The Viral Marketing Bets Behind High-Growth Voice AI Company Bland.ai, with Ethan Clouser (Head of Marketing)

**Dave Gerhardt** (0:00)
Hey, it's Dave, today's episode is brought to you by Zoom Webinars. That's right, Zoom Webinars is the virtual event platform built to engage, connect and scale. I don't know if you know this, but I actually love webinars, and I'm not afraid to say that, I'm not afraid to tell you this on the podcast here. At my last two companies and now here at Exit Five, webinars have been a big part of our content machine, and I know I'm not alone. Despite what you may have heard online about webinars being dead in B2B, they have this habit of saying everything is dead in B2B, including webinars, but they're not, and I can confirm. We hear it constantly in our community webinars when done right, continue to drive revenue for marketing leaders right now, and it's one of our best performing channels here at Exit Five. A good webinar gives you a real reason to get your audience in one place around a topic that actually matters to them, and that kind of engagement turns into pipeline in a way that a lot of other channels can't match. Think about it. How much time does someone spend with you sitting there on a webinar? That's super valuable. That's why we've partnered with Zoom to take our love for webinars to a whole new level. Starting this month, every Exit Five live session through the end of the year is going to run on Zoom Webinars & Events. Zoom Webinars has an entire platform for running marketing events that includes registration pages to match your brand, the tools you need to promote your event, and live engagement tools so people actually stay tuned in instead of half watching in another tab. And once the event is over, Zoom helps you follow up with each attendee and turn the session into clips, highlights and content so you can turn your Webinar attendees into future customers. That's the difference between hosting a meeting and running a great event. We hold a high bar for our content here at Exit Five, and I'm excited to be doing it all on Zoom Webinars now moving forward. If you're a B2B marketer with a Webinar program that needs a reboot, or you're thinking about building one this year, you should consider Zoom Webinars and come to an Exit Five live session. Check it out, powered by Zoom so you can see the platform in action all for yourself. Learn more about what Zoom offers marketers at zoom.com/exitfive, that's zoom.com/exitfive.
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You're listening to The Dave Gerhardt Show.
My guest on this episode is Ethan Clouser. He's head of marketing at Bland. They're an enterprise voice AI company focused on regulated industries. Ethan is 22 and runs marketing for an enterprise tech company that just raised $100 million. And if you spend a few minutes with him, you'll see why. He has a passion for the craft of marketing, especially building a brand, and why you need to build a brand to win in the enterprise today. We talk about his approach to marketing at Bland, which is guided by their culture of getting as crazy as humanly possible while still walking the line into credible enterprise territory. We talk about finding that third rail, that electric fence. We talk about their viral campaigns with Soulja Boy, the red phone car and working with Tobi from the office on their Series C announcement, and how they measure these big swings and what channels they'll need to invest in as they move into an ABM motion and try to stand out in a sea of 200 competitors in the voice AI space. And we also talk about why it helps to do marketing at a company with a truly great product. Enjoy my conversation with Ethan from Bland.