Marketing to B2B buyers who aren't on LinkedIn (with Clare Corriveau, VP Marketing, Tekmetric) — The Dave Gerhardt Show (from Exit Five)

#384 | A lot of people say B2B marketing is boring - those people couldn't possibly be in B2B. Take Clare Corriveau, VP of Marketing at Tekmetric: her buyer is an auto repair shop owner who isn't on LinkedIn, doesn't check email, and isn't downloading anything. Clare walks through how Tekmetric built its messaging around a founder who ran a shop for a decade, why every new hire visits an actual shop before touching a campaign, and how peer groups and an unmanaged 6,000-member Facebook community became a real lever in the company's growth engine. This episode focuses on marketing to an overlooked B2B category, and the huge upside that comes with it. The opportunity is anything but boring.

Timestamps

(00:00) - - Why "boring" B2B categories are actually the biggest opportunity
(06:00) - - Why a founder who ran a shop for 10 years shapes every messaging decision
(11:00) - - Events at scale: 100+ a year, plus a 1,000-person first-time conference
(17:00) - - What the VP of Marketing job really is
(21:00) - - Hiring humans when everyone is saying AI will replace them
(24:00) - - Betting on channels the team almost skipped: Bing and Facebook
(26:00) - - Peer groups and a 6,000 member Facebook community
(30:00) - - How to get customers to love, support, and defend your brand
(37:00) - - The real competitor is status quo
(38:00) - - Why new hires visit a real shop before they touch a campaign
(45:00) - - The opportunity: 5% market share in a category growing 50% a year

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