Diary of a first-time CMO volume 2

How do we run demand generation content campaigns ‘the cognism way’? This entry runs through a real life campaign example from Fix Your Funnel, a huge campaign that was launched in a matter of weeks.

This entry details three ways in which we have optimised our internal processes to become more efficient during an efficiency phase of Cognism’s growth.

Cognism’s team setup might be a little unusual… Listen to Alice explain why she wants Cognism’s marketing team to work together as agencies.

Working with your CEO is a very important aspect of being a marketing leader. And so knowing what they care about and how to best present information to them is a crucial thing to understand.

What is our DG content set up? How do we decide what content we’re going to work on next? And how do we make sure we are always outputting, even when working on ‘big rocks’?

Downloading content doesn’t equal intent to buy. Which is why we don’t create gated content anymore. That doesn’t mean we don’t create long form content, however. Listen to find out how we put out long form content, without gates.

Historically, Alice has been a very operational marketer. She likes being able to get into the weeds and do things for herself. However, as a CMO, her biggest role is as a strategic thinker. Click to listen to how Alice has found the balance.

Enrichment has a wide variety of benefits, which is why we use it a lot at Cognism to reduce the amount of data we need prospects to give us, and to keep the data up to date.

Everyone's an expert when it comes to two things… marketing, and parenthood. Listen to Alice’s experiences learning to ‘nod along’ to advice from either kind of ‘expert’.

Misalignment between demand gen and paid teams can cause chaos. If DG managers are creating ads that are then being applied in a way they didn’t intend, or vice versa, DG managers aren’t creating what paid needs to get results… well it’s all a mess. Click to hear how our DG and paid teams are structured, and how they work together.

What did our new VP of Paid Acquisition get done in his first 160 days of being in seat at Cognism? Click to find out.

What should you do when trying to attract enterprise targets with content? We assumed that we’d have to create dedicated content just for them. Turns out we were wrong. Listen to hear where we landed with enterprise content.

What does the C-suite team day-to-day look like? How do they make sure they’re aligned? How often do they get together to make decisions? Listen as Alice breaks it down.

Behind the scenes of creating the most complete demand generation course to teach marketers about how to do demand gen like we do.

What’s it like being a female leader of marketing in a very fast moving organisation - especially when you take a step away to become a mother? Click to here Alice’s account.

Done is better than perfect! Listen to find out Alice’s philosophy on how to validate ideas before you’ve spent any time or money on projects.

If only there was a silver bullet when it comes to marketing playbooks. But that just isn’t the case. Listen to Alice’s advice on building a process around finding the right playbook for any situation.

The original CMO diary campaign plan is not actually what any one externally would have ended up seeing… listen to find out what happened, and how we pivoted quickly.

On one episode of The Loop podcast, Antonia Wade, CMO of PwC joined Alice to discuss their various solutions to the evolved buyer journey. In this episode, Alice breaks down Antonia’s approach.

There’s no point filling a bucket that has holes in it. And rather than trying to patch the holes - only to see another spring up… Alice and the team instead chose to apply their knowledge from the CHASM project to reinforce GTM motions and fix leaks at the source.

If you don’t have your ICP right, everything else is going to fall like dominos. That’s why Cognism undertook the CHASM project. To check in on our ICP and ensure our GTM motions fit.

What’s the point in spending ages crafting a marketing campaign, only for it to be forgotten in a matter of seconds… that’s not going to drive any lasting results. Which is why being memorable is one of the most important things you can do as a marketer.

Alignment with sales, easier budget conversions, and much easier decision making on where to focus. These are just some of the benefits Alice’s discusses that resulted from tying herself to a revenue number.

No matter the type of content, our content strategy is about quality, rather than quantity. We don’t want to cut corners, as that only goes against you in the long run.

Having already covered Alice’s favourite tools in entry 3, this time, it’s the teams turn to give their top tech recommendations.