Jennifer Wang is the VP of Marketing at the B2B marketing firm 2X. From writing at Entrepreneur Magazine to teaching English in Japan to helping build 2X from the ground up, Jennifer’s career has taken her to some exciting places, and she’s picked up plenty of expertise along the way. We spoke with Jennifer on her start in journalism, trends in B2B marketing, and the power of entrepreneurship.
Talk a bit about yourself and your background
I went to Duke and double-majored in English and economics. I worked for some business publications throughout the country, starting in a magazine published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. I worked in Long Beach, California at the Long Beach Business Journal, worked as a business reporter at the OC Register and became involved in trying to start a new branch of the paper called the LA Register. It didn’t work out, but it was so much fun. The most fun I’ve had was being a writer at Entrepreneur Magazine. It made me drink the Kool Aid of how I needed to get out of writing and go find a cool startup that was going to be super successful. So I was roaming around trying to find this elusive, cool startup and ended up in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and about a year in I got this LinkedIn message from a company called 2X. We started as five people in a closet-sized coworking space. Now there are more than 600 of us, and we’re growing our US office because we just got a big round of investment.
Overall, I’ve been looking for ways to keep learning and growing. I even took a year off to go teach English in Japan, which was awesome. I think if you just do good work, wherever you are, you’ll find your place eventually.
What’s your relationship with John and how have you worked with Jmac?
John and I did a story together when I was a writer at Entrepreneur. I’ve worked with many PR professionals, and the ones who actually stand out are hard to forget. So, when I came back to the US to start the Marketing department for 2X, one of the tasks I was given was to find a PR agency to increase media relations and brand awareness. We started with Jmac in the middle of April and we’ve gotten a lot of traction already. The CEO of 2X has been incredibly happy with all the mentions, including The Wall Street Journal and a really nice Q&A with Authority Magazine, which he says is one of the best things he’s ever seen written about him. Jmac has also helped us win industry awards and get into some benchmarking reports. They really made us a player in this game where we had no expertise, and they knew the landscape quite well.
Do you have a career accomplishment that you’re most proud of?
When I started at 2X, I was just a writer and solo contributor. By the time I began my new role as head of marketing earlier this year, the content team was over 60, and now it’s over 90. I’m proud of being able to hire and work with amazing, smart people. Together we created a scalable, sustainable team where people are happy, retention is high, and churn is low. And during the last meeting I had with the senior managers, I didn’t have to say a word. So I guess you could say my greatest career accomplishment is making myself redundant so that I could take on this other role to help the business grow.
But maybe the bigger accomplishment is that I also managed to burn through two passports and get yoga certs and diving certs while I was doing all of this. I built something with a bunch of people that I really liked, and I also had a life. I feel like that’s the best you could ask for.
What are some of the more notable trends you’re seeing in the B2B marketing space right now?
There are two important things that I’m seeing. First is a real need for value articulation. You hear a lot about how CFOs and CMOs don’t necessarily see eye to eye. There’s this feeling that marketing is a cost center, that you’re always scrambling for budget. I think that suggests a need to understand how to take data and create stories. And second, marketers need to figure out how they contribute to revenue. I don’t think of my role as different from any other revenue role. At the end of the day, I need to create pipeline and help convert it. I care about having great ideas and great content and knowing how to use AI, but it should also lead to more revenue. And if it doesn’t, then maybe you’re not telling the story quite right, or you’re not using all the tools you have at your disposal. I think the better marketers are at analyzing the data in a way that’s insightful, the easier it is for the business to make decisions properly, and the better off we’re all going to be.
Do you have any predictions for where the B2B marketing space might be headed?
I’m fairly new to this role, but the entire industry is in a state of flux. What used to work doesn’t anymore, and honestly, I think we’re all just trying to figure it out. I have no predictions other than that change will continue to come. Whether it’s AI, a different operating model, or some other shift in technology, I think the companies and marketers who are going to succeed are the ones who will actually embrace those changes and look for smart ways to adapt to them.
