Building trust in B2B marketing with agentic AI

Building trust in B2B marketing with agentic AI

Discover how ROI·DNA’s Gina Inks uses agentic AI to scale B2B marketing, boost pipeline performance, and build lasting buyer trust in a zero-click world.

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Apple Podcast LinkGoogle Podcast LinkSpotify Podcast Link

This episode features an interview with Gina Inks, Head of Marketing at ROI·DNA, a full-service B2B marketing agency helping brands solve for visibility, trust, and performance in today’s zero-click, AI-driven world.

Gina shares how ROI·DNA and its parent company, Hotwire Global, are using agentic AI and proprietary tools (like Spark, Ignite, and Radiate) to help clients stay discoverable in large language models, accelerate personalization at scale, and strengthen brand trust across every stage of the buyer journey.

She also discusses how her team integrated ROI’er, their AI SDR powered by Qualified, to scale inbound engagement, supercharge qualification, and uncover deeper data insights that inform messaging, content, and personas.

Throughout the conversation, Gina and Sarah unpack what it takes to build systems of accountability and trust in the agentic era, why personalization alone won’t be a long-term differentiator, and how measurement and attribution are evolving in a zero-click world.

Key Takeaways

  • Trust is the new differentiator. As personalization becomes table stakes, marketers who build credibility and authenticity across every buyer touchpoint will win in the agentic era.

  • Agentic AI drives visibility in LLMs. Tools like Spark and Radiate help brands understand where and how they’re cited, improving discoverability and boosting citations in AI search.

  • AI SDRs scale inbound engagement. ROI’er, ROI·DNA’s AI SDR, automates qualification and follow-up, giving human SDRs more time to focus on outbound and strategic conversations.

  • Data clarity fuels better marketing. By analyzing how prospects engage, ROI·DNA refines messaging, strengthens personas, and keeps content fresh and relevant.

  • Measurement must evolve. As B2B buyer behavior changes, success will depend on redefining metrics and attribution models to reflect trust, intent, and agentic impact.

TRANSCRIPT

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Gina, thank you so much for joining me on The Agentic Marketer where we're taking a peek into today's leaders’ tech stacks and AI strategy to learn how you're using AI agents to hit your pipeline targets. But before we dive in, I'd love to learn a little bit more about you and ROI·DNA.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, thank you for having me today. I'm the head of marketing at ROI·DNA. We are a full service B2B marketing agency. We've been around for over 15 years. specialize, we do everything, but we specialize in ABX strategy, digital marketing, SEO, web creative. But more recently, we've really been focused on helping our clients solve some of the bigger challenges that have come up.

From entering this zero-click AI-driven world and really helping us solve for some of those problems with gaining visibility, trust, and ranking.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Yeah, I feel like anyone that's listening to this probably is feeling that pain of the zero click AI world. So I'm super excited to dig into a little bit more because it sounds like you just have so much experience with this world and where we're going with agentic and with AI. So with that being said, I'm curious, how would you define agentic marketing? Like, what does that mean to you?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, I think agentic marketing to me is definitely more about creating systems that can act on behalf of the marketer. So it's not just about, you know, automating one-off tasks and things like that, but it's really about leaning in with agentic AI to, you know, create outcomes, make decisions, learn and truly give marketers back.

Our most precious resource, which is time and the ability to really focus on the strategy and the creativity side of things.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
That is incredibly true. And gosh, don't we wish we just had more time in the day. So recently, Gina, we named you to our top 30 Agentech marketers to watch list, which congratulations. I feel like that was a very well-deserved honor.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Thank.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
The main focus of that list is we wanted to bring in marketers who were moving beyond like experimentation of AI and we're making it central to how they operate on day to day. So with that being said, I'm curious, what did you have to do at ROI·DNA to like really make that leap from experimentation to leading with it and having it be a really integral part of your marketing team?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, I think that that's question that comes up a lot. Like how do you move from experimentation to like making this like a true part of your systems? And I think it really starts with, you know, building a system of accountability, governance and measurement really early. And then of course having full alignment and adoption.

We do a lot of ABX, ABM work. And if you're a marketer and you're doing ABM, you know it's not just any one department or groups decision. It has to be an ecosystem with operations, exec team, marketing. And that's really how we approach agentic marketing and agentic AI as well. But really, think going from experimenting and using it one off, you have to have that system in place in order to really.

Measure and see the benefits and get buy-in as a team.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Totally. And I'm curious, I think you have such a unique perspective because not only are you working internally as a head of marketing, but I'm sure you're working with a ton of other marketing teams as an agency. So where do you see AI and agents show up most visibly within your own organization or organizations that you're working with? And like, where are they seeing value with AI and agents?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, think ROI is actually pretty unique in the fact that we have our own proprietary AI tools that run on agentic AI to kind of solve some of those issues I mentioned earlier. So we actually, in conjunction with our parent company Hotwire Global, we have our AI innovation AI lab. And we've actually put out a couple of proprietary tools that help kind of solve these issues.

I think we're unique in the fact that yes, we do work with lot of customers who are grappling with this, but we've also kind of started getting ahead of the market and really shaping the outcomes ourselves through those tools. We have a couple of things. One of our first tools is our ROI·DNA Spark, which helps solve for visibility in LLMs. So it helps in conjunction with our blueprint, our AI results blueprint. We help kind of map out.

Where you stand in LLMs and how your brand is being cited, if it's ranking, if there's trust there and what LLMs are saying. And we kind of give a blueprint to gaining better visibility and boosting citations and things like that. So it really helps with search discoverability, especially as we see a zero-click world start to come to fruition and some of that really start to take shape.

Some of the other things that we do, have Ignite, is a ABX personalization at scale. So it really helps take account research, market research from weeks down to, or from months down to weeks, and really helps you kind of get that true personalization on a one-to-one level. And then we have Radiate, which is a agentic tool that analyzes all the content and makes sure that it's going to help you rank and help.

Be cited in LLM. So there's a lot there, but it's like, you know, using these tools really help us. It's like having an extra strategist embedded into everything we're doing across ABX and really help kind of make efficiencies and move quicker and get the right data.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Yeah, I love that you guys are focusing on that LLM and citations and rankings. I know from like personal experience and talking to other peers, that's just like such a hot topic right now. And going back to that zero click world, it just feels so nebulous and hard to understand. So I love that ROI is really focusing on that and bringing in like AI and agents into that world. So you've piqued my interest there.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, it's that I mean, we've seen, you know, through external research in the market, and then through our own aggregated customer research, we've seen clicks drop off. And, you know, it's a very real issue right now for a lot of marketers really trying to understand where to go in this landscape.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Totally. Now I have one more question before we like dive more into your tech stack and get a little bit deeper into the questions here, but do you have a hot take about AI and marketing that most people wouldn't agree with?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, that's a good question. I think it could go a lot of ways here, but I think right now personalization, when we talk about that in ABX, think right now that personalization is a differentiator right now for a lot of companies, because I think a lot of people still struggle to do it right and do it well. But in the very near future, that's not going to be a differentiator at all. And it's going to be just table stakes, know, through tools like.

Radiate and even our competitors like Profound and things like that, it's going to be more common that we'll see that in the market. And when different when when that differentiator becomes obsolete or it's just the norm, what will replace that? And in my opinion, that's going to be trust. And that's going to be like the new currency for marketers, because that's not just something you build at.

The consideration phase or at the bottom of the funnel. That's something that goes all the way back up to the top of the funnel and very early every touch point with your brand is going to broker and leverage trust in this new future.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
I love that answer and I could not agree more. think trust, especially as AI is just helping us create more and like do more content and like, yes, it has so many benefits, but having to build trust in your brand I think is paramount. So that is, I agree with you. Shifting gears a little bit here into your current tech stack and what you're using. So you guys hired Piper, the AISDR agent, which is very exciting.

I am curious to learn from you, what was it about having an AISDR that appealed to you and the team and made you lean in to bring in an AISDR onto your team?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, well, we're an agency and we're a very small team on our growth and marketing team. So we definitely needed a way to scale our inbound efforts and really take it to the next level. And obviously with Piper, we have an AISCR that is an extension of our team. she's, we actually named her ROI’er because if you work at ROI·DNA where we consider ourselves ROI’ers, so it's natural that our Piper is ROI’er. And so she really just.

As an extension of our team and really helps us scale that outreach and focus on, let our human SCRs focus on outbound and really supplementing what they're doing with the inbound leads that are coming in.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
It's so fun to talk to customers and hear the different names that they've given to their Piper or the AISDR. And I think ROI might be my new favorite one.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
We were like, that's a no brainer, she has to be ROI.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Okay, so on your team, what human task did Piper replace or supercharge? Like, has she fully replaced certain tasks or is she just like supercharging certain things within your organization?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, I think she definitely with the top of the funnel qualification for us that is just completely owned by Piper and she's really supercharged that effort. Also personalized meeting follow-up, personalized follow-ups, I'm sorry, and meeting scheduling for us doing all of that, kind of taking that off of our team. And then the big thing for us is really that kind of just giving our new prospects a bit of.

Initial product service line education, if you will. So I think, you know, that was something we rely on like, they're just going to browse the website and know what to look for, what they're interested in. But Piper's really just taken that to the next level. And not only are our inbound leads kind of coming in with a better understanding of what we do, what they're looking for, what service line they want to kind of focus on, but obviously through the data that.

Piper helps us get clarity around. We've actually been able to come into that conversation with just a little bit more knowledge as well.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
I love that and I think, you know, Piper or ROI’er, I think getting more pipeline and working those top of funnel, I think is a very prominent use case of what teams are looking for when they bring her on. But is there anything unexpected that Piper or ROI’er helped unlock for your team?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, I would say like, obviously we expected the efficiencies and the time back and all of that, but we got more data clarity, which I think was a big unlock that like we weren't really expecting or to that level anyway. Like I kind of hinted at, we get such great insights that really just help us refine our messaging, our personas, even our content strategy. think it illuminates some areas where we, you know, realize we need to beef up or we, you know, we see how.

Actual prospects are engaging with and what their feedback is around certain areas. It's like an ever evolving ongoing way to keep your content fresh and responsive to the ways that your buyers are ingesting it.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Totally, I feel like we've run into the exact same thing and it was such an unexpected use case that we weren't really thinking of. So it's good to hear that ROI has found that same benefit of bringing on Piper.

Now, when you think about bringing on an AISDR or honestly just any agent when you think about it from a marketing perspective, and again, I think you bring such a unique POV because you work with so many other teams and marketers, who do you think needs to be convinced internally when you're trying to bring on these agents?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, I think, know, for, like I mentioned before, there's always that buying center, that buying system, a group of people who need to have buy in for us. You know, we've always been a huge supporter of Qualified and we've seen the actual numbers and the data that really highlights the win. I think for a lot of our clients, so when they're considering either Qualified or any other kind of agentic tool, they really need to be able to show quick wins and tangible metrics.

And I think that's what's so beautiful about Piper is that that's all built in and part of what you can really, it makes measurements so easy. And so I think that's the people who need convincing, it's always going to be around metrics and actual revenue, right? So that's kind of where we focus that in on.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Yeah, I definitely agree with that. It's the people who are asking about like ROI, which not no pun intended, but like what's the ROI? What are the wins? Like how is it actually making an impact at the bottom line? Which I think is so interesting that you say that because I think prior to this AI era and evolution and agentic era, that was always the case. Like I feel like if you're making a new business case for a new tool, it was always you had to prove ROI.

I just think it feels so much different now, but at the crux of it, it still hasn't changed all that much. So it's great to hear you.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yes.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
I guess reaffirm that that is still what you're going to need to bring to your buying committee is like, yes, this is going to make an impact on the metrics that we still care about.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, and we've we've have so many clients who have great case studies through, the first 30, 60, 90 days of using Piper that just, you know, the proof is in the pudding there, as we say. And once you really see what it can do, that unlock is is it kind of it's so easy.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
And we just talked about metrics. Is there a specific metric or metrics that you watch, whether it's at ROI or at your customers to make sure that it's working? Like what is that thing that you can bring to your buying committee and say like, yeah, it's impacting this.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, I think for us, we're looking at a broad swath of metrics. This is what we advise our clients. Do you never look at any one thing to really measure success? You got to look at the big picture, the ecosystem. And for us, we're looking at response rate, especially when we do these big events and things where our inbound naturally will tick up and we have a big flux of people coming to the site.

Maybe your human SCRs aren't going to be able to get to it in time, things like that. Like that's a really good thing to look at right out the gate is how much volume sees consistent. We also look at lower funnel metrics like pipeline opportunities, pipeline velocity, seeing how quickly those things can progress. And then, know, tangentially, we also have like our human SCR efficiency lift and like, how are they feeling? How is this, you know, kind of complimenting and have yet to meet anyone who has not found that to be such a boost to their day-to-day too.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Absolutely. And I sound like a broken record, but I love doing this show. And I like talking to people like you, because again, it reaffirms that the metrics are the same as they were. Like, it's just a new tool to help you get to those metrics and you can scale your team. You don't necessarily need like the same headcount budget, or you can do it at like a much higher scale.

But all the things you're talking about, it's like pipeline and velocity and efficiency of our SDR team. Like those were all metrics.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Every time I talk to customers, I'm always like, it's the same metrics you would have looked at before. You shouldn't just lose sight of those. You're going to want to keep measuring those exact same things and seeing the lift. So I'm glad to hear you say that's what you guys are doing at ROI and with your customers as well.

Now you talked to us at Piper Fest. This was a couple months ago. And you also mentioned it earlier on the show about how AI is reshaping search and buyer behavior. So with that in mind, what do you think is the single biggest change that will happen to B2B marketing in the next 12 months?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
That's yeah, that's a big question. I think a lot. I think in the last 12 months, there has been just massive, significant change to the way that B2B buyers are researching, finding brands, trusting brands, making purchase decisions. I feel like that measurement and attribution hasn't really quite caught up to this new kind of buyer behavior.

And I think over the next year, we're going to see that start to catch up and look at measurement in different ways. I talked a lot about trust earlier on. I think that's going to kind of play a role into things as well. You're going to see kind of some like classical marketing kind of tactics and measurement points kind of come back and resurface as you kind of think through ways to really broker a system of trust with your buyers.

So I think measurement is really going to see some changes over the next year to kind of catch up with this new zero-click world AI-driven era.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Yep, absolutely. On that same note, are there any skills that you think marketers need to double down on in order to thrive in an AI driven world? Like if you were looking at another head of marketing or demand gen or something, what are some skills you think like, hey, you need to make sure you've got these down right now in this AI era?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, I think the things that need to be doubled down on are the strategic portions of our role, right? Strategic synthesis and really kind of connecting that to what AI is doing. Your humanity, that component of human judgment, your narrative and your storytelling, your ability to bring that to the table is also how you're going to broker trust and build upon that and really bring that human element to your marketing.

I think along with like data governance and ethics, like that's gonna be an area where marketers should really start paying attention to now. That way you're not, you know, left behind.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
And then, what do you think something in a year from now, teams will still be getting wrong with AI?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
I think it's probably going to be around personalization, truthfully, because I think a lot of B2B teams are still getting it wrong today. think personalization, maybe this is another hot take, but it's kind of like a house of cards, right? It's like propped up on a house of cards where you may have nailed it really well, or you may be kind of using AI slop, as we like to call it, to kind of keep things.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Never got it right.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Just personalized enough, where it completely misses the mark still. And I think the consideration phase is already a very delicate phase of the buyer journey. And so if you're coming in with a personalized message that just lands completely wrong, you have the potential to blow a deal. And just ruin all credibility and trust. So again, it goes back to that, but I think it's better to not do personalization if you're not going to do it well and just kind of stick with broader intent messaging or problem solution language because that is just such a core critical moment in the buyer journey.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
I totally agree. Now I want to wrap up the episode with one of my favorite sections, which is our lightning round. So I have a handful of questions that are just like quick hits that I'd love to jump into to wrap things up. The first one is what was the first AI tool that you tested out as a marketer?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
All right. Definitely chat GBT.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
I feel like that is our most common answer. And yes, same. Okay, what is the most overrated buzzword in MarTech right now?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Probably said it like five or six times throughout this interview about personalization at scale. I mean, what word do marketers say that's not a buzzword, right? We're pretty notorious.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Our whole vocabulary. Yeah, our whole vocabulary is essentially just built on a buzzword. I would say this, I'm like, it's such a buzzword. And then I hear myself use it later. I'm like, well, I am very guilty of this. Okay, what is who is a marketer that you follow who you think is ahead of the curve on AI?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Same. Yeah, I'm going to have to go with Anol Bhattacharya. He is our lead in Hotwire and ROI·DNA on all things AI and innovation, agentic marketing. He puts out a lot of content on LinkedIn and he's super smart, super sharp and has some really great perspectives on where this is going.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Awesome. Okay, last question. If you could automate one part of your life with AI outside of work, what would it be?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
I would have to say either like meal prep or cleaning my toddler's high chair. That one is just an unbelievable time suck at every meal. It's crazy.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
I could not agree more. I remember thinking, was like, man, can I use AI to fix baby sleep? Like, is that a thing? But no.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
That is that somebody is going to come up with that.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Well, and I might have missed missed the time when it would have benefited me, but I agree the meal prep one would be very beneficial and I try to make it work for that. It usually doesn't so far. So fingers crossed it gets better. Okay, Gina. Well, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast. It was great to hear from you. I really appreciate you taking the time.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yes. All right, thank you so much.

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Building trust in B2B marketing with agentic AI

Discover how ROI·DNA’s Gina Inks uses agentic AI to scale B2B marketing, boost pipeline performance, and build lasting buyer trust in a zero-click world.

No items found.
Building trust in B2B marketing with agentic AI
Apple Podcast LinkGoogle Podcast LinkSpotify Podcast Link
Apple Podcast LinkGoogle Podcast LinkSpotify Podcast Link

This episode features an interview with Gina Inks, Head of Marketing at ROI·DNA, a full-service B2B marketing agency helping brands solve for visibility, trust, and performance in today’s zero-click, AI-driven world.

Gina shares how ROI·DNA and its parent company, Hotwire Global, are using agentic AI and proprietary tools (like Spark, Ignite, and Radiate) to help clients stay discoverable in large language models, accelerate personalization at scale, and strengthen brand trust across every stage of the buyer journey.

She also discusses how her team integrated ROI’er, their AI SDR powered by Qualified, to scale inbound engagement, supercharge qualification, and uncover deeper data insights that inform messaging, content, and personas.

Throughout the conversation, Gina and Sarah unpack what it takes to build systems of accountability and trust in the agentic era, why personalization alone won’t be a long-term differentiator, and how measurement and attribution are evolving in a zero-click world.

Key Takeaways

  • Trust is the new differentiator. As personalization becomes table stakes, marketers who build credibility and authenticity across every buyer touchpoint will win in the agentic era.

  • Agentic AI drives visibility in LLMs. Tools like Spark and Radiate help brands understand where and how they’re cited, improving discoverability and boosting citations in AI search.

  • AI SDRs scale inbound engagement. ROI’er, ROI·DNA’s AI SDR, automates qualification and follow-up, giving human SDRs more time to focus on outbound and strategic conversations.

  • Data clarity fuels better marketing. By analyzing how prospects engage, ROI·DNA refines messaging, strengthens personas, and keeps content fresh and relevant.

  • Measurement must evolve. As B2B buyer behavior changes, success will depend on redefining metrics and attribution models to reflect trust, intent, and agentic impact.

TRANSCRIPT

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Gina, thank you so much for joining me on The Agentic Marketer where we're taking a peek into today's leaders’ tech stacks and AI strategy to learn how you're using AI agents to hit your pipeline targets. But before we dive in, I'd love to learn a little bit more about you and ROI·DNA.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, thank you for having me today. I'm the head of marketing at ROI·DNA. We are a full service B2B marketing agency. We've been around for over 15 years. specialize, we do everything, but we specialize in ABX strategy, digital marketing, SEO, web creative. But more recently, we've really been focused on helping our clients solve some of the bigger challenges that have come up.

From entering this zero-click AI-driven world and really helping us solve for some of those problems with gaining visibility, trust, and ranking.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Yeah, I feel like anyone that's listening to this probably is feeling that pain of the zero click AI world. So I'm super excited to dig into a little bit more because it sounds like you just have so much experience with this world and where we're going with agentic and with AI. So with that being said, I'm curious, how would you define agentic marketing? Like, what does that mean to you?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, I think agentic marketing to me is definitely more about creating systems that can act on behalf of the marketer. So it's not just about, you know, automating one-off tasks and things like that, but it's really about leaning in with agentic AI to, you know, create outcomes, make decisions, learn and truly give marketers back.

Our most precious resource, which is time and the ability to really focus on the strategy and the creativity side of things.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
That is incredibly true. And gosh, don't we wish we just had more time in the day. So recently, Gina, we named you to our top 30 Agentech marketers to watch list, which congratulations. I feel like that was a very well-deserved honor.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Thank.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
The main focus of that list is we wanted to bring in marketers who were moving beyond like experimentation of AI and we're making it central to how they operate on day to day. So with that being said, I'm curious, what did you have to do at ROI·DNA to like really make that leap from experimentation to leading with it and having it be a really integral part of your marketing team?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, I think that that's question that comes up a lot. Like how do you move from experimentation to like making this like a true part of your systems? And I think it really starts with, you know, building a system of accountability, governance and measurement really early. And then of course having full alignment and adoption.

We do a lot of ABX, ABM work. And if you're a marketer and you're doing ABM, you know it's not just any one department or groups decision. It has to be an ecosystem with operations, exec team, marketing. And that's really how we approach agentic marketing and agentic AI as well. But really, think going from experimenting and using it one off, you have to have that system in place in order to really.

Measure and see the benefits and get buy-in as a team.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Totally. And I'm curious, I think you have such a unique perspective because not only are you working internally as a head of marketing, but I'm sure you're working with a ton of other marketing teams as an agency. So where do you see AI and agents show up most visibly within your own organization or organizations that you're working with? And like, where are they seeing value with AI and agents?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, think ROI is actually pretty unique in the fact that we have our own proprietary AI tools that run on agentic AI to kind of solve some of those issues I mentioned earlier. So we actually, in conjunction with our parent company Hotwire Global, we have our AI innovation AI lab. And we've actually put out a couple of proprietary tools that help kind of solve these issues.

I think we're unique in the fact that yes, we do work with lot of customers who are grappling with this, but we've also kind of started getting ahead of the market and really shaping the outcomes ourselves through those tools. We have a couple of things. One of our first tools is our ROI·DNA Spark, which helps solve for visibility in LLMs. So it helps in conjunction with our blueprint, our AI results blueprint. We help kind of map out.

Where you stand in LLMs and how your brand is being cited, if it's ranking, if there's trust there and what LLMs are saying. And we kind of give a blueprint to gaining better visibility and boosting citations and things like that. So it really helps with search discoverability, especially as we see a zero-click world start to come to fruition and some of that really start to take shape.

Some of the other things that we do, have Ignite, is a ABX personalization at scale. So it really helps take account research, market research from weeks down to, or from months down to weeks, and really helps you kind of get that true personalization on a one-to-one level. And then we have Radiate, which is a agentic tool that analyzes all the content and makes sure that it's going to help you rank and help.

Be cited in LLM. So there's a lot there, but it's like, you know, using these tools really help us. It's like having an extra strategist embedded into everything we're doing across ABX and really help kind of make efficiencies and move quicker and get the right data.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Yeah, I love that you guys are focusing on that LLM and citations and rankings. I know from like personal experience and talking to other peers, that's just like such a hot topic right now. And going back to that zero click world, it just feels so nebulous and hard to understand. So I love that ROI is really focusing on that and bringing in like AI and agents into that world. So you've piqued my interest there.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, it's that I mean, we've seen, you know, through external research in the market, and then through our own aggregated customer research, we've seen clicks drop off. And, you know, it's a very real issue right now for a lot of marketers really trying to understand where to go in this landscape.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Totally. Now I have one more question before we like dive more into your tech stack and get a little bit deeper into the questions here, but do you have a hot take about AI and marketing that most people wouldn't agree with?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, that's a good question. I think it could go a lot of ways here, but I think right now personalization, when we talk about that in ABX, think right now that personalization is a differentiator right now for a lot of companies, because I think a lot of people still struggle to do it right and do it well. But in the very near future, that's not going to be a differentiator at all. And it's going to be just table stakes, know, through tools like.

Radiate and even our competitors like Profound and things like that, it's going to be more common that we'll see that in the market. And when different when when that differentiator becomes obsolete or it's just the norm, what will replace that? And in my opinion, that's going to be trust. And that's going to be like the new currency for marketers, because that's not just something you build at.

The consideration phase or at the bottom of the funnel. That's something that goes all the way back up to the top of the funnel and very early every touch point with your brand is going to broker and leverage trust in this new future.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
I love that answer and I could not agree more. think trust, especially as AI is just helping us create more and like do more content and like, yes, it has so many benefits, but having to build trust in your brand I think is paramount. So that is, I agree with you. Shifting gears a little bit here into your current tech stack and what you're using. So you guys hired Piper, the AISDR agent, which is very exciting.

I am curious to learn from you, what was it about having an AISDR that appealed to you and the team and made you lean in to bring in an AISDR onto your team?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, well, we're an agency and we're a very small team on our growth and marketing team. So we definitely needed a way to scale our inbound efforts and really take it to the next level. And obviously with Piper, we have an AISCR that is an extension of our team. she's, we actually named her ROI’er because if you work at ROI·DNA where we consider ourselves ROI’ers, so it's natural that our Piper is ROI’er. And so she really just.

As an extension of our team and really helps us scale that outreach and focus on, let our human SCRs focus on outbound and really supplementing what they're doing with the inbound leads that are coming in.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
It's so fun to talk to customers and hear the different names that they've given to their Piper or the AISDR. And I think ROI might be my new favorite one.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
We were like, that's a no brainer, she has to be ROI.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Okay, so on your team, what human task did Piper replace or supercharge? Like, has she fully replaced certain tasks or is she just like supercharging certain things within your organization?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, I think she definitely with the top of the funnel qualification for us that is just completely owned by Piper and she's really supercharged that effort. Also personalized meeting follow-up, personalized follow-ups, I'm sorry, and meeting scheduling for us doing all of that, kind of taking that off of our team. And then the big thing for us is really that kind of just giving our new prospects a bit of.

Initial product service line education, if you will. So I think, you know, that was something we rely on like, they're just going to browse the website and know what to look for, what they're interested in. But Piper's really just taken that to the next level. And not only are our inbound leads kind of coming in with a better understanding of what we do, what they're looking for, what service line they want to kind of focus on, but obviously through the data that.

Piper helps us get clarity around. We've actually been able to come into that conversation with just a little bit more knowledge as well.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
I love that and I think, you know, Piper or ROI’er, I think getting more pipeline and working those top of funnel, I think is a very prominent use case of what teams are looking for when they bring her on. But is there anything unexpected that Piper or ROI’er helped unlock for your team?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, I would say like, obviously we expected the efficiencies and the time back and all of that, but we got more data clarity, which I think was a big unlock that like we weren't really expecting or to that level anyway. Like I kind of hinted at, we get such great insights that really just help us refine our messaging, our personas, even our content strategy. think it illuminates some areas where we, you know, realize we need to beef up or we, you know, we see how.

Actual prospects are engaging with and what their feedback is around certain areas. It's like an ever evolving ongoing way to keep your content fresh and responsive to the ways that your buyers are ingesting it.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Totally, I feel like we've run into the exact same thing and it was such an unexpected use case that we weren't really thinking of. So it's good to hear that ROI has found that same benefit of bringing on Piper.

Now, when you think about bringing on an AISDR or honestly just any agent when you think about it from a marketing perspective, and again, I think you bring such a unique POV because you work with so many other teams and marketers, who do you think needs to be convinced internally when you're trying to bring on these agents?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, I think, know, for, like I mentioned before, there's always that buying center, that buying system, a group of people who need to have buy in for us. You know, we've always been a huge supporter of Qualified and we've seen the actual numbers and the data that really highlights the win. I think for a lot of our clients, so when they're considering either Qualified or any other kind of agentic tool, they really need to be able to show quick wins and tangible metrics.

And I think that's what's so beautiful about Piper is that that's all built in and part of what you can really, it makes measurements so easy. And so I think that's the people who need convincing, it's always going to be around metrics and actual revenue, right? So that's kind of where we focus that in on.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Yeah, I definitely agree with that. It's the people who are asking about like ROI, which not no pun intended, but like what's the ROI? What are the wins? Like how is it actually making an impact at the bottom line? Which I think is so interesting that you say that because I think prior to this AI era and evolution and agentic era, that was always the case. Like I feel like if you're making a new business case for a new tool, it was always you had to prove ROI.

I just think it feels so much different now, but at the crux of it, it still hasn't changed all that much. So it's great to hear you.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yes.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
I guess reaffirm that that is still what you're going to need to bring to your buying committee is like, yes, this is going to make an impact on the metrics that we still care about.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, and we've we've have so many clients who have great case studies through, the first 30, 60, 90 days of using Piper that just, you know, the proof is in the pudding there, as we say. And once you really see what it can do, that unlock is is it kind of it's so easy.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
And we just talked about metrics. Is there a specific metric or metrics that you watch, whether it's at ROI or at your customers to make sure that it's working? Like what is that thing that you can bring to your buying committee and say like, yeah, it's impacting this.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, I think for us, we're looking at a broad swath of metrics. This is what we advise our clients. Do you never look at any one thing to really measure success? You got to look at the big picture, the ecosystem. And for us, we're looking at response rate, especially when we do these big events and things where our inbound naturally will tick up and we have a big flux of people coming to the site.

Maybe your human SCRs aren't going to be able to get to it in time, things like that. Like that's a really good thing to look at right out the gate is how much volume sees consistent. We also look at lower funnel metrics like pipeline opportunities, pipeline velocity, seeing how quickly those things can progress. And then, know, tangentially, we also have like our human SCR efficiency lift and like, how are they feeling? How is this, you know, kind of complimenting and have yet to meet anyone who has not found that to be such a boost to their day-to-day too.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Absolutely. And I sound like a broken record, but I love doing this show. And I like talking to people like you, because again, it reaffirms that the metrics are the same as they were. Like, it's just a new tool to help you get to those metrics and you can scale your team. You don't necessarily need like the same headcount budget, or you can do it at like a much higher scale.

But all the things you're talking about, it's like pipeline and velocity and efficiency of our SDR team. Like those were all metrics.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Every time I talk to customers, I'm always like, it's the same metrics you would have looked at before. You shouldn't just lose sight of those. You're going to want to keep measuring those exact same things and seeing the lift. So I'm glad to hear you say that's what you guys are doing at ROI and with your customers as well.

Now you talked to us at Piper Fest. This was a couple months ago. And you also mentioned it earlier on the show about how AI is reshaping search and buyer behavior. So with that in mind, what do you think is the single biggest change that will happen to B2B marketing in the next 12 months?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
That's yeah, that's a big question. I think a lot. I think in the last 12 months, there has been just massive, significant change to the way that B2B buyers are researching, finding brands, trusting brands, making purchase decisions. I feel like that measurement and attribution hasn't really quite caught up to this new kind of buyer behavior.

And I think over the next year, we're going to see that start to catch up and look at measurement in different ways. I talked a lot about trust earlier on. I think that's going to kind of play a role into things as well. You're going to see kind of some like classical marketing kind of tactics and measurement points kind of come back and resurface as you kind of think through ways to really broker a system of trust with your buyers.

So I think measurement is really going to see some changes over the next year to kind of catch up with this new zero-click world AI-driven era.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Yep, absolutely. On that same note, are there any skills that you think marketers need to double down on in order to thrive in an AI driven world? Like if you were looking at another head of marketing or demand gen or something, what are some skills you think like, hey, you need to make sure you've got these down right now in this AI era?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, I think the things that need to be doubled down on are the strategic portions of our role, right? Strategic synthesis and really kind of connecting that to what AI is doing. Your humanity, that component of human judgment, your narrative and your storytelling, your ability to bring that to the table is also how you're going to broker trust and build upon that and really bring that human element to your marketing.

I think along with like data governance and ethics, like that's gonna be an area where marketers should really start paying attention to now. That way you're not, you know, left behind.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
And then, what do you think something in a year from now, teams will still be getting wrong with AI?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
I think it's probably going to be around personalization, truthfully, because I think a lot of B2B teams are still getting it wrong today. think personalization, maybe this is another hot take, but it's kind of like a house of cards, right? It's like propped up on a house of cards where you may have nailed it really well, or you may be kind of using AI slop, as we like to call it, to kind of keep things.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Never got it right.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Just personalized enough, where it completely misses the mark still. And I think the consideration phase is already a very delicate phase of the buyer journey. And so if you're coming in with a personalized message that just lands completely wrong, you have the potential to blow a deal. And just ruin all credibility and trust. So again, it goes back to that, but I think it's better to not do personalization if you're not going to do it well and just kind of stick with broader intent messaging or problem solution language because that is just such a core critical moment in the buyer journey.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
I totally agree. Now I want to wrap up the episode with one of my favorite sections, which is our lightning round. So I have a handful of questions that are just like quick hits that I'd love to jump into to wrap things up. The first one is what was the first AI tool that you tested out as a marketer?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
All right. Definitely chat GBT.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
I feel like that is our most common answer. And yes, same. Okay, what is the most overrated buzzword in MarTech right now?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Probably said it like five or six times throughout this interview about personalization at scale. I mean, what word do marketers say that's not a buzzword, right? We're pretty notorious.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Our whole vocabulary. Yeah, our whole vocabulary is essentially just built on a buzzword. I would say this, I'm like, it's such a buzzword. And then I hear myself use it later. I'm like, well, I am very guilty of this. Okay, what is who is a marketer that you follow who you think is ahead of the curve on AI?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Same. Yeah, I'm going to have to go with Anol Bhattacharya. He is our lead in Hotwire and ROI·DNA on all things AI and innovation, agentic marketing. He puts out a lot of content on LinkedIn and he's super smart, super sharp and has some really great perspectives on where this is going.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Awesome. Okay, last question. If you could automate one part of your life with AI outside of work, what would it be?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
I would have to say either like meal prep or cleaning my toddler's high chair. That one is just an unbelievable time suck at every meal. It's crazy.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
I could not agree more. I remember thinking, was like, man, can I use AI to fix baby sleep? Like, is that a thing? But no.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
That is that somebody is going to come up with that.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Well, and I might have missed missed the time when it would have benefited me, but I agree the meal prep one would be very beneficial and I try to make it work for that. It usually doesn't so far. So fingers crossed it gets better. Okay, Gina. Well, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast. It was great to hear from you. I really appreciate you taking the time.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yes. All right, thank you so much.

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Building trust in B2B marketing with agentic AI

Discover how ROI·DNA’s Gina Inks uses agentic AI to scale B2B marketing, boost pipeline performance, and build lasting buyer trust in a zero-click world.

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Building trust in B2B marketing with agentic AI
Table of Contents
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This episode features an interview with Gina Inks, Head of Marketing at ROI·DNA, a full-service B2B marketing agency helping brands solve for visibility, trust, and performance in today’s zero-click, AI-driven world.

Gina shares how ROI·DNA and its parent company, Hotwire Global, are using agentic AI and proprietary tools (like Spark, Ignite, and Radiate) to help clients stay discoverable in large language models, accelerate personalization at scale, and strengthen brand trust across every stage of the buyer journey.

She also discusses how her team integrated ROI’er, their AI SDR powered by Qualified, to scale inbound engagement, supercharge qualification, and uncover deeper data insights that inform messaging, content, and personas.

Throughout the conversation, Gina and Sarah unpack what it takes to build systems of accountability and trust in the agentic era, why personalization alone won’t be a long-term differentiator, and how measurement and attribution are evolving in a zero-click world.

Key Takeaways

  • Trust is the new differentiator. As personalization becomes table stakes, marketers who build credibility and authenticity across every buyer touchpoint will win in the agentic era.

  • Agentic AI drives visibility in LLMs. Tools like Spark and Radiate help brands understand where and how they’re cited, improving discoverability and boosting citations in AI search.

  • AI SDRs scale inbound engagement. ROI’er, ROI·DNA’s AI SDR, automates qualification and follow-up, giving human SDRs more time to focus on outbound and strategic conversations.

  • Data clarity fuels better marketing. By analyzing how prospects engage, ROI·DNA refines messaging, strengthens personas, and keeps content fresh and relevant.

  • Measurement must evolve. As B2B buyer behavior changes, success will depend on redefining metrics and attribution models to reflect trust, intent, and agentic impact.

TRANSCRIPT

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Gina, thank you so much for joining me on The Agentic Marketer where we're taking a peek into today's leaders’ tech stacks and AI strategy to learn how you're using AI agents to hit your pipeline targets. But before we dive in, I'd love to learn a little bit more about you and ROI·DNA.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, thank you for having me today. I'm the head of marketing at ROI·DNA. We are a full service B2B marketing agency. We've been around for over 15 years. specialize, we do everything, but we specialize in ABX strategy, digital marketing, SEO, web creative. But more recently, we've really been focused on helping our clients solve some of the bigger challenges that have come up.

From entering this zero-click AI-driven world and really helping us solve for some of those problems with gaining visibility, trust, and ranking.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Yeah, I feel like anyone that's listening to this probably is feeling that pain of the zero click AI world. So I'm super excited to dig into a little bit more because it sounds like you just have so much experience with this world and where we're going with agentic and with AI. So with that being said, I'm curious, how would you define agentic marketing? Like, what does that mean to you?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, I think agentic marketing to me is definitely more about creating systems that can act on behalf of the marketer. So it's not just about, you know, automating one-off tasks and things like that, but it's really about leaning in with agentic AI to, you know, create outcomes, make decisions, learn and truly give marketers back.

Our most precious resource, which is time and the ability to really focus on the strategy and the creativity side of things.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
That is incredibly true. And gosh, don't we wish we just had more time in the day. So recently, Gina, we named you to our top 30 Agentech marketers to watch list, which congratulations. I feel like that was a very well-deserved honor.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Thank.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
The main focus of that list is we wanted to bring in marketers who were moving beyond like experimentation of AI and we're making it central to how they operate on day to day. So with that being said, I'm curious, what did you have to do at ROI·DNA to like really make that leap from experimentation to leading with it and having it be a really integral part of your marketing team?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, I think that that's question that comes up a lot. Like how do you move from experimentation to like making this like a true part of your systems? And I think it really starts with, you know, building a system of accountability, governance and measurement really early. And then of course having full alignment and adoption.

We do a lot of ABX, ABM work. And if you're a marketer and you're doing ABM, you know it's not just any one department or groups decision. It has to be an ecosystem with operations, exec team, marketing. And that's really how we approach agentic marketing and agentic AI as well. But really, think going from experimenting and using it one off, you have to have that system in place in order to really.

Measure and see the benefits and get buy-in as a team.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Totally. And I'm curious, I think you have such a unique perspective because not only are you working internally as a head of marketing, but I'm sure you're working with a ton of other marketing teams as an agency. So where do you see AI and agents show up most visibly within your own organization or organizations that you're working with? And like, where are they seeing value with AI and agents?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, think ROI is actually pretty unique in the fact that we have our own proprietary AI tools that run on agentic AI to kind of solve some of those issues I mentioned earlier. So we actually, in conjunction with our parent company Hotwire Global, we have our AI innovation AI lab. And we've actually put out a couple of proprietary tools that help kind of solve these issues.

I think we're unique in the fact that yes, we do work with lot of customers who are grappling with this, but we've also kind of started getting ahead of the market and really shaping the outcomes ourselves through those tools. We have a couple of things. One of our first tools is our ROI·DNA Spark, which helps solve for visibility in LLMs. So it helps in conjunction with our blueprint, our AI results blueprint. We help kind of map out.

Where you stand in LLMs and how your brand is being cited, if it's ranking, if there's trust there and what LLMs are saying. And we kind of give a blueprint to gaining better visibility and boosting citations and things like that. So it really helps with search discoverability, especially as we see a zero-click world start to come to fruition and some of that really start to take shape.

Some of the other things that we do, have Ignite, is a ABX personalization at scale. So it really helps take account research, market research from weeks down to, or from months down to weeks, and really helps you kind of get that true personalization on a one-to-one level. And then we have Radiate, which is a agentic tool that analyzes all the content and makes sure that it's going to help you rank and help.

Be cited in LLM. So there's a lot there, but it's like, you know, using these tools really help us. It's like having an extra strategist embedded into everything we're doing across ABX and really help kind of make efficiencies and move quicker and get the right data.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Yeah, I love that you guys are focusing on that LLM and citations and rankings. I know from like personal experience and talking to other peers, that's just like such a hot topic right now. And going back to that zero click world, it just feels so nebulous and hard to understand. So I love that ROI is really focusing on that and bringing in like AI and agents into that world. So you've piqued my interest there.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, it's that I mean, we've seen, you know, through external research in the market, and then through our own aggregated customer research, we've seen clicks drop off. And, you know, it's a very real issue right now for a lot of marketers really trying to understand where to go in this landscape.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Totally. Now I have one more question before we like dive more into your tech stack and get a little bit deeper into the questions here, but do you have a hot take about AI and marketing that most people wouldn't agree with?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, that's a good question. I think it could go a lot of ways here, but I think right now personalization, when we talk about that in ABX, think right now that personalization is a differentiator right now for a lot of companies, because I think a lot of people still struggle to do it right and do it well. But in the very near future, that's not going to be a differentiator at all. And it's going to be just table stakes, know, through tools like.

Radiate and even our competitors like Profound and things like that, it's going to be more common that we'll see that in the market. And when different when when that differentiator becomes obsolete or it's just the norm, what will replace that? And in my opinion, that's going to be trust. And that's going to be like the new currency for marketers, because that's not just something you build at.

The consideration phase or at the bottom of the funnel. That's something that goes all the way back up to the top of the funnel and very early every touch point with your brand is going to broker and leverage trust in this new future.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
I love that answer and I could not agree more. think trust, especially as AI is just helping us create more and like do more content and like, yes, it has so many benefits, but having to build trust in your brand I think is paramount. So that is, I agree with you. Shifting gears a little bit here into your current tech stack and what you're using. So you guys hired Piper, the AISDR agent, which is very exciting.

I am curious to learn from you, what was it about having an AISDR that appealed to you and the team and made you lean in to bring in an AISDR onto your team?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, well, we're an agency and we're a very small team on our growth and marketing team. So we definitely needed a way to scale our inbound efforts and really take it to the next level. And obviously with Piper, we have an AISCR that is an extension of our team. she's, we actually named her ROI’er because if you work at ROI·DNA where we consider ourselves ROI’ers, so it's natural that our Piper is ROI’er. And so she really just.

As an extension of our team and really helps us scale that outreach and focus on, let our human SCRs focus on outbound and really supplementing what they're doing with the inbound leads that are coming in.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
It's so fun to talk to customers and hear the different names that they've given to their Piper or the AISDR. And I think ROI might be my new favorite one.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
We were like, that's a no brainer, she has to be ROI.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Okay, so on your team, what human task did Piper replace or supercharge? Like, has she fully replaced certain tasks or is she just like supercharging certain things within your organization?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, I think she definitely with the top of the funnel qualification for us that is just completely owned by Piper and she's really supercharged that effort. Also personalized meeting follow-up, personalized follow-ups, I'm sorry, and meeting scheduling for us doing all of that, kind of taking that off of our team. And then the big thing for us is really that kind of just giving our new prospects a bit of.

Initial product service line education, if you will. So I think, you know, that was something we rely on like, they're just going to browse the website and know what to look for, what they're interested in. But Piper's really just taken that to the next level. And not only are our inbound leads kind of coming in with a better understanding of what we do, what they're looking for, what service line they want to kind of focus on, but obviously through the data that.

Piper helps us get clarity around. We've actually been able to come into that conversation with just a little bit more knowledge as well.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
I love that and I think, you know, Piper or ROI’er, I think getting more pipeline and working those top of funnel, I think is a very prominent use case of what teams are looking for when they bring her on. But is there anything unexpected that Piper or ROI’er helped unlock for your team?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, I would say like, obviously we expected the efficiencies and the time back and all of that, but we got more data clarity, which I think was a big unlock that like we weren't really expecting or to that level anyway. Like I kind of hinted at, we get such great insights that really just help us refine our messaging, our personas, even our content strategy. think it illuminates some areas where we, you know, realize we need to beef up or we, you know, we see how.

Actual prospects are engaging with and what their feedback is around certain areas. It's like an ever evolving ongoing way to keep your content fresh and responsive to the ways that your buyers are ingesting it.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Totally, I feel like we've run into the exact same thing and it was such an unexpected use case that we weren't really thinking of. So it's good to hear that ROI has found that same benefit of bringing on Piper.

Now, when you think about bringing on an AISDR or honestly just any agent when you think about it from a marketing perspective, and again, I think you bring such a unique POV because you work with so many other teams and marketers, who do you think needs to be convinced internally when you're trying to bring on these agents?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, I think, know, for, like I mentioned before, there's always that buying center, that buying system, a group of people who need to have buy in for us. You know, we've always been a huge supporter of Qualified and we've seen the actual numbers and the data that really highlights the win. I think for a lot of our clients, so when they're considering either Qualified or any other kind of agentic tool, they really need to be able to show quick wins and tangible metrics.

And I think that's what's so beautiful about Piper is that that's all built in and part of what you can really, it makes measurements so easy. And so I think that's the people who need convincing, it's always going to be around metrics and actual revenue, right? So that's kind of where we focus that in on.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Yeah, I definitely agree with that. It's the people who are asking about like ROI, which not no pun intended, but like what's the ROI? What are the wins? Like how is it actually making an impact at the bottom line? Which I think is so interesting that you say that because I think prior to this AI era and evolution and agentic era, that was always the case. Like I feel like if you're making a new business case for a new tool, it was always you had to prove ROI.

I just think it feels so much different now, but at the crux of it, it still hasn't changed all that much. So it's great to hear you.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yes.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
I guess reaffirm that that is still what you're going to need to bring to your buying committee is like, yes, this is going to make an impact on the metrics that we still care about.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, and we've we've have so many clients who have great case studies through, the first 30, 60, 90 days of using Piper that just, you know, the proof is in the pudding there, as we say. And once you really see what it can do, that unlock is is it kind of it's so easy.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
And we just talked about metrics. Is there a specific metric or metrics that you watch, whether it's at ROI or at your customers to make sure that it's working? Like what is that thing that you can bring to your buying committee and say like, yeah, it's impacting this.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, I think for us, we're looking at a broad swath of metrics. This is what we advise our clients. Do you never look at any one thing to really measure success? You got to look at the big picture, the ecosystem. And for us, we're looking at response rate, especially when we do these big events and things where our inbound naturally will tick up and we have a big flux of people coming to the site.

Maybe your human SCRs aren't going to be able to get to it in time, things like that. Like that's a really good thing to look at right out the gate is how much volume sees consistent. We also look at lower funnel metrics like pipeline opportunities, pipeline velocity, seeing how quickly those things can progress. And then, know, tangentially, we also have like our human SCR efficiency lift and like, how are they feeling? How is this, you know, kind of complimenting and have yet to meet anyone who has not found that to be such a boost to their day-to-day too.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Absolutely. And I sound like a broken record, but I love doing this show. And I like talking to people like you, because again, it reaffirms that the metrics are the same as they were. Like, it's just a new tool to help you get to those metrics and you can scale your team. You don't necessarily need like the same headcount budget, or you can do it at like a much higher scale.

But all the things you're talking about, it's like pipeline and velocity and efficiency of our SDR team. Like those were all metrics.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Every time I talk to customers, I'm always like, it's the same metrics you would have looked at before. You shouldn't just lose sight of those. You're going to want to keep measuring those exact same things and seeing the lift. So I'm glad to hear you say that's what you guys are doing at ROI and with your customers as well.

Now you talked to us at Piper Fest. This was a couple months ago. And you also mentioned it earlier on the show about how AI is reshaping search and buyer behavior. So with that in mind, what do you think is the single biggest change that will happen to B2B marketing in the next 12 months?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
That's yeah, that's a big question. I think a lot. I think in the last 12 months, there has been just massive, significant change to the way that B2B buyers are researching, finding brands, trusting brands, making purchase decisions. I feel like that measurement and attribution hasn't really quite caught up to this new kind of buyer behavior.

And I think over the next year, we're going to see that start to catch up and look at measurement in different ways. I talked a lot about trust earlier on. I think that's going to kind of play a role into things as well. You're going to see kind of some like classical marketing kind of tactics and measurement points kind of come back and resurface as you kind of think through ways to really broker a system of trust with your buyers.

So I think measurement is really going to see some changes over the next year to kind of catch up with this new zero-click world AI-driven era.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Yep, absolutely. On that same note, are there any skills that you think marketers need to double down on in order to thrive in an AI driven world? Like if you were looking at another head of marketing or demand gen or something, what are some skills you think like, hey, you need to make sure you've got these down right now in this AI era?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, I think the things that need to be doubled down on are the strategic portions of our role, right? Strategic synthesis and really kind of connecting that to what AI is doing. Your humanity, that component of human judgment, your narrative and your storytelling, your ability to bring that to the table is also how you're going to broker trust and build upon that and really bring that human element to your marketing.

I think along with like data governance and ethics, like that's gonna be an area where marketers should really start paying attention to now. That way you're not, you know, left behind.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
And then, what do you think something in a year from now, teams will still be getting wrong with AI?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
I think it's probably going to be around personalization, truthfully, because I think a lot of B2B teams are still getting it wrong today. think personalization, maybe this is another hot take, but it's kind of like a house of cards, right? It's like propped up on a house of cards where you may have nailed it really well, or you may be kind of using AI slop, as we like to call it, to kind of keep things.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Never got it right.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Just personalized enough, where it completely misses the mark still. And I think the consideration phase is already a very delicate phase of the buyer journey. And so if you're coming in with a personalized message that just lands completely wrong, you have the potential to blow a deal. And just ruin all credibility and trust. So again, it goes back to that, but I think it's better to not do personalization if you're not going to do it well and just kind of stick with broader intent messaging or problem solution language because that is just such a core critical moment in the buyer journey.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
I totally agree. Now I want to wrap up the episode with one of my favorite sections, which is our lightning round. So I have a handful of questions that are just like quick hits that I'd love to jump into to wrap things up. The first one is what was the first AI tool that you tested out as a marketer?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
All right. Definitely chat GBT.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
I feel like that is our most common answer. And yes, same. Okay, what is the most overrated buzzword in MarTech right now?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Probably said it like five or six times throughout this interview about personalization at scale. I mean, what word do marketers say that's not a buzzword, right? We're pretty notorious.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Our whole vocabulary. Yeah, our whole vocabulary is essentially just built on a buzzword. I would say this, I'm like, it's such a buzzword. And then I hear myself use it later. I'm like, well, I am very guilty of this. Okay, what is who is a marketer that you follow who you think is ahead of the curve on AI?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Same. Yeah, I'm going to have to go with Anol Bhattacharya. He is our lead in Hotwire and ROI·DNA on all things AI and innovation, agentic marketing. He puts out a lot of content on LinkedIn and he's super smart, super sharp and has some really great perspectives on where this is going.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Awesome. Okay, last question. If you could automate one part of your life with AI outside of work, what would it be?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
I would have to say either like meal prep or cleaning my toddler's high chair. That one is just an unbelievable time suck at every meal. It's crazy.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
I could not agree more. I remember thinking, was like, man, can I use AI to fix baby sleep? Like, is that a thing? But no.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
That is that somebody is going to come up with that.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Well, and I might have missed missed the time when it would have benefited me, but I agree the meal prep one would be very beneficial and I try to make it work for that. It usually doesn't so far. So fingers crossed it gets better. Okay, Gina. Well, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast. It was great to hear from you. I really appreciate you taking the time.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yes. All right, thank you so much.

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Building trust in B2B marketing with agentic AI

Discover how ROI·DNA’s Gina Inks uses agentic AI to scale B2B marketing, boost pipeline performance, and build lasting buyer trust in a zero-click world.

Building trust in B2B marketing with agentic AI
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October 29, 2025
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X
min read
Apple Podcast LinkGoogle Podcast LinkSpotify Podcast Link
Apple Podcast LinkGoogle Podcast LinkSpotify Podcast Link

This episode features an interview with Gina Inks, Head of Marketing at ROI·DNA, a full-service B2B marketing agency helping brands solve for visibility, trust, and performance in today’s zero-click, AI-driven world.

Gina shares how ROI·DNA and its parent company, Hotwire Global, are using agentic AI and proprietary tools (like Spark, Ignite, and Radiate) to help clients stay discoverable in large language models, accelerate personalization at scale, and strengthen brand trust across every stage of the buyer journey.

She also discusses how her team integrated ROI’er, their AI SDR powered by Qualified, to scale inbound engagement, supercharge qualification, and uncover deeper data insights that inform messaging, content, and personas.

Throughout the conversation, Gina and Sarah unpack what it takes to build systems of accountability and trust in the agentic era, why personalization alone won’t be a long-term differentiator, and how measurement and attribution are evolving in a zero-click world.

Key Takeaways

  • Trust is the new differentiator. As personalization becomes table stakes, marketers who build credibility and authenticity across every buyer touchpoint will win in the agentic era.

  • Agentic AI drives visibility in LLMs. Tools like Spark and Radiate help brands understand where and how they’re cited, improving discoverability and boosting citations in AI search.

  • AI SDRs scale inbound engagement. ROI’er, ROI·DNA’s AI SDR, automates qualification and follow-up, giving human SDRs more time to focus on outbound and strategic conversations.

  • Data clarity fuels better marketing. By analyzing how prospects engage, ROI·DNA refines messaging, strengthens personas, and keeps content fresh and relevant.

  • Measurement must evolve. As B2B buyer behavior changes, success will depend on redefining metrics and attribution models to reflect trust, intent, and agentic impact.

TRANSCRIPT

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Gina, thank you so much for joining me on The Agentic Marketer where we're taking a peek into today's leaders’ tech stacks and AI strategy to learn how you're using AI agents to hit your pipeline targets. But before we dive in, I'd love to learn a little bit more about you and ROI·DNA.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, thank you for having me today. I'm the head of marketing at ROI·DNA. We are a full service B2B marketing agency. We've been around for over 15 years. specialize, we do everything, but we specialize in ABX strategy, digital marketing, SEO, web creative. But more recently, we've really been focused on helping our clients solve some of the bigger challenges that have come up.

From entering this zero-click AI-driven world and really helping us solve for some of those problems with gaining visibility, trust, and ranking.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Yeah, I feel like anyone that's listening to this probably is feeling that pain of the zero click AI world. So I'm super excited to dig into a little bit more because it sounds like you just have so much experience with this world and where we're going with agentic and with AI. So with that being said, I'm curious, how would you define agentic marketing? Like, what does that mean to you?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, I think agentic marketing to me is definitely more about creating systems that can act on behalf of the marketer. So it's not just about, you know, automating one-off tasks and things like that, but it's really about leaning in with agentic AI to, you know, create outcomes, make decisions, learn and truly give marketers back.

Our most precious resource, which is time and the ability to really focus on the strategy and the creativity side of things.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
That is incredibly true. And gosh, don't we wish we just had more time in the day. So recently, Gina, we named you to our top 30 Agentech marketers to watch list, which congratulations. I feel like that was a very well-deserved honor.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Thank.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
The main focus of that list is we wanted to bring in marketers who were moving beyond like experimentation of AI and we're making it central to how they operate on day to day. So with that being said, I'm curious, what did you have to do at ROI·DNA to like really make that leap from experimentation to leading with it and having it be a really integral part of your marketing team?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, I think that that's question that comes up a lot. Like how do you move from experimentation to like making this like a true part of your systems? And I think it really starts with, you know, building a system of accountability, governance and measurement really early. And then of course having full alignment and adoption.

We do a lot of ABX, ABM work. And if you're a marketer and you're doing ABM, you know it's not just any one department or groups decision. It has to be an ecosystem with operations, exec team, marketing. And that's really how we approach agentic marketing and agentic AI as well. But really, think going from experimenting and using it one off, you have to have that system in place in order to really.

Measure and see the benefits and get buy-in as a team.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Totally. And I'm curious, I think you have such a unique perspective because not only are you working internally as a head of marketing, but I'm sure you're working with a ton of other marketing teams as an agency. So where do you see AI and agents show up most visibly within your own organization or organizations that you're working with? And like, where are they seeing value with AI and agents?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, think ROI is actually pretty unique in the fact that we have our own proprietary AI tools that run on agentic AI to kind of solve some of those issues I mentioned earlier. So we actually, in conjunction with our parent company Hotwire Global, we have our AI innovation AI lab. And we've actually put out a couple of proprietary tools that help kind of solve these issues.

I think we're unique in the fact that yes, we do work with lot of customers who are grappling with this, but we've also kind of started getting ahead of the market and really shaping the outcomes ourselves through those tools. We have a couple of things. One of our first tools is our ROI·DNA Spark, which helps solve for visibility in LLMs. So it helps in conjunction with our blueprint, our AI results blueprint. We help kind of map out.

Where you stand in LLMs and how your brand is being cited, if it's ranking, if there's trust there and what LLMs are saying. And we kind of give a blueprint to gaining better visibility and boosting citations and things like that. So it really helps with search discoverability, especially as we see a zero-click world start to come to fruition and some of that really start to take shape.

Some of the other things that we do, have Ignite, is a ABX personalization at scale. So it really helps take account research, market research from weeks down to, or from months down to weeks, and really helps you kind of get that true personalization on a one-to-one level. And then we have Radiate, which is a agentic tool that analyzes all the content and makes sure that it's going to help you rank and help.

Be cited in LLM. So there's a lot there, but it's like, you know, using these tools really help us. It's like having an extra strategist embedded into everything we're doing across ABX and really help kind of make efficiencies and move quicker and get the right data.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Yeah, I love that you guys are focusing on that LLM and citations and rankings. I know from like personal experience and talking to other peers, that's just like such a hot topic right now. And going back to that zero click world, it just feels so nebulous and hard to understand. So I love that ROI is really focusing on that and bringing in like AI and agents into that world. So you've piqued my interest there.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, it's that I mean, we've seen, you know, through external research in the market, and then through our own aggregated customer research, we've seen clicks drop off. And, you know, it's a very real issue right now for a lot of marketers really trying to understand where to go in this landscape.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Totally. Now I have one more question before we like dive more into your tech stack and get a little bit deeper into the questions here, but do you have a hot take about AI and marketing that most people wouldn't agree with?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, that's a good question. I think it could go a lot of ways here, but I think right now personalization, when we talk about that in ABX, think right now that personalization is a differentiator right now for a lot of companies, because I think a lot of people still struggle to do it right and do it well. But in the very near future, that's not going to be a differentiator at all. And it's going to be just table stakes, know, through tools like.

Radiate and even our competitors like Profound and things like that, it's going to be more common that we'll see that in the market. And when different when when that differentiator becomes obsolete or it's just the norm, what will replace that? And in my opinion, that's going to be trust. And that's going to be like the new currency for marketers, because that's not just something you build at.

The consideration phase or at the bottom of the funnel. That's something that goes all the way back up to the top of the funnel and very early every touch point with your brand is going to broker and leverage trust in this new future.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
I love that answer and I could not agree more. think trust, especially as AI is just helping us create more and like do more content and like, yes, it has so many benefits, but having to build trust in your brand I think is paramount. So that is, I agree with you. Shifting gears a little bit here into your current tech stack and what you're using. So you guys hired Piper, the AISDR agent, which is very exciting.

I am curious to learn from you, what was it about having an AISDR that appealed to you and the team and made you lean in to bring in an AISDR onto your team?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, well, we're an agency and we're a very small team on our growth and marketing team. So we definitely needed a way to scale our inbound efforts and really take it to the next level. And obviously with Piper, we have an AISCR that is an extension of our team. she's, we actually named her ROI’er because if you work at ROI·DNA where we consider ourselves ROI’ers, so it's natural that our Piper is ROI’er. And so she really just.

As an extension of our team and really helps us scale that outreach and focus on, let our human SCRs focus on outbound and really supplementing what they're doing with the inbound leads that are coming in.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
It's so fun to talk to customers and hear the different names that they've given to their Piper or the AISDR. And I think ROI might be my new favorite one.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
We were like, that's a no brainer, she has to be ROI.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Okay, so on your team, what human task did Piper replace or supercharge? Like, has she fully replaced certain tasks or is she just like supercharging certain things within your organization?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, I think she definitely with the top of the funnel qualification for us that is just completely owned by Piper and she's really supercharged that effort. Also personalized meeting follow-up, personalized follow-ups, I'm sorry, and meeting scheduling for us doing all of that, kind of taking that off of our team. And then the big thing for us is really that kind of just giving our new prospects a bit of.

Initial product service line education, if you will. So I think, you know, that was something we rely on like, they're just going to browse the website and know what to look for, what they're interested in. But Piper's really just taken that to the next level. And not only are our inbound leads kind of coming in with a better understanding of what we do, what they're looking for, what service line they want to kind of focus on, but obviously through the data that.

Piper helps us get clarity around. We've actually been able to come into that conversation with just a little bit more knowledge as well.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
I love that and I think, you know, Piper or ROI’er, I think getting more pipeline and working those top of funnel, I think is a very prominent use case of what teams are looking for when they bring her on. But is there anything unexpected that Piper or ROI’er helped unlock for your team?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, I would say like, obviously we expected the efficiencies and the time back and all of that, but we got more data clarity, which I think was a big unlock that like we weren't really expecting or to that level anyway. Like I kind of hinted at, we get such great insights that really just help us refine our messaging, our personas, even our content strategy. think it illuminates some areas where we, you know, realize we need to beef up or we, you know, we see how.

Actual prospects are engaging with and what their feedback is around certain areas. It's like an ever evolving ongoing way to keep your content fresh and responsive to the ways that your buyers are ingesting it.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Totally, I feel like we've run into the exact same thing and it was such an unexpected use case that we weren't really thinking of. So it's good to hear that ROI has found that same benefit of bringing on Piper.

Now, when you think about bringing on an AISDR or honestly just any agent when you think about it from a marketing perspective, and again, I think you bring such a unique POV because you work with so many other teams and marketers, who do you think needs to be convinced internally when you're trying to bring on these agents?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, I think, know, for, like I mentioned before, there's always that buying center, that buying system, a group of people who need to have buy in for us. You know, we've always been a huge supporter of Qualified and we've seen the actual numbers and the data that really highlights the win. I think for a lot of our clients, so when they're considering either Qualified or any other kind of agentic tool, they really need to be able to show quick wins and tangible metrics.

And I think that's what's so beautiful about Piper is that that's all built in and part of what you can really, it makes measurements so easy. And so I think that's the people who need convincing, it's always going to be around metrics and actual revenue, right? So that's kind of where we focus that in on.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Yeah, I definitely agree with that. It's the people who are asking about like ROI, which not no pun intended, but like what's the ROI? What are the wins? Like how is it actually making an impact at the bottom line? Which I think is so interesting that you say that because I think prior to this AI era and evolution and agentic era, that was always the case. Like I feel like if you're making a new business case for a new tool, it was always you had to prove ROI.

I just think it feels so much different now, but at the crux of it, it still hasn't changed all that much. So it's great to hear you.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yes.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
I guess reaffirm that that is still what you're going to need to bring to your buying committee is like, yes, this is going to make an impact on the metrics that we still care about.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, and we've we've have so many clients who have great case studies through, the first 30, 60, 90 days of using Piper that just, you know, the proof is in the pudding there, as we say. And once you really see what it can do, that unlock is is it kind of it's so easy.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
And we just talked about metrics. Is there a specific metric or metrics that you watch, whether it's at ROI or at your customers to make sure that it's working? Like what is that thing that you can bring to your buying committee and say like, yeah, it's impacting this.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, I think for us, we're looking at a broad swath of metrics. This is what we advise our clients. Do you never look at any one thing to really measure success? You got to look at the big picture, the ecosystem. And for us, we're looking at response rate, especially when we do these big events and things where our inbound naturally will tick up and we have a big flux of people coming to the site.

Maybe your human SCRs aren't going to be able to get to it in time, things like that. Like that's a really good thing to look at right out the gate is how much volume sees consistent. We also look at lower funnel metrics like pipeline opportunities, pipeline velocity, seeing how quickly those things can progress. And then, know, tangentially, we also have like our human SCR efficiency lift and like, how are they feeling? How is this, you know, kind of complimenting and have yet to meet anyone who has not found that to be such a boost to their day-to-day too.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Absolutely. And I sound like a broken record, but I love doing this show. And I like talking to people like you, because again, it reaffirms that the metrics are the same as they were. Like, it's just a new tool to help you get to those metrics and you can scale your team. You don't necessarily need like the same headcount budget, or you can do it at like a much higher scale.

But all the things you're talking about, it's like pipeline and velocity and efficiency of our SDR team. Like those were all metrics.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Every time I talk to customers, I'm always like, it's the same metrics you would have looked at before. You shouldn't just lose sight of those. You're going to want to keep measuring those exact same things and seeing the lift. So I'm glad to hear you say that's what you guys are doing at ROI and with your customers as well.

Now you talked to us at Piper Fest. This was a couple months ago. And you also mentioned it earlier on the show about how AI is reshaping search and buyer behavior. So with that in mind, what do you think is the single biggest change that will happen to B2B marketing in the next 12 months?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
That's yeah, that's a big question. I think a lot. I think in the last 12 months, there has been just massive, significant change to the way that B2B buyers are researching, finding brands, trusting brands, making purchase decisions. I feel like that measurement and attribution hasn't really quite caught up to this new kind of buyer behavior.

And I think over the next year, we're going to see that start to catch up and look at measurement in different ways. I talked a lot about trust earlier on. I think that's going to kind of play a role into things as well. You're going to see kind of some like classical marketing kind of tactics and measurement points kind of come back and resurface as you kind of think through ways to really broker a system of trust with your buyers.

So I think measurement is really going to see some changes over the next year to kind of catch up with this new zero-click world AI-driven era.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Yep, absolutely. On that same note, are there any skills that you think marketers need to double down on in order to thrive in an AI driven world? Like if you were looking at another head of marketing or demand gen or something, what are some skills you think like, hey, you need to make sure you've got these down right now in this AI era?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yeah, I think the things that need to be doubled down on are the strategic portions of our role, right? Strategic synthesis and really kind of connecting that to what AI is doing. Your humanity, that component of human judgment, your narrative and your storytelling, your ability to bring that to the table is also how you're going to broker trust and build upon that and really bring that human element to your marketing.

I think along with like data governance and ethics, like that's gonna be an area where marketers should really start paying attention to now. That way you're not, you know, left behind.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
And then, what do you think something in a year from now, teams will still be getting wrong with AI?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
I think it's probably going to be around personalization, truthfully, because I think a lot of B2B teams are still getting it wrong today. think personalization, maybe this is another hot take, but it's kind of like a house of cards, right? It's like propped up on a house of cards where you may have nailed it really well, or you may be kind of using AI slop, as we like to call it, to kind of keep things.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Never got it right.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Just personalized enough, where it completely misses the mark still. And I think the consideration phase is already a very delicate phase of the buyer journey. And so if you're coming in with a personalized message that just lands completely wrong, you have the potential to blow a deal. And just ruin all credibility and trust. So again, it goes back to that, but I think it's better to not do personalization if you're not going to do it well and just kind of stick with broader intent messaging or problem solution language because that is just such a core critical moment in the buyer journey.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
I totally agree. Now I want to wrap up the episode with one of my favorite sections, which is our lightning round. So I have a handful of questions that are just like quick hits that I'd love to jump into to wrap things up. The first one is what was the first AI tool that you tested out as a marketer?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
All right. Definitely chat GBT.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
I feel like that is our most common answer. And yes, same. Okay, what is the most overrated buzzword in MarTech right now?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Probably said it like five or six times throughout this interview about personalization at scale. I mean, what word do marketers say that's not a buzzword, right? We're pretty notorious.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Our whole vocabulary. Yeah, our whole vocabulary is essentially just built on a buzzword. I would say this, I'm like, it's such a buzzword. And then I hear myself use it later. I'm like, well, I am very guilty of this. Okay, what is who is a marketer that you follow who you think is ahead of the curve on AI?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Same. Yeah, I'm going to have to go with Anol Bhattacharya. He is our lead in Hotwire and ROI·DNA on all things AI and innovation, agentic marketing. He puts out a lot of content on LinkedIn and he's super smart, super sharp and has some really great perspectives on where this is going.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Awesome. Okay, last question. If you could automate one part of your life with AI outside of work, what would it be?

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
I would have to say either like meal prep or cleaning my toddler's high chair. That one is just an unbelievable time suck at every meal. It's crazy.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
I could not agree more. I remember thinking, was like, man, can I use AI to fix baby sleep? Like, is that a thing? But no.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
That is that somebody is going to come up with that.

Sarah McConnell – Qualified
Well, and I might have missed missed the time when it would have benefited me, but I agree the meal prep one would be very beneficial and I try to make it work for that. It usually doesn't so far. So fingers crossed it gets better. Okay, Gina. Well, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast. It was great to hear from you. I really appreciate you taking the time.

Gina Inks – ROI·DNA
Yes. All right, thank you so much.

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