Dear Marketers with Emily Kramer & Friends

• "Dear Marketers, How do you build an IRL events strategy?"

  How do you build an IRL events strategy?  Summary: In this episode of 'Dear Marketers,' Host Emily Kramer and her friends Devon Watts, Head of Product Marketing & Partner Marketing at Mercury, and Grace Erickson, VP of Revenue at Cocoon, discuss smart event strategy and how to avoid dollars in trash cans. Emily also phones event expert and friend Kacie Jenkins, former SVP Marketing at Sendoso, who shares practical advice on how to determine which events to attend and key considerations for marketers.Dear Marketers is produced by MKT1 & Caspian Studios in partnership with Typeform.  Episode 10 is sponsored by Framer & Customer.io.About our hostsEmily Kramer is the creator of MKT1 Newsletter, a marketing advisor, and an investor. She previously led and built marketing teams from the ground up at Asana, Carta, Astro (acquired by Slack), and Ticketfly. She’s helped hundreds of startups with B2B marketing, has over 50,000 subscribers on Substack, and has reached millions through her content. Kramer’s known for her pragmatic advice, first principles approach to marketing, and her “krameworks.” When not marketing “marketing,” you can find her with her dogs in Oakland, CA or eating ice cream on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee.Devon Watts is a long-time startup marketer currently leading Product and Partner Marketing at Mercury. Previously, she ran marketing for the high-growth fintech Anrok, and spent time building her PMM, content, and brand expertise at companies like Yammer, Asana, and Carta. Devon has led B2B marketing teams with anywhere from 1 to 25+ people, and has experience in PLG and sales-led motions. In addition to marketing, Devon loves her kids, being on/in/near the water, her dog Dolores, and eating cheese.Grace Erickson is a true marketing generalist with 10 years of experience in B2B startups, spanning functions like growth, brand, product marketing, and most things in between. She's currently the VP of Revenue at Cocoon, a Series A employee leave management platform. Prior to Cocoon, Grace led marketing programs at Asana, Carta, and Cleo in various roles, but always with a focus on an integrated customer journey. Besides being a marketing nerd, Grace spends her time coming up with (but not executing) elaborate schemes and browsing Zillow.Kacie Jenkins is our “phone-a-friend” guest this episode. Kacie is the former SVP of Marketing at Sendoso. She also helped take Fastly from a 25-person startup to $200M ARR and a successful IPO; led marketing at Sourcegraph, where she helped grow revenue 4x year-over-year, and also has experience at Ace Hotel Group and Roku leading marketing teams.We also hear from Daphne Hoppenott, CMO at Voyantis, who asks, “ What are innovative ways you've seen marketers leveraging events and how should you think through balancing investing in third-party events versus hosting our own.?”Quotes “ You're comparing events not to each other, which I so often see people do, you're comparing them to the other channels you can use. Events are an opportunity. You choose them because you can show off your product at an event.” - Emily Kramer“ There's a huge opportunity cost to doing events.If you're investing in events, you may not investing in a lot of other things in order to prioritize it, and you cannot approach that level of investment without really scrutinizing your goal, your audience, your central creative asset, etc.” - Grace Erickson*“An event is an experience, it's an extension of your brand. It's a chance to make really strong connections, build relationships, and represent your brand in a way that is much higher recall than any of the digital touchpoints that you might be investing in.” – Kacie JenkinsTime stamps[01:05] Event fun facts [04:08] Today’s question: “ What are innovative ways you've seen marketers leverage events?”[07:25] Avoiding dollars in trash cans [14:17] Lightning round[21:51] Composition versus coverage[24:33] Events as fuel and engine[39:37] Phone a friend, Kacie Jenkins, SVP Marketing at Sendoso[49:22] The power of channel combinations [57:57] Events and the G.A.C.C.S. brief [01:04] Best, Marketer Recommended products & agenciesTypeform: Use code “MKT1” for 20% off the Growth Plan Framer: Framer will rebuild or migrate your site for free in 3 days, new & existing customers can submit a brief.Customer.io: Get 2 months free of an annual Essentials plan when you request a trialCaspian StudiosConnect with: Emily KramerDevon WattsGrace EricksonKacie JenkinsDaphne HoppenotSubscribe to MKT1 Newsletter to get new podcast episodes plus a companion newsletter in your inbox. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit newsletter.mkt1.co/subscribe

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• Dear Marketers, "What are the most common mistakes new managers make?"

  What do new marketing managers get wrong? Summary: In this episode of 'Dear Marketers,' Host Emily Kramer and her friends Jenny Thai, Head of Content at Vanta, and Grace Erickson, VP of Revenue at Cocoon, dive into what new marketing managers get wrong. Moving beyond the basics  like bad one-on-one formats and messy decks, they dive into the early mistakes that derail leadership credibility. Dear Marketers is produced by MKT1 & Caspian Studios in partnership with Typeform. Episode 9 is sponsored by Framer and 42 Agency. About our hostsEmily Kramer is the creator of MKT1 Newsletter, a marketing advisor, and an investor. She previously led and built marketing teams from the ground up at Asana, Carta, Astro (acquired by Slack), and Ticketfly. She’s helped hundreds of startups with B2B marketing, has over 50,000 subscribers on Substack, and has reached millions through her content. Kramer’s known for her pragmatic advice, first principles approach to marketing, and her “krameworks.” When not marketing “marketing,” you can find her with her dogs in Oakland, CA or eating ice cream on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee.Jenny Thai is a marketing leader with 15 years of content and storytelling experience at high-growth B2B startups. She currently leads content at Vanta where she’s building full-funnel programs to fuel brand and business growth. Before that, Jenny was Director of Communications + Content at Clearbit and Head of Content at Asana where she scaled the content team and function from Series C to post-DPO. When she’s not thinking about doing some content, Jenny enjoys reading books, eating noodles, and playing skee ball. Grace Erickson is a true marketing generalist with 10 years of experience in B2B startups, spanning functions like growth, brand, product marketing, and most things in between. She's currently the VP of Revenue at Cocoon, a Series A employee leave management platform. Prior to Cocoon, Grace led marketing programs at Asana, Carta, and Cleo in various roles, but always with a focus on an integrated customer journey. Besides being a marketing nerd, Grace spends her time coming up with (but not executing) elaborate schemes and browsing Zillow.We also hear from Mark Huber, VP of Marketing at UserEvidence, who asks, “ What's the biggest mistake that you see first time marketing leaders make?”Quotes* “ Your job as a people lead or manager, no matter how big your team is, is to basically take the chaos that's happening around you, make sense of it for your team. Then protect your team from that chaos so that they can execute effectively and focus on the impact, versus getting distracted by whatever random shiny object RAM is happening in any given week.” – Jenny Thai“ My thing that I wish someone had told me before I became a first time manager was how much of your job is shielding. Not lying, but shielding and being a buffer or filter between other people and how that's hard.” - Emily Kramer“ Teams of any size, in any org structure, need structure to know what to do when. How to prioritize, whose job it is to do what thing, whatever—teams need structure. As a manager, it's your job to create the right structure for your team. And if your company doesn't have the right structure for your team, it's still your job to figure out what the right structure is within whatever's happening at your company.” - Grace EricksonTime stamps[00:00] Meet Grace and Jenny, and how to pronounce “management"[01:35] Today’s question: What do new marketing managers get wrong?[02:18] Lightning Round: Management mistakes[05:47] Summarizing key management mistakes[07:03] Understanding which projects are high impact[13:49] The babysitter is dead[22:54] Delegation challenges [31:53] Redefining success in management[33:46] Tangible tips for effective delegation[38:52] Proactive performance management[49:27] The role of internal marketing[55:09] Best, Marketer GameRecommended products & agenciesTypeform: Use code “MKT1” for 20% off the Growth PlanFramer:  Apply to their startup program to get their $900 launch plan for free for a year at framer.com/startups or use code MKT1 for 25% off a yearly site plan42 Agency:  Mention MKT1 to get 10% off a consulting packageCaspian StudiosConnect with: Emily KramerJenny ThaiGrace EricksonSubscribe to MKT1 Newsletter for a companion newsletter for each episode. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit newsletter.mkt1.co/subscribe

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• “Dear Marketers, Is the company blog dead?”

  Is the company blog dead? Summary: In this episode of 'Dear Marketers,' Host Emily Kramer and her friends Jenny Thai, Head of Content at Vanta and Devon Watts, Head of Product Marketing & Partner Marketing at Mercury, discuss the company blog and whether it is alive and well. They dive into a blog versus a resource center, having a show versus having a feed, and avoiding random acts of marketing. Together, they discuss the essential factors to consider when creating content for your audience.Dear Marketers is produced by MKT1 & Caspian Studios in partnership with Typeform. Episode 8 is sponsored by Framer and UserGems. About our hostsEmily Kramer is the creator of MKT1 Newsletter, a marketing advisor, and an investor. She previously led and built marketing teams from the ground up at Asana, Carta, Astro (acquired by Slack), and Ticketfly. She’s helped hundreds of startups with B2B marketing, has over 50,000 subscribers on Substack, and has reached millions through her content. Kramer’s known for her pragmatic advice, first principles approach to marketing, and her “krameworks.” When not marketing “marketing,” you can find her with her dogs in Oakland, CA or eating ice cream on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee.Jenny Thai is a marketing leader with 15 years of content and storytelling experience at high-growth B2B startups. She currently leads content at Vanta where she’s building full-funnel programs to fuel brand and business growth. Before that, Jenny was Director of Communications + Content at Clearbit and Head of Content at Asana where she scaled the content team and function from Series C to post-DPO. When she’s not thinking about doing some content, Jenny enjoys reading books, eating noodles, and playing skee ball.Devon Watts is a long-time startup marketer currently leading Product and Partner Marketing at Mercury. Previously, she ran marketing for the high-growth fintech Anrok, and spent time building her PMM, content, and brand expertise at companies like Yammer, Asana, and Carta. Devon has led B2B marketing teams with anywhere from 1 to 25+ people, and has experience in PLG and sales-led motions. In addition to marketing, Devon loves her kids, being on/in/near the water, her dog Dolores, and eating cheese.We also hear from Matt Hodges, Founding Marketer at Lorikeet, who asks, “Is the company blog dead?”Quotes “At the end of the day, writing content with a strong point of view that leverages expertise that is built with dis or created with distribution in mind and distribution on channels that your audience cares about is what’s going to help you grow. Don’t get so stuck in this world of optimizing for LLMs and forget the point.” – Emily Kramer “[The company blog]  is evolving. It’s not dead, but I think it’s hit middle age. It’s having an identity crisis and it needs to figure out the next phase of its life.” – Jenny Thai“If no one reads your blog, it’s not showing up in SEO, and it's not showing up on LLMs, why does it exist? A lot of people are still doing it, but they no longer know why. And there needs to be an evolution here.” – Emily Kramer“Don’t start with the question, should this live on our website or not? Start with the question of what you’re doing for your audience.” – Devon WattsTime stamps[00:00] Meet Jenny and Devon, plus fun facts[01:39] Today’s question: Is the blog dead?[03:04] Lightning round[07:44] The evolution of company blogs[10:23] “Shows” versus “feeds”[13:26] Distribution should drive content strategy[17:25] What real marketers are doing today[23:39] Should companies still publish long-form content?[31:48] Blogs versus resource centers[33:30] Debating executive blog posts[38:55] Research on top startups’ use of blogs and resources[42:05] Should some content be “nomadic”?[51:16] Optimizing content for humans or for LLMs[57:10] Best, Marketer Recommended products & agenciesTypeform: Use code “MKT1” for 20% off the Growth PlanFramer: Use code “MKT1” for 25% offUserGems: Mention MKT1 for free onboardingCaspian StudiosConnect with: Emily KramerJenny ThaiDevon WattsSubscribe to MKT1 Newsletter for a companion newsletter for each episode. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit newsletter.mkt1.co/subscribe

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• "Dear Marketers, When should you do a web or brand design?"

  Should you do a brand or web redesign?Summary: In this episode of 'Dear Marketers,' Host Emily Kramer sits down with her friends Grace Erickson, VP of Revenue at Cocoon, Jenny Thai, Head of Content, Vanta, and special guest Kelsey Aroian, Former Senior Director Brand & Creative, Front and Former Co-founder, Paladar Studio. The four explore a highly debated topic in marketing: how to know when it's time to redesign your website, or your entire brand. This episode offers guidance on reasons for brand redesigns, the challenges that arise during these projects, and the complexities of working with agencies, studios, and freelancers.Dear Marketers is produced by MKT1 & Caspian Studios in partnership with Typeform. Episode 5 is sponsored by Framer and 42 Agency.About our hostsEmily Kramer is the creator of MKT1 Newsletter, a marketing advisor, and an investor. She previously led and built marketing teams from the ground up at Asana, Carta, Astro (acquired by Slack), and Ticketfly. She’s helped hundreds of startups with B2B marketing, has over 50,000 subscribers on Substack, and has reached millions through her content. Kramer’s known for her pragmatic advice, first principles approach to marketing, and her “krameworks”. When not marketing “marketing”, you can find her with her dogs in Oakland, CA or eating ice cream on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee.Grace Erickson is a true marketing generalist with 10 years of experience in B2B startups, spanning functions like growth, brand, product marketing, and most things in between. She's currently the VP of Revenue at Cocoon, a Series A employee leave management platform. Prior to Cocoon, Grace led marketing programs at Asana, Carta, and Cleo in various roles, but always with a focus on an integrated customer journey. Besides being a marketing nerd, Grace spends her time coming up with (but not executing) elaborate schemes and browsing Zillow.Jenny Thai is a marketing leader with 15 years of content and storytelling experience at high-growth B2B startups. She currently leads content at Vanta where she’s building full-funnel programs to fuel brand and business growth. Before that, Jenny was Director of Communications + Content at Clearbit and Head of Content at Asana where she scaled the content team and function from Series C to post-DPO. When she’s not thinking about doing some content, Jenny enjoys reading books, eating noodles, and playing skee ball. Kelsey Aroian is a brand and creative leader with over a decade of experience building and leading high-performing creative teams and bringing multi-channel brand initiatives to life. Most recently, she led the Brand & Creative team at Front, and previously she led marketing programs at Asana and brand at Designer Fund. She also founded and ran Paladar, a multi-disciplinary design studio. She currently lives in Portland, Oregon and went to summer camp in NH with Emily Kramer for ~a decade as a kid.We also hear from Kevin Branscum, Senior Director of Brand Marketing at Typeform, a form builder that helps you collect zero-party data while providing a stellar brand experience, who asks us “ When do you know it's time for a website or homepage redesign, and when do you know it's time for a full rebrand, if ever?”Quotes*“Rebrands are like therapy for your company sometimes.You want to choose a thought partner who is going to help you make decisions and be a forcing function for you to make decisions to move the work forward. That is a really important piece of criteria and is also going to help your project be set up for success in the long term and move a lot faster.” - Kelsey Aroian*“ People also underestimate when you're building a company, repeated recognition of a brand is massively, massively important. So the risk of a redesign is you can take a step back in like the equity you've built with your existing brand. So, the reason for the redesign has to be significant enough to make up for some loss of equity. And that's why also doing redesign, very, very early is lower risk in that context, right? Because you've not built up very much equity with your brand.” – Grace EricksonTime stamps[00:00] Meet Jenny, Grace, and special guest Kelsey Royan[03:30] Web redesign vs. full rebrand [07:15] Types of website redesigns[12:40] When it doesn’t make sense to do a redesign[17:25] Why brand strategy must come before a full rebrand[28:45] Choosing the right partner: freelancer, studio, or agency [34:20] Design by committee and avoiding groupthink[39:55] Celebrating rebrands the right way – the legendary Asana ball pit[43:15] Best Marketer Game: Worst B2B website trends [48:00] What makes a rebrand “worth it” – and what to do instead of a full overhaul[52:30] Final tips: stakeholder alignment, smart scoping, and getting more from your agencyRecommended products & agenciesTypeform: Use code “MKT1” for 20% off the Growth PlanFramer:  Use code “MKT1” to get 25% off 42 Agency: Mention MKT1 to get a free 30-minute support callCaspian StudiosConnect with: Emily KramerGrace EricksonJenny Thai Kelsey AroianSubscribe to MKT1 Newsletter for a companion newsletter for each episode. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit newsletter.mkt1.co/subscribe

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• “Dear Marketers, Is sales & marketing alignment harder than ever?" (part 2/2)

  Is sales & marketing alignment harder than ever? (Part 2/2)Summary: In this episode of 'Dear Marketers,' Host Emily Kramer and her friends Devon Watts, Head of Product Marketing and Partnerships at Mercury, and Grace Erickson, VP of Revenue at Cocoon, tackle the often intense topic of sales and marketing alignment. The discussion dives deep into the complexities of aligning these critical go-to-market functions. Together, they discuss the impact of Account-driven GTM, the role of centralized Rev Ops teams, the nuanced debate over variable compensation for marketers, and the evolving use of AI tools. This episode is part 2 of 2, listen to Episode 5 for part 1. It offers actionable insights and strategic recommendations for driving greater synergy between sales and marketing teams.Dear Marketers is produced by MKT1 & Caspian Studios in partnership with Typeform. Episode 6 is sponsored by Framer and UserEvidence.About our hostsEmily Kramer is the creator of MKT1 Newsletter, a marketing advisor, and an investor. She previously led and built marketing teams from the ground up at Asana, Carta, Astro (acquired by Slack), and Ticketfly. She’s helped hundreds of startups with B2B marketing, has over 50,000 subscribers on Substack, and has reached millions through her content. Kramer’s known for her pragmatic advice, first principles approach to marketing, and her “krameworks”. When not marketing “marketing”, you can find her with her dogs in Oakland, CA or eating ice cream on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee.Devon Watts is a long-time startup marketer currently leading Product and Partner Marketing at Mercury. Previously, she ran marketing for the high-growth fintech Anrok, and spent time building her PMM, content, and brand expertise at companies like Yammer, Asana, and Carta. Devon has led B2B marketing teams with anywhere from 1 to 25+ people, and has experience in PLG and sales-led motions. In addition to marketing, Devon loves her kids, being on/in/near the water, her dog Dolores, and eating cheese.Grace Erickson is a true marketing generalist with 10 years of experience in B2B startups, spanning functions like growth, brand, product marketing, and most things in between. She's currently the VP of Revenue at Cocoon, a Series A employee leave management platform. Prior to Cocoon, Grace led marketing programs at Asana, Carta, and Cleo in various roles, but always with a focus on an integrated customer journey. Besides being a marketing nerd, Grace spends her time coming up with (but not executing) elaborate schemes and browsing Zillow.We also hear from Kira Luscher, Head of Marketing & Growth at Valence, the widest deployed AI-native coach for enterprise, who asks us “How can sales and marketing get aligned in 2025?”Quotes*”I actually think the whole thing is broken if I'm really getting into it. I think marketing rules no longer make sense. I think the delineations make no sense. I think the marketing and sales breakdown doesn't make any sense anymore. I think we need to burn it all down and rebuild the org. And I think that is going to happen slowly. But if I was building a company from scratch and building a go-to-market team from scratch, I would do it radically differently from how it is done. And I think the companies that are doing that and rethinking how it's done are going to win, because the systems are different and the teams need to be different. And that is how radical or extreme I think the shifts are to this.” - Emily Kramer*”It hurts when teams are pointing fingers, trying to take credit, trying to over-claim influence and game the system. It especially hurts when compensation specifically for SDRs has a lot to do with outbound meetings booked. And I think that's where good attribution systems fail, because people think that attribution and how people's commission is being figured out is the same thing. And it's not like your attribution system can actually be different for how you're paying variable comp. Now, you need to know what the numbers are. But the attribution needs to be more fluid and you need to not get people stressed out about it. I was talking to the CEO of a popular go-to-market tech company and she was like, ‘I don't care if I double count or double pay commission. It probably comes out in the wash. And either way, I just don't wanna create those battles.’ And so that's a really good principle.” - Emily KramerTime stamps[01:10] Meet Devon Watts, Head of Product Marketing & Partnerships at Mercury and Grace Erickson, VP of Revenue at Cocoon[01:41] Revisiting Question from Kira Luscher, Head of Marketing & Growth at Valence: “How can sales and marketing get aligned in 2025?”[03:00] Help or Hurt Segment: ABX Model[04:43] The Complexity of Tiers in ABX[09:51] Attribution: Help or Hurt?[13:04] Shared Pipeline Goals[26:45] The Role of Marketing Ops[27:43] The Role of Rev Ops in Marketing and Sales[28:59] Marketing Ops and Career Pathing[31:54] Variable Compensation in Marketing[39:32] The Impact of AI Tools on Marketing AlignmentRecommended products & agenciesTypeform: Use code “MKT1” for 20% off the Growth PlanFramer: Use code “MKT1” for 25% offUserEvidence: Mention MKT1 for 2 months freeCaspian StudiosConnect with: Emily KramerDevon Watts,Grace EricksonKira LuscherSubscribe to MKT1 Newsletter for a companion newsletter for each episode. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit newsletter.mkt1.co/subscribe

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