Head of Content @ LASSO | Co-host of That's Marketing, Baby | Delivering daily cheat codes for small content teams

I'm a creative director turned content marketer and strategist with more than 20 years of experience conceptualizing and executing breakthrough work for B2C brands like Eggo, Rice Krispies, Blue Cross, Cottonelle, and McDonald’s, and B2B brands like Fastly and Island.

I have a knack for leading cross-functional teams toward a common goal, bringing order to the oft-chaotic creative process, crafting insight-driven global campaigns, and bringing stories to life via long- and short-form content.

Jess Cook

Marketers can spot lazy creative from a mile away.

We roll our eyes at generic messaging. 

And we definitely know when someone's trying too hard.

But we also know when something's genuinely different. 
When a brand is doing something we haven't seen before. 
When the execution makes us stop scrolling and think, "Okay, that's actually clever."

That's the bar I want Vector 👻 to clear.

And with that, I give you "Warm Water, Warmer Leads."

We had 20 seats at our Exit Five Drive dinner.
 
And the way we filled them is different than what you'd expect.
 
Here's how we did it ⤵
 
Exit Five sent us an anonymized attendee list.
 
Just title, company, industry, and URL. No names.
 
So I passed it to our Rev Ops lead, Sara McNamara, and asked her to work her usual enrichment magic.
 
What she handed back was insane: 
→ Full names and LinkedIn URLs 
→ Their martech stack 
→ Number of ads currently running on LinkedIn
 
From there, I filtered ruthlessly:
 
✂️ Anyone running below a certain ad threshold (probably not our ICP) 
✂️ Small companies without the right team structure for our tool 
✂️ Anyone who wasn't a decision-maker or close to one
 
I needed people who could either make a buying decision or bring Vector 👻  directly to someone who could.
 
Then, I filled the other half of the seats with customers.
 
Joshua Perk 👻 was all, "Jess, we already sold them. What's the point?"
 
But because we seated them strategically next to prospects, we (the Vector team) didn't pitch Vector once that night.
 
We didn't have to.
 
Our customers did it for us—naturally, authentically, in their own words.
 
I'd walk around the restaurant and just... listen:
 
"Here's how we're using it..." 
"We've built our entire workflow around it..." 
"The results have been incredible..."
 
Way more powerful than anything we could've scripted.
 
Plus, it allowed our team to truly get to know our guests. We talked about our kids, our current Netflix obsessions, our favorite places to travel. All of which made follow up and opp creation a heck of a lot easier.
 
Josh and I break down our entire event sponsorship debut in the latest episode of This Meeting Could've Been a Podcast—out now!

• Why we selected the events we sponsored
• How we crafted an on-brand experience
• Our event plans for 2026
• The story of the three-hour scramble when the dinner got moved up a day

You know where to find the links! 👇

Hey, what are you doing Dec. 9-10?

Cuz it'd be cool or whatever if you could go to Full Circle with me.

It's for small, B2B marketing teams with big ambitions. Which, is like, totally us.

I made you a mix tape about it. ☺️

Wanna go?

☐ Yes (I left you a link in the comments.)
☐ No (Forget I said anything. Pretend this never happened.)

Full Circle Mixtape Vol. 2

Lead magnets have their place.

But this year, we focused squarely on awareness magnets.
 
And our podcast is proving it works.
 
→ More shared and talked about than 90% of shows on Spotify
→ Branded search up 430%
→ Inbound demos from people who "saw us everywhere"
 
They come in pre-sold on our vibe. Pre-educated on our POV. Pre-convinced we're the team they want to work with.
 
Meanwhile, our competitors are still gating their best ideas behind forms with very little investment toward getting people to CARE about them.
 
Sure that's harder to measure, takes longer to pay off, and requires way more creativity. 

But being forgotten is more expensive than all of that combined.

Because you can't convert people who don't know you exist.

------------------------

So proud of our little show that turned into a big show. Go check out This Meeting Could've Been a Podcast if you haven't already!

#SpotifyWrapped

When you pivot your entire company, your marketing goals have to pivot too.


We spent months repositioning Vector: new messaging, new pricing, new website, new everything.

Which meant we also have to temporarily shift from "will we hit our revenue number?"
to "is this pivot even the right direction?"

𝗠𝘆 𝗷𝗼𝗯 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝗺𝗲: 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲 (𝗼𝗿 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲) 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗲.

I landed on three goals.

1️⃣ 𝗛𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 
(Peep the video to see where you want it to be.) 😁

2️⃣ 𝗜𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘀 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝗜𝗖𝗣 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝘀 𝗯𝘆 𝟱𝟬% 

3️⃣ 𝗗𝗲𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘀 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝘀 𝗯𝘆 𝟱𝟬%

Because positioning has to do TWO things at once: attract the right people AND repel the wrong ones.

We're nearly a month past launch, and we're nailing these goals.

But this taught me something valuable about pivots: You can't just keep measuring what you measured before.

Get the full scoop on how we pivoted Vector without breaking the business (and ourselves) in the latest episode of This Meeting Could've Been a Podcast—out now!

If you're spending $25k+ per month on LinkedIn ads, this is your BOGO moment.
 
No promo code needed.
 
Vector's new Bid Agent just launched, and it's basically Black Friday for your ad budget.
 
Flip a switch and start getting 25-60% more outcomes for the same spend.
 
𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲'𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀:
 
LinkedIn's Max Delivery is designed to win auctions. Not to maximize what you get for your money.
 
Bid Agent adjusts your bids every 15 minutes to find lower-cost windows and higher-density impression periods within your audience.
 
Same targeting. Same people. Way more outcomes per dollar.
 
"𝗪𝗮𝗶𝘁, 𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗽𝗲𝗿 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗸𝘀 = 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗲 𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵, 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁?"
 
Nope.
 
LinkedIn still only shows your ads to the exact audience you define. Bid Agent just finds the moments when reaching them costs less.
 
(And things get REAL interesting when you layer it on top of your contact-level audiences built in Vector.)
 
If you're a demand gen leader that has this kind of buying power on your wish list, there's a link in the comments just for you.

It snowed here this week. So I need very little convincing.

But if you're someone who needs a bit more to go on...

Here's your sign to join me at Above the Fold in February. Two days of workshops focused on one thing—B2B websites—in Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

In my mind, I'm already there. 😎

See you in FL?

Nick Zeckets

Air Traffic Control

This is the most exciting work I've ever had the pleasure of being a part of.

At Air Traffic Control, our team has enabled any marketing software from email to web with personalization features. Not segments. Not logic building. True machine learning that dynamically serves up content, products, and anything else a customer can dream up to *each* person.

We're growing rapidly and I welcome the opportunity to share our vision for mass-personalization with you.

CEO, co-founder

PeerWise

Supported this early stage company's product and marketing efforts.

Advisor, Product Led Growth

FunnelVision - Fractional CROs

At FunnelVision, I got to help incredible business leaders scale their revenues by rethinking product:market fit, how to stay lean and achieve scale awareness, and developing cultures of experimentation from the top of the funnel through customer experience and back again.

Principal

YPulse, Inc.

As EVP of Growth, Nick orchestrated product development, marketing, sales, and customer experience for YPulse's industry-leading insights offerings into Gen Z and Millennial consumers. Responsibilities included productization, pricing, promotion and ad spend, marketing automation, sales process and management, and P&L over the growth function.

By redesigning customer operations and product in 2019, Ypulse achieved an 86% growth rate in syndicated revenue.

In 2020, YPulse reached 38% growth in H1 in the face of COVID and quarantines while reducing budget. Also implemented the company's first sales and tech stack inclusive of top of funnel analytics across Google Analytics, marketing insights and automation through Pardot, and sales optimization via Salesforce and related tools. Designed and recruited a full-suite growth org inclusive of marketing, Customer Experience, Customer Success, and sales.

EVP, Growth

QuadWrangle

Founded QuadWrangle in 2011 with the goal of deeply personalizing engagement between universities and their constituents. Across eight years, we managed to develop the most advanced AI solution that increased email open and click rates by nearly 100%, raised giving and other CTA engagement rates by 10X, built a remarkable team, earned the support of some of the country's most prominent angel and VC investors, and raised millions of dollars for some of the world's leading institutions.

QuadWrangle was acquired by Summit Partners-backed Ruffalo Noel Levitz to expand its impact on the education industry and its varied constituents.

CEO Emeritus, Member of the Board of Directors

QuadWrangle was my first startup and the first truly alumni-centric social/mobile solution that makes alumni engagement more valuable for everyone.  Our platform, across web, mobile, and email, provides curated content, a powerful career advancement network and tools to connect and thrive as an alum like events management, online giving and much more.

Led sales and strategy for TRU, the world leader in youth consumer insights through acquisition by WPP growing revenues >30% YoY for 4 straight years.

Vice President, Strategy and Development

- Three straight years of 30%, 40%, and 50% growth to our 30 year mature base syndicated consumer insights business; each of the last three years being the firm's best ever as measured by new revenue.
- Launched and grew TRU's first new syndicated product, The Global Teen Insights Program, into a $1MM business.
- Exceeded 2011 revenue target by 49%.
- Conceptualized, produced and marketed TRU's successful "Uprising" webcast capturing thousands of attendees.
- Highly regarded speaker to client and industry groups alike.
- Responsible for all productization and pricing strategy.
- Initiate, lead and develop relationships with our corporate parent architecture: TNS Custom Research, Kantar, & WPP.
- Insights development and delivery with thought leadership across financial services, mobile, consumer tech, media, advertising, fashion, footwear, retail, and public policy/opinion research.
- Spearheading corporate strategies around C&U, global, and government services.

Director, Strategy and Development

The Nielsen Company

New business development, client management, and product development for a division of Nielsen offering a software solution and suite of aligned services for retail trade management and execution.  Wins include largest contract in division history, ID of new revenue channels, and 100% client renewal rate.

Senior Manager

The Hackett Group

Senior Analyst

Corporate Executive Board

Sales of consulting and function-based memberships to Fortune 1,000 company c-level executives across IT, finance, corporate real estate and legal.  Exceeded goals and expectations quarter over quarter.  Developed new channels leading to new business for the whole practice.  Led team meetings in preparation for quarter closes and motivated peers.

Associate Director, Sales and Marketing

Nick is a product-driven growth leader with experience at the executive leadership level for large publicly traded companies as well as being a serial founder and CEO and currently leads the phenomenal team at Air Traffic Control - an exciting approach to marketing personalization. Prior to ATC, he founded and led QuadWrangle, the leading AI and MarTech solution in Education that was exited to private equity. Key areas of focus are on product:market fit, marketing, sales strategy, corporate data and insights strategy, and team development.

Kill your blog.

I'm serious. Just. Kill. It.

The best thing you can do for your content is develop an entirely new framework for what you're producing.

Content formats and models dictate engagement and pipeline.

Let me give you an example:

We were talking about our own newsletter strategy here at Smoke Signals AI this morning.

"Here's how we deliver industry and subject matter insights."

I yawned at our own newsletter requirements.

Because the only thing anyone is going to read has to be so freaking good that recipients *plan* for reading it.

What does that look like for us?

1) What we've been building - every two weeks, we'll share a full workflow breakdown. What did we build? How did we do it? Why was it built it all? If we have results, share those.

We won't be the first to do this.

But we'll be the first to do it how we do it. Targeting + Trust + Timing.

2) Format(s) - Describe the workflow step-by-step in text. Create a Vidyard video and embed that. Port it to a YouTube channel for on-demand learning. Break it down into a LinkedIn series. Find a podcast guest who's solved for or struggled with the workflow's intent. Run a webinar to live-train people to build that workflow.

The magic of truly useful content is that repurposing doesn't feel derivative. It feels adapted to and for the consumer.

3) Try not to go alone - the rate of innovation right now dictates that everything is possible all at once. From anyone. From teams of 1. But no matter how prolific that team of 1, 5, or 10, a partnership ecosystem of 100 or 500 is UNSTOPPABLE. Design content with them. Pull them into the webinar. Cross share in each others' newsletters and socials.

Going alone isn't just harder. It's stupid.
_____

Net-net, blogs are lame (90% of the time). The format welcomes mediocrity. Their lineage begets sameness.

Slow down. Build something incredible once every two weeks that can come to life every single day.

But for the love, just kill your blog.

Most GTM AI is nonsense. Let's clear things up.

If you can't prove marketing ROI, you're toast in 2026.

Harsh? Maybe. True? Absolutely.

Attribution is the skill marketers need right now. And most of us are flying blind—making moves we can't actually tie to revenue.

My friend Ryan Gunn just dropped something that fixes this.

He built an entire certification course on attribution strategy and technical implementation in HubSpot. Not theory. Not fluff. Actual systems you can build.

What you'll learn:
- How to pick the right attribution model (and sell leadership on it)
- Building custom attribution setups in HubSpot
- Turning data into a story that proves marketing's impact
- Creating an implementation plan that actually works

The Attribution Mastery Certification Course from Attribution Academy launches TODAY.

Ryan hooked me up with a 25% off code for launch day:
https://lnkd.in/eRyHZ5HS

And if you're not already subscribed to his newsletter #Hubsessed—do it. It's mandatory reading for HubSpot folks.

Welp, Cloudflare is down in a lot of places.

Meaning, at least for me, ChatGPT and Claude are down.

The squad over at Cloudflare are NOT having a fun morning.

https://lnkd.in/eVF7G376

Every B2B buyer has two stories:

The one they tell their CEO. And the one they tell their spouse at dinner.

If you're only selling to the first story, you're missing 80% of the decision.

I spent years helping consumer brands decode human behavior for Hollywood studios like DreamWorks, FX, and HBO, plus brands like Puma and Kraft while at WPP and Nielsen.

Here's what studying consumers at that level taught me about B2B buyers:

They're not personas. They're protagonists.

And no one is better at getting inside the head of others than screenwriters.

So we created a prompt framework at Smoke Signals AI to decode any B2B buyer with them as the protagonist:

***
CONTEXT LAYER: You are analyzing [NAME], [TITLE] at [COMPANY]. Company context: [stage, recent news, industry position] Individual context: [tenure, previous roles, visible mandate]
DISCOVERY PROMPTS:
"Based on their last 90 days of LinkedIn activity, what problems are keeping them up at night that they're NOT explicitly stating?"
"Given their career transitions from [Company A] to [Company B] to [current], what personal success metrics likely matter most to them?"
"Analyzing their public speaking/writing style, what's their preferred narrative structure for processing new information?"
"What's the gap between their current role and where they likely want to be in 24 months?"
"Based on their peer set and who they engage with, what's their actual (not stated) position in the industry social hierarchy?"
SYNTHESIS PROMPT: "Now create two versions of how this person would describe a win:
Version A: What they'd tell their boss
Version B: What they'd tell their spouse/partner Map our solution to Version B, but present it as Version A."
***

The key insight: every buyer believes they're the hero of their own story.

This agentic approach constantly asks: What's the subplot this person is living that has nothing to do with your product but everything to do with why they'll buy it?

Try this on your next prospect. The results will shock you.

What subplot are you missing in your buyer's story?

#B2BMarketing #Sales #BuyerIntelligence

One of my favorite HubSpot apps is dead.

I don't have the heart to tell the founder, who I think is an impossibly wonderful human.

I'm not going to out the use case/vendor, but every time I sit down with Opus 4.5 for a Smoke Signals AI project, I'll leave some "what if?" time.

Namely, "what if I just tried to make this with Opus? And connect it into the knowledge graph we build for customers?"

Hasn't failed me, yet. In fact, even when not really trying to do anything app'y, I get apps pumped out that Blow. My. Mind.

I'm not even trying to vibe code anything half the time. It just...knows that an interactive app is a more powerful approach to what I'm trying to do than my initial approach.

taplio

The Battle

Jess Cook

Nick Zeckets

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taplio

The Battle

Jess Cook

Nick Zeckets

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Jess Cook's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreNick Zeckets's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreJess Cook's LinkedIn Performance