Startups

Jason Bradwell, Founder, B2B Better: “Part of setting up a podcast was a way to start building up my brand and my network in advance." Picture: Dorset Biz News.
Published: February 14, 2023 | Updated: 15th February 2023
Jason Bradwell has always wanted to start his own business.
Two and a half years ago he launched a podcast looking in depth at the issues facing marketing professionals.
It was to prove critical in eventually getting his new venture off the ground.
Indeed, more than 70 episodes later and the 32-year-old credits his B2B Better podcast with generating upwards of £60,000 worth of pipeline work.
It’s given his new business launched this month, and also called B2B Better, the softest of landings or, if you prefer, the smoothest of take-offs.
And all achieved while working full-time as Senior Director, Group Marketing and Communications, for sports and entertainment technology provider, Deltatre.
Jason said: “My brand, B2B Better, came into existence in August 2020 as a podcast, right at the beginning of the pandemic.
“While I’ve always worked from home, I was missing the connection with others.
“I started getting more active on social media such as Twitter and LinkedIn and having conversations with other marketing professionals around the world from different industries and sectors.
“Eventually I thought that I should be recording these conversations as we’re talking about some cool marketing stuff here.
“It started very organically and has evolved a bit with more than 70 episodes now.
“When I first started I was getting next to no listeners but now, per episode, I’m getting about 450 to 500 downloads.
“I’m talking about a very specific subject, B2B marketing and solution providers.
“Every episode features a guest that I’m interviewing or a panel.
“I’ve also built up a database of 3,000 marketers that I send a newsletter, B2B Bite, to every week.
“It could be a summary of the podcast or be about whatever I’m thinking about that week.
“Part of setting up a podcast was a way to start building up my brand and my network in advance.
“It’s definitely given me a soft landing.
“When I announced on social media, and to my database, that I was going full-time with B2B Better I had a bunch of people reaching out to me.
“They said ‘I’ve been listening to your podcast from the start and been waiting to see if you would do consultancy and now you are’.
“It means I’m starting the business with about £60,000 of work in the pipeline.
“That’s jumping straight from full-time employment. It’s been pretty seamless.”
Married to Chloe and with a four-year-old daughter, Jason’s previous roles included being Marketing Manager of Poole-based Muc-Off Ltd.
His new business will specialise in helping complex businesses drive revenue through their marketing.
Jason said: “The kind of businesses I want to work with – and I am working with – aren’t selling a piece of $99 software that you can buy with your credit card.
“They’re selling bespoke custom solutions to individual clients that are worth tens or hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars.
“It’s based on the idea that there’s research suggesting 95 per cent of B2B companies’ prospective buyers are not in the market at any given time.
“That means they are a good fit for a business but they’re just not ready to buy yet, leaving only five per cent who are ready to sign a cheque.
“The vast majority of B2B companies’ time, attention and budget when it comes to winning new business goes on trying to attract and capture that five per cent.
“But it’s not just you going after that five per cent. Your competitors are going after it as well.
“So what are you doing to nurture demand within that 95 per cent of customers that could be a great fit for you tomorrow but aren’t a great fit today?
“That’s really where marketing comes in.
“My business is all about working with B2B solution providers that don’t have a marketing function to speak of today.
“But they recognise that they’re at risk of going extinct if they don’t do more to capture that 95 per cent which is out of market.
“I only pulled the trigger on my new business when I knew that I had a runway, which was some equity pay-out from the buy-out of Deltatre, and I could see signs of a pipeline of work beginning to be built.
“I attribute that pipeline almost entirely to the podcast.
“Either directly – someone hears me on the podcast saying ‘I’m now launching this business’ and they reach out – or through guests that I’ve had over the year.”
Jason, who lives in Wimborne and is able to call on a network of freelancers and agencies to execute his marketing strategy, said he was “100 per cent excited” about B2B Better.
He said: “I did have a bit of nervousness when I pulled the trigger and decided to leave my job and told them I was going.
“There was a pipeline of work but not much closed and I thought: ‘Have I made a mistake here?’
“But when it rains, it pours and a bunch of things came in. I’m now well set for the next six months.
“In 2023 you cannot underestimate the effect that marketing can have on building medium to long-term revenue.
“Right now, with the economy, everyone is focused on the short-term.
“I understand that because you want to make sure your business can weather the storm.
“But we will come out of it and what happens then?
“What steps are you putting in place today to make sure that in the medium or long-term the pipeline is looking as healthy as possible.
“And that’s what B2B Better is here to solve.”