Within the B2B marketing industry there are many successful business people and influential voices that have had an impact on the industry. Some are advocates of ideas and some not only originate those ideas but they help build businesses and categories around them.
That is the case with Jon Miller, past co-founder and CMO of Marketo (sold to Adobe) and his work to reinvent marketing automation there as well as his past role as CEO and founder of Engagio (sold to Demandbase) and his work to build a next generation Account Based Marketing platform.
Jon Miller is rocket science smart – literally – with a degree in physics from Harvard and an MBA from Stanford. While he sits on the boards of numerous organizations, he’s now working on something new, a stealth AI startup, and given his track record, it’s going to be big, exciting and yet again impact the B2B marketing industry.
I first connected with Jon over 18 years ago when he was launching Marketo and engaged our agency for help with content and SEO. We worked with him for quite a few years and my team learned a LOT. I can say that this episode of Beyond B2B Marketing will help you learn a lot as well. Jon has a depth of knowledge and insight that is rare to access.
Below you can watch, listen or read my interview with Jon and learn about:
- Why the “gumball machine” model of lead gen is broken and what to do instead.
- How today’s buyers are stitching together their journeys across micro-content, community, and AI search.
- Why brand isn’t soft. It’s revenue: the emotional edge in a data-saturated world.
- What Jon means by “Marketing Automation Stockholm Syndrome” and how to escape it.
- How AI-native platforms will reshape campaign execution, segmentation, and content delivery.
- The three elements B2B marketers must double down on in the age of AI: experiences, relationships, and craftsmanship.
- Why original research is a powerful differentiator in an era of infinite content.
Watch the full interview with Jon Miller here:
Listen to our conversation here:
If you’d prefer a text summary of our discussion about the increasing importance of brand, experience and AI in B2B marketing, here you go:
During our conversation Jon Miller makes it clear: the traditional marketing playbook is broken. From gated PDFs to MQL-driven funnels, the tactics that once generated reliable pipeline are no longer effective in today’s buyer-led, AI-disrupted environment. Instead of linear journeys, buyers now consume content across channels and only surface when they’re nearly ready to buy, leaving many B2B marketers scrambling to influence decisions made by hidden buyers in the shadows.
“The old playbook just isn’t working anymore… We’re increasingly realizing that buying is complex, nonlinear. It’s much more like the stock market or predicting the weather than tuning a simple linear machine.”
To reach modern B2B buyers, Jon advocates for a focus on brand as a revenue driver, not just a soft metric. As AI disintermediates traditional marketing channels from zero-click search to filtered inboxes, being known, trusted, and remembered becomes the competitive edge. Building emotional connections, delivering meaningful experiences, and being a known entity in the marketplace are essential to engaging buyers before they raise their hands.
“Brand actually is revenue marketing… It means you win more deals and it makes all your demand gen work better.”
One thing you can count on with Jon is that he doesn’t hold back on strong opinions, especially when talking about the limitations of legacy marketing automation platforms. He compares the current state of martech to “Marketing Automation Stockholm Syndrome,” where marketers are trapped in overly complex, rules-based systems that can’t scale. Instead, he sees a future where AI-native platforms will do the heavy lifting of orchestration, freeing marketers to focus on creativity, storytelling, and strategy.
“Why shouldn’t every person in your database get their own playlist of actions that they’re going to engage with and move forward? Legacy MAPs can’t do that. But I think AI can.”
When it comes to standing out in a sea of AI-generated content, Jon is pretty clear: original research is more valuable than ever. He says original research can differentiate B2B marketing through craftsmanship and credibility as well as generate a flywheel of visibility that fuels media coverage, social content, sales insights, and answer engine optimization. In Jon’s words, proprietary insights are the kind of content AI can’t fake.
“In a world where AI can generate infinite content, it cannot generate truly original research… And as a result, it gets cited, it gets shared, it gets remembered.”
Thanks Jon!
Be sure to follow Jon on LinkedIn for his video series of B2B marketing insights + cocktail recipes and to find out more about the new Stealth AI Startup he’s working on.
You can find Beyond B2B Marketing wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts (links below). Of course you won’t want to miss the next conversation with a B2B marketing pro, so be sure to subscribe. And remember, there’s no better time than now to break free of boring B2B!
About the author
Lee Odden has been recognized as a top B2B Marketing professional by Forbes, The Economist and the Wall Street Journal. For over 20 years he’s worked with his team at TopRank Marketing to help elevate the B2B marketing industry through creative marketing programs that deliver more authentic, experiential and inclusive content for brands like LinkedIn, Dell and Adobe. Lee is the author of Optimize and has published over 1.4 million words on his agency’s B2B marketing blog. As a trusted marketing thought leader, he has given nearly 300 presentations in 20 different countries on B2B content, search and influencer marketing. When not marketing, Lee is probably running, cooking or traveling.
