Market Mentors – Details, episodes & analysis

When should you hire your first marketer? 

It’s a question a lot of B2B tech start-ups struggle with and, unfortunately, tend to get wrong. 

But making the right decision, not just about when to hire, but also which type of marketer to hire first, can have an enormous impact on your start-up’s growth. 

In this episode, Emma Westley guides us through the question of when B2B tech start-ups should hire their first marketer. She also provides plenty of helpful advice for determining what kind of marketing professional to hire, and using your newly established marketing function to drive business growth. 

We cover: 

• What hiring conditions we're seeing in the B2B tech market in early 2024
• When should a B2B tech startup hire its first marketer?
• What should you get your first marketing hire to focus on?
• What signals should founders look out for to know that marketing isn't working?
• Common mistakes startups make when hiring their first marketer
• What are the alternatives if you can't afford a full-time hire?

And so much more..

Market Mentors is brought to you by Matt Dodgson, Co-Founder of Market Recruitment. Market Recruitment is a recruitment agency that connects B2B Tech & SaaS businesses with top class marketers to help them grow.

If you'd like to be a future guest on the Market Mentors podcast you can apply here.

Market Mentors is brought to you by Matt Dodgson, Co-Founder of Market Recruitment. Market Recruitment is a recruitment agency that connects B2B Tech & SaaS businesses with world class marketers to help them grow.

If you'd like to be a future guest on the Market Mentors podcast, you can apply here.

2023 has thrown a bunch of tough challenges at B2B tech marketing leaders, making it one of the trickiest years in a while, maybe even in the last couple of decades. The constant pressure to do more with less can squash creativity, test the relationship between marketing and sales teams, and even make even the most confident marketers second-guess themselves. So, what's the way out of this?

No single solution fits everyone, but I had a chat with Pavey Purewal, who used to be a CMO and is now an Executive Coach. And we dove into some practical tips that marketing leaders can put into action during these challenging times.
 
We cover:

• What's the sentiment amongst B2B tech marketing leaders now
• Why now isn't the time to play it safe - 'small m versus big M thinking'
• How to approach the relationship with sales when the pressure is on
• Given the instability, what should leaders be investing in to improve their performance and resilience?
• What it takes to be a successful B2B tech marketing leader today

And so much more..

Market Mentors is brought to you by Matt Dodgson, Co-Founder of Market Recruitment. Market Recruitment is a recruitment agency that connects B2B Tech & SaaS businesses with top class marketers to help them grow.

If you'd like to be a future guest on the Market Mentors podcast you can apply here.

Market Mentors is brought to you by Matt Dodgson, Co-Founder of Market Recruitment. Market Recruitment is a recruitment agency that connects B2B Tech & SaaS businesses with world class marketers to help them grow.

If you'd like to be a future guest on the Market Mentors podcast, you can apply here.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the world as we know it, and marketing is no exception. From optimising online ads to creating content, AI is revolutionising how companies can reach their target audience more effectively.

And in this podcast, I talk to Ian Macleod, CMO at SALESmanago, about how AI is changing marketing. 

We cover:

• Why AI could be good for marketers
• Why marketers need to be wary of AI
• Is marketing an art or a science?
• How can marketers utilise AI
• Can AI help develop the next marketing leaders?
• How SALESmanago is utilising AI to help solve the problems of their customers?
• Has AI become a key part of Ian's focus moving forward? 
• When hiring B2B marketers, what traits Ian looks for

And so much more.

Market Mentors is brought to you by Matt Dodgson, Co-Founder of Market Recruitment. Market Recruitment is a recruitment agency that connects B2B Tech & SaaS businesses with top class marketers to help them grow.

If you'd like to be a future guest on the Market Mentors podcast you can apply here.

Market Mentors is brought to you by Matt Dodgson, Co-Founder of Market Recruitment. Market Recruitment is a recruitment agency that connects B2B Tech & SaaS businesses with world class marketers to help them grow.

If you'd like to be a future guest on the Market Mentors podcast, you can apply here.

In our latest Podcast, listen to Mostyn Thomas who is General Manager & CMO of the revolutionary Startup D30, as he gives some great career advice for B2B marketers. In particular, the challenges that marketers face when working for high growth Startups and how to overcome them. 

Market Mentors is brought to you by Matt Dodgson, Co-Founder of Market Recruitment. Market Recruitment is a recruitment agency that connects B2B Tech & SaaS businesses with world class marketers to help them grow.

If you'd like to be a future guest on the Market Mentors podcast, you can apply here.

Join me, Fiona Jensen, as I interview the affable Richard Whale, UK & Ireland Marketing Leader at Dun & Bradstreet. He offers some great career advice, in particular, whether or not you should actually want to become a marketing leader in the first place. And if you do, how to go about getting to the next level in your B2B marketing career. 

Market Mentors is brought to you by Matt Dodgson, Co-Founder of Market Recruitment. Market Recruitment is a recruitment agency that connects B2B Tech & SaaS businesses with world class marketers to help them grow.

If you'd like to be a future guest on the Market Mentors podcast, you can apply here.

Join me, Fiona Jensen, as I interview the inspirational Miguel Adao and find out what advice he has for B2B marketers who want to ascend to the top. 

Market Mentors is brought to you by Matt Dodgson, Co-Founder of Market Recruitment. Market Recruitment is a recruitment agency that connects B2B Tech & SaaS businesses with world class marketers to help them grow.

If you'd like to be a future guest on the Market Mentors podcast, you can apply here.

In the rapidly evolving world of fintech, standing out from the competition is crucial for success. 

One strategy that has proven to be highly effective is category creation. By defining a new category, establishing an emotional connection with customers, and aligning with the values of their target audience, fintech companies can drive growth, attract investment, and revolutionise the industry. 

And in this podcast, I dive into a case study on category creation with Dr. Christine Bailey. After she joined Passfort, they repositioned the company, raised a Series A, and were acquired by Moody's Corporation. Quite a journey! 

We cover;

• The stage Passfort was at when Christine joined and the remit of her role
• Category creation, and why Passfort landed on that as a strategy 
• Steps Passfort went through to create a new category 
• How Christine scaled her marketing team during this time
• Tips if you want to differentiate in crowded markets 
• What skills and attributes Christine thinks makes someone good at B2B marketing

And so much more.

Market Mentors is brought to you by Matt Dodgson, Co-Founder of Market Recruitment. Market Recruitment is a recruitment agency that connects B2B Tech & SaaS businesses with top class marketers to help them grow.

If you'd like to be a future guest on the Market Mentors podcast you can apply here.

Market Mentors is brought to you by Matt Dodgson, Co-Founder of Market Recruitment. Market Recruitment is a recruitment agency that connects B2B Tech & SaaS businesses with world class marketers to help them grow.

If you'd like to be a future guest on the Market Mentors podcast, you can apply here.

New tools, strategies, and tactics are readily available in today's marketing environment, making it easy to become distracted. Throw AI into the mix, and it’s clear to see why a lot of B2B marketers see focus as their number one challenge.

And those challenges are particularly heightened for marketers who work for B2B tech startups. These jobs, by their very nature, are incredibly hard. High expectations, limited time, and stretched resources mean you have to spend your time wisely; otherwise, you risk making no impact at all.

Which is why marketing fundamentals matter more than anything else. And in this podcast episode, it’s something that I dig into with Paul Berney, CMO at Anthropos.  

We cover;

• What attracted Paul to work at such an early stage startup
• What marketing fundamentals are and why they're so important for success in marketing at startups
• How Paul has used marketing fundamentals to build and grow a new sector at Anthropos 
• Tips for anyone wanting to create or refine a company's proposition 
• What skills and traits Paul would look for if he was a CEO at a startup who was looking to hire their first marketer

And so much more.

Market Mentors is brought to you by Matt Dodgson, Co-Founder of Market Recruitment. Market Recruitment is a recruitment agency that connects B2B Tech & SaaS businesses with top class marketers to help them grow.

If you'd like to be a future guest on the Market Mentors podcast you can apply here.

Market Mentors is brought to you by Matt Dodgson, Co-Founder of Market Recruitment. Market Recruitment is a recruitment agency that connects B2B Tech & SaaS businesses with world class marketers to help them grow.

If you'd like to be a future guest on the Market Mentors podcast, you can apply here.

One of the biggest challenges for B2B fintechs in 2023 is how to create demand. With the well publicised demise of Silicon Valley Bank, rising global interest rates, and a cooling of major economies, venture capital funding in the sector is down by a whopping 83% in Q1 of 2023 compared to the same period in 2022. And this all has an impact on growth.

But despite these challenges, there are real opportunities for marketers at B2B fintechs to transform how they drive demand. 

And in this podcast episode, I talked with Rebecca Warrington and Kerry Leech, Co-Founders of Roo & Eve, about a framework they created in partnership with Nottingham Trent University for content marketing within the context of demand generation. 


This framework aims to help fintechs create content that aligns with where buyers are in their journey, and it can be a game-changer for fintechs looking to create and capture demand.

We cover;

• Why content is particularly important for B2B fintechs right now 
• An overview of their demand generation framework
• Implementation advice for marketers
• What types of content to use in the framework 
• Suggested metrics to track the success of this
• The two biggest opportunities for B2B fintech marketers today 

And so much more.

Market Mentors is brought to you by Matt Dodgson, Co-Founder of Market Recruitment. Market Recruitment is a recruitment agency that connects B2B Tech & SaaS businesses with top class marketers to help them grow.

If you'd like to be a future guest on the Market Mentors podcast you can apply here.

Market Mentors is brought to you by Matt Dodgson, Co-Founder of Market Recruitment. Market Recruitment is a recruitment agency that connects B2B Tech & SaaS businesses with world class marketers to help them grow.

If you'd like to be a future guest on the Market Mentors podcast, you can apply here.

Are there any similarities between recruitment and B2B marketing? On the surface, they may seem like different jobs requiring different skill sets, but if you look closely, you’ll find that both disciplines have more in common than meets the eye. 

However, as modern marketing has become more commonplace, the recruitment industry lags behind. So what can recruiters learn from the transformation B2B marketers have been through? In this podcast, we’ll dig into exactly that.

Plus, as Sam Kuehnle has been hired as Loxo’s first marketer, we’ll also discuss his first 90 days and his advice for making a success of a role like his. 

We cover;

• B2B Marketing and Recruiting: The Surprising Similarities
• Transforming Recruiting: Lessons from the Evolution of B2B Marketing
• The 90-Day Reality of Being a Startup's First Marketer
• No Playbook Exists for Growing a Marketing Team

And so much more.

Market Mentors is brought to you by Matt Dodgson, Co-Founder of Market Recruitment. Market Recruitment is a recruitment agency that connects B2B Tech & SaaS businesses with top class marketers to help them grow.

If you'd like to be a future guest on the Market Mentors podcast you can apply here.

Market Mentors is brought to you by Matt Dodgson, Co-Founder of Market Recruitment. Market Recruitment is a recruitment agency that connects B2B Tech & SaaS businesses with world class marketers to help them grow.

If you'd like to be a future guest on the Market Mentors podcast, you can apply here.