Scaling B2B Marketing at an AI Startup: Channels, Strategy, and Team Ops with Holly Xiao

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#270 Strategy | Dave is joined by Holly Xiao, Head of B2B Marketing at HeyGen, an AI video generation platform that helps teams produce personalized, high-quality content, fast. Holly has led marketing at high-growth startups and now runs the enterprise GTM motion at HeyGen, where she blends strategy, creative execution, and AI-powered workflows to reach modern B2B buyers.

Dave and Holly cover:

The 4 channels her lean team is betting on to drive enterprise pipeline (and what’s not working anymore)
How B2B marketers are using AI video for event marketing, sales enablement, onboarding, and beyond
Why SEO is falling short and how HeyGen is shifting focus to webinars, events, and YouTube instead

If you’re figuring out how to use AI in your marketing or just trying to do more with less, this one’s full of practical ideas to help you think differently about team structure, channels, and strategy.

Timestamps

(00:00) - – Intro
(03:08) - – Holly’s nonlinear path to marketing
(06:08) - – Getting started in marketing ops
(08:08) - – Why she joined an AI startup
(10:08) - – How HeyGen’s marketing org works
(13:08) - – PLG vs SLG: Key differences
(15:08) - – The 4 channels driving pipeline
(17:08) - – What’s working: Events + webinars
(19:08) - – Booth strategy that stands out
(23:43) - – Brand vs demand events
(25:43) - – Building community and user events
(27:13) - – SEO is declining. Now what?
(29:43) - – Running marketing in 2-month sprints
(32:43) - – Aligning product and marketing cadence
(34:43) - – Her daily AI tools
(36:13) - – ChatGPT vs Gemini workflows
(37:43) - – Real AI video use cases
(39:43) - – Personalized event promos with avatars
(40:43) - – Support, training, and onboarding videos
(41:43) - – Fortune telling and music videos?!
(42:43) - – Why AI won’t replace marketers

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