Generic GTM is dead → Go to my featured section for actionable GTM insights and elevate your marketing game 🔥| Co-Founder of TACK | Creating the category of People-first GTM 👥| 13+ Years in B2B Marketing 📈

I help B2B companies build go-to-market strategies that prioritize real connection because relationships, not just reach, drive growth.

After 14 years in B2B marketing, I’ve led field marketing, demand gen, community, and influencer programs. I know what works, what doesn’t, and what’s changed.

Too many companies still treat buyers like leads. That’s not how modern GTM works.

I’ve helped 35+ B2B brands shift from transactional tactics to connection-driven growth, building scalable strategies, launching communities, running 30+ webinars, and rolling out on-demand models that replaced bloated in-house teams.

Today, I work directly with brands, founders, and marketers to build go-to-market engines that scale—without the spam.

What I do:
→ Build integrated campaign strategies that drive pipeline
→ Coach creators and brands on influencer marketing
→ Design community-led and field programs that actually work
→ Speak on GTM, content, and creator-led growth
→ Act as a fractional marketing leader or advisor

📚 Author of B2B Influencer Marketing: Work With Creators to Generate Authentic and Effective Marketing (Kogan Page, 2025)

👋 Let’s work together: DM me or visit https://linktr.ee/NickBMarketing

Nick Bennett

Sent this to my parents last spring.

Their response? "Did you make that with AI?"

No mom. That's a real billboard. In Times Square. With my face on it.

I made the GTM 100 list. Nasdaq billboard. The whole thing.

And my parents thought I photoshopped myself into New York City.

Here's the thing though. That billboard was cool for about 48 hours. Then it was back to work. Back to client calls. Back to figuring out how to grow this thing I built from scratch.

Nobody sees the years before the billboard.

13 years in-house learning the craft. Started posting on LinkedIn as a Covid hobby back in Feb 2020. Had no idea what I was doing. Just started sharing what I knew.

Almost 3 years ago I bet on myself and went out on my own. The late nights building something when nobody's watching. The moments you wonder if this was the dumbest decision you ever made. The times you almost went back to a "real job" because steady paychecks sound pretty nice when you're staring at an empty pipeline.

But that billboard didn't change anything.

What changed everything was the decision to start. To bet on myself when it made zero sense on paper. To keep going when it would've been easier to quit.

If you're thinking about starting your own thing, here's what I'll tell you:

The recognition is nice. But it's not why you do it.

You do it because you can't not do it. Because the alternative of wondering "what if" is worse than failing.

So yeah. My parents still think I'm pretty good at Photoshop.

And I'm just trying to keep doing work I'm proud of.

15+ Year B2B Marketing Leader Turned Founder | ABM, Field Marketing & Events, Influencer Marketing & More | DM Me to Learn More

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A campaign that should've taken 2 weeks took me a few hours.

Not because I moved faster. Because there was nothing to wait on.

Most marketing teams aren't slow because they lack ideas. They're slow because they're waiting. Waiting on ops to pull a list. Waiting on copy approval. Waiting on sales to confirm follow-up. By the time everything aligns, the moment is gone.

The play was a cold pipeline re-engagement campaign.

We pulled accounts that showed intent over the past 6 months but never converted. Segmented by product interest and role. Launched a 3-touch email and LinkedIn sequence.

Total time from idea to live: one day.

What made it possible:

→ Segments already built in Common Room
→ Messaging templates ready to adapt
→ No dependency on ops for list pulls or triggers
→ Sales aligned on follow-up the same morning

Within the first week we had replies, meetings booked, and a handful of deals reopened.

The lesson isn't about moving faster. It's about removing the waiting before you need to move.

Segments defined ahead of time. Triggers ready to go. Ownership clear before the play even exists.

The fastest marketing teams don't sprint harder. They've already done the setup so execution is simple when the moment shows up.

What's slowing down your team's ability to act on ideas?

Most event marketers can't defend their budget.

Not because events don't work. Because they're reporting the wrong things.

Finance asks: What did we get from that $50K conference?

And the answer is usually badge scans and booth traffic. That's not ROI. That's activity.

Here's what an actual event report should include:

ICP Accounts Attended
How many Tier 1, 2, or 3 accounts had someone at the event? This tells you if you were even in front of the right people.

Contacts Added
Net-new contacts from attending accounts. Not total scans. New names in your CRM that didn't exist before.

Meetings Booked
Sales meetings scheduled as a direct result of the event. Not "good conversations." Actual meetings on the calendar.

Qualified Pipeline (New)
Net-new opportunities created post-event that meet your qualification criteria. Stage, ICP fit, value threshold. Real pipeline, not maybes.

Influenced Pipeline
Existing opportunities where the event helped move things forward. Deals that accelerated, re-engaged, or unstuck because of a conversation at the booth.

Closed-Won Revenue
Revenue from deals directly attributable or influenced by the event. The number finance actually cares about.

Then calculate two ROI metrics:

Pipeline ROI
(Qualified Pipeline + Influenced Pipeline) ÷ Total Event Cost
Use this to compare efficiency across events.

ARR ROI
Closed-Won ARR ÷ Total Event Cost
Use this for long-term performance.

One more metric worth tracking: Revenue Coverage in the Room. A directional estimate of potential new and expansion revenue based on who attended. Not a forecast. A planning tool.

When you report like this, the budget conversation changes completely.

You're not defending why events should exist. You're showing which ones deserve more investment.

What metrics do you use to prove event ROI?

P.S. let me know if there are metrics you want me to go deeper on here, too!

School vacation week starts Monday.

Here's what I think will happen vs. what will actually happen.

Expectation: I'll knock out that strategic project I've been putting off.
Reality: I'll negotiate screen time limits like a hostage negotiator by 9am.

Expectation: The kids will play quietly while I take calls.
Reality: Someone will scream "SHE HIT ME" during my most important meeting of the week.

Expectation: I'll maintain my normal work schedule.
Reality: I'll be answering Slack messages from the bathroom because it's the only room with a lock.

Expectation: We'll do fun family activities in the evenings.
Reality: Everyone will be too tired and annoyed with each other by 5pm.

Expectation: I'll meal prep healthy lunches.
Reality: Goldfish crackers count as a food group now.

A realistic survival guide for the week:

Step 1: Lower your expectations.
Step 2: Lower them again.
Step 3: Accept that "productivity" means everyone is still alive by Friday.

Here's the thing though. I'm taking the end of next week off. And it still feels weird to say that.

When you work for yourself, stepping away is harder than it sounds. There's always something. A client email. A project to tweak. A "quick" thing that turns into two hours.

But this is exactly why I went out on my own. The flexibility to be present when it matters.

So I'm logging off. Mostly.

To all the parents balancing work and a house full of chaos next week: I see you. We're all just trying to make it to the weekend.

Good luck out there.

Let's stop debating who owns event follow-up.

Because you're solving the wrong problem.

I've been in those post-event meetings. Marketing says sales didn't follow up fast enough. Sales says the leads weren't qualified. Everyone points fingers. Nothing changes.

Here's what I've learned after years of running events: the ownership question is a distraction. The real problem is context evaporating before anyone can act on it.

Think about it. Your rep has a killer conversation at the booth. Gets back to the hotel. Checks email. Has dinner. Flies home. By Monday morning, that conversation is a blur. Name, company, maybe a vague note in a spreadsheet.

Now they're supposed to write a personalized follow-up? Good luck.

The solution isn't assigning owners earlier. It's about capturing context before it disappears.

Here's what actually works:

→ 15-minute debrief before anyone leaves the venue
→ Every rep records a voice note for each priority conversation
→ Raw context while it's still fresh

That's it. No fancy system needed. Just capture the moment.

Why this works:

1. You get the real details. Not sanitized CRM notes written three days later.
2. Follow-up becomes delegatable. Anyone can listen to that voice note and write a solid email.
3. It eliminates the "I forgot what we talked about" excuse. Because you literally have a recording.

Effective follow-up isn't about who sends it. It's about having something valuable to say.

And you can't say something valuable if you can't remember the conversation.

Next event, try this. Debrief on-site. Voice notes for every meaningful conversation. Then watch what happens to your follow-up quality.

What's your system for capturing context before it disappears?

Most teams run ABM like a campaign.

Launch it. Measure it. Move on to the next one.

That's why most ABM programs fail.

ABM isn't a campaign. It's an operating system.

Here's the difference:

Campaign mindset: Pick some accounts, run ads, send emails, hope something sticks.

Operating system mindset: Build a repeatable engine with prioritization, signals, feedback loops, and clear rules for when to invest and when to cut.

The operating system has five parts:

1. Account Tiering

Not all accounts deserve the same effort. Build T1, T2, and T3 tiers based on revenue potential and strategic fit. Your T1 accounts get intensive, personalized engagement. T3 gets scaled plays. Stop treating every account the same.

2. Buying Group Mapping

Enterprise deals aren't won by reaching one contact. Map 6-10 stakeholders per account across functions. Operations, IT, Finance, whoever touches the decision. Multi-thread or lose.

3. Signal-Led Prioritization

Stop guessing who's ready. Track event engagement, website activity, content consumption, and sales intel. Prioritize accounts showing real signals, not just the ones sales "feels good about."

4. Channel Orchestration

Your channels should work together, not in silos. Events, content, paid, SDR outreach, sales follow-up. All coordinated around the same accounts at the same moments. Timing matters more than volume.

5. Investment Rules

This is where most teams fail. You need clear criteria for when to increase spend and when to cut it.

Invest more when:
→ Sales has real insight into the account
→ Multiple stakeholders are engaging
→ There's a clear path to pipeline

Cut when:
→ No meaningful engagement signals
→ No sales alignment or account knowledge
→ Activity isn't translating to opportunities

The teams that win at ABM aren't running better campaigns.

They're running a system that compounds over time.

Are you running campaigns or building a system?

The biggest mistake heading into event season?

Teams start planning the next event before learning from the last one.

I've watched it happen dozens of times. Event ends Friday. By Monday everyone's already deep into the next one. No debrief. No data review. No honest conversation about what actually worked.

Then six months later someone asks why events aren't driving pipeline.

Because you never stopped to figure out what was broken.

I've spent years talking about this on podcasts. Field marketing. Event strategy. Pre-event playbooks. Attribution. Follow-up systems. All of it.

Finally put it all in one place.

24+ hours of podcast episodes where I break down everything I've learned running events across multiple companies.

Topics covered:
→ Why 80% of your event ROI happens before you land
→ How to build a repeatable event system
→ The follow-up gap that kills most event pipeline
→ Pre-event outreach that actually gets responses
→ Attribution that proves events work

Free. No gate. Just hit play.

Spotify playlist: https://lnkd.in/d74TQgus

If you're prepping for Q1/Q2 events right now, this might save you from repeating the same mistakes.

PS: I'll be at B2BMX in early March. Will you?

Most teams start event marketing when they land at the airport.

By then you've already lost.

The companies generating real pipeline from events aren't doing anything fancy at the booth. They're winning in the 2-3 weeks before anyone shows up.

Here's the pre-event playbook that actually moves deals.

Step 1: Build your hit list early

Pull your target accounts attending the event. Cross-reference with open opportunities, churned accounts worth revisiting, and prospects who've engaged with your content recently.

You're not trying to meet everyone. You're trying to meet the right 15-20 people.

Step 2: Earn the meeting before you ask for it

Cold outreach saying let's grab coffee at the conference gets ignored. Everyone sends that.

Instead:
→ Reference something specific. Their recent funding round. A post they wrote. A challenge their company is likely facing.
→ Offer something useful upfront. A relevant resource. An intro to someone they should meet. A coffee voucher with no strings attached.
→ Make it easy. Suggest a specific time and place. Remove friction.

The goal is to feel like a warm intro not a cold pitch.

Step 3: Create a reason to be remembered

Most booths blend together. Same swag. Same pitch. Same forgettable experience.

Think about what would make someone talk about your booth at dinner that night.

→ Interactive elements that require participation
→ Giveaways tied to engagement not just badge scans
→ Conversations that feel like advice not demos

Step 4: Coordinate your team

Nothing kills event ROI faster than three reps talking to the same prospect while missing a decision maker two booths away.

→ Assign target accounts to specific people
→ Share context on each account before the event
→ Daily syncs to adjust based on who you've actually talked to

The event itself is just the middle of the funnel. The work before is what determines whether you leave with pipeline or just a pile of badge scans.

What's your pre-event outreach look like?

Your outbound isn't a messaging problem. It's a deliverability problem.

I watched a team spend three months optimizing subject lines, rewriting sequences, and testing new CTAs. Open rates stayed flat. Reply rates kept dropping.

Turned out 40% of their emails were landing in spam. They had no idea.

Here's the thing. You can have the best copy in the world. If your emails aren't hitting the inbox, none of it matters.

Most operators never check this stuff until something breaks. By then you've already burned your domain.

Here's what to actually monitor:

1. Sender Reputation

Check Google Postmaster Tools weekly. If your domain reputation drops to "Low" or "Bad," you're already in trouble. Aim to stay in "High" consistently.

Microsoft SNDS gives you similar visibility for Outlook. If you're selling to enterprise, this matters.

2. Authentication Stack

SPF, DKIM, and DMARC aren't optional anymore. They're table stakes.

But "set up" isn't the same as "configured correctly." Most teams have partial implementations that still leak trust signals.

Run a check monthly. If any of these are failing or misconfigured, inbox placement tanks.

3. Domain Age and Warm-Up

New domains need 2-4 weeks of warm-up before you scale. Sending 500 cold emails from a fresh domain is a fast track to spam.

Volume ramp matters too. Start with 10-20 emails per day. Increase gradually. Jumping from 50 to 500 overnight triggers filters.

If you're running multiple campaigns, use subdomains for outbound. Protect your primary domain reputation.

4. Inbox Placement Testing

Open rates lie. Tracking pixels fire even in spam folders sometimes.

Run seed list tests before launching campaigns. Know where your emails actually land across Gmail, Outlook, and corporate domains.

This is where Warmy comes in.

It automates warm-up, monitors inbox placement, validates your authentication setup, and flags issues before they tank your campaigns.

I've been using it to stress-test deliverability for outbound programs. The visibility alone is worth it.

If you want to boost your deliverability, drop a comment and I'll send you the link.

If your outbound has been underperforming and you've already optimized the obvious stuff, check your deliverability first.

It might be the invisible thing killing your pipeline.

I used to be every CMO's favorite "go-to" person.

Need a deck by tomorrow? Done.
Campaign launch in 3 days? I'll figure it out.
Last-minute event pivot? On it.

I delivered everything. Except results.

Being reliable felt like winning. But I was just busy. Not effective.

That's what I'm talking about at EPNow The BIG Event on February 26.

💡 From "Reliable" to "Effective" — Stop Being Busy, Start Driving Real Impact
8:40 AM PT

Here's what we'll cover:

→ How to shift from reactive execution to intentional, strategic impact
→ How to protect your time and prioritize what actually drives pipeline
→ How to earn influence across the business, not just praise for being helpful

This is for anyone who's tired of being the person who gets things done but wants to become the person who drives growth.

If that sounds like you, I'll see you there.

Register here → https://lnkd.in/eXxUPcvt

I've gotten to see 3 years of Navattic putting out their annual State of Interactive Demos report. They shared their 4-step process that anyone creating a "State of" report can learn from.

Step 1: Start with questions

They kick off every year at their fall offsite by gathering questions from their entire go-to-market team. They ask:

→ What questions are you getting day in and day out on calls?
→ What were the most common follow-up questions from last year's report?

They compiled everything in Notion, organized by category, validated feasibility with engineering, and got final sign-off from leadership and their Head of CS.

Learning: Most reports fail because they answer questions nobody's asking. Starting with real customer questions means you're solving actual problems, not just showing off data.

Step 2: Get the data in order

They don't rely on just one source. They combine:

→ Product data (pulled from SQL queries)
→ Manual website research (reviewing top-performing sites)
→ Industry benchmarks (tracking the same 5,000 B2B SaaS sites year over year)

Each data source gets its own spreadsheet, labeled to match its original outline.

Learning: Messy data leads to messy insights. Label everything upfront. You'll thank yourself when you're knee-deep in analysis and can't remember where a number came from.

Step 3: Analyze the data

They go question by question in the outline and start answering them. Work with your data team to make sure you've labeled where each question ties to a data set.

Gut-check the initial analysis with CS and the data team. See if there are any outliers to account for or data that just looks off.

Learning: Always gut-check with the people closest to customers. Data can tell you what happened. CS can tell you why.

Step 4: Write and refine

With the data organized, writing becomes straightforward. They draft, and their core team (Head of Product, Head of CS) reviews for accuracy and clarity.

Because one person manually reviewed all websites and analyzed the data, the core themes became obvious. They also share drafts with advisors and customers for feedback before publishing.

Learning: Get feedback before you ship. Fresh eyes catch things you've gone blind to after staring at the same doc for weeks.

Pro tip: They built a CMS template instead of designing static graphics in Figma so they can update data dynamically. Makes the report feel more interactive too.

What's your process for creating reports?

3 years ago I wrote a post about driving G2 reviews.

500k views. 1,500+ likes. 500+ comments. Over 200 DMs. Remember that? Was wild!

All I did was share what worked.

I've run this playbook multiple times since then. Just ran it again. 100 reviews in 3 days. Pushed us to 1,031 total reviews. We're averaging 85 net new reviews per quarter.

Word of mouth is our #2 source of inbound at Reachdesk.

This stuff compounds.

Here's the playbook:

1. Build your list with intent

Use your CRM to filter by customers who actually use the product, not one-off senders. The goal isn't to cherry-pick positive reviews. It's to get feedback from people with enough experience to give you something useful.

2. Write the email like a human

No corporate speak. Keep it simple: thank them, ask for the review, offer a gift when it's live.

3. Make confirmation easy

Instead of screenshots, I added a form where they drop their review link. Less friction. Easier to verify.

4. Send real gifts

Not gift cards. Actual things. The Amazon integration within Reachdesk lets me send stuff that feels personal, not transactional.

Conversion rate this time: ~40%.

But collecting reviews is only half the job.

Most teams let reviews sit on G2. That's a waste.

Here's how to activate them:

→ Tag by use case. Sales, marketing, CS, events. Now you have proof for every vertical conversation.
→ Mine for language. Customers describe your value better than you will. Use their words in ads, decks, and outbound.
→ Route feedback to product. Complaints are free research.
→ Identify champions. Detailed reviewers are case study and reference candidates.
→ Build a proof bank by objection. Sales should have reviews organized by the concerns they answer.

Reviews on G2 are social proof. Reviews organized and activated are a sales weapon.

Word of mouth being our #2 inbound source isn't just G2. It's the team doing great work across CS, product, and marketing. But reviews are one piece of the flywheel that compounds when you stay consistent.

Most teams pick gifts by guessing.

Scroll through a catalog. Hope it lands. Cross fingers it feels personal enough.

That's not strategy. That's wishful thinking.

Personalized gifting works. We know this. The problem has always been the tradeoff: do it right and it takes forever, or do it fast and it feels generic.

Gifty removes that tradeoff.

It's an AI assistant built into Reachdesk that handles the research, matches gifts to role, region, budget, and goal, and drafts a note that actually sounds like you thought about it.

What used to take 15-20 minutes per send now takes a few.

That changes the math on when gifting makes sense.

You can use it for the high-value T1 plays you're already doing. But now you can also use it for the moments you'd normally skip because they weren't worth the time. The no-show follow-up. The deal that went dark. The post-event touch that usually gets deprioritized.

More personalized sends. Same bandwidth.

That's the unlock.

DM me if you want to see it in action.

Most teams pick gifts by guessing.

Scroll through a catalog. Hope it lands. Move on.

We're changing that at Reachdesk.

Coming soon.

DM me if you want a sneak peek 👀

Marketing Manager @ Exit Five

Building the Exit Five community.

In the first year, we were able to:

- Grow monthly active users by 2.3x
- Reduce our net MRR churn by 25%
- Grow the community to over 5,000 members (1.9x growth)
- Launch our first accelerator program with 235 members
- Implemented dozens of new features such as 1:1 matchmaking

The story is still being written, so stay tuned...

Matthew Carnevale

What’s working for LinkedIn Ads in 2026

(According to B2B marketers actually running them right now)

Someone in the Exit Five community asked members what’s actually working in B2B right now and the discussion was so good, I decided to summarize the learnings here.

Even if someone is running your ads for you, it’s good to know what “good” looks like and what works right now. 

So here you go…

What’s working for LinkedIn Ads in 2026

5 Ways to use Gemini as a B2B Marketer

I went down a bit of a rabbit hole this past weekend and was blown away.

I don't think I even scratch the surface here, and I am excited to experiment more, and show my work in public.

Maybe it's recency bias, but I feel like Gemini might be 'THE' tool right now. I think it might be ahead of the others.

Am I wrong?? 

Tell me how you're using it and what I am missing here 🙏

5 Ways to Use Gemini as a B2B Marketer

I know this headline is cringe but...

I've done 110 calls with VPs & CMOs since Oct 27

And when I ask them what's top of mind for them right now, the answers are almost all universally the same:

- Improving cross functional relationships
- Org chart design and managing a team
- Managing and presenting to the board
- Growing top of funnel demand
- AI adoption across the team
- Hiring and finding talent
- Brand building

That's why we designed the speaker and topic lineup for our Marketing Leadership Retreat around those common challenges.

Our event is about a month away now, and we're almost sold out.

So if you're on the fence about grabbing a ticket, now's the time.

https://lnkd.in/gHnyYVsV

LinkedIn has gotten super noisy.

It's impossible to know who to trust now.

Everyone has something to sell, something for you to subscribe to, etc. 

And I'm not guilty of it! I'm a marketer. I write stuff online for the same reasons. 

But that's why community will be so important for you to grow your career in 2026 and onward.

And by community I don't mean busy discussion boards with hundreds of posts daily.

I mean curated spaces with a vetted group of people you can trust.

That's where the real opportunity will lie for those building and joining communities now and in the future.

It's the opportunity to build and be around a group of people you can trust. One that helps you seperate from the noise / fluff online and get REAL feedback and gut checks from your peers.

Ever scarf down lunch while standing or pacing and checking Slack, email and LinkedIn on repeat for no good reason? And wonder what on earth you’re doing?

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