The Dave Gerhardt Show (Exit Five)

Episode: How Domitille de Saint-Exupéry (CMO at Lemlist) Turned $1.2M into $31M in New ARR
Date: February 23, 2026
Host: Dave Gerhardt
Guest: Domitille (“Dami”) de Saint-Exupéry (CMO, Lemlist)

Episode Overview

In this episode, Dave interviews Dami de Saint-Exupéry, CMO of Lemlist, about how she and her team turned $1.2 million in marketing spend into $31 million in new annual recurring revenue (ARR) over the past year. Dami dives into the tactical breakdown of that spend across paid advertising, influencer marketing, and partnerships, sharing detailed strategies, lessons, and experiments that worked and didn’t. This episode is packed with concrete advice for growth-focused B2B marketers, especially those in SaaS, wanting to scale efficiently and experiment with new channels.

Company & Role Background (02:25–04:17)

• Lemlist: Bootstrapped, $40M ARR sales engagement platform for B2B startups focused on outbound sales.
• Acquisition: Recently bought Clap, a $2M ARR conversation intelligence platform for sales teams.
• Dami’s Path: 15 years in B2B marketing tech, joined Lemlist after consulting with the founder on their move from PLG/self-serve to sales-led and upmarket targeting.

“It started like this and a few months later he offered the job… it’s time for me to step out of my comfort zone and start the learning curve again.”
— Dami (03:16)

$1.2M Marketing Spend = $31M New ARR (04:17–06:35)

• 2025 spend: $1.2M marketing investment.
• Generated: $31M in new ARR across Lemlist and Clap.
• Growth: 60% YoY, fighting churn via move upmarket and adding a stronger sales-led motion and better targeting.

Paid Media – Scaling from Zero to $500k/year (06:46–21:34)

Why Move to Paid? (06:46–08:09)

• Trigger: Need to capture existing demand & target new, upmarket audience quickly as they shifted focus from founder-led audience to mid-market decision makers.

“Paid lets you capture existing demand and move fast on a new target audience… when executed well and on top of strong positioning, you get speed and control.”
— Dami (07:03)

Execution: Insourcing vs. Outsourcing (08:09–10:02)

• Outsourced technical/ad-buying expertise.
• Kept positioning, messaging, and campaign direction in-house; tightly linked ads to product launches and GTM moments for relevance and impact.

Ad Objectives and Offers (09:17–10:02)

• Focus: Driving free trials and demos, not classic lead magnets.
• Tactic: Target high-intent keywords (search), competitor bidding, and social ad experiments.

How to Scale Paid (12:10–13:48)

• Started small: One channel (Google Ads/Bing), one geo.
• Gradual ramp-up: Expanded geos, then added LinkedIn feed and sponsored email.
• Sprint-based hypothesis testing — prove ROI at each step before scaling.

“First you choose one channel... started with Google Ads. One geo. Then expanded.”
— Dami (12:10)

When to Outsource (13:56–15:16)

• “Outsource to de-risk hiring, accelerate learning, and keep full-time team focused on high impact and strategy.”

Proving ROI & Budget Increase (15:16–16:21)

• Early wins, quick dashboard visibility—shifted leadership perceptions, reduced overdependence on brand organic.
• Caution: Diversify, don’t become dependent on paid alone.

Creative & Format – What Works in B2B Ads? (17:27–20:16)

• In-house and AI-generated creative, but strong push for “fun,” off-brand, eye-catching creative instead of corporate-standard.
• Benchmarking: Team shares “best ad” examples in Notion.
• Tested and iterated—paid is a space for experimentation in format and tone.

“I wanted to have fun... catch people’s attention... not like a cover of a B2B Ebook.”— Dami (17:51)

Mistakes & Lessons (20:59–21:34)

• Snapchat and Spotify tested, but not a fit for B2B.
• Key lesson: Not every platform is worth the effort—focus on intent-based, business-relevant channels.

Geographic Expansion & Positioning (21:41–23:02)

• Used paid to quickly test new markets (e.g., Germany).
• Localized messaging: “Cold emailing” underperforms in Germany due to legal/cultural context—pivoted ad narrative to LinkedIn/phone outreach, resulting in much better CTR.

Influencer Marketing – $60k for Massive Compounding Impact (23:02–43:14)

Why Influencers? (23:41–26:00)

• “Not Boring to Boring”—Wanted innovative, non-traditional B2B marketing.
• Influencers tap into authentic buying journeys—people trust peers, not brands.
• Struggled with databases—micro-influencer identification required manual, relationship-driven selection.

“Consistent, deep content with a clear POV and engaged, qualitative comments are more important than just high follower count.”—Dami (25:00)

Sourcing and Managing Influencers (29:34–34:46)

• Start with your client base, partners, and creators you trust/follow.
• Micro (<10k followers) often better than celebrity for B2B.
• Creator briefs: Not hard-sell; focus on frameworks, methods, value first—a soft CTA to product.
• Mix short and multi-post partnerships, evolving to always-on networks if fit is good.

“We never try to sell solely a feature. We sell a method that solves a real pain, and it's easier if you have Lemlist or Clap, but not required.”
— Dami (31:14)

Success Measurement (34:46–42:33)

• No UTM links—look for clear uplifts in signups after posts, blended conversion rates, and qualitative signals.
• Attribution: Directionally tracked for ROI; comparative to other channels, but aware it’s imperfect.
• Compound effects: Best-performing influencer content gets boosted as thought-leadership ads; also used as hyper-relevant seed lists for outbound.

“We don’t put UTMs on influencer posts… That’s not how marketing works!”
— Dave (40:13)

• Use influencer post discussion for targeted outbound—in some cases reaching out on behalf of influencer (with consent) led to 40%+ reply rates.

Partnerships – $450k (Most Underrated B2B Channel) (43:14–47:06)

• Outbound agencies & coaching agencies as partners; tiered commissions (lifetime for “tier 1,” 1 year for others).
• Done-with-you (not for-you) agencies drive >2x higher LTV; builds retention and embeds the product into client ops.
• Partners become force-multipliers: accelerating entry into new geographies, expanding network, running co-marketing events.

“I see them as a force multiplier… Partners bring new revenue and make customers more successful with your product.”
— Dami (45:51)

• Partnership manager within the growth team: responsible for acquisition, enablement, upsell, and nurturing partner growth.

AI in Marketing – Useful but Mostly for Repurposing (47:06–52:58)

General Attitude (47:06–48:21)

• Team uses AI everywhere, but never as a magic bullet.
• Strong distaste for overhype; FOMO is real, but “content as commodity” means quality matters more than ever.

Overrated Use Case (48:21–49:33)

• Content generation without context or depth. Bulk content doesn't drive engagement; needs to be differentiated with stories, numbers, real POV.

“Content has become a commodity... Most posts suck because people just say, ‘Hey, write a post,’ and AI does the rest. But it’s all a bit empty. What really matters is sharing experience, anecdotes, numbers.”
— Dami (48:43)

Underrated Use Case (50:03–51:01)

• Ultra-contextual, AI-powered campaigns: Email/drip/outbound triggered off real user behavior—retention, monetization, anti-churn.
• AI integrated deeply into product use—ultra-personalized messaging unlocked once you give AI the right context/data.

Goldmine in Voice-of-Customer Data (51:01–52:58)

• Recorded calls, sales conversations, and internal meetings—rich source for copy, enablement, and insights.
• Clap (their product) used to mine these conversations for actionable CRM updates, objection handling, and building customer stories with no manual note-taking.

Notable & Memorable Quotes

• “You don’t have to be the most creative… Just share what your marketing budget is, what you spent on it. And it went viral.” (54:13, Dave)
• “When influencers start understanding your product and using it… they will create really good content faster.” (34:46, Dami)
• “One deal can have a 10x ROI [from influencer].” (37:02, Dami)
• “Paid gives you things most channels want: speed and control… when it sits on strong positioning.” (07:03, Dami)
• “Look at how you buy as a person before you do your own marketing.” (23:41, Dami quoting Dave)
• “Attribution is always tricky… we don’t want to build this crazy, perfect model because we know it’ll never be true.” (39:30, Dami)
• “Content generation is overrated—AI is great for repurposing, but not for creating truly new, interesting stuff.” (48:21, Dami)

Episode Timeline & Key Timestamps

• [02:25] – Lemlist, acquisition of Clap, and Dami’s background
• [06:46] – Decision to scale from zero to $500k in paid media spend
• [12:10] – Stepwise scale-up strategy for paid channels
• [17:51] – Experimenting and iterating on paid ad creative
• [20:59] – Lessons from failed ad platform experiments
• [21:41] – Using ads to de-risk and validate expansion into new geographic markets
• [23:41] – Why and how B2B influencer marketing works
• [31:14] – How to brief and collaborate with influencers for authentic content
• [34:46] – Why recurring influencer relationships outperform one-off posts
• [39:30] – Reality of influencer attribution—and why you shouldn’t force UTMs
• [43:14] – Partnerships: why it’s the most underrated channel in B2B
• [47:06] – How AI fits (and doesn’t fit) into modern marketing
• [48:21] – Overrated and underrated AI use cases for marketers
• [51:01] – Voice-of-customer data as next-level marketing rocket fuel

Final Takeaways

• Start small, iterate, and let data guide investment. Every channel that succeeded at Lemlist began with focused experimentation, rapid feedback loops, and willingness to drop what didn’t work.
• Outsource for technical depth—own your story in-house. External experts quickstart campaigns, but keep positioning and creative internally for authenticity.
• Treat influencer and partner channels as compounding, not transactional. Multi-layered relationships drive awareness, deals, and customer success synergistically.
• AI is a force multiplier—but only with genuine, contextual, and creative human input. AI scales existing knowledge, repurposes, and complements high-touch strategy—not a magic content machine.

Find Domitille on LinkedIn for more tactical breakdowns, or reach out if you heard her on the show! (54:48)