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

Ya girl has a new title:
 
VP, Marketing at Vector 👻
 
And while I do my office chair happy dance, I see this as part of a larger and very exciting trend.
 
The next generation of B2B marketing leaders 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 because brand and storytelling have become non-negotiable for growth.
 
In a world where being forgotten is the most expensive problem you can have, the marketers who can: 
→ Tell a story that sticks 
→ Build brand that competitors can't replicate 
→ Create content that makes people feel something
 
... are the ones that smart founders and CEOs will want leading the charge.
 
So to all my fellow content people out there wondering if you can make the leap to marketing leadership:
 
👏 This 👏 is 👏 your 👏 moment.
 
Your ability to translate audience insights into ownable marketing moments is not a nice-to-have anymore.
 
It's the underpinning of modern marketing strategy.
 
And I'm crazy excited to keep proving it with the entire Vector team.

I found this random tool online that lets you create videos that look like they're breaking through your LinkedIn feed.
 
Cost me $40.
 
Figured, what the hell. Let's try it.
 
So I made this little video ad of our ghosties lounging in a pool with a unicorn floaty that "breaks through" the bottom of the post and floats across your feed.

And people 𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘴.
 
The comments weren't about our product. They weren't even really about the message.
 
They were about the ad itself:
• "Ok, the unicorn floating out of the post got my attention... very clever!"
• "Broke my brain in the best way!"
• "I am HERE for that unicorn!"

Which is either a total failure or the most successful awareness ad we've ever run, depending on how you look at it.
 
But with:
• 100k+ impressions
• 6-second dwell time
• 2.6% CTR
• 3% engagement rate
... I'm going with the latter.
 
I think about this ad a lot when people talk about needing huge budgets to do "creative" B2B ads.
 
The tool was $40. The video took maybe an hour to put together. The ad spend was $5k over the summer.

And it's still one of our most memorable ads.
 
All while companies out there spend $50k on a single piece of "premium" content that looks exactly like everyone else's premium content and performs exactly how you'd expect: meh.
 
What if you just tried something weird instead?

Things that have me 🐝 buzzing right now:

• I FINALLY hired a Demand Gen marketer and they start in two weeks! (Any guesses who? 😏)
• Vector's 2026 all-company kickoff is TODAY! 
• We're doing a LIVE episode of This Meeting Could've Been a Podcast on 1/14 - you comin'?
• My kids went back to school! (Hallelujah. I love them. But it was time.)
• The Stranger Things finale still giving me all the nostalgic feels

What's making this first Monday of 2026 a little less Monday-like for you?

Here's what's keeping me up at night lately:
 
All the things that put Vector 👻 on the map—the podcast, the bold ad creative, the swag—operated mainly on vibes.

They happened (and worked) because we moved fast, took risks, and didn't overthink it.
 
But now we're growing. Trying to triple what we did last year.
 
Which means we 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 need the stuff that doesn't feel sexy but absolutely matters: processes, documentation, scalable systems, the "grown-up" marketing operations.
 
And I refuse to let building those things kill the magic.
 
Even though I know that's exactly what happens to most B2B brands as they grow.
 
They trade "let's try it" for "let's run it through legal." They trade bold for safe. They trade memorable for committee-approved.
 
I'm determined to figure out a different path.
 
Here's how I'm trying to think about it:
☝️ We can't sacrifice momentum for maturity. We have to figure out how to do both.
✌️ The cool stuff is what gets us noticed. But the systems are what let us capitalize on it.
 
So I'm working on: 
→ Protecting time for experiments (they stay sacred) 
→ Building repeatable frameworks for what's working (so we can do more of it) 
→ Hiring people who get excited by BOTH sides of this equation
 
I think the trick will be to figure out which magical, vibey things work the most, and scale them without diluting them.
 
Still figuring this out. (And will be for the foreseeable future lol) 
But that's what's keeping me up.

When Eric Linssen introduced me to Kelly Arndt, I was on month five of searching for THE demand gen marketer to join the Vector team.

I had a lot of boxes this person needed to check: 
→ Ads expert who could stand up and scale our paid engine
→ Mad scientist who could run Vector for Vector
→ Charismatic ambassador who could share our own use cases with customers and prospects
→ Player coach willing to build in public alongside with the rest of our marketing team
 
I wasn't going to settle. I wanted top 1% talent, and that meant being patient.
 
I interviewed 30+ demand gen marketers. All incredibly talented, some we came thisclose 🤏 to hiring, but they just weren't our person for one reason or another.
 
So when I met Kelly Arndt, I knew I'd hit the jackpot.
 
🎰 He has a content background (WHAT?!) so he gets that story matters as much as performance.
🎰 He's a systems builder and a true believer in compounding incremental growth.
🎰 He has a bias toward action, a penchant for killer dashboards, and an experimental mindset.
🎰 He speaks fluent customer because he is the embodiment of our power users.
 
Kelly starts at Vector today (!!!) owning all things paid and growth. 
 
Six months felt like forever, but good people are always worth the wait.

Narrator: 𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘥.
 

Here's what I didn't know was coming...

Josh posting "my head of marketing's on vacation, give me your worst ideas" and LinkedIn wholeheartedly accepting the challenge. Hundreds of suggestions. Everyone tagging me. Him hand-coding a website at midnight dedicated to his marketing crimes.
 
All while I'm in a pool in the Caribbean.
 
My mistake? 
Thinking he was joking when he dropped hints about "marketing plans" before I left.
 
His mistake? 
Not realizing I'd have WiFi.
 
The chaos that followed created the Josh & Jess dynamic that's still core to the Vector 👻 brand.
 
In the latest podcast episode of 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗠𝗲𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱'𝘃𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗮 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁, we break down:
→ How one joke post turned into one of our our biggest brand moments
→ Why Josh ended up shipping cards from his garage at $5 a pop (karma) 
→ The exact moment he realized marketing is harder than he thought 
→ How this accidental campaign shaped everything we do 
→ Why sometimes the best strategy is just trying something bold
 
People still ask if we planned it. The truth is I had no idea.
 
And somehow that made it perfect.

Raise your hand if you plan on updating your website content this year. 🙋‍♀️
 
(hint, your hand should be up)

The times, they are a-changing. There are SO many new way to get your content to work harder for you: feeding LLMs, creating buzz, handling objections, building trust, creating die-hard fans, and nurturing the 95% who aren't ready to buy just yet.

It's a LOT. 

But just breathe. Here's your first step. 👇
 
Get your ticket to 𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗱 — THE event for all things B2B websites — happening February 9–11 in Ft. Lauderdale, FL.
 
Two full days of workshops (hosted by the amazing peeps below) on the stuff that actually makes B2B websites work:
→ Brand
→ Positioning 
→ Messaging
→ Conversion optimization
 
And, of course, Content — hosted by me!

I'll walk you through Vector's content strategy, page structure, AI processes, and more, so you can see how we turn content consumption into dolla dolla billz.
 
Also, South FL in in February? Big ol' cherry on top.
 
If you are SERIOUS about coming, (like serious, serious) DM me for my half-off promo code.
 
See you in Florida? ☀️
https://lnkd.in/gvmqwBiF

The message testing strategy Josh 𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 knew about:
 

👉 Run a small ad campaign to test your positioning before launch day.
 
We launched a new product - Signal-Driven Ad Audiences - to see how people would respond to our new positioning, 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘴 before everything else went live.
 
And instead of spending months workshopping it to death, we ran an ad campaign around it.
 
→ Real budget on the line
→ Real buyers seeing it (contact-level ad audiences FTW)
→ Real engagement (or crickets)
 
The fastest way to see if messaging resonates with actual humans.
 
I know for a FACT I told Josh about this beforehand, though he claims otherwise. He literally approved the creative. 😆
(In his defense, he was probably thinking about 47 other things.)
 
But I digress...

Your ad campaigns can do double duty. They're not just for demand gen—they're also your fastest feedback loop on whether your message and offer actually land.

Joshua Perk 👻 and I dig into all things ads at Vector 👻 in the latest episode of 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗠𝗲𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱'𝘃𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗮 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 - out now!
 
AND if you dig what we're putting down, we're doing a LIVE episode next week. 😬 There's no telling what could happen. Get a front row seat with the link in the comments.

What's one of your Q1 marketing bets that's making you nervous?

Here's mine. 👇
 
Joshua Perk 👻 and I are recording a LIVE episode of 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗠𝗲𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱'𝘃𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗮 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 this Wednesday, January 14, at 12 pm ET.
 
No editing. No do-overs. Just us, talking through our entire 2026 marketing plan in real time.

We'll share:
→ The market forces that shaped our plan
→ Our 3 "big rocks" for the year
→ The channels we're putting most of our dolla billz into
→ Sneak peeks of our hiring, event, and influencer plans
→ How we'll know if any of this (gestures around wildly) is actually working
 
All delivered with our general weirdness... and nowhere to hide.
 
See you there?! 🤞
https://lnkd.in/g8GDaSw8

Hey, real quick...
 
Josh and I are doing a LIVE episode of the podcast in T minus 3ish hours—sharing Vector's entire marketing plan for 2026: big rocks, goals, hiring, the whole shebang.
 
Would love for you to be a part of it if you're free at 12 noon ET. (And if you're not, register anyway so you get the recording!)

Hope you can make it! https://lnkd.in/g8GDaSw8

Jess and Josh from Vector standing against a blue background with pink and yellow geometric shapes. Text reads 'This Kickoff Could've Been a Podcast LIVE! with event details 'Jan 14 @ 12pm ET' and 'TODAY!' on sticky notes. Vector logo and ghost mascot appear in bottom right corner.

I already have seven conferences lined up on my calendar this year. 😳

Some we're sponsoring.
Some we're going to see and be seen.

But the one I KNOW is going to level up my skills (and confidence) as a newly minted VP of Marketing?

The Exit Five Marketing Leadership Retreat
🌵 March 18-20 in Paradise Valley, AZ

A two-day working session with people who've been running marketing for years and can help me answer some of the questions I'm wrestling with right now:

• How do we keep our brand narrative focused as our team grows?
• What are the next key hires that will continue to propel our growth? 
• How should we adapt if we're not hitting our goals?
• How do we outdo what we did last year?
 
The group is small. The conversations are real. And there's nothing like learning from people who've already made the mistakes you're about to make.
 
There are only 100 spots and it's already half full. So, if you're new to leadership, a seasoned pro, or just want to pressure-test your thinking with other marketing leaders, come join me.
 
Details here:

Open article: Marketing Leadership Retreat | March 18-20, 2026 by bit.ly

Marketing Leadership Retreat | March 18-20, 2026

Helping B Corps turn their subscribers into their biggest F.A.N.s | Ethical email marketing strategist | Pasta person | Nomad, currently: Vietnam

Your email list is a goldmine, but somehow, your subscribers aren't converting as well and as consistently as you hoped.

Most mission-driven B2B and eCommerce brands know email marketing could be a game-changer, but they're stuck copying "best practices" that treat people like walking wallets – tactics that feel completely misaligned with your brand's values.

Your team is stretched thin, stumbling through campaigns without strategic understanding. You can't confidently show stakeholders how email contributes to revenue because you're tracking opens and clicks instead of revenue attribution.

Here's what's actually possible: systematic email marketing that respects your audience while generating six-figure results. 

After helping brands generate $203K from a previously neglected list in less than two months, and increase event sales by 39.65% with one simple email strategy, the pattern is clear – 

You don't have to choose between authentic relationships and revenue.

The missing piece? 

Someone with deep email expertise who can step into your business and take strategic ownership of this channel while understanding that mission-driven brands need different approaches.

Your email marketing doesn't have to feel pushy or compromise your values. 

When you have the right strategic foundation, your existing audience can transform into a consistent source of qualified prospects who are genuinely excited for sales conversations, or repeat customers eager to use your products.

If you are ready to turn your email marketing into a revenue-generating asset that actually aligns with your mission - send me a message. I'd love to connect.

Yuval Ackerman

Email marketing can feel pretty isolating these days, especially when you're trying to do it thoughtfully.

So I'm starting a monthly call for email marketers - consultants, in-house folks, freelance strategists - who want to talk shop with people who get it.

This month, we're discussing what's worth paying attention to in 2026, what's just noise, and how to approach email marketing this year without getting sucked into every shiny new tactic that shows up in your feed.

Share what you're dealing with, hear what others are trying, and connect with peers who understand the work.

First one's January 22nd at 6pm GMT / 12pm EST. Limited to 10 people.

RSVP here: https://lnkd.in/ev5s8BvK

P.S. CMOs and CEOs at purpose-driven B2B companies - I run a different monthly roundtable for you! 

January's focus is turning that "improve email marketing" line in your 2026 plan into concrete execution, before another quarter passes and email stays in the same spot. Join my newsletter, and the invite will get to your inbox tomorrow: ethicalemails.co/subscribe

Helping marketing teams find the 6-figure revenue in their email list | Ethical email strategist & consultant for B2B and eCommerce B Corps, 1% for the Planet & mission-driven brands | International speaker | Pasta fan🍝

Every so often, I get a project inquiry that looks amazing on paper… until it absolutely doesn’t.

The brief is solid.

The budget is generous.

The potential is huge.

And then the client casually drops a line that makes my stomach turn:

“Yeah, we’ve added people to our list without permission.”

Unfortunately 1: I hear this from both eCommerce and B2B brands.

Unfortunately 2: I’m not surprised anymore.

Unfortunately 3: It’s still deeply disappointing.

Because apart from being illegal in most parts of the world, adding people to your list without their consent is one of the stupidest tactics a brand can use.

As consumers, everyone hates it. They report it as spam. They talk about it publicly. They remember who did it.

And from a business perspective:

Spam complaints tank domain reputation. Domain reputation controls deliverability. And when deliverability drops, even your happy, willing, eager subscribers stop seeing your emails.

So yes, the damage is real, expensive, and slow to fix.

Which is why, when these inquiries come in, I ask one simple question:

“How do you plan to grow your list from now on?”

If someone wants to do better, amazing. We move forward.

But if their answers are evasive, vague, or “we’ll see”… That’s all the information I need.

And that’s when I say (gently, but firmly): I’m not the right partner for you.

Not because I’m on a moral high horse. Not because I think every business can afford to say no. And not because I’m pretending to be perfect.

But because Ethical Emails has red lines I won’t cross, and consent is one of them.

To me, saying “no” to such projects and inquiries is part of being a solution in an industry with far too many problems.

And honestly, it’s easier to hold these boundaries when I’m surrounded by clients who actually give a damn.

They don’t just talk about their values, they document them. They publish them. They hold themselves accountable to them.

So last year, I followed their example and finally published EE’s long-overdue manifesto: my commitments, boundaries, and uncrossable lines.

Because the question that keeps coming back to me is:

What do you want to be known for when this is all said and done?

Not just what you achieved, but how you achieved it.

The businesses that will be remembered aren’t ones that took the fastest shortcut, but that stood for something and actually lived it.

If you’re curious about the boundaries I hold (for myself and for the brands I partner with), you can read the full manifesto here:

https://lnkd.in/gdDRG_B3

Your 2026 marketing strategy says *something* about email:

Improve conversions, get consistent with it, or finally figure out what you're doing with it.

The first monthly roundtable of the year is about that gap: the distance between the line in your marketing plan and actual execution.

One hour with fellow CEOs and founders at purpose-driven B2B companies, talking about turning email plans into work that moves the needle.

January 22nd, 4pm GMT / 11am EST. 

Only 10 spots available.

Join my email list to get an invite: ethicalemails.co/subscribe

This is the harsh truth about monthly newsletters…

Most B2Bs send one newsletter a month and call it a strategy.

But if the average person gets 121 emails a day (that’s 3,630 a month), your one lonely newsletter is fighting a LOT of inbox noise.

And if your subscriber sees your brand name only 12 times a year… the likelihood they are going to remember or recommend you is ridiculously low.

They won’t click.

And they definitely won’t buy.

People don’t think about your brand nearly as much as you think about your brand.

You might remember 10 brands that consistently show up with something relevant or valuable in your inbox.

What about sender names you don’t recognize?

You unsubscribe from their list because you don’t even remember who they are.

And no, the answer isn’t “send more emails.”

It's: “send smarter emails, more consistently.”

So if you’re serious about growing your revenue and impact with this channel, stop sending only one email a month.

Start showing up like you actually want to be remembered.

If your email strategy is “send to everyone,” you’re wasting money, momentum, and carbon.

Every email has a cost - in deliverability, in attention, and even in environmental impact.

So when my clients say, “Let’s email the whole list,” I always ask:

• Who really needs to see this?
• What’s in it for them?
• Does this email actually move your goals forward, or is it just noise?

That’s exactly what I did with my clients’ annual event promotion strategy.

When we stopped emailing everyone and started being intentional, they hit record highs:

• +39.65% more ticket sales
• +16.28% higher attendance
• Fewer emails sent. Less carbon. More impact.

Email marketing is about reaching the right people, with the right message, at the right time.

If you want to see real ROI from your emails this year, book a no-obligation disco call https://lnkd.in/gUTyunWE

The hidden cost of "sending emails to everyone"

If I were a CEO of an Email Service Provider in 2026, this is what I would’ve invested in to make my company way ahead of the competition:



Many people ask me about my favorite ESP or for a recommendation.

The truth is, this is a near-impossible question to answer.

Because none of them are perfect.

This is also why you haven’t seen me sharing any ESP-sponsored posts (although never say never, and no shade to my excellent, excellent colleagues who do that!).

In fact, I think that most ESPs are investing in all the wrong places... Either to please shareholders who have shiny object syndrome, or to make their users slightly and temporarily happier.

• Releasing more AI features, like subject line checkers and image generation tools
• Developing more pre-built email templates and automated flows
• Giving more options to communicate with subscribers via SMS

When the reality is, these are only band-aids, while a lot of ESPs don’t have super basic functionalities figured out.

(I’m looking at you, ESPs that still can’t automatically tag/segment subscribers when they click on links in emails!)

With the AI hype refusing to dwindle, competition breathing down their neck, and inbox providers making their requirements harder, ESPs' CEOs are under a lot of pressure. 

Which brings me to what I believe would be a game-changer for any ESP that takes both acquisition and retention seriously in 2026 and beyond.

I would love to see an ESP develop a native AI tool that would produce a trustworthy periodic deliverability report (not just “delivery”), and give users real recommendations on what they could improve - and how. 

Because if you can’t even reach the inboxes of your subscribers, all those bells and whistles don’t mean a damn thing.

Deliverability is something I doubled down on in 2025, and I will continue to expand my knowledge of it this year - because my clients deserve the best. And it’s a topic many good brands out there need more guidance on.

But I don’t see any ESPs taking the lead on such a thing when they’re still making their users believe that open rates are as important as 10 years ago...

I would love to be wrong, though.

What are you doubling down on with your email marketing in 2026?

After a year of hosting monthly email-marketing roundtables, a pattern emerged:

The “new challenges” people kept naming… weren’t new at all.

They were the same systemic issues, repeating across dozens of businesses, and are the most common problems that all businesses face now (and have faced for a while).

2026 will include more conversations that will give you additional perspectives, support you, and reshape the way you think about email in the best way.

Want to join these conversations this year? Sign up for my email list - only my subscribers get an invite: 

ethicalemails.co/subscribe

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The Battle

Jess Cook

Yuval Ackerman

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The Battle

Jess Cook

Yuval Ackerman

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Engagements

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