Charlie Riley, one of the top 50 marketing influencers to follow, emphasizes that when departments work in silos, valuable feedback and insights get lost. Internal marketing ensures customer feedback reaches the right teams, leading to better marketing campaigns and sales strategies.

"Internal marketing has to be intentional. Get started today at trying to help bridge gaps between departments." - Charlie Riley

Charlie suggests creating a culture of sharing feedback and success stories and educating the C-suite on the role of marketing. Charlie also emphasizes the significance of content in sparking conversations and fostering innovation within the organization.

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Staci Firios, a 3x B2B CMO with over 25 years of marketing experience, discusses the challenges of the non-linear buyer's journey and the need for a multi-channel strategy. She also highlights the importance of combining "book smart" marketing theory with "street smart" customer insights to create an optimal buyer experience. 

"Nothing interesting happens in the office. Get out of the office, have conversations, know your customers, understand their challenges." - Staci Firios

She emphasizes the role of content in the buyer's journey and its impact on revenue growth. She shares examples of how analyzing the buyer's journey and optimizing content can significantly increase conversions and revenue.

"We were able to get a 20 percent increase in conversions from fixing two drop-off points in the buyer's journey." - Staci Firios

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Tanya Stricker, VP of Marketing for CloudGen, shares her expertise in fixing broken marketing departments. She discusses indicators of a broken department, such as missed goals and turf wars, and emphasizes the importance of listening to team members and fostering teamwork.

"You have to be intentional about fostering relationships in the workplace." - Tanya Stricker

Tanya highlights the need for personal connections in a remote work environment and suggests activities like one-on-one meetings to build relationships. She also emphasizes the significance of understanding team members' career objectives and providing opportunities for growth. Ultimately, Tanya emphasizes the art of listening and treating team members as individuals.

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David Howard, the VP of Marketing at Buzzboard, talks us through how getting the right stuff done in marketing requires careful planning, alignment with other departments, marketing operations, and a focus on content creation and measurement. 

"You always have time to get organized." - David Howard

David discusses the importance of backward planning and, setting clear goals to avoid missing deadlines, and running from one activity to the next.

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Introducing Bruno Trimouille, the CMO of Littera. Bruno shares his insights on managing a major transformation after acquiring twelve different brands. He stresses the importance of aligning marketing and sales in an Account-Based Marketing (ABM) world where value-added selling requires the focus of a single brand and the thought leadership content to drive a new level of market expertise emerging from the company.  

"I really look at it as, I mean, first and foremost is the people, you know, do we have the right people on the team?" - Bruno Trimouille

He discusses the challenges and opportunities of a company's growth and acquisition and how to create a cohesive marketing engine. He also highlights the importance of having a North Star and keeping things simple in the midst of a transformation.

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The alignment between marketing and sales is a perennial challenge for B2B companies. However, Shawn Conahan (CRO of the Year) and Tristan Barnum (CMO) have shown that overcoming this challenge and creating a successful partnership is possible. They have built a high-performing team committed to their client partners' success by fostering trust, collaboration, co-ownership, and a shared vision.

"We have a culture of freedom and responsibility. Not every company has that, but we tell our entire team on a periodic basis, remember that you have the freedom to do whatever it is that you want within the constraints of what we're trying to accomplish here." - Shawn Conahan, CRO of the Year

The unique compensation structure at Wildfire, which focuses on long-term incentives, has helped to create a culture of collaboration and a commitment to the ongoing success of their clients, whom they call partners. This, combined with their open communication, daily standups, and a POV that the real work with clients only starts at the close of a deal from sales, is all part of the unique perspective that drives their success.

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Matt Klassen, a 2x CMO, explains how adopting an agile development process in marketing can create transparency, accountability, and strong relationships with other departments. It allows for greater flexibility and the ability to pivot based on changing market dynamics.

"By applying agile development practice to marketing, we've been able to remove random acts of marketing from our operations." - Matt Klassen

Through agile marketing, Matt's team focuses on strategic planning and prioritization, reducing random acts of marketing. They commit to a monthly sprint and leave room for ad hoc requests, ensuring alignment with the go-to-market strategy

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Devin Davis, a VP of Marketing with nearly 20 years of experience, explains, "Product marketing is the worst-named function in the world. You should be talking as little as possible about your product and instead talking about the problem area it solves. Once you understand that, it unlocks a new way of reaching your audience in a more effective manner."

"As marketers creating content, we must stay focused on the problem to solve. That's what the people that you're reaching out to, that's what they're thinking about every day." - Devin Davis

Devin's background in journalism has greatly influenced his approach to content creation. He emphasizes the importance of the inverted pyramid concept, where the most important content is presented first to capture the audience's attention. By starting with what matters most to your audience, you can engage them and encourage them to continue reading or exploring your content. This and much more are all part of Devin’s playbook for creating A+ content.

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Anita Tulsiani, a 2x CMO with a background in high tech, explains how CMOs must foster strong relationships with product, finance, and sales leadership to excel, moving beyond their functional roles. Marketers can align their strategies and drive revenue by understanding the customer, profitability, and pain points better than anyone, giving them a voice at the table in the C-suite. Collaboration is key! 

"As the CMO, fall in love with your product and carve out a voice at the table from a different lens than others in the C-Suite." - Anita Tulsiani

Anita stresses that having a unified internal and external narrative and fostering a genuine passion for the products being marketed and the customers being served is essential. She also emphasizes creating a unique value proposition as critical for marketing, ensuring alignment with sales and allowing for a consistent story and differentiation in a crowded market. She reminds us not to underestimate the power of a well-crafted value proposition.

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James Furbush, VP of Marketing and former managing editor,​ explains how B2B buyers are 83% of the way through their research before they want to talk to a company. So, how do you get on their shortlist? It's all about the product before the product - content!

"If you're thinking about your content as a product in and of itself that could stand on its own, then you need to treat it with the respect and care it deserves." - James Furbush

James explains how, as the B2B buying process becomes increasingly self-serve, content is becoming more important than ever. It allows us to enter the conversation early on, establish thought leadership, and differentiate ourselves from the competition. By adopting a journalistic approach, inviting conversations, and focusing on adding value, we can create a content strategy that drives growth and success for our business.

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