growth @ Selzy // paid social @ FirstPour

I’ve been in digital marketing since 2017, and I kept seeing the same pattern: fuzzy results and no clear ROI.

I always wanted one thing — direct, measurable impact.

In 2022, I moved to a new country, started freelancing, and then built Dedicado Agency. Survival was simple: make marketing work.

I went all-in on B2B, tested multiple channels, and found outbound to be the most effective. For the first time, I saw Sales truly respect Marketing — we generated enough qualified leads to sign 3 new clients within a couple of months.

Since then, I’ve replicated the same playbook for multiple clients and for my own agency. It wasn’t easy: long days, heavy tooling investment, documenting processes from scratch, and building a team — with more than one moment of considering a return to full-time employment.

But it paid off.

Today, I know which projects can win with outbound — and which can’t. And I’ve gone beyond outbound to build full GTM systems (outbound + paid ads + organic content) that don’t just generate leads, but also build trust and awareness within a clearly defined audience — and turn that into demand.

If you’re building B2B and want a repeatable way to generate demand and pipeline, feel free to connect or DM.

Evgeny Kotelevskiy

After 4 years of working 100% remotely, I realised one simple thing:


This is the ideal work format for me.

Why ideal:

↳ You can focus 100% on work, eliminating water cooler small talks, coffee runs, and the like.

↳ The number of useless meetings decreases significantly.

↳ You choose where to work; in my case, the bike replaced the subway, and instead of the soulless skyscrapers of an office center, I started working in a cozy coworking space with a garden where roses bloom year-round 🌹.

↳ Conveniences like dress codes are a thing of the past - I never understood the relevance of clothing to professionalism.

I see two main advantages of remote work:

↳ Development of independence: there's no Maria or Peter sitting near you to give you hints or do something instead of you; you have to figure it out yourself.

↳ Considering all the above, your professional growth happens much faster.

What are your thoughts on the 100% remote format?

#remoteworker #remoteworklife #remotework

I created Dedicado Agency in 2024. The goal behind it was simple: prove to myself that I can make marketing work and make it clearly measurable.

Why this idea?

Before that, I’d seen so many teams (including myself) doing so many things that didn’t produce results:

- Generating reports for the sake of reports, full of BS
- Infinitely forwarding emails back and forth to approve one simple thing that could’ve been approved in 2 minutes
- Burning budgets on channels that didn’t generate any profit and inventing metrics to "prove" they actually bring results

The more I run my agency, the more I understand this story is less and less about money for me, and more about finding the connection between business results and marketing activities. And for that, I can tolerate a lot:

- Spending more and more money on tools, even if projects can go unprofitable
- Working with "hard clients" who aren’t very friendly, if I see they have product-market fit
- Focusing 100% on my work and on nothing else

That’s why the agency is called Dedicado [Dedicated].

Go all the way to the end.

I’d like to say this is a joke, but there’s zero irony here. I’m pretty damn serious.

🤑 How much does DIY outreach cost?

Last week I did a quick exercise to understand how much money you need for lead gen tools to launch properly on your own — and I was kinda shocked 🤪.

Let’s use our starter plan at Dedicado Agency as a benchmark.

2,000 contacts: 5,000 emails + 1,000 LinkedIn connections for $1,990/month

Let’s go:

↳ Lemlist (2 seats) — $198 (LinkedIn + email sender)
↳ Apollo — $100 (contact source)
↳ LinkedIn Sales Navigator — $120 (LinkedIn contact source)
↳ OpenAI API — $50 (to plug AI into spreadsheets, etc.)
↳ Apollo scrapers — $30 (so you don’t hit limits)
↳ MillionVerifier — $30 (email verification)
↳ Catch-All Verifier — $20 (to double-check emails after MillionVerifier)
↳ GetProspect — $50 (Sales Navigator scraper + email finder)
↳ Make.com — $19 (automations)
↳ Domains (10) — $130 (one-time payment)
↳ Google Workspace via Zapmail (12) — $70
↳ Apify — $100 (scrapers)

Then you choose:

🔴 Budget option:
GPT for Sheets — $30 (data work)
Perplexity Pro for 3 accounts — $20 (website research)

🟡 Optimal option:
Clay Explorer — $349 (data work)

🟢 Recommended add-on:
+ MasterInbox — $299 (reply management)

What you get in the end to launch your campaign:

🔴 Budget option:
$967 [$817/mo + $150 once a year]

🟡 Optimal option:
$1,317 [$1,167/mo + $150 once a year]

🟢 Optimal option with the recommended add-on (MasterInbox):
$1,616 [$1,466/mo + $150 once a year]

Writing this not only for you, but also for myself — to understand where the money is actually going. 😂

Outbound should work like this:

- A steady flow of interested leads
- Converting into meetings
- Meetings turning into sales

Yes, there can be nuances:

- The % of interested people can vary a lot
- You may need 2-3 follow-ups before someone agrees to a call
- The deal cycle can stretch out, and it’s not guaranteed a deal happens within a month

But the main thing is this:

!! Understanding that people are replying and that there’s interest. !!

If you have replies and you have interest, you can:

- Scale volumes multiple times
- Fine-tune your offer to make it more attractive
- Add extra channels (LinkedIn, WhatsApp, etc.)

But if you don’t have that, you need to think about 3 key things:

- Who you’re pitching
- What you’re pitching
- Do they actually need it

Because if at scale (1,000+ contacts) you’re not getting replies, most likely you’re not hitting the right audience with the thing they actually want.

Because if you are hitting it, people will forgive you for:

- Not-perfect deliverability
- AI-generated profile pics
- Domains that lead nowhere
- Your non-native or ChatGPT-ish English

All of that matters and affects conversion rate. But it’s not the core thing.

The core thing is understanding what your audience needs and communicating value that can actually satisfy that need.

That’s it!

Acquiring Inbound Leads for B2B Founders with Personal Content Programs • Explaining Content, one Ugly Drawing at a time

Your B2B content marketing should do more than just fill a feed.

It should: 

• Attract the right people to your offer
• Position you as a trusted expert
• Convert attention into pipeline

At StoryAngled, we build custom content programs that deliver:

• Inbound lead generation strategy
• A full-stack content production team
• An always-growing database of proven content systems, frameworks, and resources

We work exclusively with B2B founders and growth-minded teams.

If that’s you, shoot me a DM — I’ll get back to you personally.

Kuba Czubajewski

I really wish I had a video like this when I started in B2B content:

This B2B content strategy system took me 2 years to fully figure out. 

The video I just published on YT(https://lnkd.in/dV7dBx6H) has everything I do to help my clients:

• Land new inbound leads every week from LinkedIn and long-form content

• Build recognizable, distinct voices in their niches

• Create content that their clients reference during calls.

I also included a workbook you can download and fill out while watching to ensure you get the most out of this.

Grab it. Fill it in. And start creating content that gets you revenue.

1 system to consistent inbound for complex B2B offers | 30+ founders using it | Sharing daily content advice for busy B2B leaders

Me explaining why ‘viral’ isn’t a KPI for content:

1 content system to consistent clients for B2B services

Trying not to take it personally tho 🫠

I promised myself that I'll document more tiny wins here in 2026. So, here we go:

The first week of Jan has been hectic af, but also very rewarding:

💃 I crossed 500 subscribers on YT 

💃 One of my shorts performed well (1.6K views in 24 hours) 

💃 I got offered 3 long-term brand partnerships from companies I love

💃 I will be featured in a publication made by a MAJOR marketing tool

💃 I signed a new client for a major YouTube work

💃 I completed the recording and editing of 4 videos, giving me plenty of backlog to make the next batch even better

Guess "slow start of the year" wasn't in my cards this time.

But I'm not complaining.

How's your January going? Flex your wins in the comments and let's feel good together.

This post will probably be a little TMI but whatever, it’s important to me:

For the first time in 8 years, I’m 100% off all my anxiety meds!!!

I’ve been struggling with anxiety my whole life. 

I grew up in a very stressful environment (surrounded by neurotic actors and artists, constantly being judged, traveling a lot, no time for self care etc) 

This affected my life in ways I hadn’t expected it would.

I suffered from panic attacks, insomnia, and depression.

In my early adulthood, I didn’t know what to do with all this emotional baggage. 

I struggled. A f*cking lot.

But instead of letting this just happen to me, I took matters into my own hands:

I started therapy. I consulted mental pros to help me calm down all the demons in the meantime. 

It took a sh*tton of work and dedication to learn how to live with anxiety - and not let it dictate how I live my life.

But starting this month, I’m officially off all the meds.

Now, does it mean the anxiety disappear? Hell nah.

But I have tools now that let me observe it, understand it, and feel safe while this whole process is going on in my head.

Feels f*cking blissful, I’m not gonna lie.

Why am I telling you this?

First, because it matters to me a lot.

Second, because it’s just important to talk about the emotional side of our business journey. 

As much as we like to pretend sometimes we’re invincible - we’re still human. We suffer from things that we don’t always want to share with anyone.

If that’s you, I just wanna say - I see you. I applaud your strength. I’m here whenever you wanna talk.

K, I’m getting emotional, time to go.

$40K+ ARR with only organic content. In one of the most difficult product categories possible:

Breakcold's results speak for themselves. Good content can and will make your company grow – even when your competitors have million-dollar marketing budgets and massive brand equity.

I've been fascinated by Breakcold's content strategy for a while now:

• Strong, founder-led branding
• SEO articles that actually make sense for the reader
• Interactive content for ongoing lead generation 

And so much more. I'm honestly amazed how a handful of people can pull off this level of volume + content quality.

So, I decided to give them a massive shout-out in my latest video. 

I'm breaking down all the elements of their content strategy I could find.

These guys are VERY GOOD at what they do. If you're in the middle of building a content strategy for your B2B product, this is the example to get inspired by.

Watch the video here: https://lnkd.in/g223qdmi

Confession time: I think adding "book a call" at the end of your post here is one of the least effective CTAs possible. 

I used to end my posts with “Book a call”.

Every time.

It felt… professional.

Like the thing a “real business” is supposed to do.

And it also didn’t work.

I’d get likes.

A few “Great post!” comments.

Zero conversations with actual buyers.

Because “Book a call” is a ridiculous ask when someone just met you 12 seconds ago in a feed.

It’s high friction.

It assumes they trust you enough to give you 30 minutes of their life because… you posted a nice carousel?

Bold strategy.

Here’s what I learned:

Most CTAs fail for one simple reason.

They’re written like a favor you’re asking for.

Not a favor you’re doing for them.

So I replaced “Book a call” with a Utility CTA.

A Utility CTA is a micro-offer.

A tiny asset that helps your buyer take the next step without committing to a sales conversation.

The action is 3 seconds.

Comment a word.

Reply with a keyword.

Click one button.

The payoff is immediate:

👉 A 2-slide internal brief they can forward to their boss.

👉 A risk checklist so they don’t screw up the project.

👉 A scoping question list to prep their team.

👉 A 30-day rollout timeline.

This changes everything because it does two things at once:

It lowers friction.

And it gives you signal.

People who type one keyword aren’t “engaging”.

They’re raising their hand.

If you want examples of Utility CTAs you can steal, comment CTA and I’ll send you my shortlist.

My main prediction for B2B content in 2026 is that it'll become more human-centric than ever before.

But it's the small, scrappy startups that will lead the change.

For me, human-centric means content that feels like the person posting it just jumped off from 10 customer calls.

You can feel the authenticity, because of how specific it feels - real moments, specific solutions, and proof it actually works.

Not “thought leadership” that could be written by anyone.

The giants will still try to force-feed us AI bullsh*t. Guess they have big enough budgets to do so.

Smaller companies cannot afford to dilute their messaging and distance themselves from their customers.

Some examples of companies that are leading the charge right now:

Tella with their community-centric approach to helping their customers be consistent with video.

Breakcold with their founder-centric branding, focused on educating their prospects until they're ready to make the most out of the product

Chatbase with their employee advocacy program + timely, highly relevant social content 

Kuse with their build-in-public approach and user-generated product-led videos on socials

And many, MANY more.

I feel so excited to watch this space evolve this year. And I'll be documenting the best examples on my YT channel (link in my featured section).

If you're currently building a B2B product - what's the one thing you wish to implement in your content to make it more human-centric this year?

The moment you stop assuming what your client feels is the moment your content starts to actually work:

Let’s say you’re targeting startup founders.

The obvious assumption is:

"They fear running out of money."

"They want more revenue."

Sometimes true.

But when you dig deeper, you hear different things.

The real fear is building something nobody actually wants.

The real frustration is feeling like a fraud who’s about to be exposed.

The real goal is proof:

"I’m not just winging it."

And the real aspiration is being the founder people quote and respect.

That shift matters because it changes what you should post.

If your content keeps yelling about metrics,  but your audience is drowning in imposter syndrome, you’re talking past them.

Here’s the fastest question I’ve found to get out of assumption-land:

"Tell me about the closest time you came to quitting?"

Listen for the pattern.

If most answers sound like:

"I felt behind"

"I felt fake"

"I didn’t trust my judgment"

Then your content strategy isn’t about “growth.”

It’s about confidence and validation.

Meaning you should write about:

• What good looks like
• How to know you’re on track
• Signals your product actually has pull
• How to stop second-guessing every move
• How to explain decisions to your team and investors

Assumptions create content about funding and metrics.
Reality creates content about confidence.

10 pieces of content marketing advice that don't mean sh*t:

1. “Just be consistent”

Consistent at what? Posting into the void?

2. “You need to tell your founder story”

Cool. Your buyer still wants to know if you can fix their problem.

3. “Create thought leadership”

Translation: have opinions. But also somehow never offend anyone.

4. “We need to build awareness first”

Awareness of what? Your logo? Your vibes? Your lack of a point?

5. “Let’s make it educational”

Education without a buyer trigger is just a blog-shaped hobby.

6. “We should go viral”

Stop. Just stop. 

7. “We need more top of funnel”

If the middle and bottom are broken, you’re just pouring water into a bucket with holes.

8. “Repurpose everything”

Repurpose the right thing. Not your 900-word manifesto no one read.

9. “We need a content strategy”

If it doesn’t end in a specific utility offer, it’s a document, not a strategy.

10. “The CTA is book a call”

That’s not a CTA. That’s a leap of faith.

What should be number 11 on this list?

Next week, I'm posting a video about one of the smartest SaaS team I've ever met.

And I'm not saying that because their Growth Manager is my bestie (luv u bestie)

They're competing in a niche that's dominated by one giant. The one that even claimed a new verb to signify what their users are doing on their platform (think: googling for Google).

Yet, their tiny team is making big moves to build a product that's not only better - but also much COOLER to use.

And I'm saying that as their user for the last 3 years.

In the vid, I'll break down their content strategy, their approach to communicating the product's value (one of the best examples I know), and their strong community focus.

Can't wait to show the full thing to you.

In the meantime, you can subscribe to my channel here, not to miss it:

https://lnkd.in/dgtFGsX3

Demographics are probably the most misunderstood part of content marketing research.

Sure, it's nice to know your customers are between the ages of 35-55, they live in Oakland, and own a Subaru.

But what context does it actually give you to create effective marketing for them?

To gather actually useful demographic data, you have to dig deeper.

Here are 2 (of many) questions I use to find out demographics that actually influence how I talk to my customers and help me build trust with them faster:

For the longest time, I couldn't figure out why some B2B founders are STRUGGLIN' to generate inbound while others seem to have it all figured out.

So, I studied the best ones. Tested loads of their tactics on myself and some of my clients who were keen to try it.

And around ~2 years ago, it started clicking.

Then, I systemized it all and started applying this methodology across all my content strategies.

Almost every time, it worked.

So, in this week's video, I'm breaking it all down for you:

Watch it here: https://lnkd.in/dFGtNhw9

sorry not sorry but these "tips" about content I see here all the time are just weak.

they're surface-level and give you exactly 0 context into what ACTUALLY works in your niche, for your clients, for your specific situation.

from 5 years in this space, I can tell you, there are no 2 content strategies that look exactly the same.

so, swipe through and see what to look out for next time you see an influencer feeding you bs they learned from chatgpt:

9 "popular" content marketing tips that don't work

CRM companies' content is usually... a little (very) boring.

But not in the case of this 5-person startup:

Full video here: https://lnkd.in/g223qdmi

I've created my last YT video for every David struggling with a Goliath in their category.

They have huge budgets - you have huge hopes.

They have giant teams - you have resilience.

They have enormous brand equity - you have your smart brain and wit.

Sounds like it might not be enough, right?

Tella proves otherwise.

They, slowly but surely, are creating space for themselves in a niche that has been dominated by a giant for the last 10 years - Loom.

And the way they approach it is absolutely brilliant.

Here's a sneak peek:

(you can watch the full video here: https://lnkd.in/dep34-wb)

You’ve been told 1000 times to “just post value”. How’s that working out for you?

If you’re tired, you’re not lazy.

You’re just running a system that was never designed to pay you back.

It usually looks like this:

Post. 

Crickets.

Post again. 

More crickets.

Now the crickets have burnout.

And the worst part is the mental math you do after:

"Maybe my hook sucks."
"Maybe I’m not consistent enough."
"Maybe I need a better carousel template."
"Maybe the algorithm hates me."

No.

Most of the time, your content isn’t failing because it’s “not valuable”.

It’s failing because it has no job.

It shows up. It vibes. It leaves.

There’s no clear step between:

"I saw this"

and

"I want to talk to you"

Here’s the fix I use with founders who are done posting into the void.

Give every post one clear job using this simple path:

1. Demand Packet

One tiny story your buyer recognizes instantly.

Trigger. Job. Constraint. Outcome. Proof.

2. Utility CTA

Not book a call.

A tiny yes that takes 3 seconds.

Send a 2 slide brief.

A risk checklist.

A scoping question list.

3. Momentum Loop

Reuse the same packet across LinkedIn and email for a week.

Same message. Same CTA.

You stop starting from scratch.

If you’re burnt out, don’t post more.

Post with a job.

If you want, comment BRIEF and I’ll send you my Demand Packet template plus 6 Utility CTA examples you can steal.

If your story isn’t vivid, it isn’t memorable.

Most B2B content is technically correct. And emotionally invisible.

It’s full of phrases like:

“digital transformation”

“unlock efficiencies”

“improve visibility”

“enable better decisions”

Cool.

So what actually happened?

Because your buyer’s life doesn’t feel like “visibility”.

It feels like quarter end.

It feels like the ops team being one dashboard away from crying in the bathroom.

It feels like someone slacking:

“is this final?”

for the 9th time.

That’s why vague positioning dies.

Not because it’s wrong.

Because it’s not repeatable.

Nobody forwards “We drive transformation” to their CFO.

Nobody says “I read an insightful post about stakeholder alignment” and takes action.

People move when they recognize a scene from their own week.

Here’s the rule I use when I’m writing a story:

If it doesn’t create a picture in your head, it won’t create a reply in your inbox.

So swap this:

“We help teams modernize reporting.”

For this:

“Every month end, your team duct tapes numbers from 4 tools into one spreadsheet.

Finance doesn’t trust it.

The VP wants it by 9am.

And the person who built it is on PTO.”

That’s not “better copy”.

That’s reality.

And reality is what makes buyers stop scrolling.

If you want a quick exercise.

Take your last post and underline every abstract word.

Then rewrite each one as:

1. A moment.
2. A person.
3. A consequence.
4. A specific annoying sentence someone said.

That’s the stuff people remember.

taplio

The Battle

Evgeny Kotelevskiy

Kuba Czubajewski

Followers

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Performance ScoreEvgeny Kotelevskiy's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreKuba Czubajewski's LinkedIn Performance

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taplio

The Battle

Evgeny Kotelevskiy

Kuba Czubajewski

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);}Evgeny Kotelevskiy's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreKuba Czubajewski's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreEvgeny Kotelevskiy's LinkedIn Performance