Welcome back to Marketing Qualified! Here’s what we’re talking about this week:

• Proof that all the marketing “rules” are fake. How one company is winning by ignoring what they’re supposed to do.

• This job post caused big buzz. PayPal is hiring a Head of CEO Content.

🥸 Proof that all the marketing “rules” are fake.

B2B marketers get bogged down by unspoken “rules.”

“Always keep it professional.”

“Don’t be polarizing.”

“Keep your site clean and skimmable.”

“Make forms as simple as possible.”

And on and on.

But here’s the thing… all that is made up.

There are no real rules

We’ll prove it.

Meet Icon.com —  the AI ad-making platform throwing all the B2B marketing “rules” out the window.

The results?

• 300K+ monthly visitors

• $0 to $5M ARR in 30 days

• Aiming for a SaaS world record of $100M in 9 months

This is their homepage:

It’s busy. A lot of words. Clashing images. Not skimmable. The hero image is a woman in a red bikini.

This is their pricing page:

It looks like an ecomm product page, not a SaaS pricing page. Uses memes. Super dense. A product tier called “Premium Banana.”

This is their demo request page:

Overwhelming. A ton of places to click off to other pages. Not a 1-2 field form.

This is how they show their founder:

Wearing a taco-cats in outer space hoodie.

You get the picture.

When it comes to B2B marketing “rules,” Icon is breaking all of them.

But it’s working.

Their site is converting. They’re making money. They’re growing like crazy.

It’s a good reminder for all B2B marketers: All the “rules” are BS.

There’s no one path. There’s no “right way.”

All kinds of approaches can drive results. And oftentimes, it’s the ones who are willing to do things differently that end up winning in the end.

So try new things. Push the envelope. Test a lot.

Numbers don’t lie. If it converts, then it works. No matter how many “rules” you break along the way.

📰  In the news this week.

⛴  As tariffs hit, big companies double down on marketing.

🧠  How GenAI is changing SEO marketing.

😰  YouTube’s cross-platform takeover is putting pressure on creators.

🧱 Stop renting your data. Start building with it.

🔍 The future of search: What buyers really want.

💼  This job post caused big buzz.

This job post by PayPal caused a big stir on marketing-LinkedIn the past few weeks.

The call for CXOs building their personal brands as a form of marketing has been increasing in popularity for several years now.

Especially among smaller businesses and startups with limited marketing budgets.

So it’s interesting to see this tactic move upstream to a major company with millions in annual marketing spend.

We’re eager to see what other large companies follow suit.

😂 Marketing meme of the week.

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