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?

Penfriend

Penfriend is the best goddamn AI content generation tool out there. Built from my last 10 years of content advising that's resulted in $30.6m in revenue for clients from organic traffic.

We're building Penfriend to be the toolbox for your content team to win in 2024.

Co-Founder and CMO

The Penny Drop

Head Writer

fivethreeoh

Creating SEO sprints to take your SaaS's content team to the first page. Turning 12 months of SEO into 12 weeks.

Founder

Explor Digital

GrowthMinds

Head of SEO

Content Hacker and SEO Strategist at GrowthMinds

Growth Hacker

Walsh - Structural and Civil Engineers

4D visualisation

⚡£23M revenue from Organic Growth for SaaS with Content Marketing Sprints | Storytelling, SEO and Content Marketing ⚡️

Your AI content sucks.
Your competitors' AI content sucks.
Everyone's AI content sucks.

And you know what's worse? You're all paying through the nose for it.

While you're sitting there wrestling with prompts like a cat trying to open a doorknob, we've built something that actually works. Because unlike every other "revolutionary AI tool" (looking at you, [REDACTED]), we know it takes more than 10 prompts and a prayer to write content that doesn't sound like it was outsourced to a drunk toddler.

We use 450+ prompts. Overkill? Maybe. But at least our stuff doesn't read like it was written by an AI having an existential crisis.

Some receipts for the skeptics:
↳ Slapped 400 blogs on our site = 10x traffic in 3 months
↳ Halved content budgets while 5x-ing output (yeah, your Content Manager's been lying about costs)
↳ Helped tiny startups pimp-slap Fortune 500s right off page 1

After a decade watching the B2B content circus, I've seen every "game-changing" tool and "revolutionary" AI writer. Most of them belong in the same trash bin as your last strategic plan.

Here's the uncomfortable truth: Your investors aren't buying your "we're playing the long game" BS anymore. They want to see organic traction, and your three LinkedIn posts from 2023 aren't cutting it.

You need Penfriend.ai if:
✓ Your competitors are living rent-free at the top of Google while you're still "building awareness"
✓ VCs are ghosting you because your "organic presence" looks like a digital ghost town
✓ You're burning cash on content that reads like it was plagiarized from a terms of service agreement
✓ You're ready to stop being the industry's wallflower and start being its problem child

Sound familiar? Then you're exactly who we're looking for.

The hard truth? You suck at AI. But it's not your fault. You've been sold a lie by companies who think "AI writing" means letting GPT go wild after a two-prompt foreplay.

We fixed it. Because someone had to.

DM me "PAGE ONE" and I'll show you how we're helping companies terrorize their competition online.

P.S. If you're happy with generic, soulless AI content that sounds like everyone else's, this probably isn't for you. And that's okay. Someone has to keep the internet boring.

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The Battle

Jess Cook

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The Battle

Jess Cook

Tim Hanson

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

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