Conifr SaaS Interview Series: Valerie Riley

In this edition of the Conifr SaaS Interview Series, we chat with Valerie Riley, VP of Marketing at Unbounce and co-host of the Closing Time podcast. When it comes to navigating today’s B2B marketing landscape, few leaders are as plugged in as Valerie Riley. Val has been at the forefront of major strategic shifts, most recently leading the charge in integrating Insightly CRM following its 2024 acquisition.

In this interview, Val breaks down how her team is tackling longer sales cycles and pipeline slowdowns with smarter product-led growth (PLG) tactics, data-driven trial intercepts, and creative low-cost strategies that don’t rely on ballooning budgets. From B2B influencer marketing to leveraging Google’s ad quality update as a campaign hook, she shares the exact tactics they’re doubling down on in 2025.

We also dive into the fast-changing world of AI-powered search. Val shares her perspective on optimizing content for ChatGPT, how SEO is evolving, and why the “word salad” phase of AI content is giving way to a renewed focus on quality.

Whether you’re scaling a startup or fine-tuning your enterprise marketing motion, this conversation is packed with practical, forward-looking insights from someone who’s doing the work day in and day out.

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INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT:

Integrating Insightly and Unbounce: A Full-Funnel View

Michael: Val, thank you so much for coming on the show. Tell us a bit more about the latest at Unbounce and your role there.

Valerie: Absolutely. Unbounce acquired Insightly CRM in 2024, so the past several months have been all about merging those two businesses. Insightly gives you full visibility into the customer life cycle, and Unbounce helps you understand what converted that customer in the first place. Now we’re working on making sure leads from Unbounce go straight into Insightly and that both platforms work seamlessly together. That’s the big headline right now.

Michael: I imagine you’re excited to market a solution you actually use internally?

Valerie: Totally. We drink our own champagne. Our marketing and sales teams rely on that integration. It’s about more than generating leads now, we’re being asked to generate leads that close and renew. So having that full view of the customer journey is huge.

Growth Challenges and the PLG Assist

Michael: What are some of your biggest wins and challenges lately from a marketing standpoint?

Valerie: The big theme in 2025 is that everyone’s struggling with new customer acquisition. Sales cycles are longer, and keeping deals alive through those long stretches is tough. That’s where product-led growth (PLG) comes in. We’ve been sharpening our PLG approach to create strong trial experiences and then pull users out of those journeys with timely outreach. We call it turning PLG into an assist for sales-led growth.

Michael: What kinds of trial behaviors flag a user as ready for sales contact?

Valerie: A few things. On the CRM side, we look for accounts adding multiple users, logging in often, or engaging with data. On the landing page builder side, it’s things like publishing pages or generating leads. Combine that with data enrichment like seeing someone from a Fortune 500 company sign up and you’ve got a strong case to reach out.

Influencer Marketing and Low-Cost Wins

Michael: How are you driving more leads into the funnel to begin with?

Valerie: Influencer marketing is working really well for us. In B2B SaaS it hasn’t traditionally been a big play. We don’t try to control the message. We just want to be part of the conversation, because we believe our product can carry us the rest of the way.

We’re also leaning into low-cost strategies: content creation, expanding our podcast, LinkedIn posting, all of that. Everyone’s tightening budgets, so we’re getting smarter about what we can do with fewer resources.

Hijacking Headlines: The Google Ad Quality Play

Michael: Are these efforts more about brand awareness, or are you tracking specific ROI?

Valerie: Some of its branding, but we’re also using timely news to drive measurable campaigns. A great example is when Google released its ad quality update. It focused on post-click experiences and since we’re in the landing page business, we used that moment to build a whole campaign: an emergency landing page kit. Tons of clicks, form fills, and demo requests came from that. Very measurable.

Optimizing for ChatGPT and the Rise of AI Search

Michael: What’s your take on AI and search? Are you doing anything specific for ChatGPT?

Valerie: Definitely. Everyone’s optimizing for Google, but ChatGPT (and other AI search tools) are shifting the landscape. We’re asking: how do we rank in ChatGPT? It turns out content hosted on sources like Wikipedia, Medium, EDU sites, Reddit, Quora. Those are favored more than traditional SEO content. So we’re adjusting.

It’s not about flooding the internet with AI content. It’s about producing quality content. The same principles of SEO apply: backlinks, authority, diversity of sources. AI didn’t change that. It just refocused everyone.

Keeping an Eye on LinkedIn Trends

Michael: Any other trends you’re watching closely?

Valerie: LinkedIn. It’s still the B2B platform, and there’s no real competitor. We spend 10–15% of our ad budget there, but what really moves the needle is employee amplification. If even half our team shared our posts, the organic reach would be impossible to buy.

We’re also watching the algorithm, what it favors is always evolving. It used to be long-form posts, then native video, now more personal content. It’ll be interesting to see where it goes.

People to Follow and Learn From

Michael: Final question, who should people follow for great B2B and SaaS insights?

Valerie: I highly recommend GTM Partners. They do a great job breaking down go-to-market strategy across sales, marketing, product, and success. Also, for sales content, I love following John Barrows and Sam McKenna. Both bring smart, no-nonsense insights to the table.

Michael: Amazing. Thanks so much, Val. This was packed with insights. I’m excited to see what Unbounce does next.

Key Takeaways from Our Chat with Valerie Riley

• PLG meets sales-led growth – Valerie and her team use product-led growth (PLG) to identify and nurture high-intent users. By tracking trial activity and enriching lead data, they proactively intercept promising accounts and guide them into sales-assisted motions.
• B2B influencer marketing is here – Unbounce is doubling down on influencer partnerships, an underused channel in SaaS. Valerie’s approach: empower influencers to speak authentically rather than control the message, making the product part of early buying conversations.
• Marketing on a lean budget – With hiring freezes and economic uncertainty, Valerie prioritises scrappy, low-cost tactics: podcasting, content creation, and LinkedIn engagement. Her focus is on channels with outsized returns that don’t require more headcount.
  
• Turning headlines into campaigns – When Google launched its ad quality update, Valerie’s team moved fast, creating a landing page kit that turned media buzz into real leads. This news-jacking strategy helped them create a measurable, timely campaign aligned with market concerns.‍
• AI content, done right – While many flooded the market with AI-generated content, Valerie stresses quality over quantity. For Unbounce and Insightly, it’s all about crafting authoritative content, earning strong backlinks, and prioritizing trusted sources over sheer volume.
• ‍Optimizing for ChatGPT and AI search – Valerie sees AI search (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Bing) as a growing discovery channel. Her team is rethinking SEO to include distribution on high-authority platforms like Medium, Quora, and EDU domains that AI tools often cite.‍
• LinkedIn as a growth multiplier – Paid ads are only part of the play. Valerie believes that employee advocacy, getting 200+ team members to share brand content, can drive far more reach than any paid campaign.‍
• AI search measurement is still evolving – Emerging tools like Gumshoe and ZipTie help companies to better understand how they appear in AI-driven answers. While there’s no standard yet, the focus is shifting to monitoring share of voice across topic clusters.

This conversation with Valerie offered a clear-eyed look at driving SaaS growth through product-led tactics, influencer marketing, and content strategies built for both Google and AI search. Stay tuned for more episodes of the Conifr SaaS Interview Series, where we continue to spotlight the voices leading the next wave of B2B marketing innovation.