Hello and welcome to the Exit Five weekly newsletter - read by 19,000 B2B marketing professionals around the world. Exit Five is a membership site designed to help you build a successful career in B2B marketing. Join 3,500 other members at exitfive.com.
By the way - this email was designed in Knak which helps you create email and landing pages in minutes without having to write code. Learn more about Knak here.
Do the best work of your career.
Hey there, new friend! I’m Danielle, the brand new Head of Content at Exit Five 👋
We’re in a whole new era here at E5 – and we’re doubling down on making this the best place for B2B marketers to learn and grow their careers.
We added two new team mates last week, myself included, so we can help filter through all the noise about marketing on LinkedIn, the Google search results, and be the one place to go to improve your skills in B2B marketing and grow your career.
But as they say, the more things change, the more they stay the same, and that’s true of our mission here:
To help you get smarter at B2B marketing and do the best work of your career.
I didn’t start my career in marketing… not even close (I was a municipal bond analyst, which is a story for another day). On the side, I started learning everything I could about content – writing, photography, design, analytics, growth.
When I finally talked my way into my first real marketing role at a company called Profitwell, I had no idea what B2B SaaS was (don’t worry, I googled just before the interview).
But I learned quickly because of one thing: communities like Exit Five.
It wasn’t called that then – there was this bald guy everyone kept recommending: Dave Gerhardt. So I signed up for his patreon channel and binged every episode, and reached out to everyone I could and asked as many questions as a five year old who just learned the word “why.”
I take content seriously because I know that good resources can change your career, and the people you meet in communities like Exit Five can change your life.
And that’s my promise to you with this newsletter every week: to make it worth your time to read with the best resources and advice we can find.
New role? Get a quick win on the board
The most important thing you can do in your first 5 days on the job is make an impact.
Conventional advice says you should spend the first 30 days going deep on the product, talking to customers, and digging into the data – and you should.
But you should also get one “quick win” on the board by shipping something by the end of the first week. Here's why:
- You’ll build credibility with your boss and team asap – they’ll see you as someone who steps in and gets things done… not to mention it’ll make your boss look good for making a great hire.
- Momentum, baby! It’ll boost your confidence and set the tone for your role on the team.
- Shows off your strategic chops: shipping something quickly that’s aligned to the big goals the company hired you for proves you can see the forest through the trees, but also move quickly.
Simple framework for finding your quick win:
- Start by working backwards from the 1-2 big goals the company hired you for. Dig into what’s working and what’s not with a quick audit – think triage here, not a full blown analysis. Talk to your boss and people on your team – if they say anything like “yeah we’ve been meaning to get around to that…” that’s a good clue there’s a quick win in there.
- Prioritize low hanging fruit: look for areas with high potential impact, but lower effort. Good places to look are things like tweaking email subject lines, revising landing page copy or something as simple as setting up a content calendar if there isn’t one.
- Ship it and show it: share your work with your boss + team and your plan to track results.
Here’s my quick win from last week:
Growing the newsletter is one of my big goals – and in talking to Dave, I knew that the landing page copy was on his mind.
I just tweaked it slightly, pulling research from what our reviews said and positioning notes from the team internally.
Here’s the before and after:
I’ll revisit the conversion rate in about a month, and report back the (hopefully improved!) results.
That’s just a small thing I shipped in my first week – but I think it’s good advice no matter how long you’ve been in your role. Share your work and focus on making at least one thing better every week.
P.S. I’m going to be writing this newsletter every week, so I’d love to hear from you! What did you think of this issue? What do you want to hear about in future newsletters? Just reply directly to this email – I read every single one.
Can’t wait to hear from you!
Podcast #151: Brand Marketing | How To Build A Brand with Bill Macaitis (former Slack CMO & Zendesk CMO)
In this episode, Dave chats with Bill Macaitis, former CMO at Slack and Zendesk on how to build a brand in an economic downturn.
Listen if you want to learn:
Podcast #152: LinkedIn Ads & Strategy for B2B
Anthony is one of the nine LinkedIn Certified Marketing Experts in North America.
He’s also the Managing Director of Speedwork, a B2B LinkedIn Marketing Agency, and hosts the LinkedIn Ads Radio Podcast.
He and Dave discuss:
- LinkedIn Ad Creative & Consistent Branding
- Thought Leader Ads & Organic Reach
- Niche Audiences & Custom Content
- Nurture Campaigns
- Expert LinkedIn Ads Tips
Or find it everywhere you listen by searching "exitfive" podcast.
Upcoming events
Mastering Email Marketing for B2B in 2024
What does an effective email marketing strategy look like today? What makes a great email? What should the subject line be? The copy? The layout and design? The call to action?
To help you refine your email marketing approach, we’re bringing in three experts to share their real-world experiences and insights.
In this session
- Our expert panel will look at real emails from Exit Five members, offering targeted feedback to help enhance your campaigns.
- Get your burning questions answered by Exit Five Founder Dave Gerhardt, Knak CEO Pierce Ujjainwalla, and SubjectLine.com Founder Jay Schwedelson.
- Engage in the chat and share your ideas with fellow B2B marketers.
Don’t miss this chance to learn from these email marketing experts.
Open Roles
HOT JOB OF THE WEEK: OhMD is looking for a Demand Generation Marketer to help drive the generation and conversion of marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) to sales-qualified leads (SQLs) through innovative content creation, email campaigns, and conversion optimization.
If you're interested, you can apply here. Other open roles on the Exit Five job board this week:
- Backbase B.V.is hiring a Senior Director of Demand Generation.
- HighByteis hiring a Demand Generation Manager ($90-$100k salary)
- Sendosois hiring a Marketing Operations Manager. Remote Role.
- Circleis hiring a Senior Demand Generation Manager. Remote Role.
Join us in exitfive
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Get feedback, campaign ideas, browse templates, videos, guides, get recommendations on agencies and vendors, find contractors and freelancers, vent about your boss, find new jobs and more.
We have a 7 day free trial so you can join 100% risk free.
