No matter how dramatically the digital space has evolved over the past decade, one thing remains the same – the chief marketing officer wears different hats.
Case in point: Vitor Picanha, Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer at Rock Content, the world leader in content marketing.
Using old doors from the country home of his co-founder’s father, Peçanha built the startup’s first tables in 2013.
The big (and small) decisions that have shaped content rock into what it is today were made around those tables. And the chief marketer was sitting at the center of every decision-making process, driving growth and purpose with creativity and analytics.
Today, his role as CMO has never been more dynamic and influential.
What does it take for today’s marketing executives to become high-impact leaders who lead their organizations to success?
Peçanha has some opinions to share.
Sharing and achieving a common goal
What was your vision when you started your role as Marketing Director?
Vitor Pichanha: “As the founder of a marketing startup, all I had at the beginning was an idea and a plan to implement it.
We founded Rock Content because we believe there is a better way to do content marketing to engage and delight your audience and generate business.
When we first started in 2013, content marketing was not well known in the country, and our vision was to become the largest content marketing company in the world, starting with our introduction to Brazil.”
How do you make sure your marketing goals align with the organization as a whole?
vice president: At Rock Content, we have a structured management model in place.
Every six months, the executive team reviews the company’s goals—such as revenue, net revenue retention (NRR), etc.—to create the company’s overall business plan.
Next, we have a model of cascading responsibilities and key performance indicators (KPIs) that start at the top and end at the individual contributor, where all the steps are linked together.
One consequence is that many department goals are usually very close to revenue, sometimes even shared with the sales force.
My individual goal, for example, is the company’s earnings goal, not a marketing-specific metric. “
Investing in people and training
How has your philosophy on building and managing a team changed over time?
vice president: “I’ve learned a few things over the past 10 years, but I think the most important thing is that a great team member who delivers consistent quality and goes the ‘extra mile’ deserves 10x the person who does what they say, even if it’s right.
This grit that some people have makes a whole difference, and now I focus my work on this soft skill more than anything else.
Of course, if it is a higher-ranking position, experience will play a big role, but I would rather train a passionate junior employee than deal with a suitable senior employee.
in 2022 Gartner surveyThe lack of internal resources has emerged as the biggest gap in the implementation of content strategies. Faced with this challenge, how do you attract and retain the best marketing talent?
vice president: “We’ve built a huge brand in digital marketing over the past 10 years. We’re seen as innovators and pioneers in the space, especially in Brazil, so we don’t have an attraction problem when it comes to marketing talent.
Also, one of our “breakthroughs” is our education center, Rock University, which has already crossed the 500,000 student mark because we primarily market education for our needs.
Retention is a different game because we need to keep them engaged and excited with the company, so we invest a lot in training and other initiatives.
I prefer to have smaller teams, so that each member has more responsibility and appreciation. Since we outsource our content creation to our freelance network, it’s easier to have a scalable team.”
Pioneering a data-first culture
What type of content marketing metrics are you focusing on, and how do you determine if you have the right strategy in place?
vice president: “The main metric for my team today is sales qualified leads (SQLs), so I need to generate not just volume but high quality prospects for my sales team.
It’s easy to tell if we’re doing well or not with this metric, as we’re constantly monitoring SQL sources based on how much pipeline each source generates.
So, for example, if a bail generates a million under construction and costs me $100,000, I increase the investment there.”
They say the CMO’s role is largely driven by analytics rather than internal decisions. do you agree? How do you use data in your daily work?
vice president: “I agree, and most of my decisions are based on data.
I constantly check the number of SQLs my team has created, the cost per dollar created in the pipeline, and the channel and campaign performance. But data alone isn’t enough to make informed decisions, and that’s where gut feelings and experiences come in.
The CMO needs to look at the data, see the story, understand it, and write the next chapter.
Of course, not every initiative relies heavily on data. It’s still important to do things that can’t be measured directly, like brand awareness campaigns, but are a small part of my investment and time.”
What skills do CMOs need that are not getting enough attention?
vice president: “The ability to craft and tell a great story, internally and externally, is one of the greatest skills a CMO should have, and it just doesn’t get enough attention in a data-centric world.
Data is essential, of course, but if you can’t turn that into a strategy that not only brings results but also motivates people, you’ll have a hard time being a great CMO and leader.”
If you had to sum up the value of a content marketer, what would it be?
vice president: “A great content marketer can create pieces of content that look simple and easy to write, but behind them, there is always a strategy, a lot of research, and skills unseen to the end user, and that’s how it should be.”
What will be the future of content marketing in your opinion? The role of artificial intelligence in content strategy?
vice president: “If all goes well, then the term Content marketing It will not be used in the near future.
Content strategies will be so integrated into the marketing department that it wouldn’t make sense to call it content marketing, in the same way we no longer say Web 2.0.
Good CMOs and marketers will understand that a customer is following a journey where everything is fine (even PPC, offline media, etc.), and it makes no sense to treat them separately. “
Check out this episode of SEJShow with Loren Baker, where Peçanha talks more about what lies ahead in content marketing.
More resources:
- A day in the life of a content marketing manager
- 11 tips for building an exceptional content marketing team
- 5 key enterprise SEO priorities you need to get right
Featured image: Courtesy of Vitor Pichanha
