Trust & Influence in B2B

In this episode of Trust and Influence in B2B Marketing, Joel Harrison sits down with Jason Miller, who leads content and marketing at V7 Labs and previously held senior content marketing roles at LinkedIn, Marketo and ActiveCampaign. Before B2B, Jason spent a decade in the music industry — touring with bands, working artist development, and photographing rock's biggest names — and he's never really left it behind. Together, they explore why the safe, by-the-numbers approach so many B2B marketers default to is quietly the riskiest choice of all, and what a career spent between the tour bus and the marketing plan has taught him about actually earning an audience's attention.

➡️ Jason holds nothing back. He explains why the music industry never called its fans “leads,” and how that community mindset shaped his approach at Marketo, where the entire strategy handed down from Marketo co-founder and CMO Jon Miller was simply “get people to like us.” He unpacks why viral, one-hit-wonder campaigns — from Old Spice to the Volvo truck ad — aren't repeatable playbooks for most brands, and why chasing them is a trap. He's candid about the tension between personality and brand safety inside a large corporate marketing team, drawing on his time working on Bing at Microsoft, and makes the case for consistency over virality — including a great story about Rick Rubin, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and creating for yourself rather than for an audience. He closes with a warning about AI and taste: why outsourcing judgment to an algorithm is the worst thing a marketer can do right now, and what will actually matter in B2B marketing going forward.

What You'll Learn

• What the music industry got right: why bands never called their fans “leads,” and what that means for B2B community-building.
• The Marketo playbook: how “get people to like us” became a strategy, not just a slogan.
• The one-hit-wonder trap: why viral campaigns like Old Spice and the Volvo truck ad aren't repeatable playbooks for most brands.
• Personality vs. brand safety: what happens to a big idea inside a large corporate marketing team, and why smaller, faster teams can take more risks.
• Consistency beats virality: “posting the draft,” building in public, and what Rick Rubin's work with Red Hot Chili Peppers can teach content marketers.
• AI and the death of taste: why outsourcing taste to an AI agent is a mistake, and the skills marketers now need to stay relevant.

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction: From the Mosh Pit to the Marketing Plan

02:21 - Jason Miller: From Music Industry to B2B, and Life at V7 Labs

05:13 - Startup Speed vs. Corporate Red Tape

07:07 - Life on the Road: Artist Development Lessons

09:33 - B2C Personality Meets B2B: The Marketo Playbook

12:58 - The One-Hit-Wonder Trap: Old Spice, Volvo and Repeatable Playbooks

15:13 - HubSpot, “It Slaps,” and the Line Between Cool and Try-Hard

17:55 - Second Skin: Music as a Sense of Purpose

20:55 - Personality Inside a Corporate Machine: The Microsoft/Bing Story

24:49 - Consistency Over Virality: Posting the Draft and Rick Rubin's “Create for Yourself”

29:18 - Likable, Relevant, Consistent: What Actually Works on LinkedIn

31:43 - Why the Clay and Eleven Labs Playbooks Aren't Repeatable

34:14 - AI, Taste and the Last Human Trait

38:37 - Closing Thoughts

Note: chapter times are taken from the unedited transcript and are approximate — confirm against the final published cut before adding to the platform.

Follow the Guest

Follow Jason Miller

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jsnmiller/

https://www.v7labs.com/

Closing & Calls to Action

If you care about making B2B marketing more meaningful, useful, and memorable, this conversation is for you. It's honest, funny in places, and packed with takeaways on how to build genuine personality into your content — whether you're a content creator, strategist, or brand leader.

🌐Visit Joel Harrison's website to explore exclusive reports, upcoming events, and join the B2B marketing community ➡ https://www.joelharrisonb2b.com/

💬What do you think comes first—having something to say, or having the confidence to say it? Let us know in the comments below.

🔔Subscribe to the channel for weekly insights, interviews, and on-the-ground perspectives from the world of B2B marketing. https://youtube.com/@JoelHarrison-B2B?sub_confirmation=1

📲Follow Joel Harrison and Trust & Influence in B2B across the web: LinkedIn ▶ https://linkedin.com/in/joelharrison/ Podcast ▶ https://trust-influence-in-b2b.captivate.fm/ Instagram ▶ https://instagram.com/joelharrisonb2b/

Hashtags

#JoelHarrisonB2B, #B2BMarketing, #ContentMarketing, #BrandPersonality, #B2BContent, #MarketingPodcast, #B2BInsights, #JoelHarrison, #B2BStrategy, #ContentStrategy, #Storytelling, #MusicIndustry, #B2BGrowth, #ThoughtLeadership, #MarketingTrends

Most leadership advice pushes you toward a familiar template: decisive, diplomatic, endlessly composed. It's meant to build trust. Often it does the opposite – because trust depends on people actually knowing who you are, not the version of you assembled to fit expectations.

In this episode of Trust & Influence in B2B, Joel Harrison is joined by Karl Van den Bergh, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer at Illumio, the breach containment company. Karl has spent more than 25 years leading go-to-market teams at global technology companies, including CMO roles at Gigamon and DataStax, and now writes regularly on authenticity and what it means to be human at work.

Together they unpack why being yourself is a trust strategy rather than a soft skill, how to tell real authenticity apart from the performative kind, and why Karl believes AI raises the value of human, relational marketing rather than eroding it.

In this episode:

• Why most leadership advice pushes conformity rather than authenticity, and what gets lost in the process
• The test that actually separates real authenticity from the performative kind
• Why brands that try to please everyone end up forgettable – and the campaign that proves the opposite
• How fear of conflict quietly kills team performance, and what fixed it on Karl's own team
• Why Karl believes AI raises the value of human, relational marketing rather than replacing it

Chapters

00:00 Cold open

01:26 Karl's background – from physics to CMO

03:13 Why he started writing about being yourself at work

06:10 Why a distinctive point of view is a differentiator

08:37 Personal brand vs. company brand

10:55 What authenticity actually means

11:50 Spotting performative authenticity

13:47 How authenticity cascades through a team

17:27 Where leaders fall short on consistency

19:46 Does this get harder as the stakes rise?

21:56 The counterargument: "Don't Be Yourself"

24:30 AI and the flattening of content

27:52 One thing to start doing differently next week

Karl on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karlvandenbergh/

Joel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelharrison/

Why is employee advocacy so often mistaken for a content strategy? Rida Oyebade, Senior Social Media Manager at Workday, explains why handing employees “ready-made content” isn’t enough — advocacy only works when it still sounds like the person sharing it, not the brand behind them.

In this episode of Trust & Influence in B2B, host Joel Harrison talks to Rida Oyebade about employee advocacy — the discipline of turning colleagues into credible, willing voices for the brand. Rida traces her own path into advocacy, breaks down the different tiers of an advocacy programme, and is candid about what she’s learned building one from scratch at Workday: why participation has to stay genuinely optional, why no programme survives without real buy-in from leadership, and why the whole discipline is really about borrowed trust rather than borrowed content.

In this episode

• Why brand-originated content is losing ground to individual voices in B2B
• Why handing employees ready-made content isn’t the same as earning their voice
• The three tiers of employee advocacy, and why each needs different handling
• Why employee advocacy means borrowing someone’s “personal real estate” — and why participation has to stay optional
• What actually makes advocacy programmes work, and why persuasion alone isn’t enough
• Whether employee advocacy is a specialism worth building a career around

Guest

Rida Oyebade is Senior Social Media Manager at Workday, where she leads employee advocacy — working with colleagues, or “influencers” as she prefers to call them, to carry the brand into places a corporate account can’t reach.

In this special edition of Trust & Influence in B2B, Joel Harrison is joined by Fiona McKenzie of Marketbridge to make sense of Cannes Lions 2026. Fresh from five days of multi-stream content, installations and fringe events, they let the dust settle and distil what actually matters for B2B marketers – viewed through a growth lens, not creativity for its own sake.

They unpack why B2B is visibly on the rise at Cannes, the tension between creativity and commercial measurement, and the CFO buy-in conversation (brand as future cashflow). They dig into three important releases from the week: the FT's work on trust (including the finding that 82% trust a source more when it challenges than when it agrees), Bloomberg on reputation pulling weight across the full funnel, and Bain & Co.'s new model positioned as a rival to NPS, scoring a buyer's likelihood to choose you before any deal is on the table.

The conversation moves through the B2B Lions winner – an obscure Swedish ball-bearing company using tidal energy in the Faroe Islands, and why a big idea told as a wider go-to-market story is a step in the right direction – the rise of creators and influence in B2B, Joel's framework of five "trust champions," and a notably optimistic read on AI: a technology that surfaces existing misalignment and removes grunt work rather than replacing human judgment. They close on what Cannes could do better for the B2B community.

In this episode:

What Cannes actually is, and why it's so hard to navigate. B2B moving up the agenda. The growth-versus-creativity lens. CFO buy-in and brand as future cashflow. Why CMOs are exhausted by the measurement debate. Three key releases: FT on trust, Bloomberg on reputation, Bain's NPS rival. The B2B Lions winner and what it signals. Creators, influence and Joel's five trust champions. A grounded, optimistic take on AI. What's missing, and what would take Cannes to the next level in 2027.

Reports and resources mentioned (links below):

• FT – research on trust in B2B https://dimensionsofinfluence.ft.com/
• Bloomberg – reputation across the funnel, B2B Summit presentation https://www.bloombergmedia.com/blog/corporate-rep-study-2025/
• Bain & Co. – new buyer-choice model positioned against NPS https://www.bain.com/insights/raising-the-odds-on-a-deal-how-likelihood-to-buy-rewires-b2b-growth/

Chapters:

• (00:00) Welcome and why we waited for the dust to settle
• (01:13) What Cannes actually is, and how to navigate it
• (03:04) B2B on the rise at the festival
• (04:28) The growth lens: creativity anchored in commercial value
• (05:21) CFO buy-in and brand as future cashflow
• (07:54) Why CMOs are exhausted by measurement
• (10:23) Is B2B creativity judged by the wrong (B2C) playbook?
• (11:26) Three key releases: FT, Bloomberg and Bain
• (16:45) Talking the language of the boardroom
• (19:36) The B2B Lions winner: a Swedish ball-bearing story
• (24:29) Creators, influence and the five trust champions
• (30:11) AI: surfacing misalignment, not taking our jobs
• (35:17) What Cannes could do better
• (37:46) Wrap-up and how to share your own take

Connect with Joel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelharrison/

Connect with Fiona on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fiona-mckenzie-8a16921a/

Most of the conversations that decide a B2B deal happen in a room you'll never be in. Buyers swap recommendations, compare notes and build their shortlists in spaces marketers can neither see nor measure – and by the time you're in contention, the decision is often half made.

In this episode of Trust & Influence in B2B, Joel Harrison is joined by Lottie O'Donoghue, strategy director at Velo, a specialist B2B agency built on recommendation. Lottie has led marketing client-side in scale-up SaaS and run ABM at Accenture, and now shapes recommendation strategies for Velo's clients across technology, industrial and professional services.

Together they unpack why becoming the recommended choice has shifted from a nice-to-have to a commercial imperative, the real difference between being known and being recommended, and the trust signals that quietly compound into advocacy.

In this episode:

• Why the recommended choice now matters more than the visible one
• The trust signals that accumulate into recommendation, and the ones marketers most underestimate
• How to make the case for investing in influence that conventional attribution can't capture
• Where to start if you suspect you're not being talked about in the right rooms
• Velo's six Rs of Recommendation Marketing framework

Download Velo's report here: https://www.velo-b2b.com/ebooks/?utm_source=Joel+Harrison&utm_campaign=Recommendation+Marketing

This is a sponsored episode, produced in partnership with Velo.

Lead generation is the discipline B2B marketing relies on most and trusts least. In this episode of Trust & Influence in B2B, Robin Caller, founder and CEO of Leadscale, explains why, and what it would take to fix it.

Most people in B2B know that a good share of the leads changing hands every day are of questionable quality. Few will say so on the record. Robin is an exception. He calls it "a tolerable level of mischief", a grey zone the whole industry has quietly learned to live with, and in conversation with host Joel Harrison he explains why it persists, why he refuses to call it fraud, and how transparency could begin to put it right.

A note before you listen: Robin speaks freely, and not everyone in the industry will agree with all of it. That's rather the point.

In this episode:

– Why lead generation has been B2B's least-trusted discipline for 20 years

– What "a tolerable level of mischief" really means, and why it isn't fraud

– The "blind faith" model and the hierarchy of transparency

– Why marketers tolerate poor-quality leads: the quota trap

– How advertisers are part of the problem, not just the victims

– The provenance questions every buyer should be asking their suppliers

– Why "more leads will not be the answer" in the AI era

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Lead Generation Challenges

05:42 Transparency and Its Role in Trust

08:20 The Ambivalence of Stakeholders

11:26 Blind Faith in Lead Generation Practices

14:23 The Importance of Transparency in Data Collection

17:19 Navigating the Gray Areas of Lead Generation

18:22 Finding Fair Solutions for All Parties

21:37 Advertisers: Victims and Perpetrators

21:54 The Importance of Data Sharing

24:30 Data Decay and Its Impact on Performance

25:16 Trust and Transparency in Data Transactions

25:25 Generational Perspectives in Marketing

27:03 The MQL Mindset and Its Limitations

29:20 Dynamic Qualification of Leads

31:12 Managing Tolerances in Imperfect Systems

32:48 The Future of Lead Generation

36:23 Questions for Better Data Practices

39:56 The Ethical Implications of Data Sourcing

42:42 A Positive Outlook on Future Trends

About the guest

Robin Caller is the founder and CEO of Leadscale, a London-based lead generation and data quality business. He has spent more than two decades in lead and demand generation and is one of the industry's more outspoken voices on data quality, transparency and trust.

Robin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robincaller/

About the podcast

Trust & Influence in B2B is hosted by Joel Harrison, founder of Joel Harrison B2B. Each episode explores marketing strategy and practice with senior B2B practitioners, researchers and academics.

Joel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelharrison/

Enjoyed this episode? Follow the show in your podcast app and leave a rating or review – it helps other B2B marketers find it.

In this episode of Trust and Influence in B2B Marketing, Joel Harrison sits down with Tom Rudnai, Founder of Demand Genius and author of the Dark AI study — a research project that analyzed hundreds of AI prompt clusters across major B2B categories to map where brands are truly winning and losing influence. Tom's central finding is as counterintuitive as it is urgent: the more boldly a brand claims to be the best, the more likely AI is to quietly sideline it during the buyer conversations that shape outcomes. So where is influence actually earned in an AI-led world — and what should B2B marketers be doing differently?

➡️ Tom cuts through the noise with sharp, data-grounded thinking on why AI is not a search channel — and why treating it like one is one of the most costly mistakes in B2B marketing today. He introduces the "Dark AI" concept: the 84% of buyer conversations where no brand gets cited, yet where the problem framing, requirements, and shortlist criteria are already being quietly formed. He unpacks how AI enters exploratory mode at the top of the funnel — and why confident, directive brand language fails at the exact moment influence is most available. He also lays out the concept of information gain, arguing that original research, clear perspectives, and genuinely new knowledge are now the highest-value signals a brand can produce. From convergence patterns to what to actually measure, this conversation will challenge how you think about authority, content, and trust in modern B2B.

Chapters:

00:00 - Introduction: Why Bold Positioning Can Backfire in AI Search

02:08 - Tom's Background and the Story Behind Demand Genius

03:59 - How Buyers Use AI Differently from Traditional Search

06:16 - The Dark AI Study: What It Measured and What It Found

10:30 - AI Visibility vs. AI Influence: The Iceberg Explained

13:18 - Convergence: How AI Narrows Down to a Recommendation

18:38 - Information Gain: The New North Star for B2B Content

22:11 - Why Confident Category Claims Fail in AI-Led Journeys

25:28 - What B2B Marketers Should Actually Be Measuring

30:49 - Patterns Across Categories and AI Models

33:22 - The One Takeaway Every Marketer Should Remember

Follow Tom Rudnai,

linkedin.com/in/tomrudnai

demandgenius.ai

If you care about making B2B marketing more meaningful, useful, and memorable, this conversation is for you. It's honest, reflective, and packed with takeaways that can help elevate your approach to thought leadership—whether you're a content creator, strategist, or brand leader.

🌐Visit Joel Harrison's website to explore exclusive reports, upcoming events, and join the B2B marketing community ➡️ https://www.joelharrisonb2b.com/

💬What do you think comes first—insightful data or a compelling story? Let us know in the comments below.

🔔Subscribe to the channel for weekly insights, interviews, and on-the-ground perspectives from the world of B2B marketing. https://youtube.com/@JoelHarrison-B2B?sub_confirmation=1

📲Follow Joel Harrison and Trust & Influence in B2B across the web:

LinkedIn ▶ https://linkedin.com/in/joelharrison/

Podcast ▶ https://trust-influence-in-b2b.captivate.fm/

Instagram ▶ https://instagram.com/joelharrisonb2b/

#JoelHarrisonB2B, #B2BMarketing, #ThoughtLeadership, #ContentStrategy, #MarketingTrends, #B2BContent, #BrandVsDemand, #Storytelling, #MarketingPodcast, #B2BInsights, #JoelHarrison, #B2BVideos, #B2BStrategy, #AISearch, #DarkAI, #AEO, #BuyerJourney, #InformationGain, #B2BGrowth, #AIMarketing, #DemandGeneration

In this episode of Trust and Influence in B2B Marketing, Joel Harrison sits down with Professor Laura Chamberlain, Professor of Marketing at the University of Warwick and Founder of Think Talk Thrive. They tackle one of the most pressing questions in the profession right now: Do we still need junior marketers—and if so, what do we owe them? As AI absorbs entry-level tasks and graduate vacancies continue to shrink, is marketing quietly destroying its own talent pipeline?

➡️ Laura draws on years of teaching across every level of the profession—from undergraduates to C-suite executives—to challenge the notion that AI can simply replace junior roles. She makes a compelling case that young professionals bring far more than cheap labour: native AI fluency, cultural proximity, fresh thinking, and an eagerness that senior hires can't replicate. She and Joel explore how the erosion of mentorship, rising imposter phenomenon among 18–25-year-olds, and the compression of entry-level roles are creating a long-horizon crisis no single company will feel—until it's far too late. If you're in any way responsible for building or leading a marketing team, this episode will challenge how you think about who you hire, how you develop them, and what the profession stands to lose if we keep pulling the ladder up behind us.

Chapters:

00:00 - Introduction: The Junior Marketer Crisis

02:06 - Laura's Background and Teaching Perspective

03:13 - Is Marketing a Career Young People Choose or Fall Into?

06:29 - What's Preoccupying Students Entering the Profession

09:48 - The Graduate Jobs Squeeze and AI's Role

11:37 - Debunking the "We Don't Need Juniors" Narrative

14:31 - What Young Professionals Uniquely Bring to Marketing Teams

17:20 - The Case for Mentorship and Why It's Breaking Down

23:42 - How Junior Marketers Learn Without Entry-Level Tasks

25:42 - Learning to Be Strategic: The New Junior Skillset

30:06 - Specialists vs. Generalists in Marketing Education

34:51 - Are Young People Better or Worse at Using AI?

39:33 - The Long-Term Cost of Abandoning Junior Talent

41:09 - What Needs to Change: Laura's Call to Action

Follow Laura Chamberlain

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lmchamberlain/

If you care about making B2B marketing more meaningful, useful, and memorable, this conversation is for you. It's honest, reflective, and packed with takeaways that can help elevate your approach to thought leadership—whether you're a content creator, strategist, or brand leader.

🌐Visit Joel Harrison's website to explore exclusive reports, upcoming events, and join the B2B marketing community ➡️ https://www.joelharrisonb2b.com/

💬What do you think comes first—investing in junior talent or letting AI fill the gap? Let us know in the comments below.

🔔Subscribe to the channel for weekly insights, interviews, and on-the-ground perspectives from the world of B2B marketing. https://youtube.com/@JoelHarrison-B2B?sub_confirmation=1

📲Follow Joel Harrison and Trust & Influence in B2B across the web:

LinkedIn ▶ https://linkedin.com/in/joelharrison/

Podcast ▶ https://trust-influence-in-b2b.captivate.fm/

Instagram ▶ https://instagram.com/joelharrisonb2b/

#JoelHarrisonB2B, #B2BMarketing, #ThoughtLeadership, #ContentStrategy, #MarketingTrends, #B2BContent, #BrandVsDemand, #Storytelling, #MarketingPodcast, #B2BInsights, #JoelHarrison, #B2BVideos, #B2BStrategy, #JuniorMarketers, #MarketingTalent, #AIinMarketing, #MarketingEducation, #EarlyCareer, #FutureOfMarketing, #MarketingMentorship, #TalentPipeline

In this episode of Trust and Influence in B2B Marketing, Joel Harrison sits down with Kate Hassler, Group Director of Brand and Comms at Access Group—a $9 billion global B2B software company serving 160,000 customers across Europe, Asia, and the Americas. While headlines scream of AI-driven redundancies at tech giants, Access Group took the opposite approach: hiring more people, running company-wide hackathons, and building a culture where AI is simply business as usual. So what does a genuinely human-led AI transformation actually look like from the inside?

➡️ Kate walks through every stage of Access Group's journey—from pockets of shadow AI usage and no formal governance, to enterprise Claude licenses with custom brand skills built in. She reveals the story behind the now-legendary "AI bus" metaphor that united 9,000 employees around a single, simple idea, and explains how structured playtime - not mandates - turned the biggest sceptics into the most vocal champions. She digs into why Access chose to protect junior talent rather than cut it, how one senior designer reinvented himself as an AI strategist, and why the "human at the start, human at the end" principle is what separates meaningful content from AI slop. Whether you're a marketing leader navigating an AI rollout or just trying to get your team over the line, Kate's blueprint is grounded, practical, and genuinely inspiring.

Chapters:

00:00 - Introduction: AI and the B2B Marketing Workplace

02:12 - Kate Hassler and Access Group Overview

04:03 - Company-Wide AI as a Strategic Priority

07:26 - The London Bus Metaphor: Origin and Impact

11:04 - Why the Metaphor Has Endured a Year On

12:32 - From Shadow AI to Structured Adoption

14:33 - Copilot, Claude, and the Licensing Journey

17:27 - Building Custom Claude Brand Skills

19:00 - Human at the Start, Human at the End

21:14 - Hackathons, Play, and AI Champions

25:37 - Job Security and Empathy-Led Leadership

28:07 - Splash Maker: A Creative Reinvents as Strategist

32:49 - Biggest Lessons from 12 Months of AI Transformation

36:37 - Junior Talent and the Future Pipeline

Follow Kate Hassler https://linkedin.com/in/kate-hassler https://www.theaccessgroup.com

If you care about making B2B marketing more meaningful, useful, and memorable, this conversation is for you. It's honest, reflective, and packed with takeaways that can help elevate your approach to thought leadership—whether you're a content creator, strategist, or brand leader.

🌐Visit Joel Harrison's website to explore exclusive reports, upcoming events, and join the B2B marketing community ➡️ https://www.joelharrisonb2b.com/

💬What do you think comes first—getting your team on board with AI, or putting the governance in place? Let us know in the comments below.

🔔Subscribe to the channel for weekly insights, interviews, and on-the-ground perspectives from the world of B2B marketing. https://youtube.com/@JoelHarrison-B2B?sub_confirmation=1

📲Follow Joel Harrison and Trust & Influence in B2B across the web:

LinkedIn ▶ https://linkedin.com/in/joelharrison/

Podcast ▶ https://trust-influence-in-b2b.captivate.fm/

Instagram ▶ https://instagram.com/joelharrisonb2b/

#JoelHarrisonB2B, #B2BMarketing, #ThoughtLeadership, #ContentStrategy, #MarketingTrends, #B2BContent, #BrandVsDemand, #Storytelling, #MarketingPodcast, #B2BInsights, #JoelHarrison, #B2BVideos, #B2BStrategy, #AIAdoption, #AIInMarketing, #MarketingLeadership, #AITransformation, #FutureOfWork, #CreativeServices, #B2BTech

In this episode of Trust and Influence in B2B Marketing, Joel Harrison sits down with Tejal Patel, Independent Marketing Consultant and former marketing leader at Cisco, Microsoft, and Nokia. Together, they examine how B2B technology marketing is changing as AI reshapes content creation and digital channels become more saturated than ever. Using exclusive insights from B2B Marketing Awards data, they reveal four emerging trends that are helping leading brands stand out in an increasingly crowded marketplace.

➡️ Tejal explains why marketers are moving beyond traditional buyer personas and investing more heavily in developers, practitioners, employees, and advocates who influence purchasing decisions from within. The conversation explores the growing importance of employee advocacy, experiential marketing, proof-of-concept campaigns, and highly targeted direct mail programs that cut through digital noise. They also discuss why trust, authenticity, and human experiences are becoming more valuable competitive advantages—and why many marketing measurement frameworks may be preventing organizations from fully embracing these strategies.

Chapters:

00:00 - Introduction and Why Tech Marketing Leads B2B Innovation

01:23 - Meet Tejal Patel and the Rise of Human-Centric Marketing

05:21 - The Shift Toward Internal Influencers and Practitioner Audiences

10:22 - Why Marketers Are Targeting Doers Instead of Decision-Makers

12:15 - The Measurement Challenge Behind Long-Term Marketing Success

14:02 - Employee Advocacy and Authentic Brand Influence

16:51 - Proof of Concept as a Marketing Campaign

18:01 - Why Demonstration Beats Persuasion

20:52 - Quality Over Quantity in Modern B2B Marketing

23:19 - The Growth of Experiential and Sensory Marketing

25:11 - What Gen Z Buyers Teach Us About Engagement

27:29 - Creating Experiences That Prove Value

31:13 - Building Impactful Experiences on Smaller Budgets

33:53 - The Return of Direct Mail in B2B

37:21 - Has Digital Marketing Lost Its Distinction?

39:59 - The One Thing Marketing Leaders Should Change Today

42:34 - Final Thoughts and Closing Remarks

Follow Tejal Patel

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tejal/

https://tejalpatel.co.uk/

If you care about making B2B marketing more meaningful, useful, and memorable, this conversation is for you. It’s honest, reflective, and packed with takeaways that can help elevate your approach to thought leadership—whether you're a content creator, strategist, or brand leader.

🌐 Visit Joel Harrison's website to explore exclusive reports, upcoming events, and join the B2B marketing community ➡️ https://www.joelharrisonb2b.com/

💬 What do you think will matter more in the future of B2B marketing—AI-powered efficiency or human-centered experiences?

🔔 Subscribe for more conversations with the marketers, leaders, and innovators shaping the future of B2B.

📲Follow Joel Harrison and Trust & Influence in B2B across the web:

LinkedIn ▶ https://linkedin.com/in/joelharrison/

Podcast ▶ https://trust-influence-in-b2b.captivate.fm/

Instagram ▶ https://instagram.com/joelharrisonb2b/

#JoelHarrisonB2B, #B2BMarketing, #ThoughtLeadership, #ContentStrategy, #MarketingTrends, #B2BContent, #BrandVsDemand, #Storytelling, #MarketingPodcast, #B2BInsights, #JoelHarrison, #B2BVideos, #B2BStrategy, #TechMarketing, #ExperientialMarketing, #EmployeeAdvocacy, #ABM, #DemandGeneration, #MarketingInnovation, #MarketingLeadership, #CustomerExperience