The Atlantic CEO's daily video series evolved from a personal project into an effective B2B marketing channel. Chief Marketing Officers—key advertising decision-makers—watch his content, which builds rapport and credibility before his team ever enters a sales meeting.
For technical B2B products, the influencer's role is not to be a salesperson or demo the product. Their value lies in building credibility and top-of-funnel interest with their trusted audience. The company is then responsible for nurturing those leads with product-specific details.
You can't suggest dressing your CEO as a magician on day one. Build credibility with consistent, insightful content first. Once leadership sees anecdotal success, they become more open to creative risks that often perform best.
The traditional B2B marketing mix of SEO, paid search, and content is no longer sufficient. Modern growth relies on activating word-of-mouth through a superior product, leveraging founder social presence for authenticity, and investing heavily in the creator economy (especially YouTube) to reach engaged B2B audiences.
Effective B2B content marketing involves giving away valuable secrets, not just pitching services. Instead of saying "hire me," create content that teaches potential clients how to fix common problems themselves. This demonstrates true expertise, builds trust, and makes them more likely to hire you for complex issues.
People connect with personalities more than faceless brands. Luxury Bazaar proved this by growing their founder's channel to 477k subscribers while their official company channel reached 77k. Prioritizing a personality-driven channel leads to faster growth and deeper audience connection.
Trust is now built through credible personalities, not just branded content. Channels like podcasts and newsletters succeed because they are personality-driven. HubSpot's CEO advises businesses to identify and empower internal figures with high authority to represent the brand.
While writing for a B2B marketing audience, Dave Gerhardt discovered that his highest-performing content wasn't about marketing tactics, but about personal productivity—how people work, manage their time, and structure their days. This human-centric content resonates deeply with a professional audience.
Vector's podcast makes listeners a fly on the wall for real strategic discussions between the CEO and marketing lead. Each episode covers a single business decision they had to make together, creating authentic, high-value content.
When a founder or leader builds a personal brand (e.g., through LinkedIn content), they create a "halo effect." Potential customers in sales meetings already feel a connection, recognizing the person from their content. This pre-establishes a modicum of trust, making it far more likely the deal will be won.
In a product-led world, the B2B concept of 'founder-led sales' evolves into 'founder-led marketing.' Founders must deeply own the brand's narrative. This means personally onboarding key influencers and being the first to learn how to tell the story broadly, ensuring the message is right before scaling the function.