How I got the VP of Marketing role with a slide

Marketing in just one channel? That’s a missed opportunity — and your ideal buyers are noticing. Today’s ISVs need a cohesive, cross-channel strategy to stay relevant, visible, and competitive. In this blog, we break down 5 must-have elements to: ✅ Align your message across platforms ✅ Reach prospects where they are ✅ Drive consistent engagement and conversions ✅ Maximize ROI with smarter channel orchestration 🎯 Stop siloing your marketing. Start building momentum everywhere. 👉 Read the full post: https://lnkd.in/esvt9Duz #ISVMarketing #B2BMarketing #CrossChannelStrategy #SoftwareVendors #MarketingBestPractices #MediaDev

I've spoken to 10 different Marketing Leaders over the last 14 Days... Just about every one of them is saying something like "We have the team to execute, but I think we're just running the wrong strategy" The thing that I'm seeing the most is that every company is running the same Demand Gen playbook for the last 24 months. Which looks something like this 1. Stop lead gen 2. Cope by saying you have a "long term" strategy 3. Push ungated content 4. Hope for the best That strategy they're running used to work, but now it's stale for many verticles because it's costing them more to acquire a customer, ultimately causes companies to cut budgets. Honestly, I think it just comes down to laziness. But let's break them down into 2 buckets. 1. Marketing teams just aren't putting in the effort to really understand their customer. They judge their customer based on some b2b report for "how customers buy" Yeah, the strategy is just the basics, but do you actually understand how your customers make a decision on wether to buy your product vs your competitors? 2. Companies (still) haven't measured the right data over the last 24 months which is now seeing a trickle down effect. So when budgets get cut, companies are scrambling to figure out what to optimize for. And then to add on top of that, companies can't afford to even hire the experts to come in and clean the meee up. So now alot of these marketing programs are just sitting ducks.

Thank you for engaging with my last post. This one is similar as I’m finding that too often, marketing becomes fragmented. Teams run campaigns, push out content, and launch ads—but the tactics don’t connect back to the bigger picture. How does this happen? Strategic imperatives are often forgotten and not considered when building campaigns. Running ads without checking with the product team to confirm inventory. Pushing campaigns without knowing which products are actually selling. Spending on channels without visibility into which ones truly drive ROI or which combination through attribution modeling. Even within the marketing department, team members working in silos instead of rowing in the same direction and all focusing on the same products and messaging. When marketing operates in silos, it becomes reactive instead of strategic. The truth is: marketing isn’t just about tactics—it’s about alignment. ✅ Marketing should be tied into product availability. ✅ Marketing should know what’s selling and where and what channels and ROI. ✅ Marketing should coordinate across sales, operations, distribution—and within its own team. ✅ Marketing campaigns should tie to strategic imperatives. Only then can campaigns be optimized for performance, not just activity. Marketing isn’t a department that runs in parallel—it’s a connector helping drive growth across the entire business.

𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗿𝗼𝘄, 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀? Here’s a litmus test every marketing leader should run. If your marketing team vanished tomorrow, what would your sales team truly miss? Would they notice fewer leads in the CRM? Or would they miss the clarity marketing brings - 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀, 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝗱𝗼𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗮 𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗹𝗲 𝗦𝗗𝗥 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝗱𝗲? Marketing isn’t just about filling pipelines, it’s about building context. It’s the emotional scaffolding that makes a buyer trust your message before your rep ever reaches out. Think of marketing as the air support before ground troops arrive. Without it, sales enters the battlefield blind, facing objections that good storytelling could’ve dissolved long ago. At In Time Tec, I’ve seen how aligned marketing sourced intelligence like industry narratives, competitive insights, and trust-building content that can make sales unstoppable. It’s not about MQLs. It’s about momentum. So, if your marketing disappeared tomorrow and sales said, “We’ll be fine” that’s not a compliment. That’s a red flag I believe. Let me hear it from my Leaders and counterparts what they have to say. Tagging you all to know your thoughts. Jeet Kumar, Sandeep Jain, Munesh Jadoun Sunil Urs, Vijaya Arucapalli, Shubhankar Sharma (SS) Pavan Jangid Apresh Saxena Venkatesh Bachu Nikhil Agrawal Michelle Haynes Skyler Simmons Abram Langston Matt Fratzke Eric Keener,

Want to create a useless go-to-market plan? Simple. Let Sales, Marketing, Product and Customer Success each build their own version. Alignment disappears, outcomes aren’t agreed and Marketing gets stuck in the “what” and the “how”, spinning up campaigns, tracking what’s easiest to measure (not what’s most important), chasing trends or adding more tech to the stack, all to look relevant because we’re judged on activity instead of impact. The irony is that most GTM plans skip the foundations that make them work. Too much focus on the channels, launches and slides; not enough on the basics that actually turn plans into progress: - Audience insight that digs deeper than job titles, understanding pain points, goals, internal politics, and how buying groups think, feel and decide. - Positioning and messaging that hold Sales, Marketing and Product together, giving Sales content they can use in the field without rewriting, and giving customers a reason to care. - Campaigns that connect data with behaviour, creating experiences that meet buyers where they are, with the right triggers, - Iteration that genuinely changes outcomes, asking whether pipeline, velocity or renewals shifted, instead of whether CTR nudged up last month. A GTM plan only comes off the slide deck when the business agrees on outcomes and Marketing is trusted to define the purpose before execution begins. Without that, Marketing remains reactive and the plan never makes it past activity into genuine impact. Activity is easy. Driving growth takes fundamentals.

Partner Marketing: The Puzzle You Actually Want to Solve 🧩 I started out in Marketing Ops—deep in systems, data, and automation. But in a previous role, I had the chance to learn from someone on the team who was brilliant at partner marketing (he knows who he is 😉). Watching him work taught me how important—and sometimes tricky—partner marketing really is. Now at Intelliworx Managed IT, those lessons are more relevant than ever - and I am still learning every day! Most MSPs don’t have big marketing teams. Some have none. I am lucky to have a small crew, and that means partnerships aren’t just helpful—they’re necessary. Partner marketing gives us reach, resources, and credibility we couldn’t always get on our own. But it’s not always smooth sailing. Here are a few things I’ve learned: 👉 Co-branding can feel like walking a tightrope, but our partners put real thought into their content. It’s up to us to use it wisely - adapt it to our voice, make it relevant, and show its value. If time is tight, framing the content clearly helps everyone see the impact. 👉 MDF campaigns often come with strings—deadlines, messaging, and metrics that don’t always match your goals. The key is finding common ground. We share results, show what worked, and keep partners in the loop. Reporting isn’t just a task—it’s a trust-builder. 👉 Joint webinars or events are great. They’re powerful, but they take coordination. When both teams are invested and communicate well, the results are worth it—new audiences, shared expertise, and campaigns that feel bigger than the budget. The magic word? Communication. When partners understand your goals, and you understand theirs, everything flows better. You build campaigns that work, relationships that last, and a brand that stands out. We’re not just resellers—we’re storytellers, strategists, and collaborators. 

Just read this AMAZING article about marketing on a shoestring budget and I'm literally buzzing with ideas! 🔥💡 Here's the thing - we always think we need massive budgets to make an impact, but that's absolute nonsense. Some of the BEST marketing happens when you're forced to get creative. What really hit me was this idea of guerrilla marketing - it used to be the scrappy underdog tactic but now even the big guys are doing it! I've seen this firsthand walking around downtown - posters and street art EVERYWHERE. And can we talk about personalization? A handwritten note with an order? A surprise thank you video? These cost almost NOTHING but create such powerful connections. One of my clients tried this and their customer retention went through the roof! Also loving these practical ideas: - Create a referral program (your customers become your salespeople!) - Run your own networking event (be the connector, not just an attendee) - Use employee email signatures effectively (every email is a mini-billboard!) Remember: Marketing isn't about spending the most money - it's about making the most IMPACT with whatever budget you have. What's your favorite zero-budget marketing tactic? Drop it below and let's build a resource together! 👇 #SmallBusinessMarketing #CreativeMarketing #BudgetMarketing #MarketingTipps

🚫 Most brands confuse “always-on” with “always shouting.” More campaigns. More posts. More noise. But noise doesn’t compound, it fades. ✅ The best “always-on” partner marketing motions work like a flywheel: Each turn adds more trust, more attention, and more pipeline. Here’s how it actually works: 1️⃣ Understand your audience Which industries? Which roles? Which target customers? Build an ICP you can act on, not just a persona on a slide. 2️⃣ Map touchpoints that matter Show up where they already are. Deliver comms in the formats they actually consume. 3️⃣ Execute, then validate Push content into market but track what lands. Which assets convert? Which channels actually move pipeline? 4️⃣ Go back to the people Ask partners, reps, and customers: 👉 What worked? 👉 What didn’t? 👉 What’s missing? 5️⃣ Refine & repeat Feed those insights into the next cycle. That’s what compounds impact. One-off campaigns burn bright and burn out. Always-on motions, when built as a loop, only get stronger. But before you jump into always-on marketing, make sure your partner strategy can actually be operationalised. Otherwise, you’re just spinning the wheel. Curious how? Join us this October 2nd. Register with the link in the comments

Everyone wants an always-on motion. But if your GTM isn’t aligned, you’re not always-on. You’re always-off-course. The truth is, no amount of marketing rhythm can fix a partner strategy that isn’t operationally ready. Before you turn the flywheel, make sure it’s attached to something that moves revenue. Scott Cooper breaks down what it takes to operationalise an always-on motion, the right way. 👇 #gtmstrategy #partnermarketing #partnerledstrategy

🎥 Understanding the Marketing Funnel: Awareness, Consideration, Decision If you've ever wondered what a marketing funnel really is—or why it’s so important—this is for you. Picture an upside-down pyramid. Every marketing journey boils down to three key phases: 1️⃣ Awareness Stage This is where it all begins. People are hearing about you for the first time. Your job? Get in front of new audiences and make them aware of who you are and what you do. 2️⃣ Consideration Stage Now they're in your ecosystem—ideally, your email list. This is where you start delivering intentional, targeted messages. They’re weighing options and looking for the best solution to their problem. 3️⃣ Decision Stage It’s go time. They’re comparing you against competitors—or even doing nothing at all. Your content here should prove why you're the best choice and why taking action is better than staying stuck. Each stage of the funnel has a purpose, and your marketing strategy needs to address all three to work effectively. Where do you feel your funnel is the strongest? Where does it need work? Let’s break it down—drop your thoughts below ⬇️ #MarketingStrategy #ContentMarketing #LeadGeneration