Episode Description

On this episode of The Marketer’s Journey, I interview Seema Kumar, CMO at New Relic. Seema is an accomplished CMO who walks me through her journey to joining New Relic and how her approach differed the second time she stepped into a CMO role. For Seema, education is key, all around. After a long tenure at Salesforce, she only moved on when she felt that she was no longer learning there and believes in educating her team about their role in their organization’s big picture. She also understands the importance of educating your customers through your content marketing and other marketing efforts. As a content marketing expert, Seema breaks down how to approach content marketing for top of funnel customers vs. bottom funnel customers. The difference? Focus on pure product education for top of funnel customers-- but be straightforward in doing so, and you’ll build more trust.

Key takeaways from this episode:

• Focus on content that truly educates your buyer-- if it’s informative and based in fact it will be much more successful
• Remember to think about the fact that adults learn in different ways. Too often marketers don’t think about different form factors and alienate a large part of their audience.
• As a CMO, you need to focus both on your team and your executive peers. Tight relationships are imperative to scaling your impact in the business.
• You don’t always design your career. Often it’s about walking through doors when they’re open and a fair bit of luck. But Seema noted, “the harder she worked, the luckier she got”.