Devin Bramhall

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

Your CEO doesn't hate marketing. They hate that you can't prove that it works.

I know because I've been the marketer pitching brilliant strategies that get shelved and the CEO wondering why marketing feels like an expensive black box.

After 15+ years building content strategies as a marketer and tripling Animalz to nearly $12M ARR as CEO, I realized the real problem:

We're optimizing for activities instead of outcomes. Checking boxes instead of driving growth.

The dirty secret? Most "content marketing strategies" are just glorified to-do lists.

My book "B2B Content Marketing Strategy" shows why "do more marketing" is killing growth and what to do instead.

Now I help companies stop doing marketing and start growing businesses as a fractional Chief Growth Officer.

If you're tired of: 
→ Defending your work instead of leading with it 
→ Following frameworks that feel like busy work 
→ Watching brilliant ideas die in committee

You're in the right place.

I help marketers ask better questions. Not “what content do we need?” but “what does the business need to grow?'"

Get weekly no-BS takes on growth: devinbramhall.com/newsletter

Chief Executive Officer

So why am I starting a newsletter when there are already ten thousand marketing newsletters? Fair question.

I got tired of having the same conversation in private that nobody's having in public.

Every week, I sit with marketing leaders who are smart, capable, doing everything right on paper, and still getting crushed. Because the company around them is broken in ways nobody talks about.

The CEO who says "I trust you" and then rewrites your strategy in a board meeting. The founder who hired you to lead marketing but won't let you make a single decision without their sign-off. The reorg that has nothing to do with performance and everything to do with politics.

I hear these stories constantly. From my advisory clients. From my coaching sessions. From people in my comments and DMs who just need someone to say "no, you're not crazy."

So why is everyone learning this stuff alone?

I've also been the CEO. I have been the person making the calls that marketers complain about, and I've been the marketer complaining. I know what both sides are thinking because I've been both sides.

That's what Good Question is. 

I take real stories, real situations, change the names, and break down what actually happened. The human problem. The politics, the miscommunication, the thing nobody in the room said out loud.

Get my newsletter here: https://lnkd.in/ehqXFYNB

First edition arriving in your inbox soon.

Chief Growth Officer [Fractional]. Author: “B2B Content Marketing Strategy” out now on Amazon

I’ve been a CEO. I’ve also advised dozens. And I can tell you... 

I've watched the same person look at the same marketing report on a Monday and love it. 

Then Wednesday? "I don't know why you're showing me this."

Same numbers. Same deck. The CEO had a different week.

And like, that's not a criticism. That's just the job. Being a CEO means you're thinking about 500 things in the next half hour. Your marketing report is maybe thing #387.

So my PR team sends me this question...
"What's the best ROI metric marketers should track in 2026?"

And I wrote this very long answer that was basically me being like, this is the stupidest question I've ever heard. It depends on the industry, the company, the CEO's literal individual personality. (I was nicer about it. Slightly.)

Because every CEO is different. Every person you report to is different. And what I keep trying to tell people is, your job isn't to prove marketing works with the perfect dashboard.

Your job as a marketing leader is to figure out what story your CEO will hear, what they'll say yes to, and what they can go brag about.

Like, give your CEO one killer data point the week before they go to a big dinner or conference. Something specific. Something they can drop in conversation. They'll tell you they don't care about vanity metrics, but THEY DO. They love those bragging rights. They just don't want to see the whole spreadsheet.

And get other people on the team whispering in their ear. Multiple people. So the CEO's hearing it from everywhere.

That's when you start actually making an impact. When your CEO looks good and lets you keep doing the work you know is right.

We keep debating metrics like there's a universal answer. There isn't. There's a human sitting across from you. Speak to them.

Anyway... I got into this more with Ross Hudgens on his podcast. 

Link in comments if you want the full rant.

Speak their language

I'm attending the CMO Alliance Summit in NYC this March.

85+ CMOs and marketing leaders in a closed, peer-focused environment. We're digging into why CEOs don't trust marketing by default, what actually earns that trust, and how you shift from defending your work to owning business outcomes.

If you want to build real trust with your CEO, this is worth your time.

It's invitation-only. DM me for an invite.

Shoutout to the CMO Alliance

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Everyone says the best marketers think like CEOs.

I've been both. They're wrong.

When I first started sitting in exec meetings, I was so focused on proving I was smart I missed every signal in the room. What the CEO actually cared about. Why they were pushing back. Gone.

That was the whole mistake.

I didn't need to think like a CEO.
I needed to pay attention like a marketer.

The CEO is an audience.
The CFO is an audience.
The annoying executive who suddenly has very strong opinions about marketing is definitely an audience.

You do not win those people over by becoming them.

You win them over the same way marketing works anywhere else. Study what they care about. Figure out why your pitch isn't landing. Then run a campaign on them like the marketer you are.

That is the job.

Talked about this Jordan Ogren on the On Marketing podcast and honestly went off more than I planned. If you want the full rant, link's in the comments.

So CEO buy-in is my thing now. 

I didn't pick it. I honestly kind of stumbled into it.

When Margaret Kelsey and I were doing our podcast Don't Say Content, we started talking about the disconnect between CEOs and marketing. 

First time we talked about how companies fail when the CEO and the GTM org aren't even speaking the same language? 

It was our best episode. By whatever the podcast metrics are. So we tried it again, slightly different angle. Same result.

And I was like OK that's interesting.

Then I started looking at my LinkedIn posts differently. I started paying attention to saves. Sends. Shares. Those are completely different-level signals than someone hitting the like button.

And what I care about the most is where people are deeply engaged. Where I see a real problem to be solved. And it was THIS topic.

But I didn't just go all in on this immediately. 

I spent years kind of figuring out what mattered within it. Testing it. Narrowing. What specifically about CEO buy-in? Which part of that conversation? What's the thing marketing leaders actually need?

And this is the part nobody wants to hear because it doesn't come with a template. You need to stop looking for proof. Stop asking for feedback. Stop looking at what your friends are doing.

What you need to do is think for yourself. Come up with an idea. Have enough leading indicators that it could work. Then go put together logical experiments to see if it will.

That's it. That's the whole strategy. Follow signals. Test. Narrow. Commit.

Nobody gave me permission to go all in on CEO buy-in. I just followed enough signals that I trusted myself to try.

Ross Hudgens and I talked about this, the whole thing about why nobody wants to hear "think for yourself" as strategy advice.

It's a good conversation if you're in this headspace right now. I'll link it below.

𝘖𝘳 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘶𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘛𝘶𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘵 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.

Happy snow day to all those who celebrate.

Jason Bradwell

I believe there is a better way to sell in B2B, so I founded a company to pursue that mission. 

B2B Better exists to help service and solution-based businesses launch podcasts that help win more enterprise accounts. 

We're a marketing agency that does great production, not a production agency trying to figure out how to do marketing. Yes, we'll create highly polished audio and video that meets your brand standard. But the real value we bring to the table is helping figure out how a podcast can drive real-world commercial outcomes for your business. 

Want to talk? Email me at jason@b2b-better.com

**

Previously, I headed up marketing for Deltatre (sold to Bain Capital in 2022) and Massive Interactive (exited for $127m in 2018).

You can also join the 1,000+ marketers that listen to my podcast each week which exists to help companies rethink the status quo on how they win new business. 

🍎 [Apple] https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/b2b-better/id1526471908

🟢 [Spotify] https://open.spotify.com/show/6KTApLNan7FrmmCU1tiyZV

I also share insights on how to do better marketing in my weekly newsletter, the B2B Bite.

📰 https://b2bbite.substack.com/

Founder and Fractional CMO

Strategic marketing advisory firm that helps solution providers rethink the status quo on how they win new business.

We offer:

> 30-Day Marketing Audit

You have a marketing function in place but it doesn’t seem to quite work. Over an intense 30-day sprint, we run a comprehensive audit of the entire strategy - from infrastructure to people to go-to-market - and present our findings alongside a 12-month plan on how to reorient your marketing towards revenue. 

> Fractional CMO Services

You know what's broken and how to fix it - you just need an experienced pair of hands to make sure it gets done. After we've run an audit, we work with you to build and scale your marketing strategy over a 12-month project.

> Marketing Sprints

Sometimes you need someone to give their undivided attention to solving a particular challenge. We'll come in to support you in achieving a defined marketing objective - like launching a podcast or performing a strategy audit - over a single quarter.

> 1:1 Marketing Support

Get access to a strategic marketing expert to soundboard ideas, review assets, or evaluate the particular areas where your team feels stuck in a 1-2-1 session described by some clients as "like marketing therapy"

Learn more at www.b2b-better.com

I’m resharing this because I think it deserves an alternative perspective, and because I have a vested interest in giving one.

My entire business is premised on the idea that podcasting, done correctly, drives commercial returns. So take what follows with that context in mind.

Paul’s article argues that corporate podcasting is a bubble about to burst. His case rests on a couple of core aguements:

>> that audio is slower to consume than text

>> that studies show listeners retain less than readers

>> … and that the investment is difficult to justify given the murky evidence of returns. 

On that last point especially, he’s not entirely wrong. Too many corporate podcasts are vanity projects with no coherent commercial purpose, and the industry has leaned on flimsy data to justify significant investment. 

He’s also fair enough to acknowledge that audio has genuine use cases. This isn’t a polemic.

Where I think the article goes wrong is in the question it’s asking.

Framing podcasting as audio versus text, and measuring audio against text on speed, comprehension, and searchability, is asking whether a hammer works as a screwdriver. The efficiency gap argument assumes that the alternative to listening to a podcast is reading an article, that both are competing for the same window of attention. 

They’re not. 

Audio fits around your life in a way that text cannot. The commute, the gym, the school run. That’s not time anyone spends reading white papers.

The comprehension studies cited compare students processing dense academic material in audio format against those reading it as text. 

Of course text wins there. 

But that tells us nothing about thought leadership content built specifically for the medium, designed to be engaging, conversational, and editorial rather than a recorded lecture.

The deeper issue is that in a services business, your people and your point of view are your most powerful differentiators. A video podcast is the most effective vehicle I’ve found for putting both front and centre, consistently and at scale. 

It’s not a content format. It’s a platform. The blog post, the transcript, the short-form clips, the sales asset: those are all outputs of the same engine.

The brands generating real returns from their podcasts are not measuring downloads. They’re treating it as a full-funnel thought leadership platform and measuring pipeline. 

We’ve worked with organisations that have attributed over a quarter of a million pounds in closed-won revenue to their podcast, tracked in HubSpot.

The question isn’t whether podcasting beats writing things down. It’s whether your people and your point of view are your biggest competitive advantage, and if so, what’s the most powerful vehicle to get them in front of the right buyers consistently.

I think I have a different answer to Paul on that. Happy to be challenged.

Curious to hear what you think Harry Morton, Gareth Evans, Ben Farley.

founder @ B2B Better • we turn points of view into pipeline • podcast marketing agency • co-founder of my daughter

Helping communicators lead with AI | Internal, External, & Executive Communications | AI Strategy & Leadership | Ghost-writing

My latest piece for Inc. Magazine.

“Next time someone proposes a corp podcast, ask them: What evidence do we have that this will work better than writing it down?

If they can't answer, you have your answer.”

💥

Open article: The Corporate Podcast Bubble Is About to Burst by inc.com

The Corporate Podcast Bubble Is About to Burst

"We've had 10,000 downloads across 30 episodes and booked two sales meetings. What are we doing wrong?"

Everything. Absolutely everything.

Because downloads are what podcast production agencies sell you. They're easy to measure and they don't pay anyone's salary.

Here's what actually went wrong:

The show was built to get listeners, not to close deals. The guests were influencers with big followings - not clients with real proof. The sales team had never heard of the show, let alone used it. And the content existed in a marketing silo that no one in revenue ever visited.

This isn't a content problem. It's a strategy problem.

The question that most teams don't ask before they hit record: which specific deals will this help us close?

If you can't answer it, you're not ready. You'll end up with more downloads and the same number of meetings.

The fix isn't complicated. Audit your funnel gaps first. Map content to deal stages second. Package everything for sales - not just social. Measure pipeline touched, deal velocity, rep usage. Not downloads.

Most B2B podcasts are expensive therapy for executives who like the sound of their own voice. The ones that drive revenue are built the other way around - starting with what sales needs and working backwards.

LET ME KNOW IN THE COMMENTS - what's the most useless metric your leadership team still asks you to report on?

—

Check out this episode wherever you get your podcasts - just search 'Pipe Dream B2B Better' on Spotify, Apple and YouTube.

—

Hey, I'm Jason. 👋

I help B2B brands launch shows that turn their point of view into pipeline.

If you're launching a podcast (or have one already) and are not sure how it can hit your bottom line, DM me anytime.

More than happy to do a free 30-minute workshop with you.

I worked for a company once that powered some of the biggest sports media properties in the world.

Premier League. Formula One. Household names.

And we couldn't talk about any of it.

Rights holders don't give vendors free permission to use their logos and names. They get paid for sponsorship. Why would they give that to a tech company they're already paying for services?

So our case study pipeline was dead. Anonymous write-ups that nobody believed. An incredible body of work that was completely invisible commercially.

Then we launched a podcast.

Not "come and tell everyone how great we are." But: "Come and talk about the future of your industry. Here are the questions in advance. Nothing goes live without your sign-off."

The VP of Digital from a major US sports league - someone who had rejected every conventional request for four years - said yes almost immediately.

After we finished, I asked him why. He said: "For years you've been asking me to do things for you. This time, you asked me to do something for me."

That's the unlock.

Traditional case study: you get the logo, the quote, the credibility. They get the hassle, the legal review, the risk.

Podcast platform: they get a stage, content assets they can use for their own marketing, reach into your audience, and full approval rights. The value exchange is actually balanced.

The acceptance rate for case studies in regulated industries: roughly 5%.

For editorial podcast features framed this way: around 70%.

Same story. Completely different ask.

—

Check out this episode wherever you get your podcasts - just search 'Pipe Dream B2B Better' on Spotify, Apple and YouTube.

—

Hey, I'm Jason. 👋

I help B2B brands launch shows that turn their point of view into pipeline.

If you're launching a podcast (or have one already) and are not sure how it can hit your bottom line, DM me anytime.

More than happy to do a free 30-minute workshop with you.

Getting grilled by your exec team about thought leadership ROI? You HAVE to listen to this episode. 

I spend my entire day talking with B2B brands on how to run integrated thought leadership campaigns that turn their point of view into pipeline. One of the biggest questions that I get in response is: 

"Okay, but how do we measure it?" 

Sitting down with Ross Breckenridge for the latest episode of Pipe Dream to really dig into how you measure the success of your thought leadership against the metrics that actually matter (pipeline, revenue, profitability) was an absolute masterclass.

--

Check out this episode wherever you get your podcasts - just search 'Pipe Dream B2B Better' on Spotify, Apple and YouTube.

--

Hey, I'm Jason. 👋

I help B2B brands launch shows that turn their point of view into pipeline.
If you're launching a podcast (or have one already) and are not sure how it can hit your bottom line, DM me anytime.

More than happy to do a free 30-minute workshop with you.

What most B2B marketers think "becoming a media company" means:

> Hire a journalist
> Launch a podcast
> Post more content
> Build a BuzzFeed for your niche

What it actually means:

> Stop starting from zero every quarter
> Stop being indistinguishable from your competitors
> Stop measuring success by impressions instead of pipeline
> Build something that earns trust before someone enters a buying cycle

The companies that don't make this transition face three problems that compound over time. They're stuck in campaign mode forever - spending to generate attention they don't own. They're always starting from scratch - cold outreach, paid ads, SEO resets. And they're commoditised - everything they do can be replicated by a competitor tomorrow.

The shift isn't about content volume. It's about choosing one or two channels and actually nailing them. It's about publishing a consistent point of view, not a content calendar. It's about getting the hundred right people to your podcast, not a hundred thousand wrong ones.

When B2B companies get this right, three things happen: outbound gets easier because people already recognise you, sales cycles shorten because trust exists before the first call, and deals get less fragile because you've been present since the start of the buying journey.

That's the whole model.

—

Check out this episode wherever you get your podcasts - just search 'Pipe Dream B2B Better' on Spotify, Apple and YouTube.

—

Hey, I'm Jason. 👋

I help B2B brands launch shows that turn their point of view into pipeline.

If you're launching a podcast (or have one already) and are not sure how it can hit your bottom line, DM me anytime.

More than happy to do a free 30-minute workshop with you.

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