Table of contents
As buyer journeys splinter across channels and “dark social,” GTM teams are rethinking how they drive – and measure – pipeline. In our latest research, GTM leaders describe how they’re operating when influence is real but tracking isn’t. Below, 24 contributors share what’s actually working in 2025.
From Attribution to Trust: Relationships as the Real Pipeline Driver
When the data gets blurry, relationships become the clearest metric. These leaders prove that human connection — through client outreach, community building, or simple in-person trust — still drives more pipeline than any attribution model ever could.
“One of the most effective things I’ve done is focus on building strong, authentic relationships with our clients and partners. Rather than relying solely on trackable campaigns, we’ve invested time in being a trusted resource—sharing insights, providing value beyond the immediate project, and showing up consistently. Over time, that trust has led to a steady stream of referrals and introductions that fuel our sales pipeline, even if they don’t tie back neatly to a single campaign or touchpoint.”
— Eryn Veronesi, NDC, Inc.
“[What we’ve done in 2025 and it worked really well in driving sales pipeline is] Reaching out to previous clients. I think we did quality work and the clients don’t remember PR/marketing until it is mentioned.”
— Catharine Montgomery, Better Together Agency
“One of the best things I have ever done was, in 2025, building a private LinkedIn group for decision-makers in our target markets. We did monthly live Q&A sessions with guest experts and never sold our product. Instead, we had problem-solving discussions that established us as a trusted partner.”
— Robert Grunnah, Austin House Buyer
“[What has worked best for us to build trust and drive business is] In-person events, because we do construction and the in-person trust is so important.”
— Naomi Stringfield, Paradigm Energy Services
The Rise of Community-Led Growth
Dark social isn’t a black box — it’s where the real conversations happen. Slack groups, founder communities, and peer networks are now the beating heart of GTM success, where credibility is earned through contribution, not conversion tracking.
“I think partnerships and networking have far exceeded any other channel apart from referrals. We’ve seen how going to certain events and joining some communities for founders specifically has worked really well and driven pipeline well above the rest.”
— Kelsey Donn, UNTAMED
“In 2025, the biggest pipeline driver from community/social marketing has been participating in niche Slack groups and private founder communities. Not pushing services—just giving valuable input. That visibility and trust lead to DMs, referrals, and warm intros.”
— Victor André Enselmann, Modeva
“Invite-only Slack groups centered on engagement have provided the best-quality leads of the year. By being heavily engaged with high-value feedback and contributing original research, I’ve gained credibility that has led to direct inbound messages from decision-makers.”
— Moattar Ali, HARO Link Builder
Founder-Led and Humanized Content Wins the Feed
People trust people, not brands. GTM teams are shifting visibility to founders, subject-matter experts, and customers — using narrative-driven posts, authentic storytelling, and thought leadership to replace click tracking with real engagement.
“In 2025, we’ve leaned heavily into founder-led content on LinkedIn, and it has become one of our most effective pipeline drivers, even though we can’t track every interaction with perfect attribution.”
— Martin Hadzhiev, Lumina Studio Marketing
“[How we’ve adapted our strategy to stay effective despite declining SEO traffic is] A shift to founder-led content, more storytelling and increasing investments in video, email marketing and distribution through a network of partner sites is where we are placing our bets.”
— Jordie van Rijn, emailmonday
“[What’s been driving our best engagement and pipeline results is] Team and customer organic thought leadership content on LinkedIn. People listen to people more than companies.”
— Allie Smith, Sequel.io
“I think our increased presence on preferred social platforms has directly contributed to increased pipeline, but with the rise of no-click content it’s nearly impossible to directly source what’s happening.”
— Megann Coleman, Root3 Labs
The Return of Quality, Not Quantity
Marketers are trading high-volume activity for high-intent precision. Whether through ABM, strategic partnerships, or meticulous ICP alignment, the focus has shifted from chasing leads to designing scalable, measurable impact.
“After baselining the ICP, Positioning, and Messaging, I focused on enabling the right inbound and outbound through eight strategic tracks — from website redesign to strategic partnerships — ensuring sequencing and execution were perfectly timed.”
— Dinesh Gurupur, Yeedu
“As paid PPC costs rise we have found success in generating high quality search traffic which has led to an offset in costs. It has taken time but we are now seeing good results.”
— Manav Mehra, Wagman Digital
“One of the most effective things we’ve done recently has been doubling down on Account-Based Marketing (ABM), events, and strategic gifting. Rather than relying on broad outreach, we’ve focused on being hyper-personalized and creating meaningful, one-to-one connections with decision-makers.”
— Karie Barrett, QAT Global
“Marketing is shifting to hyper-personalization. What we at DesignRush do is test every process manually before finding an automation tool to scale it. For cold sales pipeline, it’s important to follow the basics, but fact-check every part of the process and pay attention to utmost detail: Define ICP, create contact lists that MAKE SENSE and templates that are short & simple, but provide enough value to create a hook.”
— Gianluca Ferruggia, DesignRush
Dark Social and Untrackable Influence
Marketers are embracing what they can’t measure. Whether it’s webinars, conferences, or AI-driven visibility, these leaders show that trust built in unseen channels is increasingly the source of the strongest, most qualified pipeline.
“Way back in 2025, doubling down on thought-leadership webinars to niche buyer communities has been one of the most effective things I’ve done to drive sales pipeline.”
— Ryan Whitcher, Harmony Home Buyers
“Attending conferences has been a huge win for us, but I cannot prove the exact numbers. Quite a lot of people tell us they saw us at a conference half a year ago or heard one of our C-level speakers during an event.”
— Austin Heaton, Riseworks
“This year we implemented AI-driven optimization of our website, and it turned out to be one of the most impactful steps for driving pipeline. We focused on adapting content and metadata for AI search engines (like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity), not just traditional Google SEO. Even though attribution is not always perfect — many leads come in saying they “found us through AI tools” without specifying the exact query — we could still trace a noticeable increase in inbound requests and higher-quality opportunities after rolling out these changes.”
— Daria Holoskokova, Whimsy Games Group LTD
“I leaned in most heavily this year into interacting with niche online communities where my target audience was already congregated. Instead of pushing hard-sell messages aggressively, I responded to questions, provided relevant case studies, and introduced individuals to valuable resources.”
— Adam Watson, Hollywood Mirrors
The Power of Alignment and Consistency
The most effective GTM teams aren’t chasing one-off wins — they’re building unified systems where marketing, sales, and content reinforce each other. Alignment is now the new growth engine.
“[What’s worked well to align our GTM motion is] Aligning sales efforts with the content efforts. The content speaks to our ICP, LinkedIn outbound/social selling to nurture and drive ICP to realm of influence, and then do multi-touchpoints with a cold call.”
— Manny Jassal, Extra Sauce Agency
“In our marketing, we’ve been laser-focused on getting our GTM messaging tightly focused on problem-solution awareness for B2B company marketing campaigns.”
— Paul Clinton, The Write Way, Inc.
“Over the past 8 years, we primarily relied on inbound marketing to generate leads and drive revenue. However, starting in 2024, we made a strategic investment in outbound efforts—targeted outreach, ABM campaigns, and personalized messaging.”
— Jonathan Aufray, Growth Hackers
“Tracking engagement volume between conversion stages has helped us prioritize leads and deals. We’ve analyzed historical averages for Won and Lost deals, so we can compare and focus on prospects that are engaging above historical averages.”
— Alex Lee, Intellect
Authenticity Still Converts
Even as attribution fades, authenticity cuts through. From raw customer videos to unfiltered honesty, the most credible marketing right now comes from being real — and audiences reward it.
“One thing I’ve done that’s really moved the needle for our sales pipeline at my company is leaning hard into short, raw video testimonials from happy customers. I can’t track every click or conversion perfectly, but man, it’s worked like a charm. I think people trust real people nowadays.”
— Rich Kingly, Driveway King
“[When asked what worked to drive pipeline in 2025, the honest answer is:] Honestly, not much. This year and last year realllly sucked.”
— Tommy Walker, WalkerBots Content Studios LLC
Conclusion
If there’s one throughline in 2025, it’s this: when attribution gets fuzzy, trust, relevance, and presence do the heavy lifting.
Founder-led storytelling. Precision over volume. Communities over cold clicks.
And orchestration that respects how people actually buy.
