Welcome to Evidently—the bi-weekly newsletter where I share my biggest hits (and get honest about my misses) as a first-time VP of Marketing. If this was forwarded to you, join the 4,000+ people who apparently enjoy watching me figure this job out in real time by subscribing here.

Last year I led our first big swing at original research content. We called it The Evidence Gap.

Evan hoped we’d reach 100 downloads… total. Then we put up 600 in the first week.

Which was amazing and also terrible. Because now we’d set a bar we actually had to clear. Great for the ego, brutal for the expectations.

Enter Jillian. I hired her last fall as our first content marketer at UserEvidence. And here’s the truth: she’s better at this than I am. Way better.

I ran the show last year. This year, she did. And the 2025 edition (live as of this week) is better in every way—strategy, narrative, execution—because of it.

But first, what stayed the same

Five months ago Jillian sat Evan and I down to ask the big questions: What’s our hypothesis this year? What from last year’s report actually mattered to the market?

Original research only works if it feels like science. So she kept the foundation intact:

• The hypothesis. We still believe there’s a massive gap between buyers, sellers, and marketers.

• Year-over-year data. Same wording, same questions. No gray areas in the comparisons.

• The look. Similar format and branding, refreshed with a Western-themed cover to match where the brand’s headed.

• The landing page. Yesterday at 11 a.m. ET, the old page flipped to the 2025 edition. No SEO leakage. No wasted backlinks. No split attention.

What changed

This is where Jillian really raised the bar. Last year’s report was a big pile of stats. This year, she turned it into Sales enablement gold — proof that backs our POV and makes it easier for Sales to credibly sell UserEvidence.

New survey questions, timely insights

She added fresh storylines:

• AI adoption. Over 50% of buyers said they start research with AI. Banner finding.

• Demographics. Age, company size, ARR. That let us see how trust in proof shifts across generations and company types.

The difference this year: the data doesn’t just tell us what’s happening, it paints a clearer picture around who it’s impacting and how.

Sales enablement from day one

Last year, we left a lot of value on the table. We had 600+ survey responses from our ICP—proof that sales conversations desperately needed—but didn’t build the bridge into outreach.

This year, we fixed that. Jillian partnered with Amanda (our SDR lead) and Alex (product marketing) to weave stats directly into cold-call trigger phrases and email templates.

More specifically, they created:

• A WorkRamp training for reps with top data points to present during their calls around the problem we solve.

• Nurture tracks for target accounts who download the report, priming them on how the problem translates to our product.

• A reference in Notion that makes it easier for Sales to anchor the report back to our narrative vs. just throwing out numbers. Hear a trigger phrase → pull up the stat → naturally pivot the conversation.

HubSpot pushes report downloads into Slack, tagging the right AE in real-time. Nice way to restart a stalled conversation—when it makes sense.

Emphasis on: when it makes sense. Content downloads ≠ intent to purchase.

Making virality an inside job

The virality behind last year’s report came primarily from the influencers we partnered with. This year, we’ve leaned heavily on our own team.

After Highline and the Zealot announcement, our team’s visibility on LinkedIn skyrocketed. We kinda lost track of how many people told us they couldn’t get away from UserEvidence in their LinkedIn feed for weeks.

To keep that momentum going, Jillian vibe coded The Evidence Gap Prompt Generator.

Think BuzzFeed quiz meets B2B. Pick a stat, get a hook, and walk away with a post that actually sounds like you.

The result: posts that feel personal, not copy/paste. And a team that actually wants to share because we gave them the space and tools to make it their own.

Little details like this make a big difference over time.

Tiny mic = big energy

Again, this one was all Jillian. She showed up to Highline with a 3D-printed, UserEvidence-branded mini microphone and started grabbing quick takes from people reacting to the data.

Instead of saving those clips for after launch, we dripped some of them out leading up to the report (examples: here and here). They made people laugh and pay attention—not what you get from a graphic.

And shoutout to the Algert team: even our stat graphics aren’t “standard.”

Why this all matters

Year one proved the concept. Year two proved the program.

And more importantly: it proved what happens when you hire someone who’s flat-out better than you.

This isn’t just another PDF download collecting dust in our Google Drive. 

It’s fuel for Sales demos. It’s content our marketing team will repurpose for months. And it’s credibility that reinforces our POV every time it shows up in a conversation.

Will we hit 800 downloads in the first week? We’ll see. (Five hours post-launch, we were already at 140.)

But the real win is that this report will have serious legs far beyond launch week. 

That’s the bar for original research now: not just content, but proof Sales can use in pitches, campaigns, and conversations that actually move the needle.

Stuff I’m digging this week

• The Evidence Gap: 2025 Edition—Last year we surprised ourselves with how far it spread. This year, Jillian ran the show and it hits even harder. The data proves the gap holding deals back isn’t budget or intent—it’s proof buyers trust.

• Kyle Norton on scaling Owner—Never met Kyle (tried to get him at Highline, hopefully next year) but I respect everything I see and hear from him. He built RevOps and data foundations earlier than most CROs even consider, and he talks about narrowing ICP and saying no to misfit customers in a way most leaders won’t.

• CMO turnover every 18 months isn’t a hiring problem. It’s system failure—This piece from HyperGrowth argues that receding CMO tenures aren’t because we’re hiring the “wrong person,” but because we’ve built a career ladder and org system in marketing designed to fail. It’s one of the more uncomfortably honest takes I’ve seen lately.

Coming soon: The Highline Bet

Most B2B events get a sizzle reel. Highline is getting a three-part docu-series.

This wasn’t just another event for us. It was the largest line item in my entire 2025 marketing budget and the riskiest bet of my career. 

The kind of swing that could either cement UserEvidence as the next startup to watch or leave people wondering what the hell we were thinking.

Every thought, doubt, and argument behind the scenes is in this mini-series. The late-night Slack threads. The “are we really doing this?” moments. The pressure of tying our biggest marketing bet of the year directly to pipeline—on something completely unproven.

Jillian and the EventShark crew captured it how it really was. Raw, messy, unpolished. More reality TV than B2B.

Episodes go live weekly on YouTube starting in October.

Hold up—what does UserEvidence do again?

Product marketers, marketing leaders, and customer marketers need more than generic testimonials to prove value.

UserEvidence helps create real customer evidence that Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success teams can use to increase buyer confidence.

We make it easy to collect and share case studies, testimonials, competitive intelligence, product stats, and ROI data—proof that helps move deals forward.

Need a stat to prove ROI? A competitive insight to handle objections? A case study that closes the gap between interest and decision?

UserEvidence helps you capture and share the proof buyers need.