Transformational marketing advice (2 year anniversary) | E72

Blame It On Marketing Turns Two! 🥳 In this special anniversary episode, Ruta and Emma reflect on two years of podcasting, marketing gossip, and relentless honesty about the industry we love (and sometimes love to hate).

From the chaos of LinkedIn to outrageous sales commission stories, they revisit their favourite episodes, hard-earned lessons, and hilarious highlights. Expect shout-outs to iconic guests like Timi and Talya, alongside a passionate plea for marketers to stop settling for 35K manager roles and to demand better buying experiences. Plus, Ruta reveals her unfiltered LinkedIn comment philosophy, while Emma dreams up LinkedIn-integrated podcasts for all our scrolling convenience.

Takeaways:

• Buying Experience: It's still a mess—why aren't companies focusing on the buyer?
• Sales and Marketing Alignment: Compassion, not competition, is the key to collaboration.
• CRO Insights: A great CRO transforms businesses, not just quotas.
• Influencer Sales: Stop expecting your team to moonlight as TikTok stars unless you're paying for it.
• Career Advice: No job is worth sacrificing your mental health. Make that exit plan if needed.
• Bad Marketing: Sometimes, breaking the rules is where the magic happens. (Ask them about their tattoos!)

Stick around for some spicy LinkedIn gossip and a heartfelt thank-you to the listeners who've made this two-year journey unforgettable. 🚀

Transcript

0:00

Hi everybody and welcome to a very special episode of Blame It On Marketing with Emma and Ruta. It's our second anniversary. can't quite believe that Ruta and I are two years old. mean, we certainly act like two year olds at times, at times. And what we thought we would do to celebrate our anniversary is to talk about our highlights over, you know, the last year or the last two years. and our favourite episodes and some of the things that we've learned and then maybe we'll do a little marketing gossip at the end, I know what you think. just certainly, before this episode started you had some good goss, so let's do it. Okay Ruts, go on then, hit us with your first one, yes. So I looked at the episodes this year because I got a bit overwhelmed when I looked at all the episodes. This is we're recording episode 72 right now. So as you can imagine, there was half of that last year. So I picked out four episodes when I scrolled past them, basically that was like, yeah. And I like remembered something very specific from them, like a quote that obviously still. lives in my head. So I'm going to start with buying experiences. So this is episode 46. It was an episode of me and Emma. And the reason why I picked it up is because I still think that companies are not working on buying experience. And when I say buying experience, by the way, I mean like, you know, from finding out about who you are to closing the deal. And then a little bit, even after that, B2B SaaS companies, especially, and B2B companies are really not optimizing for the buyer, they're optimizing for themselves. the reason why it kind of really caught my eye because we actually did this episode at the beginning of this year, but we just wrote an article about it with The Digital Beat Brief and not much has changed them. It's like, I don't know if you feel that way, but like, I'm not seeing this huge push towards like, you know, Good buying experiences. Yeah, I agree with you. I don't see it. think that we all know kind of the shit show that this year has felt like from marketers. And I think getting to caring about things like buying experience is just so far removed because we're all kind of we've all been pulled onto the kind of panic wagon, haven't we? Just because things haven't necessarily been as good. So it's such a shame because it is a huge opportunity. And if you could do stuff with that, I think you would start to see Yeah, I think you would probably start to close more. like it could almost be like a niche discipline that maybe will become a job going forward because there are like in non B2B, there are kind of buying experience, close jobs, But yeah, it doesn't feel like we're kind of quite there. So I guess we'll just keep harping on about it for the next year. Maybe you and I can hold the torch by writing it into all of our marketing strategies for our clients. So my first one, I actually went back through all the episodes. And part of the reason I did that is because I was writing these epic social media posts, tagging everyone that's ever been on our podcast in. So I went through everybody. So my first one, and this is like, this is like season one, episode two. And with the lovely Megan Worsley, we're talking about marketing managers for 35K. And what's scary to me is that that was two years ago and I'm still seeing markets and manager positions with that level of salary. And yet we have, know, inflation has risen, cost of living crisis has happened. And yet we are still kind of expecting marketers to work in that. that's wild. I'm not surprised it's one of the most watched episodes till this day, like people are still going back to it. So, you know, it's kind of almost an indication that it's still a thing and happening, right? Which is sad. I wanted to do like a public shaming moment because someone that I did a bit of work for once before, many, like a while ago, they were hiring for a marketing manager and they didn't put the salary on the job spec. I wrote to them and I said, like, you haven't even put the salary on it. And I was like really like, I like you guys. Like I'd promote the job and they didn't, they never got back to me. And I just thought, is that because you just thought, shut up, you know, or whatever, or is it because someone publicly, well, not publicly, but someone shamed you? I don't know, but they still didn't put the salary on the job spec. So I was like. Dude, just today I actually commented on somebody's LinkedIn post and the LinkedIn post was somewhere in the lines of like, if you raise somebody's salary, they're going to be happy once per year. Whilst if you fix the culture, they're going to be happy all year. And I literally commented, was like, culture is a bonus once the salary is satisfied. Culture is great. I love culture. I love working for great places, but I'm not working for you if I can't afford to live. Like what, what kind of is it? isn't 2014 guys, let's move on. Yeah. No good. What's next for you? Next one. So I actually ended up doing episode 46, 47 and 48 and then another one. So apparently I really enjoyed that season. The next one has to be Timi. What should a CRO be? Of course. Have you got that on your list as well? Good. Yay. You can't not love a bit Timi. So the thing, he said a lot of, of course, he said a lot of great stuff in that episode and there's lots of very clipable material. But the one thing that's really stuck with me when I kind of looked at that title again is when he spoke about, when you become a CRO, it's a transformative experience for you. It's not that you're just, you know, a CMO or a CSO and you're becoming a little bit more senior. It's actually like a transformation in how you think about stuff, the teams you work with, the skillset you have. And that's what really is going to be setting you apart instead of just as a CRO being a more senior salesperson or being a more. senior marketing person and that's really stuck with me. Now I obviously hold CROs to the standard of Timi, which is not reasonable for anybody, but it's something that has stayed with me. What did you pick from that episode? So that episode, if anyone wants to catch it, yeah, it's episode 47, it's season six. I put down, Timi said this great thing, which was, know, revenue is a proxy for value. And, you know, that is, to me, that is the marker of a great CRO. And in fact, actually probably a great CEO. I feel like Timi's got that coming, Because I feel like that to me epitomizes what you're trying to do with a company. Like I get it. Some people are in it just to make the money. But like surely part of the reason that you found a company in the first place is that you feel like there was a problem that needs to be solved and your thing solves the problem. And then like we say, you make some money off the back of it and everybody goes home rich and everyone's happy. So yeah, I think that for me has stood out and it kind of just hearing Timi say that, I never had the words to articulate that before that episode with Timi, but I now feel like I do because of what he said. that episode really did, yeah, it's had kind of like a, it's not to sound too cringe, like a profound impact on the way that I articulate those things to my clients in particular. So yeah, thanks Timi. Timi, just nailing it. I feel like that we have, number one, we have certain episodes where we leave the episode recording and we're like, woof, okay, this has changed the way we think about something or this has really lit a fire to do something. And for me, that was certainly one of those episodes. 100 % definitely. Should I do my next one? Well, it's it's my, yeah. I stole, half stole your one. Do know what? I'm not surprised that we both picked Timi, to be honest. So I am now going back to season three, episode 17. And it was with my lovely ex colleague, Lucy Ilbury, who is an occupational psychologist and just the best person ever to have a chat with about kind of like workplace psychology. And, you know, the episode was all to do with why marketing get blamed and maybe like thinking about the structure of how your marketing team are. rewarded and how you allow them to work and all those sorts of things and it was a really good episode. It was kind of like our meta episode. And you know, Lucy kind of at the end of it was sort of talking about how, you know, no job is really worth your mental health or your wellbeing. And so I've always felt like this, but it's so nice to hear it from somebody in her profession. But yeah, like if your job is bad and it is really impacting you, you don't have to actually stick it out. We don't live in boomer land where you do a job till you die. So yeah, if you're not enjoying your job, you don't have to stay there forever. You know, obviously in an ideal situation, Ruta and I would not condone you just quitting your job and going off and not having something else to go to. have a plan. have a plan, but maybe now is the time if you're not happy and you listen to this episode to write your exit plan. Do it now. Absolutely. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. That was a great episode actually. It also still gets a lot of love by the way when I look at the statistics because I'm that kind of person. We should have Lucy back I think. I think it's time. All-star season. 2025, 2025. I love that. My next one was episode 48. So I've done 46, 47 and 48 now. And then the last one's gonna be not in. not in a row, but it was the episode about instant brands using B2B influencers with Will Aiken and Tyler Lessard. And the one thing that stood out for me from that is we had a really good conversation about, know, companies like Lavender just employing a whole bunch of influencers and kind of having that market reach off the bat. But the one thing that stuck with me is I always ask people this when we talk about social and I asked Will, no, I asked Tyler. Should we be expecting basically our salespeople to turn into the social media stars? I say that in a dramatic way, but should we be expecting them to post and to do that and to spend a good amount of time doing this stuff? Tyler was like, no, if it's not their job and it's not in their job description and they're not being remunerated, trained, encouraged, given all of the resources they need, you absolutely shouldn't be holding them to that standard. to which I completely agree, putting your face out there on content creation isn't for everyone. I kind of take it for granted that I find it quite easy and I'm more than happy to jump on camera and do stuff, but I've literally been doing this since I was 14. So if you've never made a video before in your life, not only do you not know how to make a video, you don't know how to edit, you don't know, and I'm not saying you can't learn any of these things, but just to expect people to do that because it looks like everyone is doing that is not right. we see a lot on LinkedIn, you know, they're like, just get your employees to post more. I mean, most of us can barely keep up with our day jobs, let alone spend time creating content to support our day jobs. And some might argue that as a salesperson in 2025 you should expect that to be part of it. But you're absolutely right. If there's no resource and you're not being rene, re-numerated, I can never say that word properly. If you're not being paid to do it, if you're not being paid to do it why should what what not only why should you but yeah you can't expect everybody to be a content creator to, yeah, you can if you want to out of your own volition, but like if your company's expecting you to like put out all of this content and videos, it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Like, unless you hired me to do that, maybe you hired me as a salesperson, but a big chunk of my jobs spec is aimed towards that. I get it. But like, if that wasn't the deal, you can't just tell people to make videos, you know? Like that's not even videos, even like post content, like just written content. That's not reasonable. my final episode highlight is from season nine episode 70 with Cohen. And that sort of leads into, yeah, kind of what Will and Tyler were talking about, which is the reality of being a salesperson. Like, I know that it's us as marketing that feel like a lot of the time we're the ones kind of getting the blame, shouldering a lot of the blame. And like when sales do badly, it's us that get fired, you know, to start with. But actually, when you hear about the realities of the way that salespeople work, I think if we all had a little bit more compassion, peace and love for each other. we might actually find that alignment that people are talking about and are forever reaching for. Like, yeah, you know, it's like, actually, if you just have a bit more compassion for each other and the difficulties within our jobs, that would be a very good start. Yeah, there's like in the second half of the episode, Cohen just starts telling us stuff and we're just like, what? Like, what do you mean people don't just get paid their commission or like they go on maternity leave and they've been working on a deal for three years and now they're on maternity leave. It doesn't count anymore. We were just like, what the fuck? Like that's, that is not on. So yeah, I totally agree. And it's definitely helped us be like more compassionate and kind of aware of the stuff that does happen. My last episode of note is we finally understand product marketing with Talya It was episode 67 and I'm just excited after, I don't know, how long has my marketing career been? Like six, seven, eight years that I finally understand what product marketing is. Someone finally told her. finally fucking cleared it up for me and I get it now and it makes sense. And I'm following all of Talya's content so I can stay in tune with what's happening in the product marketing world. I don't have like a specific quote from her, but I think the one thing I learned was that it's really important for product marketing and customer marketing to be super tight, which totally makes sense. Just never thought about it. So yeah, Talya, thank you very much for clearing that mystery up for me after this many years. think what we should do is talk about our just like personal blame on marketing highlight of the two years. So something that's happened in our journey that has been like a woo for you. Mine is obviously our bad marketing campaign that we ran during the summer. So we were talking about it for ages, like what we should, you know, we got some lovely sponsorship from Dealfront. And that was covering our tech costs. And we were like, okay, so if we're not spending the money on the tech, what can we spend some money on? And Ruta and I set each other a challenge, which was to spend 500 quid each on bad marketing. And it was so much fun. Just like living out the bad marketing that we've actually seen in real life, people do. And then, you bringing everyone along in for the joke. I mean, I apologize. I don't I'm not sorry if you did this stuff. You're looking at it going, hang on, wasn't that us? I'm not sorry. It was bad. But I love it because you know, it ended in you and I with our glorious tattoos that people are still shocked that we have. And I wouldn't have had that any other way. I loved it. Very true, I am very happy with our tattoo choices. man, that's a really good one. I don't know. Can I do a general thing rather than like one moment? If that makes sense. the thing that I've got from Blameout Marketing over the last two years that I really, really appreciate is actually meeting a bunch of marketers and a bunch of people that are on the same wavelength as us and that we've genuinely like become internet friends and seen each other and had really great conversations and really found like your flock because both Emma and I are consultants, right? So we don't work in an office anymore. We don't get to see people all the time. So it's been like an incredible experience in that way. And I would have never done anything like this and I would have still been a consultant and know, like working alone and all of those things. just, yeah, having that interaction with people and finding people that agree and feel the same way as you is really, really lovely and really validating. And yeah, it wouldn't have happened otherwise. been lovely. And finally, it would not be a blame on marketing episode if we didn't finish it up with some marketing gossip. I think you've got a good one. I do. So I was just talking to Emma about a video I was editing right before filming this. And I made a video about how my LinkedIn comments are kind of a bit delulu. I treat LinkedIn as any other basically social media and I comment the way I comment, you know, like I'll scream things, I'll say drag references, I'll whatever it is. You can go watch the video if you want to see examples. But I think that's going to be the real kind of set apart slash currency of LinkedIn, actual like human voice and interaction, because we all know that AI comments have just absolutely murdered the LinkedIn feed and the algorithm. So it feels like actual real like conversation and real comments is gonna be what's going to drive. the engagement on LinkedIn and it's probably going to drive the algorithm at some point. They're not quite there, but I think they're going to suss out the AI comments. And even if you train your AI to respond like a real human, you probably, if you're automating AI comments, you don't have the balls to actually make that go live. just, just, you know, try a few very human comments, see what happens. I like it. think, yeah, you and I have always, I think, commented as ourselves how we would do, you know, normally in real life if you were having that conversation face to face. So, yeah, it'd be nice to like see a bit more of that. There's a couple of people that always comment on like my LinkedIn posts and I'm like, this is not, you're not real. This is not real. You don't need to regurgitate back what I've said in my post. Anyway. summarize what Emma said. No, just let's just say something. Yeah. I wrote the post like I know what I said. know what I said. I like your hair. That would do. I take it. My, I had this like weird thought this morning about LinkedIn because I was thinking in my head, know, LinkedIn, so it's not gossip. It's just a fantasy that I would like to see come to reality if LinkedIn are gonna play the like, we don't want you to leave LinkedIn game. then I feel like LinkedIn have kind of, I know obviously they've started the video stuff, but I do genuinely feel like LinkedIn are gonna have to come up with a way for people like us to like have our, you know, have an RSS feed so that our podcasts can live on LinkedIn and people can listen to it in LinkedIn. Otherwise people like us eventually, or you know, other people, influencers will turn away from LinkedIn because if you have to constantly click off. like and and you don't want us to do that and you you punish us the algorithm punishes us for trying to do that maybe that's in the linkedin roadmap i don't know but i'd like it They're definitely focusing on the paid features, they? Like we spoke about this a couple of weeks ago. So it's interesting to see where they'll go. Cause yeah, posting different kinds of content is becoming, you know, broader and broader on LinkedIn. Well, amazing. Thank you for joining Emma. Thank you. Thank you for listening, everyone. No, genuinely, thank you for listening. It's been an awesome, awesome experience creating this podcast and we're really excited for 25. As Emma alluded, there might be an All-Stars season. If you know, you know. So yeah, thank you so much for listening and we're really excited to speak to you again in the new