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- Ep 21. Mailmodo's marketing head on positioning, experiments, and creative risks
Ep 21. Mailmodo's marketing head on positioning, experiments, and creative risks
Zeeshan Akhtar, prev. Head of Marketing at Mailmodo on positioning, scaling from solo marketer to 8-person team, creative campaign strategies, and building high-velocity marketing culture at a growth-stage martech startup
Mita Mandawker
October 18, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes
Zeeshan Akhtar breaks down four years of marketing at Mailmodo, from solo marketer to leading an 8-person team. He gets into the specifics: how they differentiated with AMP emails, which early channels worked (and which didn't), why they bet big on the State of Email report, how they structured the team into pods, and what their high-velocity creative culture actually looks like.
You'll hear about building a marketing team with the right problem-solving DNA, how they are using AI to cut down campaign time, and evolving KPIs as the business matures.
(00:00) Intro
(02:18) Positioning strategy in a crowded market
(10:20) Channel validation framework: copying what works, then differentiating messaging
(19:23) Origin story of the ‘State of Email’ report and how it drove backlinks and boosted SEO authority
(32:08) Team building philosophy: pod structure evolution
(44:22) Hiring philosophy: problem-solving attitude over specific skill checklists
(52:44) Building high-velocity culture: why novelty and creativity drive engagement economy
(01:05:54) Building trust with founders to experiment with creative campaigns
(01:13:32) Campaign execution loop: from inception to script to launch
(01:26:52) KPI evolution: from signups to pipeline quality and brand positioning
(01:37:19) AI adoption: cutting campaign turnaround time 50% with tools like Lovable
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/akhtar-zeeshan/
You can find the full episode transcript below.
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