CV MIC: Melissa Zehner, Founder of Organic GTM

In B2B marketing, paid media often gets top billing… until growth stalls.

That’s where content leaders like Melissa Zehner step in. As the founder of Organic GTM, Melissa works with startups to build organic lead generation strategies that don’t rely solely on ad spend.

In her conversation with ClearVoice MIC (Marketers in Conversation), Melissa shared her perspective on why companies often wait too long to invest in organic growth, how fractional content leadership fits into lean team structures, and why human connection still matters more than automation.

Why Fractional Content Leadership Makes Sense for Modern Marketing Teams

Melissa didn’t plan to start her own business. After leaving a draining in-house role, she took a weekend to package her skills into a fractional content offering. Within months, she’d replaced her salary and realized there was consistent demand for what she now calls “a more sophisticated version of the gig economy.”

Fractional leadership fills an important gap: many startups don’t have the bandwidth, expertise, or budget for a full in-house content hire. By bringing in someone on a part-time basis, founders get experienced leadership without the commitment of full-time headcount.

Melissa noted this model became especially relevant in 2022 and 2023, during waves of layoffs and budget cuts across the tech industry. Startups still needed strategy, but they needed it more flexibly.

Why Many Companies Ignore Organic Until Paid Stops Performing

Melissa sees a familiar pattern with SaaS startups: they start with paid media because it delivers quick wins, but eventually hit a plateau.

“Organizations get so focused on paid that they don’t set up organic programs until they have no choice,” Melissa shared.

Her role usually begins right at that inflection point — when companies realize they need to diversify lead sources. Her work involves:

• Building organic lead funnels from scratch

• Developing content and SEO strategies tailored to company goals

• Establishing infrastructure for tracking and reporting

What’s critical, she emphasized, is treating organic with the same level of discipline as paid. That means using real strategy, thoughtful channel selection, and full-funnel content, not just throwing up blog posts and hoping for results.

The Overlooked Step: Tracking Organic ROI from Day One

One of Melissa’s sharpest observations is how often teams focus heavily on paid attribution while ignoring organic performance entirely.

According to Melissa, many organizations think organic “doesn’t work” simply because they never tracked it properly in the first place.

Her approach emphasizes mirroring paid frameworks:

• Setting up lead attribution systems

• Tracking pipeline impact from organic programs

• Reporting regularly to build executive buy-in

This step is especially important when it comes to tying content strategy to revenue. Without proper tracking, content often becomes an easy scapegoat for poor performance.

Why AI Won’t Replace Strategic, Human-Driven Marketing

While AI has become a major conversation in content circles, Melissa draws a clear boundary around its role. She’ll use AI for things like research or idea generation, but strategy, writing, and relationship-building stay fully human.

As she put it during the conversation:

“There are things AI can’t and shouldn’t replace. Emotional nuance. Empathy. Human connection. Those are things that matter in real business relationships.”

That belief isn’t just personal; it’s part of her brand positioning. Melissa openly markets her work as “100% human,” finding that clients specifically seek her out because they want a human-led strategy rather than automated solutions.

Organic GTM 2.0: Why Brand Positioning Matters as Much as Delivery

Melissa recently relaunched Organic GTM, not because she changed her services, but because she refined her messaging.

She realized founders and boards care about revenue, pipeline, and growth, not necessarily content quality or keyword rankings. By adjusting her language to align with C-suite priorities, Melissa positioned herself more clearly as a go-to-market partner, not just a content marketer.

She encourages content leaders to take a similar approach, especially as AI-generated noise increases. Being able to speak clearly about the business value of content and strategy can set both individuals and teams apart.

Resonance Over Reach: Why Showing Up as Yourself Still Wins

Melissa’s final takeaway was simple:

“Not every post has to go viral. But if it connects with the right people, it’s doing its job.”

In an era of saturated feeds and AI-generated content, authenticity and human connection are key differentiators. Melissa emphasized the value of building trust slowly, focusing on thoughtful positioning, real conversations, and consistent presence over surface-level engagement metrics.