8 Marketers Share Top Plays of 2026 (So Far)

We all need ideas and inspiration for marketing plays to run at work. That’s why today, I’m bringing you eight proven plays that real B2B marketers ran inside of their actual companies, with receipts to back them up. These plays came out of our recent Exit Five Live Session, the B2B Blitz Part 2.

Here’s some inspo to get unstuck in a super straight-forward format that tells you what you need to know: what they did, how they did it, and what results they drove. Check out the full Blitz Part 2 episode here.

1. Boosting AI Visibility 30% by Updating Existing Content

Molly Evola, Sr. Content Marketer, Customer.io

The problem: A year ago, AI mentioned Customer.io in one of every twelve conversations about marketing automation platforms. New content was working, but it wasn’t the whole story.

The play: Molly’s team went back and optimized their existing pages instead of only publishing new ones, since AI favors content that’s been updated recently and formatted a specific way. They upload a page’s metadata and copy into a Claude skill, which returns edits: better headers tied to real search prompts, updated stats, added FAQs, less dense text.

One page hit the 100th percentile for citations, picking up 11,000 citations in five months, with active users on that page up 104%. Today, Customer.io shows up in one of every three AI conversations about the category, a 30% visibility increase, and they’re now the number one most recommended brand when people ask AI for alternatives to competitors.

• “The receipts gave me chills.” – Carli W.
• “Wow Molly!” – David C.
• “Yesss Molly! This is awesommeee.” – Brianna K.

2. 3 Hidden ‘S words’ That Print Money

Brendan Hufford, Head of Marketing, Growth Sprints

The problem: Everyone knows the advice is “talk to your customers.” Try doing that inside a big company. Sales guards the relationship. Legal wants to review it first. You already sent an NPS survey. Nobody wants to bother anyone.

The play: Brendan’s fix is what he calls the 3S strategy, sales, success, and support, the three teams already having real customer conversations every week whether you talk to the customer directly or not. He interviews those three teams instead, using their real language and real objections as the raw material for content that ranks in both traditional Google search and AI search.

• “Amen!!!! Talk to customers.” – Linda K.
• “The ole 3S strategy.” – Todd J.
• “Damn, mic drop Brendan Hufford.” – Connor L.

3. Product-Led Content that 10x’d Engagement and Sent a CEO to Congress

Austin Fuller, Head of Global Product Marketing, Exiger

The problem: A small pool of accounts in a brutally competitive government and enterprise market means you have to punch above your weight to get noticed.

The play: Austin’s team uses their own product the way a customer would, turns what they learn into a report, and distributes it everywhere: customers, prospects, industry analysts at firms like Gartner and Forrester, media, sales, and customer success.

The bar for what counts as an insight is simple: teach the reader something they don’t know, or something new about a problem they already do. The outcome is 4 to 10 times the engagement of any other content type they produce, millions of dollars in qualified pipeline, and in this case, the CEO testifying in front of Congress as a result.

• “That’s it, I’m adding a disclaimer to all of my talks from now on.” – Brendan Hufford
• “Same for me re: the DoD.” – Dave G.
• “I think that wins for best disclaimer for the day!” – Holly E.

4. Persona Gut-Check With an AI Agent

Holly Enneking, VP, Marketing, Markup AI

The problem: Markup rebranded last September and originally targeted developers. This year they pivoted to marketers instead, which left a library of content that was technically accurate and aimed at the wrong audience.

The play: Every piece of content at Markup runs through a persona agent before it publishes, checked against the actual buyer it’s meant for. For example: their homepage said “API-first architecture and MCP integrations,” which reads fine to a developer.

The marketer-persona check flagged it and recommended “plugs into the tools you already use” instead, same feature, different language. The agent caught the mismatch across dozens of spots on the site and blog ahead of a launch, and Holly fixed it in minutes instead of losing a weekend to it.

• “Consider me hooked.” – Courtney N.
• “I LOVE the hooks today.” – Lisa A.
• “As a PMM, the launch stress is higher than congress.” – Austin F.

5. LinkedIn Thought Leadership as AEO

Anthony Blatner, Managing Director, LinkedIn Ads Expert, Speedwork

The problem: Everyone’s chasing visibility in AI search right now, and LinkedIn is somewhere in the top three to five sources for citations depending on which report you read. Knowing that doesn’t tell you how to actually rank.

The play: Anthony launched a brand-new domain, freelinkedinadsaudit.com, and got it ranked number one on Google’s AI search within a week, showing up in both the answer box and the sidebar. One tactic he shared: hashtags barely move engagement on LinkedIn anymore, but they still feed directly into your content’s URL, and URL structure matters more to AI and traditional search than most people think.

6. Scaling From a Small Budget Pilot to a Full Program

Brianna Doe, Founder & Head of Influencer Marketing, Verbatim

The problem: Most B2B creator programs either stay a tiny pilot forever or try to scale to a dozen creators across four channels before anyone’s validated what’s actually working.

The play: Brianna’s team started small on purpose, a $10,000-a-month pilot with four creators, LinkedIn only, three posts each, one post a month, just to validate messaging and channel fit. Once that worked, it scaled into three distinct content tracks: evergreen thought leadership, product launch content, and content the client can repurpose across paid, organic, and their own site.

The program now generates 500,000 to 1 million impressions a month at a 40% lower cost per conversion than paid social, and creator content is now one of the client’s top three channels for trial signups.

From the chat:

• “Love seeing the BTS of influencer campaigns.” – Connor L.
• “Validate before scale, clear attribution.” – Karyn G.

7. Brand Awareness Focused on Customer Love and Appreciation

Jessica Rosenberg, Head of Brand, AirOps

The problem: It’s easy for brand campaigns to end up looking like just another company talking about itself.

The play: AirOps kept hearing the same thing from customers, they were winning at AI search and becoming more confident, faster-moving marketers because of it. So Jessica’s team built a campaign to celebrate that instead of the product, timed to run alongside the Olympics and Super Bowl so “winning” felt natural.

Three connected plays: an out-of-home billboard campaign in San Francisco featuring real customer champions, LinkedIn selfies from those same customers boosted with paid spend, and an interactive quiz that generates a personalized “marketing archetype” digital card people share and tag friends into.

• “This campaign was so fun, I remember seeing it all over my feed.” – Connor L.
• “Quiz. I love quizzes. Always a great play.” – Linda K.

8. A 65X Return on Making a Book for ABM

Aditya Vempaty, VP, Marketing, Coram AI

The problem: Buyers are skeptical of vendor books on sight. Getting real distribution for one without it feeling like another piece of branded content is hard.

The play: Aditya’s team designed a book from the ground up around what their authors and readers actually cared about, offered an instant digital copy alongside a print copy shipped to your house, and built distribution directly into the book itself: 14 authors from partner companies, each bringing their own audience, plus a launch event in New York with author videos and live signings. Result: 4,000 downloads, 270 new target accounts engaged, and $10.8 million in revenue traced back to those accounts, a 65X return.

As I like to say: Everything in marketing can work

Did you find this helpful? I know one thing that has helped me since the beginning of my career as a marketer is the idea of keeping a swipe file.

I’ve learned at this point that everything in marketing can work; it’s the context within the company that matters. So our job here with Exit Five is to keep stuffing your inbox full of real, proven, examples from B2B marketing pros and hopefully we can be the swipe file for you.

Which one of these plays stood out to you? Anything you might put your spin on and run at your company?

Note: I think it’s important to show you real examples because who knows what’s real or not with everyone claiming these crazy results from AI on LinkedIn.

With love,
Dave (with a big assist from the Exit Five team)

PS. 27 days until Drive as of this email today; you coming? LMK. I’ll be ready. My kids have been fighting the last three weeks and I love them but I am READY FOR A CHANGE OF PACE.

If you want to study any of these plays closer, watch the whole session here.