S2: E9: How Webflow is repositioning from a website builder to an agentic web marketing platform | Dave Steer

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Apr 7, 2026

Dave Steer, CMO of Webflow and veteran marketer who moved from consumer to B2B, talks about repositioning Webflow for enterprise while protecting its designer community. He discusses framing Webflow as an "agentic web marketing platform," AI’s role in collapsing silos, the tensions between AEO and SEO, and what real upmarket motion looks like for a community-built brand.

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INSIGHT

Consumer Brand Principles Break Through In B2B

B2B marketing isn't inherently boring; it often appears that way because teams play it safe to appease large buying committees.
Dave Steer found consumer-brand techniques (trust, authentic voice) translate to B2B and break the "sea of sameness".

ANECDOTE

Webflow's Shift From Designer Tool To Enterprise Platform

Webflow began as a design- and freelancer-focused community product and is now being pulled to serve enterprise marketing teams.
Dave describes the platform evolving into an "agentic web marketing platform" that supports designers, marketers, developers, and agencies together.

ADVICE

Position By The Alternative Customers Choose

Position against the competitive alternative by asking what customers would do if you didn't exist and target the specific people who care most.
Webflow intentionally pursues upmarket because its platform primitives and guardrails match enterprise needs.

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Webflow has spent over a decade earning the loyalty of designers and freelancers. Now, with enterprise demand pulling the platform upmarket and AI reshaping the marketing function from the ground up, CMO Dave Steer is navigating one of the harder brand transitions in B2B: expanding your ICP without losing the community that got you here. In this episode, Dave gets specific about how Webflow is repositioning against legacy CMS incumbents, what co-hosting the first-ever AEO conference revealed about where enterprise marketing is heading, and why the most dangerous move a marketer can make right now is throwing out the old playbook entirely.

Topics Discussed:

Why developer marketing was the bridge from consumer (eBay, Facebook, Twitter) to B2B — and what consumer brand-building still teaches enterprise marketers
The structural reason B2B marketing became a "sea of sameness" — and what it actually takes to break through when a buying committee is 18–20 people
How Webflow is moving upmarket while protecting the designer and freelancer community that built the brand
Co-hosting the first AEO Conf: what the 1,200-person waitlist signals about where enterprise marketing anxiety is concentrated right now
Why AI is collapsing marketing's internal silos — and why Dave frames this as "marketing becoming a verb, not a department"
The specific trade-offs of integrating AEO vs. abandoning SEO — and why the SEO is the most valuable player on the team right now
Why first-touch and last-touch attribution are becoming relics — and what to replace them with
Dave's take on category creation, April Dunford's positioning framework, and why "agentic web marketing platform" is the right umbrella for where Webflow is going

// Sponsors: Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership. www.FrontLines.io

The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe. www.GlobalTalent.co

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