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Hello and welcome to the Exit Five Weekly Newsletter - read by 32,000 B2B marketing professionals around the world. Exit Five is a membership site designed to help you build a successful career in B2B marketing. Join 5,000 other members at exitfive.com.
By the way - this email was designed in Knak which helps you create email and landing pages in minutes without having to write code. Learn more about Knak here.
🆘 Marketing Teams Are Drowning in Messages. AI Can Fix That.
Have you ever had one of those weeks where you feel like you spent more time responding to slack messages and email chains than, well, doing any marketing work?
Apparently, I’m not alone – marketing teams on average spend 28+ hours a week just keeping up with comms. The result? Burnout, frustration, and performative productivity that doesn’t move the needle.
AI-fluent marketing teams are breaking free. Grammarly’s 2025 Productivity Shift Report reveals how they’re using AI to:
- Cut through the noise and reduce endless back-and-forths
- Automate content creation, research, and reporting so marketers can focus on strategy
- Eliminate busywork and reclaim time for high-impact initiatives
We’re marketers because we love crafting campaigns, driving revenue, and proving impact – not spending all day buried in messages.
Get the report today to see how leading teams are making AI work for them.
🧪 The Art and Science of Building a Brand (And Creating a Category)
“You're about to name a company that's going to change everything.”
When Ari Yablock got that text he had no idea he'd become the Head of Brand for one of cybersecurity's fastest-growing startups.
In just two and a half years, Island has skyrocketed to a $3 billion valuation with $375 million in funding from Sequoia, Insight, and Coatue. Their secret? They created an entirely new category – the enterprise browser – and built a magnetic brand.
So whether you're trying to create a new category or simply build a more distinctive brand, Ari's approach combines psychological principles, strategic language choices, and a willingness to be exactly what your competitors are not.
The Truth About Category Creation
To Ari, you’re either a category because you built something entirely new, or you’re trying to be a category because you need a way to separate yourself from the competition.
This cuts through the noise around category creation and offers a simple test: Are you truly building something new, or just looking for different words to describe what already exists?
For Island, it was clear. They were creating something that didn't exist before – an enterprise browser designed specifically for business use. This wasn't positioning spin. It was addressing a fundamental truth that browsers weren’t designed for work.
The lesson? True category creation starts with a product reality, not a marketing desire.
The Power of What You Don't Say
Once you've identified your category, the next step is crafting the narrative. For Ari, what you choose not to say is just as strategic as what you do say.
For Island, this meant deliberately avoiding common cybersecurity language like "risks," "threat landscape," and "attacks" – despite being a security company. Why? Because they wanted to reinforce their core concept of being "the natural workspace" where you're by definition, not at risk.
This intentional language creates a distinctive voice that separates you from competitors who all sound the same.
The Psychology of Brand Building
How do you know if your brand strategy is working? Ari uses a powerful framework based on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) that he calls "cognitive behavioral branding."
Picture a triangle with three points:
- Actions
- Feelings
- Beliefs
Marketing is all about trying to influence behavior (getting clicks, downloads, making a purchase, etc.). But you can’t force someone to take a specific action, they have to want to act. Which means you have to influence their feelings and beliefs.
This framework inverts how many marketers approach their work. Instead of starting with the desired action, start with the belief that needs to change:
- What does your audience currently believe about their problem?
- What would they need to believe to feel differently about it?
- What feelings would lead to the actions you want them to take?
For Island, this meant shifting beliefs from “browsers are just tools that need security added on" to "the browser should naturally be designed for work from the start.”
The takeaway? Brand building isn’t just about what you say – it’s about the beliefs you shift and the category you claim.
Ari’s approach shows that true differentiation starts with product truth, sharp narrative discipline, and an understanding of human psychology.
Whether you're creating a new category or standing out in an existing one, the brands that win are the ones bold enough to shape perception, not just follow convention.
📺 UPCOMING EVENTS
🔥 [TOMORROW] The Ultimate Roast of B2B Emails | A One-Day, Virtual Event
Email is still king in B2B marketing.
It’s one of the few (maybe the only) channels we have where you can actually own your audience and reach them with the push of a button.
That’s why our next virtual event is all about B2B Emails, baby! On March 19th, we’re hosting the Ultimate Roast of B2B Emails – a one day virtual event where top B2B Marketing experts will show you what makes a great email in 2025.
Here’s how it’s going to work:
- We’re breaking down every major type of email in B2B, from newsletters to lead nurturing sequences – we’re going to cover it all.
- Each session is hosted by EXPERT operators (like Alex Liberman of Morning Brew & storyarb and Amanda Natividad of SparkToro) who will share their email secrets.
- We’ll do LIVE TEARDOWNS of real examples submitted for roasting from the audience and they’ll share tactical ways to improve.
If you came to the Ultimate Roast of B2B Websites last year, you know how much fun this is going to be – so sign up now to get it on your calendar so you can join us.
Can’t make it live? Register anyways and you’ll get the recordings afterwards. Don't miss out!
🏢 OPEN ROLES
Who's hiring right now?
🔥 HOT JOB OF THE WEEK: Overjet is hiring a Head of Growth Marketing to lead all marketing demand generation and conversion activities. If you know how to build and scale demand gen, run paid and organic growth, and turn marketing into revenue, this one’s definitely worth a look.
Other open roles on the Exit Five job board this week:
- Ten Speed is hiring a Senior Designer
- ATSG is hiring a Manager, Content & Brand
- Overjet is hiring a Head of Product Marketing
- Clara is hiring a Contract Social Media Strategist
- Neara is hiring a Demand Generation Manager
- Great Question is hiring a Senior Demand Generation Specialist
- ThoughtMetric is hiring a Director of Marketing
- EcoInteractive is hiring a Marketing Coordinator
- Baymard Institute is hiring a Product Marketing Manager
- CardFlight is hiring a Head of Growth Marketing
- Ceros is hiring a Senior Product Marketing Manager
Have an open role and want to make sure the best B2B marketing talent sees it?
Just reply to this email and we'll send over more info on how you can post it on our job board + get it in front of 25k+ marketers.
Join us in Exit Five
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We have a 7 day free trial so you can join 100% risk free.
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