Blame it on Marketing ™

Is your ICP actually an ICP… or is it just “women aged 25 to 45” in a trench coat? 😅  In this episode of Blame It On Marketing, Emma and Ruta are joined by Ada, CMO of the Year in Lithuania and marketing leader at Norcurrent, the biggest Baltic mobile gaming company, to talk about ideal customer profiles and why most companies still get them painfully wrong. We get into what ICPs really are, how...

Going after a new segment sounds sexy… until you actually try to do it. 😅  New vertical, new geography, new buyer, new motion — and suddenly everything breaks: messaging, pricing, onboarding, customer success, and your sanity. In this episode, Emma and Ruta are joined by Anastasia, founder of B2B Practitioners, to talk about when segment expansion is actually smart — and when it’s a fast track to...

B2B influencer marketing is having a moment… but most teams are still treating it like a vibes-based experiment. 😅  In this episode, we take a different angle: B2B influencers as a paid media channel, and what changes when you treat it like a proper media buy. We’re joined by Will and Chris from Moon at Dawn to break down paid, owned, and earned media, where influencers sit across all three, and...

Side hustles used to be the vibe… but are they still “allowed” now? 😅 In this episode of Blame It On Marketing, Emma and Ruta are joined by Liz Maguire (email marketer for SMEs) to unpack the reality of side hustles in 2026 — what’s healthy, what’s risky, and what it actually teaches you as a marketer. Liz shares her passion project, Flea Market Love Letters — a digital archive of vintage love le...

Should you stay… or should you go? 😅 With the job market doing the absolute most, marketers are stuck in the same loop: tolerate the chaos, or risk jumping into something worse. In this episode, Emma and Ruta are joined by Ana Rogerson — B2B marketer turned career coach and mentor — to unpack the real decision framework behind leaving a role, staying put, or going freelance. No “just manifest it”...

If your leadership team only cares about “what did we close?” but you’re stuck reporting traffic, followers and vibes… this episode is for you. 😅 In this live session, we’re joined by Paul (20+ years in marketing, now at Marmalade Marketing and a HubSpot Gold Partner) to get into the actual data and metrics that matter — what to stop reporting, what to track instead, and how to explain B2B buying...

Marketing feels harder than it should right now. Bigger targets, tighter budgets, AI expectations, more noise everywhere… and somehow it’s still “why didn’t that email get opened more?” 😅 In this episode, Emma and Ruta sit down with Jake (co-founder of ChannelCrawler) to talk about why marketing feels so brutally difficult in 2026 — from both sides: founder brain and marketer reality. Marketing c...

Ever walked into a meeting with a spreadsheet… and watched everyone’s eyes glaze over? 😅 This episode is for the marketers trying to use data to influence up, sideways, and across the business — without being ignored, undermined, or dragged into a channel-by-channel debate. We’re joined by Jade Faulconbridge, marketing ops consultant (finance, manufacturing, payroll — the full chaos), to talk abo...

Why do some marketing teams move fast and break things… while others want a spreadsheet, a process, and a risk assessment before lunch? 😅 In this episode, we’re joined by Michelle Hartley from People Sorted to unpack marketing personalities using the Insights Discovery framework (the one with the four colours). We’re talking team dynamics, communication, decision-making, and why “just be more col...

Your CRM is meant to be the backbone of marketing… so why does it feel like a haunted house? 👻 In this episode, we’re joined by Jack, a CRM and automation expert (marketing + recruitment), to unpack what actually goes wrong inside CRMs — and what to do when your “single source of truth” is anything but. We talk messy data, broken integrations, Franken-stacks, and the classic problem: one marketer...

Why is marketing the one industry where you can be “too young” and “too old” at the same time? 🤯 In this episode of Blame It On Marketing, we’re talking ageism in marketing (and yes… the sexism that comes with it). We’re joined by a mother-daughter duo: Justine, Marketing Director at The L Factor, and Lenna, award-winning business mentor and professional “nosy parker” (her words, not ours). We ge...

Ah yes. The three words that have launched a thousand unnecessary redesigns. In this episode of Blame It On Marketing , we’re joined by the brilliant Juliana Germinio from Yellow Zest to unpack the most vague, infuriating, soul-crushing piece of feedback marketers hear on repeat: “Can you just… make it pop?” Pop how? Pop why? Pop for whom?? WHAT IS POP?! From rogue email links sending restaurant g...

Why does “ABM” so often become a logo-swap landing page and a prayer? In this episode, Emma and Ruta sit down with Marta George (ex-Head of ABM, now Field & Channel Marketing) to get brutally honest about what real ABM takes—and when you shouldn’t do it at all. We get into:  ✅ Why “ABM Lite” isn’t real (and why it keeps getting sold anyway)  ✅ The village ABM needs: sales, SDRs, CS, product...

Why do smart companies still treat marketing like the “content machine” or sales’ on-call design team? In this episode, Ruta and Emma sit down with Margaux Grasso and Sarah Mardle to unpack marketing’s perception problem—and how to fix it with influence, data, and better internal storytelling. Expect practical playbooks for building credibility, aligning with sales, and pushing back on bad habits...

Why do tiny marketing budgets come with sky-high expectations? 💸 In this episode, we’re joined by Lucy Blenkinsopp, marketing lead at Version 1, to talk about how to do more with less—without burning out or BS-ing the board. From choosing fewer, higher-ROI channels to proving marginal gains and building a real case for budget, we get practical about what actually moves the needle when cash is tig...

Why do leaders still want to “be on LinkedIn”… even when the content makes buyers cringe? 🤳 In this episode, we’re joined by Brad Zomick—executive content coach and host of LinkedIn Famous—to get real about getting senior leaders to create content that actually helps the business (and doesn’t read like buzzword soup). We dig into when a CEO should be the face, what they should post, and how to bu...

Why do the same marketing headaches keep coming back every year? 🤯 Three years in, 100 episodes later, and we’re still hearing “can you make it go viral?” like it’s a brief. In this special 100th-episode live show, Ruta and Emma look back at the biggest themes from Blame It On Marketing so far—and the stubborn problems that refuse to die. From CROs who are just Head of Sales with a shinier title,...

Why are marketers still arguing about ROI in 2025? 🤯 “ROI is reductive!” “You can’t measure brand!” Meanwhile…budgets are getting slashed and CFOs are sharpening their scissors. In this episode, we’re joined by Jordan Stachini—founder of Co & Co and proud member of the “least-fluffy marketers” club—to cut through the noise. We get real about what ROI actually is (and isn’t), how to report it...

Why does every second LinkedIn post promise an “AI system” that will fix your marketing overnight? 🤖✨ If you’ve been told to “just automate everything,” this episode is your antidote. In this episode, we’re joined by Fiona Sherwood (fractional CMO & AI marketing trainer) and Joanna Edwards (events leader behind a GenAI-for-marketers summit) to get practical about what an AI strategy actually...

Why do so many great marketing plans get kneecapped by…ego? 🤯 You know the drill: a founder who “already knows” the playbook, a swoop-and-poop exec, or a client who hires you for your expertise—then ignores it. In this episode, we’re joined by marketing strategist and consultant Rissy La Touche (Dimple Studio; ex-Square) to unpack how ego shows up at the top, how to spot it early, and how to navi...

Why do so many teams grab a shiny rebrand when the real problem is strategy? 🤔 We’ve avoided this topic for ages… but today we go there—with brand strategist Beatrice Gutknecht , whose mission is, ahem, “F*** rebrands.” She breaks down why visual-first overhauls flop, how to get brand + marketing actually working together, and what to measure so brand work shows up in revenue—not just mood boards...

Why is it still harder for women to be seen, heard, and safe in B2B marketing? 🤔 We work in female-heavy teams, but the mics, panels, and power seats still skew the other way—and it shows up in our careers, our DMs, and even at conferences. In this episode, we’re joined by Jane Serra , host of Women in B2B Marketing , to dig into what actually moves the needle: women-only spaces, real allyship, a...

Think events are all free prosecco and LinkedIn photos? 🤔 Behind every smooth show is a sleep-deprived team juggling power sockets, panic emails, and a thousand tiny fires—often at the same time. In this episode, we’re joined by Sarah Tully (Group Event Director, eCommerce Expo & Technology for Marketing), Laura Dazon (Marketing Manager), and Phoebe Dunsmore (Marketing Executive) from CloserS...

Why does B2B influencer marketing feel so chaotic right now? 🤔 LinkedIn reach is down, creators are charging enterprise prices, and everyone’s asking how to prove ROI without waiting nine months for a deal to close. In this episode, we’re joined by Hector Forwood , co-founder & CEO of Flooencer , to demystify what’s working (and what’s broken) in B2B influencer marketing—how to pick the right...

Why does marketing feel… weird right now? 😵‍💫 Budgets are tight, algorithms won’t sit still, AI is everywhere, and juniors are somehow expected to be CMOs. So how are marketers actually coping—and still shipping great work? In this episode, we’re joined by Dan & Alice, co-hosts of Work Is Weird Now , for a brutally honest chat about staying sane, creative, and effective when the ground keeps...