, instead of something you earn. So, if your event strategy puts exec monologues over customer voices, I suggest rethinking not just the agenda, but your role as a marketer. Sincerely - A very concerned (and slightly exasperated) marketer.

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A wise marketer once came to know, The power of just saying "no." But with "no" as your flack, You'll hold progress back And then painfully reap what you sow. I've always told marketers, "learning how to say no is an absolutely critical part of CMO success. Just don't get too good at it." And I see the cycle over and over. They start out saying yes to everything. Start to burn out. Learn the power of no. Then get too good at it -- and say it too often -- block too many ideas and eventually get bounced for becoming an impediment. Get good at saying no. But try to say yes a lot. Be an enabler. Make things happen. Learn how to do them quickly so the cost of yes is minimal.

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If you ask CMOs how their campaigns are really doing behind closed doors, the answers are ugly. Webinars where 10 people show up after weeks of prep. Podcasts 30 episodes deep that nobody listens to. Conference booths with five-figure price tags and foot traffic that looks like a ghost town. Case studies that live on a website but have never once been cited as the reason a deal closed. This is normal now. Why? Because software categories are overcrowded. Every surface looks the same. Webinars all have the same titles. Explainer videos follow the same storybook. Booths hand out the same swag (pen/notebook/bottle). Comparison pages are biased to the point of parody. Buyers have learned to tune it out. They’ve seen it all before. Nothing new. Nothing memorable. And because of that, they stop caring. But the real pain is that your product is great and you’d actually win in a head-to-head but you’re not even in the prospect's vendor list. Or if you are, you’re coming in second or third, with the first vendor already setting the narrative. That’s how companies stall, flatline, or start declining. We were there two years ago at Storylane. Great product. Strong internal virality. But we weren’t being part of many deal conversations. And when we were, we were usually vendor no. 3, walking into the deal cycle with the deck already stacked against us. We’d still win plenty of those - but it sucked. So we flipped the playbook. We decided we’d rather be different and memorable than blend into the sea of sameness. That meant running pattern interrupts. And over six quarters, those pattern interrupts 7x’d our brand awareness. Now a LOT of people in B2B marketing have heard of Storylane. You've seen some of our campaigns - demo-led SEO strategy that drives a quarter million traffic per month, our customer marketing event Demo Dundies, a billboard truck at one conf, a coffee shop instead of a booth at another. And our swag doesn't look like traditional swag - affirmation cards, scented candles, denim jackets. None of it looked like B2B marketing. That’s why it worked. Eventually we realized this can’t just be one-off stunts. It has to be a system. That’s why I built it into a framework called PIPE - Pattern Interrupt Portfolio Engine. Next month I’ll debut PIPE live at Ahrefs Evolve San Diego. If you’re building a software company in a crowded category and want to rethink your GTM, come to my talk. It's perfect timing, perfect venue. Ahrefs has been the OG pattern interrupt for a decade. $100M+ ARR, unforgettable marketing for 10years, and a unique conference. I saw it last year in Singapore - diverse voices, speakers you don’t usually see, a stage that felt different. This year it’s 600+ marketers, an IMAX-sized screen behind me, and a stacked operator lineup. Excited? Yes. Nerve-racking? Also yes. But this is what I live for. October 14–15, San Diego. My talk’s on day two. If this resonates, make sure you’re in the room.

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The one question I hate receiving as a marketer more than any other: "What's working?" It's a great question, and one that I absolutely have an answer to But the person asking is often looking for the answer to be a specific channel or a specific tactic And that's why I don't answer with either of those My answer: "The strategy" Because the strategy is the creation of a GTM ecosystem. It's the unique combination of a series of channels, tactics, and the ability to execute seamlessly across all of them that drives results. Just this past week, we had a deal come through that I honestly couldn't have scripted if I tried: - They came across us when doing research via organic search - Since they were still in research, they opted to try out our PLG offering (not talk to sales) - This kicked off both a marketing nurture email sequence + a BDR to reach out at a 1:1 level + retargeting ads - About 4 weeks later, they came across a video of mine on here showing how our new product, Account-Based Prospecting, works - That took them back to their inbox + they replied back to one of the marketing nurture emails asking to get a demo - I had the BDR follow up with them to get the demo call booked in So, when I get asked the question, "What's working?" This is exactly why I point to the strategy we use Each of these channels, tactics, and interactions are built to act as force multipliers for one another, each increasing the likelihood of success of the next engagement This is why legacy attribution doesn't work. This is why I can't stand the intent behind the question "What's working?" And this is why I like the direction that HockeyStack is taking the market They're not trying to pinpoint the *one* thing that drove a deal. They're helping us as marketers to uncover what's working in aggregate so we can better understand why + double down on it #hockeystackpartner

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Last week I spoke with a B2B marketing leader who was laid off this year. The reason might surprise you. Not because they were underperforming. This is someone I respect deeply. The kind of marketer you’d want on your team. But the reason they lost their job? They weren’t able to market themselves well enough internally. And that got me thinking. Right now the market feels off balance. Companies are cutting headcount, shifting strategies, and treating marketing like it should deliver instant revenue. When the numbers don’t show up fast enough, marketing is the first thing on the chopping block. But here’s the truth. Marketing was never meant to be a short-term fix. When the focus narrows to “what pipeline did you bring in this month,” no marketing team will ever be enough. And the marketers who do manage to stay?
 It’s often not because they’re better at marketing. It’s because they’re better at building the internal story. They package the numbers, add a layer of intuition, and explain their impact in a way the exec team can grasp. That’s not wrong. But it’s a dangerous cycle. Because when leadership only views marketing through immediate pipeline, they miss the real compounding effect. The brand building. The market shaping. The work that pays off long after this month’s numbers are closed. So it leaves me wondering… In the rush for quick results, have companies forgotten the real point of a marketing department? #b2bmarketing #marketing #techlayoffs

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92% of people trust recommendations from individuals over brand messaging. (Even if that individual is a stranger.) That stat says everything about how SaaS decisions are made now. Not from cold ads. Not from your homepage copy. From someone saying: “I love this SaaS, it solved X for me”” For founders, that changes the whole growth playbook. Social proof isn’t decoration. It is "the" conversion strategy. Here’s what most teams miss: → Your customers are your real sales team. → Your credibility is your best ad spend. When someone researches your product (and they will), they need to hear: “This works. We recommend it.” So instead of scaling noise, Scale trust. - Turn wins into micro-case studies. - Build detailed testimonials, not fluffy ones. - Get active in the spaces where your customers already talk. Pipeline doesn’t just come from CTAs. It comes from people repeating your name. Curious to hear: What’s one trust asset that helped you close deals faster?

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I've watched 100+ managers fail. They all made the same 3 decisions. Not bad hires. Not poor strategy. Not market timing. Three specific choices that guaranteed their downfall. → Decision #1: They prioritized being liked over being respected. Avoided tough conversations. Let poor performance slide. Made promises they couldn't keep. The result? Their best people left. Their mediocre people stayed. Their teams stopped trusting them. I watched a VP lose her entire A-team in 6 months because she couldn't say no. She thought being "nice" would build loyalty. Instead, it built resentment. When everyone's happy, no one's accountable. → Decision #2: They managed up instead of down. Spent 80% of their time impressing executives. 20% actually leading their team. They became masters at PowerPoint and politics. Meanwhile, their teams floundered without direction. I've seen managers get promoted while their teams crumbled. Know what happens next? The whole department implodes within a year. Your boss's opinion matters. Your team's success matters more. → Decision #3: They stopped doing the work. Became too important for customer calls. Too senior for product details. Too busy for team meetings. They confused delegation with disappearance. The fastest way to lose credibility? Stop understanding what your team actually does. I've watched "strategic" leaders make decisions that proved they had no clue about daily operations. The managers who succeed? They make the opposite choices: → They choose respect over popularity (and earn both) → They manage down before up (and impress everyone) → They stay close to the work (and make better decisions) Your team doesn't need a friend. They need a leader. Your boss doesn't need a yes-person. They need results. Your role doesn't need a figurehead. It needs someone who gets it. Every failed manager I've observed thought they were making smart political moves. They were actually writing their resignation letter. One decision at a time. Which decision has hurt your career the most? Share below 👇 ♻️ Repost if a manager needs to see this (thanks!). Follow Carolyn Healey for more management, marketing and AI truths.

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A CEO put his personal phone number on billboards to apologize to angry customers. Sounds crazy? Henry Schuck (CEO & Founder at ZoomInfo) did exactly this. Later, those angry customers became their biggest advocates. This is what happens when leaders stop hiding behind PR agencies and choose to be themselves. I often hear marketing teams say, "It's hard to convince our leaders to talk about our brand through their personal channels." If your leadership team thinks being in front of the world won't help your brand, revenue, or customer trust, show them examples like these: Dharmesh Shah (Founder & CTO at HubSpot): His posts are full of energy. He talks about new ideas and discoveries in a way that makes you feel like a 20-year-old starting a new startup. Adam Robinson (CEO at RB2B & Retention.com): He built a $22M company by sharing GTM tips, daily wins and failures, and playbooks for building a company from scratch. Henry Schuck (CEO & Founder at @ZoomInfo): He started by trying different things. Now his LinkedIn is a key channel for company updates and announcements. What these leaders do differently: They don't treat their personal profiles like corporate accounts. They share the real story behind their companies - their mistakes, wins, the daily challenges. They respond to comments and engage with their audience like real people, not like PR machines. They use their personal experiences to teach others, which builds trust faster than any corporate campaign. They're consistent. They show up regularly, not just when they have something to sell. Ultimately, their efforts result in companies getting more visibility without spending on ads. Their personal brands become customer acquisition channels. They attract better talent because people want to work with leaders they follow and respect. These leaders have created playbooks showing how other teams can copy their approach to drive demand for their business. Reminder: You don't need a huge following to start. You just need to be real about your journey. There are thousands of examples like these to help put your leadership in front of the world. If you want more examples to share with your leaders, I can send them over DM.

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The biggest challenge I’ve faced in Customer Marketing? It’s not launching programs. It’s not hitting participation targets. It’s not even getting customer stories out the door. ❗It’s getting internal stakeholders to see the function differently. Too often, Customer Marketing is boxed into one thing: customer evidence. — Case studies — Testimonials — Logos on the deck That’s all important. But it’s just one slice. 💡 Great customer marketers do much more: ✔️ They bring the voice of the customer back to the business. Via advisory boards and feedback loops that shape messaging, pricing, and roadmap priorities. ✔️ They drive growth. Referral programs, reference funnels, advocate-led webinars — all accelerating acquisition. ✔️ They boost product adoption and retention. With lifecycle campaigns that help new users onboard, stay engaged, and get to value faster. ✔️ They elevate reputation. By fueling review campaigns on sites like G2, Gartner, and TrustRadius — where buyers actually look. → In many ways, they’re like Product Marketers. Positioned at the intersection of Sales, CS, Product, and Growth. But focused not on the market... on the customer. 📌 At a previous company, we launched a peer review push that wasn’t just about collecting stars — it was tied to a larger play. Every new G2 review we got triggered a customer gift and an automated referral ask. That one campaign drove 400+ reviews, 30 warm referrals, and 3 sourced opps. Customer Marketing can do that. If you let it. What’s the most underrated lever you’ve seen in Customer Marketing?

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Have y’all ever heard of “brand debt?” Is this a thing or did I just come up with another dumb marketing concept? :) We’ve all experienced it and most of the time, it hits you after you join a company. You start digging and realize you are carrying major amounts of debt. And no, not the “too many Banana Republic-early-20s-credit-card” debt. Brand debt. Outdated messaging. Inconsistent voice. Smilings photos from istockphoto A hundred one-off assets that all feel like they were built in 2010 None of it’s broken (well maybe) but it’s definitely slowing you down. Brand debt makes every project take longer. It creates confusion inside the company. And even worst, it leaks outside. There is always work to be done and it doesn’t mean a big rebrand. It just means we have a willingness to ship better stuff piece by piece. Set up a Slack channel for “off-brand sightings” OBS - Area51 for off-brand. And then pick one asset per week to kill, rewrite, or redesign. You don’t have to fix everything, just fix the stuff people use. Sometimes the best marketing move is subtraction.

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LinkedIn can be your #1 B2B growth channel. But only if you break one big rule. Here’s how to make it work. You know the LinkedIn drill. A polished company page posts a press release. Your marketing intern shares a "fun fact" about the industry. A VP of Something posts a blurry photo from a conference. Classic content slop. And everyone ignores it. Your brand isn't your logo. And it's not what your company page says it is. Your brand is a chorus of voices. Your people are the proof. LinkedIn is just the amplifier. Think of it like this: 🟡 Your Founder is the visionary. - They talk about the mission. - Why the company exists. - Where the market is going. - They sell the big picture. 🟡 Your Engineer is the proof. - They show the clever fix. - They explain the hard problem. - They nerd out on the details. - They prove you're not selling vaporware. 🟡 Your Head of Sales is the storyteller. - They share the customer wins. - The weird use cases. - The real conversations. - They prove people actually pay for this. One polished company page sounds like marketing. A founder, an engineer, and a salesperson all talking from their unique angle? That sounds like a company you can trust. Stop trying to create one perfect, corporate voice. It's boring and nobody believes it. Unleash the real experts. The ones already on your payroll. And if you don't know how to do that, my DMs are open :)

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This piece of advice I learned from Brian Halligan at HubSpot changed my life… I’ve always been an idea person and an implementer. I’m curious by nature, and I love solving problems—the bigger the problem, the more I gravitate toward it. Early in my career, I chased opportunities to move quickly, experiment, and take chances. When I joined HubSpot in 2014, I doubled down on that instinct: move fast, learn fast, repeat. Then one day, at a company meeting, Brian Halligan shared something that completely reframed how I work: “Protect your thinking time.” At first, it felt counterintuitive. I believed speed was the key to success. But here’s what I learned: slowing down to think unlocks a deeper level of creativity and impact. Protecting thinking time helps you… - Move beyond surface-level solutions and do more patient, thoughtful work. - Step back and see challenges from multiple angles. - Turn scattered ideas into stronger, more sustainable strategies. Now, before I rush into execution, I permit myself to pause. Sometimes it’s as simple as a 5-minute walk to let ideas marinate. Other times it’s blocking an hour to think without distraction. It’s in those quiet moments that the best breakthroughs usually happen. What’s one piece of advice that’s changed the trajectory of your life?

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Here are 2 things that, IMO, don’t warrant (or lead to) a promotion: ⏰ The passage of time ✅ Doing your job well And here are two things that, IMO, do warrant (and often lead to) a promotion: 📈 A pressing need within the organization 💪 A track record of stretching outside your current JD and delivering

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Here are the 2 traits I actually screen for when hiring marketers (plus the exact questions I ask): 1. Curiosity This has been the #1 trait among every high performer I've worked with. Marketing changes completely every 6 months. New channels emerge. Algorithms shift. What worked last quarter is dead today. Experience without curiosity becomes stubbornness. I've seen seasoned marketers fail because they couldn't adapt to TikTok, resist AI tools, or pivot when Facebook killed organic reach. Meanwhile, curious junior hires figure out new platforms faster than anyone expected. 2. Flexibility Mental flexibility, not just working hours. Your role will change. The company strategy will pivot. Your responsibilities will expand. Flexible team members raise concerns but also help solve them. They don't just complain when things change - they adapt and find solutions. How I spot these traits in interviews: For curiosity: - "What's something you're nerdy about outside of work?" - "What's the latest marketing thing you've tested with AI?" - "Which resources do you use to learn - be specific" If they can't give recent examples or mention 6-month-old experiments, they're not curious enough. For flexibility: - "Tell me about a time your role changed unexpectedly" - "How do you handle it when leadership changes direction?" - "What's the most frustrated you've been with a boss - and why?" Their tone when discussing past changes reveals everything. What about experience? Experience provides context. It's helpful. But I'd rather hire a curious beginner than an experienced marketer who's stuck in 2019 thinking. Experience + curiosity = unstoppable. Experience without curiosity = liability. Your current low performers probably aren't lacking skills. They're lacking curiosity. And curiosity can be coached if someone wants to improve. TAKEAWAY: Stop optimizing your resume for keywords. Start demonstrating curiosity and flexibility. The best marketers aren't just experienced - they're constantly learning and adapting.

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