Marketing Dilemmas

A special episode to kick off the year, and to close a chapter. In this wrap-up, Liam and Amy Collins (Demand Gen Content Manager at Cognism) look back across 17 episodes of Marketing Dilemmas and pull out the three themes that kept showing up again and again: Demand gen is the strategy… but measurement and process are still stuck in lead gen thinking. Zero-click is changing the buyer experience - people meet your brand long before they ever hit your site. AI is a multiplier, and it’s exposing shaky foundations in data, ownership, and workflows. You’ll leave with the patterns, the tensions, and a set of 2026 predictions you can use to pressure-test your marketing plan, without having to listen to every episode.

In this episode, Liam sits down with Lisa Vecchio, Senior Marketing Director at leading video platform, Veed, to unpack a growing tension: almost every marketer knows video is non-negotiable, but 1 in 3 still don’t feel confident creating it. They dig into what’s really holding teams back (skills, workflows, brand fear, creativity pressure), how AI can lower the barrier from scripting to editing, and what marketing leaders can do to build video literacy and confidence across the whole organisation.

In this episode of Marketing Dilemmas, Liam talks to fractional VP Marketing Brandon Redlinger about one of the biggest pressures facing GTM teams right now: “go do AI”, with no extra time, budget, or clear strategy. They dig into how to build a unified, AI-driven GTM motion when every team is at a different level of maturity, why foundations (data, ops, change management) matter more than shiny tools, and how to measure success with metrics like ARR per employee and containment rate. Brandon also shares where AI is actually working today, why you should listen to builders over hype-creators, and why most marketers should give themselves more grace for “feeling behind."

In this episode of Marketing Dilemmas, Liam sits down with Srikrishna Swaminathan, Co-founder & CEO of Factors.ai, to tackle a question most B2B teams are quietly wrestling with: are LinkedIn ads really working, or is Google doing all the heavy lifting? They dig into why LinkedIn so often looks “bad” in spreadsheets, how to use buyer-journey visualisation, view-throughs and incrementality testing to prove its impact, and where organic content fits into the whole system. Sri also breaks down who should own this problem (demand gen vs marketing ops), what good measurement actually looks like, and how emerging LLM/AI discovery will change the way we think about paid, organic and attribution altogether.

When reporting makes paid channels look like the clear winner and organic impact is harder to prove, how do you split your time, budget, and focus? In this episode, Fran Langham, Director of Demand Gen at Cog, joins Liam to tackle the paid vs organic dilemma, exploring why marketers over-index on what’s measurable, how to prove the value of long-term plays, and what it takes to rebalance your strategy without losing short-term wins.

Chat-based search and LLMs are blowing up the old keyword-first playbook. Zach Ali (GM, US at Finder) makes the case for “anti-SEO”: persona-led content, utility over templates, and measuring revenue and LLM visibility - not vanity traffic. We dig into query fan-out (why many focused pages beat one pillar), how first-party data and calculators earn citations, and why today’s SEO must be a full-stack marketer across paid, video, and newsletters. Plus: a quick take on making CRO wins stick beyond the initial spike.

Liam sits down with Estelle, Cognism’s Website & Creative Services Lead, to unpack a common dilemma: why “winning” A/B tests sometimes fade after rollout. They dig into a post-launch performance framework (7/30/60/90-day checks), how to control for seasonality and site changes, the role of sales/MarOps in attribution, and turning test insights into durable pipeline impact.

In this episode, Liam sits down with Deivis, Founder of DERU Digital, to explore a dilemma every B2B marketer faces: how narrow should your targeting really be? Deivis shares his experience of discovering a vendor before he worked at an ICP company - and how that shaped his belief that brand reach needs to extend beyond account lists. They dive into the risks of over-segmentation, why reach is often undervalued in B2B, and how to balance short-term pipeline pressure with long-term influence.

Jonathan Bland, Co-Founder of Omni Lab, joins the Marketing Dilemmas podcast to tackle one of the toughest questions marketers face: “Why is performance down?” He shares how to avoid knee-jerk optimisations, build a systematic process for diagnosing issues across channels, and communicate findings in a way that earns trust, even when the answer isn’t simple.

In this episode of Marketing Dilemmas, Liam sits down with Sarah Breathnach, VP of Marketing at Hunters and Founder of the Demand Gen London community. Together they unpack one of the toughest challenges in B2B right now: how to stand out in a crowded, copycat market without falling into the trap of gimmicks or feature wars. Sarah shares lessons from the cybersecurity industry, her “small teams, big impact” positioning, and why true differentiation comes from clarity, consistency, and customer experience - not monster trucks or marketing hype.

Too many marketing teams fall into the comfort trap - sticking with what’s “always worked” and avoiding change until results dip. In this episode, Michael challenges that mindset head-on. He shares why waiting for a downturn before testing new channels or formats is a risky move, how to run small experiments alongside BAU, and the mindset shift needed to keep performance growing in a fast-changing market.

What happens when your SEO strategy stops delivering clicks? Tom Mansell, VP of Organic Performance at Crowd, joins Marketing Dilemmas to unpack the radical shift in search behavior. From AI-powered search engines to plummeting click-through rates, Tom explains why traditional SEO metrics no longer tell the full story - and what forward-thinking marketers should do instead.

Adina, Global Director of Best Practice Programs at AVEVA, joins Marketing Dilemmas to unpack one of the hardest challenges in enterprise marketing: how do you effectively penetrate new markets when you’re juggling long sales cycles, complex portfolios, and competing internal priorities? From thought leadership to funnel strategy and outbound alignment - this episode breaks down the real blockers to driving growth in new segments.

What do you do when AI creates both your biggest opportunity and your biggest risk? In this episode, Maura Rivera, CMO at Qualified, shares how her team made the bold decision to pivot away from their successful flagship product and reposition entirely around an AI-powered SDR agent. It’s a story of product bets, internal resistance, and how to go all in - before the market catches up.

In this episode of Marketing Dilemmas, Liam is joined by Florian Frese, Marketing Director at Wire. Together, they unpack a challenge every marketer faces but few talk about: internal marketing. From building trust across teams to avoiding the dreaded “marketing in a silo” trap, Florian shares candid insights into what it really takes to get internal buy-in, show marketing’s value, and foster cross-functional alignment. Plus, how sharing updates on LinkedIn can double as your best internal comms hack.

In this episode of Marketing Dilemmas, Liam sits down with Ben Smith, Marketing Director at Reachdesk to tackle a growth challenge many scale-ups face: what to do when you’ve nailed your ICP but are starting to hit a ceiling. They unpack how Reachdesk refined their targeting, improved win rates, and now face the next big question - how to expand without losing focus. Expect insights on ABM signals, scrappy tactics, first-party data, and the true power of gifting in B2B.

B2B marketing isn't just campaigns and channels - it's understanding your product like a PMM. In this episode, Tas Bober (Founder at Scroll Lab) shares how realising her weakest link - product marketing - led her to build a lightweight, scalable framework every demand gen marketer can use to bridge the gap, run faster, and never rely on a last-minute slide again. She breaks down: Whether you’re in-house or agency-side, this is your blueprint for becoming a deeper generalist - and making better marketing decisions.

In this episode, Liam is joined by Steffen, CMO and co-founder of DreamData, to unpack one of B2B marketing’s trickiest challenges: how to bridge the gap between awareness and sales readiness without jumping the gun. They dive into the dilemma of where marketing should focus its energy in the funnel - top, middle, or bottom - and explore what it really takes to turn passive awareness into high-intent engagement. From AI-led outreach to benchmark reports and one-to-one dinners, it’s a conversation about timing, touchpoints, and finding the sweet spot before the demo.

In this episode of The Loop, Tim and Liam reunite six months after their first ABM deep dive to share how their program at Cognism has matured into a high-performing machine. From refining their ICP and working hand-in-hand with sales to building an account prioritisation engine and embracing out-of-the-box 1:1 tactics, this conversation is packed with actionable insights for any team trying to scale ABM without overspending on tools.

In this episode of The Loop, Joe McLaughlin sits down with Liam Collins, VP of Paid Acquisition at Cognism, for an inside look at how the marketing team is driving Cognism’s shift into the mid-market and enterprise space. From laying strong strategic foundations to aligning sales and marketing around a single North Star, Joe and Liam unpack the planning, data modeling, messaging evolution, and ABM initiatives behind the move. A must-listen for marketers looking to scale smart and go upmarket with impact.