EPISODE · Jun 27, 2023 · 57 MIN
Why Don't CEOs and Marketers Get Along?
from Don't Say Content · host Devin Bramhall & Margaret Kelsey
The relationship between Founders/CEOs and their heads of marketing is broken. The Boss doesn’t understand how marketing works, so they micromanage their marketing leaders into poor performance. Marketing leaders struggle to communicate value because much of their work isn’t tied directly to revenue and they don’t always know how to speak to the business metrics and challenges that matter to The Boss. This tension at the executive level leads to wasted money, slowed company growth, and more recently: record CMO turnover in 2023 and a stagnation in B2B Marketing strategy (and efficacy) due to a hamster wheel of starting from scratch. In this episode, Devin and Margaret share stories from their experiences working with founders/CEOs in-house and agency-side over the last decade. Some bigger themes they cover are:The importance of shared language and understanding of metricsHow communication and trust impact the CEO/head of marketing relationshipThe balance between brand and funnel-building initiativesWhy CEOs and founders should step back from leading marketing departmentsPlus Devin shares what she learned from being CEO and working with her marketing team, as well as anonymous stories from their clients (you know it’s juicy when Devin and Margaret aren’t sharing names). The spicy takes are abundant in this one—proceed with caution. 😉We’re sending off season 2 with a bang. We’ll be back in September 2023!Connect with Devin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/devinbramhall/Connect with Margaret: https://www.linkedin.com/in/margaret-kelsey-104abba/Subscribe to our newsletter: https://dontsaycontent.substack.com/Created in partnership with Share Your Genius: https://www.shareyourgenius.com/Sponsored by Ahrefs: https://ahrefs.com/
What this episode covers
The relationship between Founders/CEOs and their heads of marketing is broken. The Boss doesn’t understand how marketing works, so they micromanage their marketing leaders into poor performance. Marketing leaders struggle to communicate value because much of their work isn’t tied directly to revenue and they don’t always know how to speak to the business metrics and challenges that matter to The Boss. This tension at the executive level leads to wasted money, slowed company growth, and more recently: record CMO turnover in 2023 and a stagnation in B2B Marketing strategy (and efficacy) due to a hamster wheel of starting from scratch. In this episode, Devin and Margaret share stories from their experiences working with founders/CEOs in-house and agency-side over the last decade. Some bigger themes they cover are:The importance of shared language and understanding of metricsHow communication and trust impact the CEO/head of marketing relationshipThe balance between brand and funnel-building initiativesWhy CEOs and founders should step back from leading marketing departmentsPlus Devin shares what she learned from being CEO and working with her marketing team, as well as anonymous stories from their clients (you know it’s juicy when Devin and Margaret aren’t sharing names). The spicy takes are abundant in this one—proceed with caution. 😉We’re sending off season 2 with a bang. We’ll be back in September 2023!Connect with Devin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/devinbramhall/Connect with Margaret: https://www.linkedin.com/in/margaret-kelsey-104abba/Subscribe to our newsletter: https://dontsaycontent.substack.com/Created in partnership with Share Your Genius: https://www.shareyourgenius.com/Sponsored by Ahrefs: https://ahrefs.com/
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Why Don't CEOs and Marketers Get Along?
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