Devin Bramhall

DEVIN

I will help you overcome obstacles and achieve your goals faster - devinbramhall.com
- Scale your agency and increase profitability
- Increase marketing ROI
- Improve output from your own leadership

I’m not a talking head. I’ve executed at every level from IC to manager to VP and CEO and use my hands-on experience to identify opportunities for your company and set up a foundation that you can easily maintain and build on.

For over 15 years, I’ve helped startups, agencies and enterprise companies grow by building repeatable, scalable frameworks in marketing and agency operations that expedite progress toward their growth targets. 

Cisco, Google, Wistia, Saasworks, Help Scout, Animalz

Services include:
- Growth strategy 
- Building your first marketing function
- Hiring
- Team structure & KPIs
- Reporting

Growth Advisor

Don't Say Content

A podcast for marketing leaders and business executives. We use our combined 20+ years of experience to explore the challenges and opportunities behind industry hype to bring listeners fresh perspective, strategy & insights. Our goal: Increase the business impact of marketing by creating shared understanding of its purpose and outcomes among marketing leaders, founders/CEOs & others in the C-suite. From business and marketing strategy to hiring and talent, weekly episodes inspire and reinvigorate hundreds of leaders who tune in & engage every week.

Podcast Co Host

Animalz

Highlights
- Achieved +3x revenue growth in 2 years at 19% profit margin
- Built C-suite team 
- Grew team from 18 to 130 people
- Diversified product line
- Attracted biggest names in tech including Google, Amazon, Slack, Spotify, Facebook & more

Chief Executive Officer

• Grew revenue: 33% 2018 • 57% 2019
• Grew team from 18-50, evolved org structure & roles to improve content marketing function
• Advised on customer content strategy including Google, GoDaddy, Wistia 
• Updated Animalz brand across messaging, look/feel, and product positioning

VP of Marketing

Self-employed marketing and communications consultant

Freelance Marketing Consultant

Help Scout

Developed strategy to grow traffic and customer acquisition. Managed a team of content marketers and collaborated with design and development teams on campaigns, website, and brand initiatives. Accomplishments included:

- Grew website traffic from ~300k to 430k monthly unique visitors
- Created goals-driven content strategy focused on traffic and subscriber acquisition.
- Managed content partnerships and led strategic partnerships with Support Driven, the largest community for customer support pros.
- Managed brand awareness including PR, conferences, and community management 
- Launched customer service education platform, HelpU (https://www.helpscout.net/helpu/), to increase customer acquisition and grow brand awareness.

Director of Content

Boston Content

Boston Content is the largest community group and career development resource for content marketers in Boston, founded in 2011 by Jay Acunzo and Arestia Rosenberg. 

As Executive Director:

- Led 6-person executive committee in charge of events, membership, and sponsorship  
- Oversaw development of first volunteer program
- Grew membership 100%
- Launched "Content Marketer to Watch" award
- Created Boston Content’s blog posting 2x/week
- Developed marketing “Jobs” page and weekly jobs email to our 1,200+ members
- Doubled event programming, attendance and sponsorship program

Executive Director

The Master Slam

The Master Slam is a story slam-style debate that turns the traditional panel discussion into an exciting evening of live performance. Held four times a year and covering a variety of topics from Startups, Tech, Marketing/Advertising, Education  and more, the Master Slam is the new way for anyone passionate about their industry to flex their intellectual muscles in a fun, creative environment. http://www.themasterslam.com/

Founder

Alignable

Lead community engagement strategy through ongoing research, relationship building, testing and analysis to discover what small businesses need and how to incorporate that into our marketing strategy and product.

Marketing Manager

Shareaholic, Inc.

Product Marketing Manager

Springpad

Increased engagement among Springpad's 5M users through unique content marketing campaigns, including a live Google Hangouts series focusing on creative ways to use our app for organization and project management. Developed strategic partnerships with influential bloggers and brands to drive brand awareness and user acquisition.

Content Marketing Manager

Managed community of over 5 million users, providing technical support and content for all support/help pages as well as in-app to improve user comprehension of the Springpad's robust features on all platforms.

Streamlined customer support using new CRM tools. Curated engaged community of users to help evangelize and promote Springpad. Executed large and small scale beta testing and user feedback sessions of new features.

Happiness Specialist

Co-host: Don't Say Content. Marketing Advisor. Agency Growth Strategist. Former CEO of Animalz.

As a growth advisor, I bring over 15 years of marketing & leadership expertise at startups, agencies, and large corporations. 

I am the former CEO of Animalz, the leading content marketing agency for B2B SaaS companies, where I successfully grew revenue 3x in two years to nearly $12M.

I am also a fervent community builder and previously served as the Executive Director of Boston Content, the largest community group and career development resource for content marketers in Boston. During my 2-year tenure, I more than doubled membership and revenue from sponsorships and programming. 

Storytelling is at the root of my passion for marketing. I founded The Master Slam, a poetry slam-style debate about startups and tech. I am also a TEDx organizer and speaker trainer and have competed in several storytelling competitions. Additionally, I created an incredibly popular General Assembly workshop called "How to Use Storytelling to Get What You Want," which is still taught today.

Send a draft to your CEO. Suddenly, you're the one who doesn't know marketing.

They start to:
– rewrite copy because it “doesn’t sound right”
– demand thought leadership, yet ask the intern to write it 
– ask for MQLs after slashing your budget in half

Sound familiar?

You were hired to lead marketing.
So either they trust you, or they want control.
Pick one, because pretending this is about “strategy” wastes everyone’s time.

I can say that because I’ve been on both sides.

I spent years as the marketer, then became a CEO myself… and realized I was doing the same to my team.

The best ideas weren’t dying because I was scared.
Of risk. Of optics. Of losing control.

Most CEOs won’t say this out loud...
They don’t need to get marketing.
They just need to trust that you do.

Talk risk. Talk ROI. Talk outcomes that map to their priorities.

Stop defending your strategy
Sell *their* success instead.

Because the companies that actually grow?

They’re the ones where the CEO lets marketing do what it was hired to do, and the patience to let trust compound.

---
I'm Devin. I've been the marketer fighting for buy-in and the CEO who didn't give it. Follow along for no-BS growth strategy.

Chief Growth Officer [Fractional]. Author: B2B Content Marketing Strategy [coming Oct ’25].

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I can spot a junior marketer in 5 seconds. Here's how.

We did 40 blog posts! 
6 email campaigns! 
15 LinkedIn posts!

Cool. So what happened to revenue? 

After 15 years as VP of Marketing and then CEO, here's what I know:

Junior marketers count activities.
Senior marketers count outcomes.

Real strategy is working backward from a business outcome and finding the shortest path there.

Sometimes that's 3 pieces, not 300.
Sometimes it's one partnership, not a content factory.
Sometimes it's doing nothing while competitors exhaust themselves.

Stop celebrating how busy you are.

Nobody cares about your content calendar.
They care about one thing. Did it work?

↓ Watch me explain why most of us have this completely wrong.

Swapped NYC clouds for San Diego sunshine. 

Time to play with my SEO friends at Ahrefs Evolve and have the most overdue reunion with my former Animalz bosses Ryan Law and  Cassandra Naji 🤩 Plus a guest appearance and piano bar sesh with Andrew Prince 🤸‍♀️

I can’t wait to annoy Peep Laja, obsess over our doggos with John-Henry Scherck, discuss the importance of dinosaurs with Emily Kramer, wear matching t-shirt with Tim Soulo (let them eat steak!) AND…..

moderate a panel on my fave topic: getting csuite buy-in! I met the panelists last week and they super shared creative solutions and new perspective on the challenge so I’m psyched to dive back in with Chris Schweppe  Jean-Guy Leconte Ryan Ricketts and Rory Hope on Wednesday. 

Conferences don’t feel like work when your friends are all there 😎

After accidentally consulting for the last 3 years, I'm surprised by the one thing my best clients have in common...

They're ready to fire 1-2 people they think are irreplaceable.

Sounds harsh, right? But true.

Here's what else I've learned:

Company size doesn't predict success. 
Team headcount doesn't either. 
Whether you have product-market fit or a growth motion already in place? Honestly, it doesn't matter as much as you'd think.

The title I operate under (Fractional CMO, CGO, Growth Advisor, Magician) doesn't make or break how effective I am.

So what actually matters? 

Readiness. And here's what it looks like:

→ You're done hesitating. 
Making money and building productive teams requires hard decisions. I'll help you make them, but I can't force you to act.

→ You're laser-focused on results. 
That means saying no to 99% of the "opportunities" that come your way. It means you won't make an exception for a friend (not right now, anyway). I've quit two well-paying jobs because I refused to do something stupid. I'm not here to appease you. I'm here to challenge you to make money.

→ You're open to help. 
One of my favorite clients only needed me for 3 months because he was willing to grow as a leader and did the work. (👋 Dan!)

→ You're ready to fire 1-2 people. 
They're overpaid, underperforming, and you've been avoiding it. This part sucks. I've been that person who got fired, and honestly, it was the best thing for me, too.

→ You're done micromanaging. 
You want to lead, not babysit. You're tired of blaming your team for your own dissatisfaction.

I realize this rules a lot of people out.

But for those who are ready, I only need 3 months to:

1) Increase profit margins by diagnosing and fixing what's actually broken (not what you think is broken) in your business model

2) Build a growth engine that serves YOUR business, not a borrowed template, and integrate it with your existing operations (or I can just fix your ops too)

3) Leave behind a high-functioning team that keeps delivering after I'm gone

I'm opening 1 Fractional CGO spot this quarter (maybe 2 depending on the engagements).

DM me if you're curious.

I'll tell you straight if we're a fit. Or I'll point you somewhere else if we're not.

I asked Emily Kramer to explain AEO to someone who doesn't speak marketing. Here's what she said...

"There's a set of things you can do so you show up more frequently when someone looks for information in ChatGPT and AI tools.

AEO is figuring that shit out."

Perfect. Simple. Why doesn't everyone just say it like that?

Also, just for the record...
→ LMFAO = electronic pop duo your brain forgot existed
→ LMAO = laughing my ass off
→ LMNO = letters we learned in kindergarten
→ LMO = another word for AEO (apparently)
→ MKT1 = her newsletter

Great to hang with you at #AhrefsEvolve this week.

Career advice I'd give other women in tech? I get this question a lot, typically behind the scenes. Here's what none of you want to hear…

It's still a boys' club.
Misogyny is thriving.
Women are called "hysterical" when they're calm.
Tech bros still act based on emotion and rarely from logic,
and nobody cares.  

Don't believe me?

At a client offsite, I shared that we'd hit all targets and beat their EOY gross margin goal in one quarter. The CRO couldn't keep up. He picked on me and derailed the mtg. The male CEO stood up, slammed his hands on the table and screamed, "GODDAMNIT DEVIN!" and accused *me* antagonizing and derailing the meeting. 

I was trying to DE-escalate. The 3 other execs and EOS facilitator we hired confirmed. CEO apologized days later after they all complained. 

I've done this for 15+ years as a marketer, CEO, and now growth advisor.

The game hasn't changed.
But the way you play it can.

Here are 4 things I learned about building authority when the system isn't designed to hand it to you:


𝟭. 𝗔𝘀𝗸 𝗲𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀

I got called "too aggressive" after saying three sentences once.

No proof. Just fairytales. 

So I started asking questions: Examples of behavior, specific language, what they considered “non aggressive.”

Curiosity drove the shot callers crazy. They couldn't back it up. 

Establish facts while they try to rewrite history. 


𝟮.  𝗕𝗲 𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝗱𝗴𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹.

Judging isn't strategic. Curiosity is.

Understand what drives people, even the difficult ones.

You'll have more leverage building alliances than standing on your soapbox.


𝟯. 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳 - 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗱𝗼 𝗶𝘁

Ship first. Explain later (maybe).

I used to write perfect decks that my CEO never read.
Then I began testing ideas without asking
And sharing the results.

"We tried this and conversion jumped 40%."
That sentence built more credibility than any deck.

If your boss gets upset, socialize your success even more. 
Results talk louder than permission.


𝟰. 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗴𝘂𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿.

For years I presented engagement metrics.
Executives didn't care.

Then I reframed everything:
"This generated $500K in pipeline."
"Not fixing this costs $50K a month."

Same work. Different language.
Make your impact so obvious they can't ignore it.

The game is rigged. 
You do have to work harder.
And, no, it's not fair. 
But you can still win. 
Just stop playing along

Remember what industry you're in: beep-boop-bop and "Uber for..." ideas
We're not saving lives. 
Most of the people above you aren't that important. 
And they don't hold the keys to your future. 

YOU do. 

I've been fired multiple times. I've had hate campaigns launched against me on Glassdoor. A bunch of people don't like me. Guess what?

I'm doing great! YOU ARE TOO ❤️

I promise! Even when it doesn't feel like it.

I don't read business books. Never have. Non-fiction bores me.

(Weird confession considering I just wrote one.)

But I've been writing since before I could spell. Started journaling at 5. Wrote my first poem at 7. Ends on a high note...

"There will be some times, 
When your life is very dim.
But your problems will be solved, 
If you have a Napkin Jim."

Reading didn't come easily to me, but I started young and kept at it till I could.

There's a picture of my sister and me sitting together on top of a desk when we were around 5. My sister is making cute faces at the camera. I'm heads down "reading" Cinderella out loud. 

People kept telling my parents I needed special help.
"She'll read when she's ready," they said.

I still remember that sunny afternoon in my bedroom on Strawberry Hill Street. I picked up an American Girl book and read the whole thing cover to cover. I've had a book in my hand ever since.

Just rarely a business book.

My uncle was my literary guide: 
- A Confederacy of Dunces
- Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
- The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings
- The Odyssey

I learned more about leadership from fantasy novels than any business framework. Tom Robbins and Chuck Palahniuk taught me style. Ann Patchett taught me how to get inside my reader's head.

Business books? They all follow the same structure with the same advice rebranded. As a marketer, it's easy to see the machinery behind them.

BUT STILL...

I've always wanted to write one. I just never knew what to write about.

Then last summer, a publisher reached out and said: "Write something about B2B content marketing strategy."

Working with a publisher can be restrictive, but constraints helped. They guided structure and grammar, not the ideas themselves or how I wrote them.

BUT STILL...

I wanted my book to be different. Not the same strategy repackaged as The Devin Framework™.

The answer was obvious and terrifying:

Be myself. Tell the truth.

→ My failures, not as a cute layup for My Marketing Strategy™, but to unpack the painful reality so you don't repeat my mistakes.

 → The messy truth about how growth happens (like how the hardest part of your job isn't growing the company, it's getting permission to do it).

 → How we're "doing marketing" wrong, even when we think we're doing it right.

If we're going to do better, the first thing we have to face is ourselves.

So when my physical book showed up this weekend, I sat with the box and just… stared at it for a minute.

All those books I devoured.
And now mine exists in the world.

Tomorrow's the official launch.
And yeah, I'm really nervous.

"𝗕𝟮𝗕 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆: 𝗔 𝗠𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮-𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵"

Available everywhere on October 28th. Get it on Amazon.

PS: Buy the book this week? DM me your receipt. I'll send you a personal voice note. Ask me anything.

Your CEO doesn't hate your strategy. They just don't speak marketing.

I used to pitch genuinely good content initiatives at Help Scout. My CEO's eyes would glaze over. Then I'd have to go to my CMO and have him explain it and get buy-in for me.

No joke. It happened over and over.

Turns out, CEOs don't buy strategies... they buy solutions to problems keeping them up at night. Marketing budgets disappear into black holes. They just want results without burning cash.

So here's my translation guide for you.

Stop pitching strategy. 
Find what your CEO loses sleep over. 
Show them how your plan solves that problem with the shortest line possible.

Simple as that.

SEOs are having a harder time getting buy-in for their strategy, because of AI, and guess what?

They're using CONTENT MARKETING to solve the problem 🤸‍♀️

That was my biggest takeaway after moderating a panel at Ahrefs Evolve last week on getting C-suite buy-in for SEO.

Jean-Guy Leconte, SEO Director at AT&T sends weekly myth-busting newsletter to his team and execs to counter the influx of hype with reality and facts. He shared a situation involving their support pages that initially seemed bad but ended up becoming an opportunity he recommended they double down on. 

(Listen folks, I'm not an SEO, so you gotta ask Jean-Guy for the details 😇 I've done my part!)

Ryan Ricketts, Director of Global SEO at Microsoft, created a video training series to educate and control the narrative internally. He added that referrals from Chatgpt, et al get higher engagement and that more people come to their site to transact now. 

Rory Hope, Head of EN Growth at HubSpot shared that they started an internal group that meets daily to stay up-to-date on AI changes and the impact it's having on the business. They also send a weekly newsletter sharing what their learning from their research and experiments they are running.

Chris Schweppe, Group Director at WPP shared a positive change he's seeing for SEOs: they're being invited up "from the basement" by the C-suite to provide insights on changes and impact from AI/SEO and give broad view across media, search etc.  

This is something all the panelists reported experiencing as well. 

Rory said their weekly newsletter goes out to hundreds of people and they consistently strong engagement, including the C-Suite commenting and other execs joining the conversation in the comments. 

Ryan added that AI has been a component of search for decades and that much of the fear/uncertainty he's encountered are from folks who are getting the message from Saas tools telling them to worry. 

Jean-Guy advised SEOs to take a confident stance and keep experimenting. With all the uncertainty and hype, execs need them to counter with calm and cold hard facts. 

Another shared challenge that Chris brought up that impacts larger companies especially is standardization of AI usage across teams and individuals. He said at WPP they have a centralized team building the AI environments to manage the added risk of managing client data security. 

I was surprised by the audiences' response when I asked if getting buy-in for SEO has gotten harder or easier in the past 2 years. Hardly anyone raised their hand. When I spoke to an audience member after that they simply hadn't seen change either way yet. I hadn't considered that perhaps for many businesses, it's still business as usual. 

As Rory put it, change doesn't have to be good or bad. “I think as an industry we are in the midst of a success criteria shift. Top-of-funnel content will likely not drive as much traffic, but it may drive visibility. That's a KPI shift.” 

#ahrefsevolve

This is my LinkedIn strategist, Christine. I can directly attribute book sales, paid partnerships, +5k followers as just some of the biz impact she's made for me. 

Call it what you want - thought leadership, personal brand, social strategy, marketing - if you want to leverage LinkedIn for businesses outcomes, Christine makes it happen. 

She's taking on one more client right now BUT...she's selective about who she works with. Not in a snobby way, she just only works with folks she's excited about, because that's how she does her best work. (I'm not trying to brag, but I was her very first client.)

Hmu if you want intro and/or if you have questions about what she does, etc. I can also tell you if you'll be a good fit for her.

Get noticed on LinkedIn without chaos or cringe | Personal brand strategy + content engineering for founders & B2B execs | Founder & Chief Strategist, Orchard Strategy

The smartest people I know struggle the most online.

They lead, write, build, and coach with real depth.

In person, their expertise is undeniable.
Online, it’s quiet.

Because being brilliant and being visible are two very different skills.

One of my clients sat on a story for four years!
She wanted to share it, but it felt too personal. Too close.

When we worked together, I helped her separate her content from her identity.

She stopped seeing it as sharing herself and started seeing it as sharing something inspiring to others.

That shift changed everything for her.

She finally published the story, and people saw her the way they already did offline: clear, credible, grounded.

I see this pattern all the time.

↓ ↓ ↓

The people with the strongest ideas often hold back because sharing them feels… well, vulnerable.

And vulnerability is uncomfortable when you’re used to being measured, thoughtful, and in control.

But the courage to be seen is what builds real connection.

That’s the space I help people navigate... translating their expertise online without the cringe or chaos.

Finding language that feels like them, while still getting their message seen.

Visibility isn’t about being everywhere.
It’s about being found by the right people.

And we need more thoughtful voices
willing to take that risk.

taplio