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.

Madhav Bhandari

I’m a B2B marketer with 12+ years of experience helping startups grow from scrappy beginnings ($2M+ ARR) to category leadership ($20M+ ARR and beyond). I’ve built lean, high-performing marketing engines across both PLG / sales-led companies.Some wins I’m proud of:• As Hubstaff’s first marketer, I helped grow revenue from $200K to $5M ARR in 4 years (now $30M+ ARR).• At Close, I helped break through our revenue plateau and reach 8 figure ARR (now $30M+ ARR)• At Storylane, I scaled marketing to grow our revenue from $2M to $10M+ ARR within 2 years.• At Bonsai (acquired by Zoom), I scaled marketing and tripled our ARR in under 2 years.How I typically drive results:• Building content engines that generate millions in organic traffic• Running demand gen across SEO, ads, dark social, events and influencers• Creating GTM playbooks for new products and categories• Aligning brand, product marketing, and revenue into one motion• Leading bold, creative campaigns that actually get noticed• Using pattern interrupts to stand out in crowded marketsMy strength and philosophy is doing marketing that stands out. I focus on work that drives action and ties directly to pipeline.I’ve helped many scale-ups grow beyond $10M ARR, either as a full-time leader or a hands-on advisor. I love taking on this challenge.I'm open to taking on more advisory roles, especially with martech / salestech companies. If you’re looking for an advisor who's actively in the work and brings practical experience, message me. Thanks for reading till the end!

Head of Marketing

Internally, the Chief Content Officer at Storylane.

My goal is to drive demand for Storylane using content-led initiatives such as video, social, organic search, brand and partnerships. 

Navigating the $1M to $10M ARR journey over the next couple of quarters.

We're spending $3.3M on marketing in 2026 at Storylane (up 10% from 2025).

I've always believed in being transparent with what we do, so here's the full breakup:

→ $1.2M - Paid Ads
Same as last year. LinkedIn $500K, Google/Bing $500K, Meta $200K (new). LinkedIn CPMs up 30-40%. Testing B2C channels to reach B2B audiences at lower cost.

→ $250K - Influencer Program
Cut from $500K. Used only $200K last year. Working great but scaling profitably is hard. Maintaining core LinkedIn portfolio, testing B2B creators on TikTok/Instagram for virality.

→ $550K - Conferences & Events
Up from $400K. Betting big on IRL. Sponsoring, speaking, recording customer content, hosting side events. Good pre/post-event ops. Flywheel is real - brand grows, booth traffic increases, meetings get better.

→ $250K - Community Sponsorships
Down from $300K. Still supporting CMO, pre-sales, product marketing communities. Investing $350K to build our own community instead. Forward bet on owned community.

→ $200K - SEO
Same as last year. Most efficient PLG channel. Used 1/4 last year (LLM SEO uncertainty). Clear on plan now. Goal: 2x traffic, 2x PLG revenue.

→ $200K - Brand + Product Marketing
2x from last year. Highest organic ROI. Product marketing creates content - new use cases, demo automation progress, multi-product future. Brand handles distribution through pattern interrupt experiments, campaigns, AI-led visual campaigns. Building recall, loyalty, education. Building brand for RepX (our newest product).

→ $250K - Outbound
Up from $200K. Took two years to figure out. Last year break-even, end of year very profitable. 2 full time SDRs focused on expansions + 1 SDR agency for net new. Big quota targets.

→ $50K - Partnerships ⭐ NEW
Integration partners - identifying mutual customers and prospects. Groundwork done, partnerships in place. Getting revenue from channel, possibly hiring if revenue grows.

→ $350K - Customer Marketing ⭐ NEW
My big bet. Building our own community through Finer Demos Club and user conference. Customers learning from customers to drive referrals, move deals faster, expand accounts, reduce churn. Expansion is one of fastest-growing segments.

Plus 10% flexibility buffer.

I'm confident this budget will help us get past $20M+ ARR.

Three big strategic shifts:

1. Investing ~$1M (1/3 of budget) on IRL events. Shows how impactful in-person was last year and why we're bullish on it.

2. Building our own community. We've supported communities for years and will continue, but with our large customer base, there's strong need for our own.

3. Brand has unlimited ceiling - it's also something what we're good at. Our brand is now bigger than the demo automation category itself. We'll continue leading with brand.

For other CMOs: where are you increasing spend? What are you cutting? What's your biggest bet?

Curious how your budgets compare.

Pattern Interrupt Marketing book coming soon | Head of Marketing @ Storylane

Going back to Austin for Spryng later this month.

And we’re bringing Storylane’s Democcino back with us along with the all new RepXpresso 😂

(If you were there last year, you know how popular the coffee station was)

Our vendor’s coffee is fantastic but what I actually like about Spryng is that 
70-80% of the conf is just peer conversations. Not talks. Not panels. No sponsor booths. Just B2B marketers in a brewery in Austin, learning from each other.

The venue alone is worth the trip. The vibe, the food - Texas doesn’t miss.

And the crowd they pull is legitimately good. A lot of people you follow on LinkedIn, finally in the same room.

It’s kinda like an indie festival of B2B marketers. People fly in from across the US for three days of conversations that actually matter.

I’m moderating a few sessions and Peep Laja has given me 5 tickets to give away (these are $1,200+ each).

Anyone wants it? Storylane customers get first dibs.

Come hang with ♜ Arthur Castillo and I. Come get a Democcino (or a RepXpresso).

See you in Austin.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ ☕️

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The Battle

Devin Bramhall

Madhav Bhandari

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Posts

Engagements

Likes

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