Human-First Marketing: Why It's Crushing Traditional Channels with Sendoso's Katie Penner
04/25/25 • 19 min
I am always looking for ways to improve. Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! - Kevin
Watch the video version of this podcast on YouTube.
Katie Penner, Head of Sender Relations at Sendoso, takes us deep into how gifting is transforming B2B marketing by delivering remarkable results where digital channels fall short. With 64% of marketers struggling to hit revenue targets with current budgets, the renewed interest in thoughtful, human-first marketing approaches couldn't be more timely.
What makes modern gifting so powerful? Katie reveals how strategic gifting delivers a 4x return on investment and accelerates sales cycles by 29% when integrated properly. The key distinction she emphasizes is moving beyond transactional gifting to relationship-building approaches that connect with prospects as actual humans. Today's buyers crave this personalization—71% expect personalized interactions and 76% get frustrated without them.
Katie walks us through exactly how Sendoso integrates with marketing technology ecosystems including Salesforce, HubSpot, Clay, and Gong to create automated yet deeply personalized gifting moments throughout the buyer journey. From pre-demo coffee gift cards to help break through inbox clutter, to thoughtfully selected items based on a prospect's personal interests, these touchpoints create meaningful connections in an increasingly digital world.
Looking toward the future, Katie shares how AI is revolutionizing gifting by enabling true personalization at scale. Imagine AI agents that can identify when an account has gone cold, suggest the perfect gift based on a prospect's interests scraped from social media, and deliver it at exactly the right moment—all without adding to your team's workload. The possibilities for creating genuine human connections while maintaining efficiency are tremendously exciting.
Want to implement effective gifting strategies today? Visit sendoso.com/playbooks for free, ungated resources with proven playbooks you can adapt for your business.
Connect with Katie on LinkedIn or email her at [email protected] to learn more about transforming your marketing approach with the power of human connection.
🎧 Tech Marketing Rewired is hosted by Kevin Kerner, founder of Mighty & True.
New episodes drop regularly with unfiltered conversations from the frontlines of B2B and tech marketing.
Catch the video version of the podcast on our YouTube channel.
👉 Subscribe, share, and connect with us at www.mightyandtrue.com
📩 Got a guest idea or question? Email us at [email protected]
🔗 Follow Kevin on LinkedIn for more insights and behind-the-scenes takes.
📰 Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at: Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at: https://kevinkerner.substack.com/
📰 Want more tech marketing insights? Subscribe to the Drag & Drop newsletter for fresh thinking, real talk, and tools that make your job easier.
I am always looking for ways to improve. Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! - Kevin
Watch the video version of this podcast on YouTube.
Katie Penner, Head of Sender Relations at Sendoso, takes us deep into how gifting is transforming B2B marketing by delivering remarkable results where digital channels fall short. With 64% of marketers struggling to hit revenue targets with current budgets, the renewed interest in thoughtful, human-first marketing approaches couldn't be more timely.
What makes modern gifting so powerful? Katie reveals how strategic gifting delivers a 4x return on investment and accelerates sales cycles by 29% when integrated properly. The key distinction she emphasizes is moving beyond transactional gifting to relationship-building approaches that connect with prospects as actual humans. Today's buyers crave this personalization—71% expect personalized interactions and 76% get frustrated without them.
Katie walks us through exactly how Sendoso integrates with marketing technology ecosystems including Salesforce, HubSpot, Clay, and Gong to create automated yet deeply personalized gifting moments throughout the buyer journey. From pre-demo coffee gift cards to help break through inbox clutter, to thoughtfully selected items based on a prospect's personal interests, these touchpoints create meaningful connections in an increasingly digital world.
Looking toward the future, Katie shares how AI is revolutionizing gifting by enabling true personalization at scale. Imagine AI agents that can identify when an account has gone cold, suggest the perfect gift based on a prospect's interests scraped from social media, and deliver it at exactly the right moment—all without adding to your team's workload. The possibilities for creating genuine human connections while maintaining efficiency are tremendously exciting.
Want to implement effective gifting strategies today? Visit sendoso.com/playbooks for free, ungated resources with proven playbooks you can adapt for your business.
Connect with Katie on LinkedIn or email her at [email protected] to learn more about transforming your marketing approach with the power of human connection.
🎧 Tech Marketing Rewired is hosted by Kevin Kerner, founder of Mighty & True.
New episodes drop regularly with unfiltered conversations from the frontlines of B2B and tech marketing.
Catch the video version of the podcast on our YouTube channel.
👉 Subscribe, share, and connect with us at www.mightyandtrue.com
📩 Got a guest idea or question? Email us at [email protected]
🔗 Follow Kevin on LinkedIn for more insights and behind-the-scenes takes.
📰 Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at: Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at: https://kevinkerner.substack.com/
📰 Want more tech marketing insights? Subscribe to the Drag & Drop newsletter for fresh thinking, real talk, and tools that make your job easier.
Previous Episode
High-Impact ABM Starts with Sales Thinking: Bolton Graham on Where ABM Goes Next
I am always looking for ways to improve. Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! - Kevin
View the video version of the podcast here
The term "account-based marketing" gets thrown around so casually these days that its meaning has become diluted. Is ABM just targeted advertising to a list of accounts, or is it something deeper? According to Bolton Graham, Head of Marketing at JRNI, we've moved past the golden age of ABM into what he calls a "dark age" where everything is labeled ABM without the personalization that made it special.
Bolton brings a wealth of perspective from his time building ABM programs from scratch, scaling them across organizations, and now applying these principles at Journey. What makes his insights particularly valuable is his candid assessment of what works and what doesn't when taking the one-to-one approach with high-value accounts.
He argues that the best ABM practitioners occupy a unique space between sales and marketing—they need the analytical mind of a marketer with the relationship-building hunger of a salesperson. In fact, Bolton makes the provocative suggestion that perhaps ABM roles should include commission structures similar to sales positions.
Beyond the philosophical discussion, Bolton shares tactical advice on launching successful ABM initiatives, from managing the relationship with sales teams to defending your program from the inevitable pressure to scale beyond what's effective. He highlights the potential of "pattern interrupts" like direct mail, billboards, and in-person events as increasingly valuable tools as digital channels become saturated with AI-generated content.
As Bolton puts it, "The personal connection angle is going to be one of the last things we're left with."
Whether you're just starting your ABM journey or looking to refocus your existing program, this conversation offers fresh perspectives on an approach that, when done right, still delivers exceptional results for B2B marketers targeting high-value accounts. Connect with Bolton on LinkedIn to continue the conversation about the future of marketing in an increasingly noisy digital landscape.
Connect with Bolton on LinkedIn or check out his company, JRNI
🎧 Tech Marketing Rewired is hosted by Kevin Kerner, founder of Mighty & True.
New episodes drop regularly with unfiltered conversations from the frontlines of B2B and tech marketing.
Catch the video version of the podcast on our YouTube channel.
👉 Subscribe, share, and connect with us at www.mightyandtrue.com
📩 Got a guest idea or question? Email us at [email protected]
🔗 Follow Kevin on LinkedIn for more insights and behind-the-scenes takes.
📰 Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at: Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at: https://kevinkerner.substack.com/
📰 Want more tech marketing insights? Subscribe to the Drag & Drop newsletter for fresh thinking, real talk, and tools that make your job easier.
Next Episode
Why Cutting Brand Is Costing You More Than You Think with Omar Akhtar of Benchmarker
I am always looking for ways to improve. Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! - Kevin
Want to know the real secret behind high-growth SaaS companies? It's not what most marketers think.
When Omar Akhtar, founder of Benchmarker, surveyed 250+ B2B SaaS companies about their marketing spending patterns, he discovered something counterintuitive: the highest-performing companies split their marketing budgets almost equally between brand and demand generation activities (48% brand, 52% demand). Meanwhile, underperforming organizations were dramatically overinvesting in demand gen (65-70%) while neglecting brand (30-35%).
This revelation challenges the prevailing wisdom in tech marketing, where demand generation frequently dominates budget conversations and brand activities are often seen as "nice to have" luxuries. As Omar explains in our conversation, "Brand is the foundation upon which demand generation succeeds... it might be difficult to measure what it's doing when it's there, but look at what happens when it's not there."
Our discussion dives deep into how company size, funding structure (VC vs PE), and target market (enterprise vs SMB) affect marketing budget allocation. We explore why private-equity-backed companies tend to slash brand spending first, how enterprise-selling organizations allocate resources differently, and the surprising volatility of product-led growth models compared to sales-led approaches.
Perhaps most provocatively, Omar suggests that marketing attribution systems—the dashboards and software many CMOs rely on to justify their existence—might be among the least valuable tools in the marketing arsenal. Instead, focusing on straightforward activity metrics and competitive benchmarks could provide more actionable intelligence with less overhead.
Whether you're a tech CMO trying to justify brand investments to your CFO, a startup founder balancing growth priorities, or a marketer wondering if your budget allocations are aligned with market leaders, this conversation will fundamentally change how you think about marketing investment strategies.
Follow Omar on LinkedIn to contribute questions to his upcoming research on channel performance metrics, or visit benchmarkerdata.com to explore his latest research.
🎧 Tech Marketing Rewired is hosted by Kevin Kerner, founder of Mighty & True.
New episodes drop regularly with unfiltered conversations from the frontlines of B2B and tech marketing.
Catch the video version of the podcast on our YouTube channel.
👉 Subscribe, share, and connect with us at www.mightyandtrue.com
📩 Got a guest idea or question? Email us at [email protected]
🔗 Follow Kevin on LinkedIn for more insights and behind-the-scenes takes.
📰 Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at: Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at: https://kevinkerner.substack.com/
📰 Want more tech marketing insights? Subscribe to the Drag & Drop newsletter for fresh thinking, real talk, and tools that make your job easier.
Tech Marketing Rewired - Human-First Marketing: Why It's Crushing Traditional Channels with Sendoso's Katie Penner
Transcript
Hey everyone , this is Kevin Kerner with Tech Marketing Rewired . If you think gifting is just a gimmick , this episode might change your mind . I sat down with Katie Penner , who's head of sender relations at Sendoso , and we got into why human-first marketing isn't just fluff it's outperforming traditional channels . We talked about how gifting can drive a four-times ROI when it's d
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