This week, Jeff Clark is back from his holidays and returns to the marketing studio, where he and host Ian Truscott are inspired by some new research from Spark Toro that they share in a blog article “ If your audience’s sources of influence and your marketing budget don’t align, you’re gonna have a bad time ” about some of the discrepancies between what channels are influential and how much we invest in them. They discuss: Understanding the full investment in each channel, including the level o...
Jan 16, 2025•31 min•Season 1Ep. 253
This week, Robert Rose, the Chief Troublemaker at the newly launched Seventh Bear, hosts Ian in our virtual bar, which has also been renamed The Rose and Rockstar, where Robert continues to suggest a cocktail for the week, but in a change to previous episodes, they enjoy a bit more time in the bar with a discussion on a topic that has come to mind this week. As he serves his first Rockstar CMO cocktail of the New Year, Robert shares his favorite prediction for 2025, and this opens up a conversat...
Jan 11, 2025•25 min•Season 3Ep. 1
It’s a New Year and a change on the podcast as we split the show into two parts: The Studio, which will drop on Wednesdays, and The Bar (The Rockstar & Rose), which will drop on Saturdays. This week in The Rockstar CMO Studio, Cathy McKnight joins Ian to share her opinions on five content marketing predictions for 2025 that they plucked from a splendid collection of over 40 predictions and trends assembled by the Content Marketing Institute. Some get a “hell yeah”, while others, maybe not so...
Jan 08, 2025•42 min•Season 1Ep. 252
This week, as his chums continue their holiday breaks, as it’s predictions season Ian shares 5 predictions that have caught his eye from Forrester, Marketing Profs, and Smart Insights. The predictions or hot trends that he picks we should be thinking about in 2025 are: Generative engine optimization Breaking our MQL addition Organization realignment More budget for brand Zero click marketing Enjoy! — The Links The people: Ian Truscott on LinkedIn and Bluesky The source of the predictions: The Fu...
Jan 04, 2025•22 min•Season 1Ep. 251
It’s quiet in the Rockstar CMO FM studios this week as Ian’s chums take their holiday breaks, and so, without his bandmates, Ian celebrates the 250th episode with a solo, discussing podcasting, if you should start one, his experience of producing this podcast for 250 episodes and some marketing lessons learned. In this episode, Ian discusses: Introduction to the podcasting journey The value of podcasting for marketing Building a podcast: goals and strategies The challenges of podcasting The evol...
Dec 28, 2024•22 min•Season 1Ep. 250
This week in the marketing studio, special guest and friend of Rockstar CMO Dennis Shiao, founder of B2B agency Attention Retention, is sharing his tips on how he created a successful content marketing community, its impact on his career and personal brand, what marketers can learn from his experience, and how B2B brands can benefit from creating a community. Ian then joins Robert Rose, Chief Trouble Maker at Seventh Bear (the artist formerly known as The Content Advisory), in our virtual bar fo...
Dec 21, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 249
Cathy McKnight, The Chief Solver of Problems at The Content Advisory, makes her monthly visit to the podcast and shares with Ian their 5 D’s for personal development that their firm has developed, kicking off with a quick update on why we need personas. They discuss the 5 D’s: define, Discover, Design, Decide, and Draft, which provides a framework for persona development. They also stray into the buyer's journey, their needs, how not to define them, and the value of being different. Ian then joi...
Dec 14, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 248
It's a shorter show this week, as it’s just Jeff and Ian, as Robert was on a plane and not in the bar. Jeff picks a hot topic as he drops the mic on his contributions to the podcast this year before he goes off on his holiday break: 5 reasons why CMOs get fired. Jeff crosses the aisle from Forrester to Gartner as he is inspired by a LinkedIn post by Chris Ross, Vice President and Analyst at Gartner for CMOs / Marketing , who shares some recent Gartner research of C suite executives into “Which s...
Dec 07, 2024•35 min•Season 1Ep. 247
It’s budget season, and whether your financial year kicks off in January or April, we need to think about what we are doing next year, especially as various surveys from Forrester, Gartner, and Marketing Profs indicate that B2B marketing teams will need to do more with less, a hackneyed expression that makes it no less true. So, our host Ian Truscott joins Jeff Clark in the studio to explore 5 ideas for making the most of your marketing budget and the value of investing some time in the deep wor...
Nov 30, 2024•57 min•Season 1Ep. 246
This week, we have a full complement of guests as Jeff Clark and Robert Rose join our host, Ian Truscott, for today’s episode. Jeff discusses 5 Key Ways Marketing Can Enable Sales and he and Ian dive into: Buyer Needs Analysis Market Intelligence Story Telling Sales Tools Technology Ian then joins Robert in the virtual bar for a splendid holiday cocktail and a chat about his concept of valuable friction. Enjoy! — The Links The people on LinkedIn: Ian Truscott Jeff Clark Robert Rose Mentioned in ...
Nov 23, 2024•57 min•Season 1Ep. 245
It is a shorter show again this week, as it’s just Jeff Clark and Ian Truscott in the marketing studio discussing four takes on privacy, relevancy, and personalization while Robert Rose is away on business travel. They dig into a consumer study by Drapers, Deloitte privacy research, the Forrester blog, a Boston Consulting Group framework, and an article on Forbes to discuss: Personalization in B2B. Consumers are willing to share data for better services. Trust in brands is crucial for data shari...
Nov 16, 2024•33 min•Season 1Ep. 244
A shorter show this week, as a last-minute client commitment meant Robert couldn’t make it to the virtual bar, so we have a show dedicated to our chum Cathy McKnight, and Ian asks her about the real bar and her experience of Content Marketing World, including the three workshops and presentations that she ran. They cover: Reaction to Robert’s keynote The results from the CMI Content Marketing survey Content technology and the importance of an audit The folly of one-to-one personalization The com...
Nov 09, 2024•35 min•Season 1Ep. 243
This week, Jeff Clark and Ian Truscott share five characteristics of data-driven marketing teams, which are having: Defined and measurable targets Data that is curated to address business goals Tools to make the data available A skilled team who manages the data Everybody in marketing is enabled to be data-driven Ian then joins Robert Rose , the Chief Troublemaker at The Content Advisory , in the Rockstar CMO virtual bar, and he shares three important trends for B2B marketing that he’ll be explo...
Nov 02, 2024•56 min•Season 1Ep. 242
This week, the risk of having a “just in time” podcast, as family, fate, and Comcast conspired, meant it’s a short episode due to postponed interviews with Jeff and Cathy. So this week, we go straight to the bar as ian joins Robert Rose , the Chief Troublemaker at The Content Advisory , in the Rockstar CMO virtual bar. As he recovers from Content Marketing World with a cocktail, he shares some of the highlights of last week's event and the theme of his keynote this year. Enjoy! Unleashing the Fu...
Oct 26, 2024•25 min•Season 1Ep. 241
This week Cathy McKnight and Ian Truscott discuss her recent trip to Adobe Max her recent article Efficiency: How Ticking Boxes Leads to Mediocrity and how some teams are B2B Marketing by numbers and her recent webinar with Salesforce Unleashing the Full Potential of Generative AI . Adobe Max focuses on creativity and the use of AI tools. AI can enhance creative processes but should not replace human creativity. Efficiency in marketing can lead to mediocrity if not balanced with creativity. Mark...
Oct 19, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 240
This special episode features highlights from a conversation between Keith Smith and Jason Falls on the Fuel Podcast - the highlights host Ian Truscott picks out are: Founding the Marketing Podcast Network Should you add video to your podcast? The intentionality of listening to podcasts The role can podcasts can play in employee engagement and enablement Should you start a podcast? And a great quote from Jason: “…..it just has a lot more meat to it than other mediums because other mediums are, w...
Oct 16, 2024•22 min•Season 1Ep. 239
This week Jeff Clark and Ian Truscott discuss Jeff’s 5 Fundamentals of Buyers' Journeys: Chose a Published Model that works for your business Data is the Ultimate Key to Success Journey Tracking Can Predict Ability to Close The Devil is in Persona-level Details Journey Tracking Ensures Campaign Success Ian then joins Robert Rose , the Chief Troublemaker at The Content Advisory , in the Rockstar CMO virtual bar and, over a splendid cocktail, Robert shares his take on the current state of marketin...
Oct 12, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 238
This week Jeff Clark is back in the Marketing Studio, and he and Ian Truscott discuss his 5 steps for launching integrated marketing campaigns, including: Identifying Customer Needs Defining the Audience Setting Campaign Goals Forming the Campaign Team Planning the Program and Tactics Executing and Measuring Success Ian then joins Robert Rose , the Chief Troublemaker at The Content Advisory , in the Rockstar CMO virtual bar and, over a cocktail, shares his experiments with Notebook LM and what t...
Oct 05, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 237
This week, for her now regular monthly slot, Cathy McKnight pops into the studio to discuss some new research from the Content Marketing Institute about marketing jobs and her experience at MAICON (Marketing AI Conference) and Salesforce’s Dreamforce. The key points they discuss: AI is becoming integral to every marketing job. The job market for marketing professionals is increasingly competitive. Remote work preferences are reshaping workplace dynamics. AI literacy is essential for modern marke...
Sep 28, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 236
In the Marketing Studio this week, Jeff Clark interviews Ian Truscott about a chapter he’s written for a book called Collecting Jellybeans , published this week. Ian’s chapter is called “Shiny Things and Smart Strategies: B2B Marketing in the Tech Age”. They discuss how marketing leaders can make the right technology decisions, asking why, getting off the hamster wheel, implementing a strategy, ART (Awareness, Revenue, Trust), marketing magpies, staying current with technology, and YAGNI (You Ai...
Sep 21, 2024•59 min•Season 1Ep. 235
In the Marketing Studio this week, Jeff Clark and Ian Truscott explore five sales strategy changes that can impact your marketing plans. The five they discuss are: New Markets Reaction to market changes Direct and channel sales M&A New Category Ian then joins Robert Rose , the Chief Troublemaker at The Content Advisory , in the Rockstar CMO virtual bar to share a fabulous cocktail and a thought about stories and storytellers. Enjoy! — The people: Ian Truscott on LinkedIn Jeff Clark on Linked...
Sep 14, 2024•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 234
In the Marketing Studio this week, Jeff Clark and Ian Truscott jump down a rabbit hole that opened up in episode 228 when they discussed the implications for marketers when using the STARS model from Michael D Watkins’ classic business book “ The First 90 Days ” to evaluate your company. STARS stands for Startups, Turnarounds, Accelerated Growth, Realignment, and Sustained Success, and when discussing “Realignment” - Ian and Jeff recognized this could be many things, so this week, they dive into...
Sep 08, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Season 1Ep. 233
In the Marketing Studio this week, Jeff Clark and Ian Truscott follow their 5 f’in’ steps for building an Ideal Customer Profile, using an example of a clean-tech consulting business. They run through the following steps: Understand the target Industry, category, or sector Define the firmographics - things like company size and revenue Research the business goals and needs Discover how they solve the problem today Learn how they will buy our product or service Ian then joins Robert Rose , the Ch...
Aug 31, 2024•59 min•Season 1Ep. 232
This week Cathy McKnight, the Chief Troublemaker at The Content Advisory, returns for her monthly visit to the Rockstar CMO studio to discuss 5 F’in’ content things.The topics they discussed: Marketing technology - and Cathy’s most recent blog post Breaking up with your website, the relevance of our corporate websites and how that changes our content strategy across channels. The pros and cons of fractional expertise and the changes in the jobs market Content Marketing measurement Budget for con...
Aug 24, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Season 1Ep. 231
In the Marketing Studio this week, Jeff Clark and Ian Truscott dust down their Five F’in Fundamentals of Good Budget Planning and discuss some fresh research( shared on LinkedIn ) from Mike Raimondi of B2B Market Calc . They discuss: // Benchmark Your Budget vs. Peers // Separate program expenses into Campaigns vs. Shared Services // Find your path to ROI (past and future) // Determine if you have the right budget allocation mode // Identify the best opportunities to experiment, even though the ...
Aug 17, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 230
In the Marketing Studio this week, Jeff Clark and Ian Truscott continue to discuss the STARS model, from Michael D Watkins’ classic business book “ The First 90 Days ” and consider how it fits with their 5 F’in’ Marketing Fundamentals . Ian then joins Robert Rose , Fractional Marketing Leader and Chief Troublemaker at The Content Advisory , in the Rockstar CMO virtual bar for a cocktail and marketing thought about creating content beyond your website, in this era of social media algorithm change...
Aug 10, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 229
Jeff Clark is back in the Marketing Studio this week, and he and Ian Truscott discuss a model for figuring out your business’s needs that they’ve lifted from Michael D Watkins’ classic business book The First 90 Days—STARS: // Startups // Turnarounds // Accelerated Growth // Realignment // Sustained Success And discuss the challenges and opportunities for marketers working in each of these kinds of companies. Ian then joins Robert Rose , Fractional Marketing Leader and Chief Troublemaker at The ...
Aug 03, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 228
This week with Jeff Clark away, we continue to try different things as our host Ian Truscott reads from a book chapter he’s written called “Shiny Things and Smart Strategies: B2B Marketing in the Tech Age” and would like some feedback on the topic. Ian then joins Robert Rose , Fractional Marketing Leader, and Chief Troublemaker at The Content Advisory , in the Rockstar CMO virtual bar for a cocktail and marketing thought about refreshing our content, especially given the changes in how our audie...
Jul 27, 2024•43 min•Season 1Ep. 227
This week, we kick off a new regular segment, “Cathy on Content” with The Content Advisory ’s Chief Problem Solver and Lead Analyst, Cathy McKnight . In this monthly segment, Ian and Cathy will be discussing what’s caught their eye in the news, a relevant topic, and what’s coming up. This week, Ian and Cathy discuss Cathy’s recent trip to London for Henry Stewart’s DAM Europe event, the term “Universal Content Management,” whether this is relevant to buyers and the topic of the month is empoweri...
Jul 20, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 226
This week, Jeff Clark , our resident strategy advisor and former Forrester Research Director turns the table on our host Ian Truscott to interview him about an upcoming chapter he’s writing for a collective book called “Collecting Jelly Beans; timeless wisdom to grow your organization”. The topic for Ian’s contribution to the book is a guide on how marketing leaders maintain strategy despite technology changes and both Ian and Jeff share their take from the potential distractions, to developing ...
Jul 06, 2024•57 min•Season 1Ep. 225
