Don't build a marketing team that needs a counsellor. Build a leader who can take the heat.
Victoria Dyke Co-Founder, Ziggy
Interviewed by John Horsley
Published
Victoria Dyke is Co-Founder of Ziggy, the B2B marketing agency she scaled to multi-million revenue within a few years, working with brands including Stripe, Bloomreach, and Canon. She launched the business while pregnant with her first child. In this conversation she sets out the obsession with revenue and commercial accountability thesis; the next customer will be a bot observation; the full bowtie demand model from future-demand creation through to expansion and LTV; and the opportunity volume is the wrong metric; win-rate ratios matter insight.
A thesis built on commercial accountability
On the founding idea.
We had a really clear thesis. We were obsessed about revenue, moving the needle around client outcomes and commercial value, becoming accountable and aligned to what clients' goals looked like.
The luck on top of that: market demand. When we launched, the picture was about efficient growth. Growth-at-all-costs was over. Boards were scrutinising marketing budgets, CMO tenures were low, and there was a real requirement for a more commercial language in marketing. We worked with big enterprise brands from the off who needed the commercial rigour to protect and grow their marketing budgets.
The next customer is a bot
On AI-driven discovery.
Around 79% of B2B buyers now arrive well-researched. Buyer behaviour is changing. You are attracting people who already know far more about you than they used to. You have to learn to exist in that space: stop the isolation of brand and performance, integrate them, rebalance. The B2B enterprise companies moving fastest understand they do more than capture intent. They are creating future demand.
A surge in better SEO and Generative Engine Optimisation activity is tackling that space. A creative cross-over between what B2C does and what B2B does is emerging: standing out, capturing audience attention.
On the creative cross-over.
More fun. More creativity. More licence to play. More disruption. More on-demand, in-the-moment content versus big polished launches. Many clients who have got the commercial rigour right are now building big quarterly moments on top: PR-led big events, almost like billboards and guerrilla advertising in B2B.
Opportunity volume is the wrong metric
On the inflexion point in measurement.
A typical B2B marketer looks at the funnel and reports volume at each stage. Many go wrong here. Leadership is interested in ratios: opportunity-to-closed-won, win rates. Once you start talking about how marketing is affecting the win rate on pipeline, you have a much more interesting conversation and more predictable growth.
On the full bowtie model.
A full bowtie that runs from awareness pieces (future demand) through intent capture (opportunity, win rates, pipeline, revenue) and into the post-sale: expansion plays, retention plays, lifetime value. Real growth comes from that integration.
The danger of optimising at the performance level only: strategically missing the right moves. A US-based software client was winning pipeline and closing in a particular segment. When we dug in, the companies they were winning were churning within the first 12 months. In software that is not great. Not real growth. Not profit growth. Move to looking at unit economics and the strategy changes.
Founding while pregnant: clarity under real pressure
On the founder moment.
Being pregnant gave me a clarity I might not otherwise have had. Big life-change moments force you to confront what truly matters and be honest about what you are good at and what tools you have personally. Life is chaotic with small children. The problem-solving instinct is at its highest under real pressure. Parents get very good at prioritising, making decisions with incomplete information, and staying calm.
The distinction: confidence and calculated risk versus blind leap of faith. Build a runway of time, finance, and confidence about what would happen if it did not work, rather than just going for it.
On the reality of the founder day.
Never just one big hard thing. Lots of small decisions and trade-offs every single day. One moment a decision defining the next stage of growth; the next, signing off someone's expenses. Nobody really tells you about how much of that lives within your nervous system. That is what makes founders exceptional: you learn to manage that genuinely, not performatively.
Building systems that replicate judgement
On scaling Ziggy.
My job fundamentally changed. To building systems that can replicate my judgement, rather than substitute it. Scaling an agency quickly is boring and unglamorous. Strong processes, clear principles, a team that understands what you do and why you are doing it.
Ziggy is fully remote (born in COVID). Culture has to be built intentionally without the organic texture of shared office life. We create what we call Top Gun moments where people play and have fun. Tackles the people dynamics. Be a leader, not a counsellor.
On the advice.
Get obsessed with outcomes. The marketers who will thrive over the next decade care deeply about the change that is a result of their work, over and above what they produced.
If you are thinking about starting something, do it with conviction. Do not wait for the conditions to be perfect. Believe in your ambition. Lean into the outcomes you are going to achieve, not into what you produced to get there.
The question for the board
If win-rate ratios and LTV predict profitable growth, what share of marketing spend serves the full bowtie versus chases opportunity volume that churns within twelve months?
