Who I Wrote This Book For


I wrote this book for two distinct people:

  1. Me at 25
  2. Anyone in heavy industrial who oversees marketing and feels ignorant about what to ask for, how to ask for it, what to expect, and how to deliver

Twenty-five-year-old Kara

When Echo Global Logistics hired me as its first (and only) marketer, I remember knowing I wanted to be part of its growth but feeling like I was on the outside of it.

Because I never had a boss from the marketing side—they were all operators, as one might expect from supply chain—they didn’t provide much tactical guidance. And to be fair, they probably didn’t feel like they needed a strategy or a reason to have a marketing strategy.

In 2006, they had 1200 salespeople doing a great job, and they didn’t know how to add marketing with goals and math tied to it to make a meaningful contribution.

Being an active, goal-driven person, I was determined to find a way, so I started doing stuff that no one else was doing:

  • Revamping the website
  • Working on our culture
  • Sourcing swag and t-shirts
  • Mailing videos for recruitment
  • Creating microsites

I did and learned a ton, but I had no idea how to measure how and if I was impacting my company. At that point, marketing was known simply as a cost center.

If I were 25 again in the same job at the same company, and someone handed me this book, I would have been able to bring ideas to my boss and the leadership team, capture and measure marketing activity, and contribute in a methodical and meaningful way.

This book was written for her: that young marketer, full of energy, who’s trying so hard, is a team player, and willing to do whatever it takes.

I want to give her more to work with than a great attitude and hustle.

Because she’s a woman, there’s an added layer of needing to prove herself, especially in a male-dominated industry like supply chain, and in general, fighting for a seat at the table.

This book is for all the “young Kara Browns” out there who want to show their leadership teams how valuable marketing is.


The frustrated B2B leader who needs math from marketing but doesn’t know how to get it

This scenario has become all common today: an executive in supply chain keeps spending money on all the “right things”—content, Google, LinkedIn, HubSpot, Salesforce, and a tech stack to rival all tech stacks— yet can’t seem to get real attribution and result-based math from their marketing team.

They may have outsourced marketing and churned through a few agencies with no luck. Or maybe they kept things in-house and hired a few junior folks but weren’t getting what they needed from them because, frankly, they weren’t sure what to ask for.

What they do know? What they want as an end result: leads, increased awareness of their company in the space, and for their customers and prospects to recognize their brand at trade shows and know what they do and want to talk with them.

In the B2B world, so many executives are good at so many things, but unfortunately, marketing math isn’t one of them. 

If you’re the CEO of a trucking, warehouse, or industrial company and trying to hire your first CMO, you’re probably getting advice from well-intended board members, friends, and Gartner analysts.

But even they don’t have a magic how-to guide.

Worse, they may point to generalist tactics found in SaaS-related marketing books or strategies that work for Enterprise companies. But those won’t cut it for hyper-specific, heavy industrial and supply chain companies; they’re different animals.

These leaders don’t want to hear about “RevOps” or other fancy lingo; they want direct, easy-to-understand language and practical advice to get the marketing ROI they seek.

This book helps them crack the code to understand what to ask, how to ask for it, what to expect, and how to deliver meaningful marketing math.

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