The Dave Gerhardt Show (from Exit Five)

#358 | Ben Wallis (Customer Lifecycle Manager, Quo), Jaina Mistry (Director of Brand and Content Marketing, Knak), Kremi Mestanova (B2B Content and Growth Strategist, Kremi Marketing), and Tyler Cook (Head of Email Marketing, Hypermedia Marketing) join Dave for an Exit Five live session on what's actually working in email right now. Ben shows how Quo built a Spotify Wrapped-style year-in-review campaign with fully personalized GIFs and real usage data for every customer. Jaina makes the case for why B2B newsletters are one of the most slept-on trust-building channels in marketing, and breaks down the operating model that makes it sustainable. Tyler Cook shares his five-step AI-powered newsjacking system that goes from trend to sent email in under an hour, including a real example that got a 67% open rate. And Kremi walks through how she restructured email programs for two very different B2B brands and cut unsubscribe rates by 20% while lifting click-through rates by 40%.

Timestamps

(00:00) - - Intro

(06:29) - - Ben Wallis: personalized year-in-review email campaign for every customer

(16:58) - - Jaina Mistry: why B2B newsletters are the most slept-on trust channel

(28:20) - - The operating model that makes publishing 52 newsletters a year sustainable

(28:40) - - Tyler Cook: the AI-powered newsjacking system that goes from trend to sent in under an hour

(40:22) - - Kremi Mestanova: restructuring email programs for two very different B2B brands

(49:40) - - Live Q&A

Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter
Learn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/
***
Brought to you by:
Knak - A no-code, campaign creation platform that lets you go from idea to on-brand email and landing pages in minutes, using AI where it actually matters. Learn more at knak.com/exitfive, or check out the MCP server by clicking this link.
Vector - A contact-level ads platform that lets you build audiences from actual people on your site, clicking your ads, and checking out your competitors. Learn more at vector.co, and get on the waitlist for their new MCP server by clicking here. 

Compound Growth Marketing - A full-funnel demand generation agency that helps high-growth cybersecurity, DevOps, and enterprise software companies drive more pipeline through AI SEO, paid media, and go-to-market engineering. Visit compoundgrowthmarketing.com and tell them Dave sent you.

***
Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.
They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.
Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.
Visit hatch.fm to learn more

#357 | Dave sits down with George Bonaci, VP of Growth at Ramp, to talk about what growth actually looks like at one of the most talked-about brands in B2B. George breaks down why Ramp has no CMO and why he thinks that's a feature, not a bug. He makes the case for attention as the new moat when execution gets commoditized, and shares how he went from hardcore attribution obsessive to betting on stunts with no direct attribution. They also get into Project Glass, Ramp's internal AI tool that reads every Slack channel, preps his meetings, and diagnosed a reporting issue in 15 minutes that would have taken two weeks to investigate. And George shares why he thinks marketers now have two jobs: marketing to humans and marketing to machines.

Timestamps

(00:00) - - George's background: from biochemist to accidental marketer

(07:00) - - How marketing is structured at Ramp (no CMO)

(09:15) - - Why brand is the growth lever

(13:30) - - AI and the death of functional marketing roles

(14:45) - - Ramp's hub and spoke model for AI

(16:05) - - Building autonomous go-to-market workflows

(17:15) - - How the team responded to going agent-first

(20:55) - - The J curve of productivity

(22:15) - - Are marketing jobs safe?

(24:00) - - Marketing to machines: Ramp's two jobs

(25:15) - - Offering $3,000 bonuses to AI agents

(28:40) - - Project Glass: Ramp's internal AI tool

(34:20) - - Attention as the new moat

(36:10) - - How to measure attention without direct attribution

(41:20) - - Why taste matters more than ever in direct mail and events

(42:20) - - How George went from "measure everything" to betting on stunts

Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter
Learn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/
***
Brought to you by:
Knak - A no-code, campaign creation platform that lets you go from idea to on-brand email and landing pages in minutes, using AI where it actually matters. Learn more at knak.com/exitfive, or check out the MCP server by clicking this link.
Vector - A contact-level ads platform that lets you build audiences from actual people on your site, clicking your ads, and checking out your competitors. Learn more at vector.co, and get on the waitlist for their new MCP server by clicking here. 

Compound Growth Marketing - A full-funnel demand generation agency that helps high-growth cybersecurity, DevOps, and enterprise software companies drive more pipeline through AI SEO, paid media, and go-to-market engineering. Visit compoundgrowthmarketing.com and tell them Dave sent you.

***
Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.
They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.
Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.
Visit hatch.fm to learn more

#356 | Dave sits down with Brett Domeny, product lead at Webflow focused on AEO, to talk about what it actually takes to show up in AI search. Brett breaks down Webflow's AEO maturity model — four core areas that actually matter: content, technical structure, authority, and measurement — and why most of AEO is just good SEO done right. They get into how LLM crawlers work and what your site needs to do to be discoverable, why Reddit and community platforms have outsized influence on AI citations, and how to measure whether any of it is working.

Check out Webflow's free AEO assessment here.
Timestamps

(00:00) - - Intro and Brett's background

(02:00) - - The state of search and why CMOs are worried

(04:00) - - Webflow's AEO maturity model

(05:30) - - Why AEO is an evolution of SEO, not a replacement

(06:30) - - Technical: how LLM crawlers work

(16:00) - - Content: optimize for questions, not keywords

(19:00) - - Does authentic content still win in an AI world?

(26:00) - - Measurement: the three-bucket framework

(30:00) - - How accurate are the prompt visibility tools?

(37:00) - - How to show your boss AEO is working

(40:00) - - Authority: why Reddit has outsized influence on AI citations

(43:00) - - Why Brett has stayed at Webflow for six years

#355 | Dave sits down with Maria Scheifler to talk about why your marketing team might be getting less done as it grows — and what to do about it. Maria makes the case for running marketing like a product team: two-week sprints, a prioritized backlog, and a lightweight intake process that kills approval bottlenecks without losing control. She walks through the context-switching exercise that proves multitasking is destroying your output, how to push back on random requests from across the company without saying no, and why getting team buy-in before rolling out any operational changes is the step most marketing leaders skip.

Timestamps

(00:00) - - Intro: the problem isn't your strategy, it's your operating system

(04:38) - - Maria's background

(07:38) - - Why teams get bigger and somehow get less done

(10:07) - - The multitasking exercise that proves context switching kills output

(17:36) - - Running marketing like a product team: the mindset shift

(20:24) - - Building a working agreement with your team

(22:56) - - The experimentation guardrail template: killing approval bottlenecks without losing control

(28:26) - - Building a prioritized backlog

(32:47) - - How the backlog helps you push back without saying no

(39:36) - - Two-week sprints: how to plan, commit, and ship

(41:48) - - Daily standups: how to keep them short and useful

(42:39) - - Sprint reviews: showing the rest of the company what marketing does

(44:20) - - Retrospectives

(46:19) - - Where to start on Monday

Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter
Learn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/
***
Brought to you by:
Knak - A no-code, campaign creation platform that lets you go from idea to on-brand email and landing pages in minutes, using AI where it actually matters. Learn more at knak.com/exitfive, or check out the MCP server by clicking this link.
Vector - A contact-level ads platform that lets you build audiences from actual people on your site, clicking your ads, and checking out your competitors. Learn more at vector.co, and get on the waitlist for their new MCP server by clicking here. 

Compound Growth Marketing - A full-funnel demand generation agency that helps high-growth cybersecurity, DevOps, and enterprise software companies drive more pipeline through AI SEO, paid media, and go-to-market engineering. Visit compoundgrowthmarketing.com and tell them Dave sent you.

***
Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.
They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.
Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.
Visit hatch.fm to learn more

#354 | Sue (Head of Lifecycle Marketing, Monarch Money), Jonathan (VP of Marketing, Seamless.AI), and Naomi (Senior Product Marketing Manager, Customer.io) join Dan for a live Exit Five session on customer marketing. Sue breaks down how Monarch discovered that the best time to promote their referral program was during trial and the data behind a 64% lift in referral shares and half a million dollars in incremental ARR. Jonathan shares how Seamless.AI stopped treating customer engagement like a campaign and built a full 365-day behavioral program, including an AI chatbot that deflected 55% of support tickets and live trainings that flattened their churn curve. Then Naomi walks through how she uses plain-text emails asking for replies to close the feedback loop on new features and shape the product roadmap.

Timestamps

(00:00) - - Intro

(07:15) - - Sue: Why the best time to promote a referral program is during trial, not after

(10:15) - - The results: 64% lift in referral shares and $500K in incremental ARR

(17:15) - - Sue's background: 16 years in lifecycle marketing from online dating to Calm to Monarch

(20:15) - - Jonathan: Stopping treating customer engagement like a campaign

(26:15) - - Building a 365-day behavioral multi-channel customer engagement program

(27:15) - - The AI chatbot that deflected 55% of support tickets

(35:20) - - Live customer training 4x a week and how it flattened the churn curve

(40:20) - - Growth plays for NRR: marketing to users inside existing accounts

(42:20) - - Jonathan's results: 24% decrease in cancellations year over year

(43:20) - - Naomi: Using lifecycle marketing to close the product feedback loop

(49:20) - - The MCP server onboarding flow and why she asks for replies instead of clicks

(56:20) - - Using beta email campaigns to shape the product roadmap

(59:20) - - Live Q&A

Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter
Learn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/
***
Brought to you by:
Knak - A no-code, campaign creation platform that lets you go from idea to on-brand email and landing pages in minutes, using AI where it actually matters. Learn more at knak.com/exitfive, or check out the MCP server by clicking this link.
Vector - A contact-level ads platform that lets you build audiences from actual people on your site, clicking your ads, and checking out your competitors. Learn more at vector.co, and get on the waitlist for their new MCP server by clicking here. 

Compound Growth Marketing - A full-funnel demand generation agency that helps high-growth cybersecurity, DevOps, and enterprise software companies drive more pipeline through AI SEO, paid media, and go-to-market engineering. Visit compoundgrowthmarketing.com and tell them Dave sent you.

***
Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.
They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.
Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.
Visit hatch.fm to learn more