Building bridges with the C-suite: 7 marketing leaders share how to earn content a seat at the table

Creatives crave validation. But it’s not your CEO’s or CMO’s job to make you feel good. They’re running a business, which means your punchy sentence or expertly woven story needs to lead to results. 

The relationship between the content team and the C-suite can be tense at times. An exec glosses over your efforts. They ask for metrics that don’t tell the whole story. They might not grasp how content fits into the overall GTM strategy. 

It might seem easier to just power through rocky relationships with the C-suite. But, as we shared in the Closing the Content Gap report, you can’t make an impact with content without leadership buy-in—and it’s on you to secure that support. 

You can lament that your boss’s boss doesn’t understand content all you want, but at the end of the day, it’s time to either:

1. Quit and find a better-fit team, or
2. Roll up your sleeves and show the value of your work. 

Assuming you’d pick Door #2… let’s talk about how you mend fences with the C-suite and prove content value. Seven content veterans with wisdom to spare shared their takes with us:

• Chelsea Castle, Head of Content and Brand at Close
• Ronnie Higgins, Founder at Neutral Ground Labs
• Sam Kuehnle, VP of Marketing at Loxo
• Ryan Law, Director of Content Marketing at Ahrefs
• Amanda Natividad, VP of Marketing at SparkToro
• Tara Robertson, CMO at Bitly
• Camille Trent, Content Marketing Lead at Auror

They explained how they’ve built bridges with their senior leadership and earned a seat at the table for content—and we want to help you do the same.

3 shades of C-suite disconnect

From talking to content leaders (and more than a few years collaborating with execs myself), I’d summarize what goes wrong between content and the C-suite in three primary ways:

‍

‍

Here’s an example that could fall into all three of those categories:

Let’s say your CEO is dead-set on you creating content around one specific AI narrative. But, as a content leader, you’re hearing doubts from the customer community and nuance from sales and CS. In this scenario, if you feel that:

• Your CEO doesn’t get content, you might sense that the C-suite is trying to hop in on a trending topic in the wrong way and for the wrong reason. Your job is to guide them to understand the ideal content investment.
• The CEO doesn’t trust your team, you might notice that your exec thinks they know what story to tell about AI better than you do. You’ll need to use qualitative and quantitative data to shape their perspective. 
• Leadership only cares about the numbers, you might see that they’re more focused on trying to get more traffic to a blog post about AI than on creating the best topical content. Connect with your counterparts in CS and sales to build the case for the AI story customers actually want to hear. Then, bring that input to help the C-suite understand why it’s the right story—and how they can help you tell it.

Maybe one of those disconnects sounds familiar; maybe all three do. If you feel like you’re butting heads with your CEO or content feels like the black sheep of the marketing org, keep reading. Our content experts break down how to teach the C-suite, how to tell a data story, and how to turn an exec into a true partner.

What and how to teach the C-suite about content 

So you feel like your CEO just doesn’t get content. They don’t understand how content fits into the big picture, can’t understand why results take so long, or hesitate to dedicate more budget to it. Maybe worst of all, they ask you to “just spin up a blog post real quick.” 

The onus is on you to help them get content. You can’t solve this overnight, but these are just a few ideas to get the ball rolling. 

1. Remind them how the market’s changed

B2B buying is a far cry from what it used to be. Years ago, buyers had to go to an event or request a demo to learn anything—today, they can find virtually everything online. “The buying process has shifted from the companies having the power to the buyers having the power,” Sam explains.

Case in point: A Bain & Co. survey uncovered that 80-90% of B2B buyers have a list of vendors in mind before they do any research, and 90% will choose their vendor from that exact list. “By the time buyers talk to sales, they are just trying to make sure their choice is validated,” Ronnie continues. “They’ve already done their research—they’ve already made up their mind.”

Content helps you get on the shortlist before buyers even start searching. It establishes your brand as an expert partner, educates them about a problem, and turns you into a B2B household name.

To get your CEO on the same page with you about content, point to proof like the above research. Bring quotes from your sales team about today’s education-heavy, committee-driven process and how content did or could help them win.

Help them see that what worked back then won’t work today—and that “content” doesn’t equal SEO-to-traffic-to-conversion. Content also helps inform customer success and sales enablement, fuels brand and comms efforts, and supports the C-suite themselves with a larger narrative they can take to the market. The game has changed, and content is their star player.

2. Call in external reinforcements

Making the case for a bigger content budget? Selling a new format or strategy? Look outside your org to show your CEO what your content could look like. Tara advises starting with aspirational, standard-setting brands in your industry and sharing the kinds of goals they accomplished by going all-in on content.

Achieving that level of status won’t happen overnight, so turn to brands that are on your level, too. “Look at competitors who are excelling to create FOMO,” she explains. “If they’re dominating search rankings or driving customer acquisition with thought leadership, that’s a clear signal of the competitive edge content can deliver.”

External content examples help you set the scene and offer a baseline expectation of the potential end product and results. “The more examples, the better—they need to see what good looks like, especially from a brand they know, like, and trust,” Chelsea says.

3. Speak to the “halo effect” of content

When it comes to content attribution, leads aren’t everything—but revenue is everything to your CEO. And while content does contribute to the bottom line, the connection can be hard to quantify. Qualitative benefits like brand awareness and affinity are tricky to slap a number on.

Ryan works hard to help his leadership understand the qualitative “halo” effect: “The nebulous, indistinct impact content has on how people feel about your brand, their ability to recall it, or compare it favorably.” He goes on to explain that most first impressions of your brand won’t be the meticulous copy on your homepage or product landing page. They’ll arrive via your content.

Know the role content plays throughout the customer journey—and communicate that to the C-suite. Camille suggests looking at the downstream effects of content—not just the hard metrics in Google Analytics or Ahrefs, but what she calls some of the “fluffier” metrics like social or email engagement. Use the whole picture those metrics create to form a strong theory about how people find you inbound and how many times your best customers have seen your content before they become your best customers.

Ronnie believes that it’s time for marketers to focus less on direct attribution and more on causal attribution. That eBook isn’t just the part it plays in demand gen; it sparks “dark social” shares between peers in an industry Slack community that builds brand awareness. Your webinar program isn’t just about the leads from registration—it’s about follow-up repurposed content and insights attendees associate with your brand long after they sign off Zoom. 

As Ronnie explains, “You’re going to have to connect the dots between content and the things that happen on the website. It’s telling a holistic story of how things happened. That won’t take place in the same day—but over weeks and maybe even months.”

How to build trust by telling the right story with data

Your CEO is ultimately responsible for the growth of the business—so when they look to marketing, they want to see ROI, conversions, and deals won. But proving those things isn’t as simple as “Blog post + prospect = $$$.” To build trust, you need to craft a narrative with the data you do have, sharing quick wins and the metrics that matter to them. Here’s how these experts do that.

4. Connect content plans to business outcomes

One of the biggest gaps Tara sees is a failure to connect the dots between content initiatives and business outcomes that matter to leadership. “It’s not just outlining what you’re working on. It’s clearly explaining why these priorities align with strategic goals and backing that up with data or insights,” she explains.

Don’t forget: “Business outcomes” aren’t just synonymous with revenue. Maybe your leadership is looking for VC funding and needs to show off expertise in the AI conversation—content can help with that. When it’s time to hire a new team of high performers, content that highlights your people can drive excitement and goodwill with the hiring pool. Partner with other heavy hitters in your space for a co-branded research report to benefit both brands by association.

You win the hearts and minds of the C-suite when you tie everything back to the company’s big vision. Report on the projects you’ve shipped, sure. But you should lead with the data to show how those projects fold into what the CEO wants to accomplish this quarter, half, or year.

5. Bring the metrics they care about

How much data do you share with your CEO, and which metrics do you pick? 

The answer is… it depends. Ronnie thinks content marketers go wrong when they overshare and regurgitate in-depth content performance details with the C-suite. Ryan thinks great content marketers communicate equally about high-level growth trends and granular, specific data like output metrics, links to actual content pieces, and qualitative user feedback.

I’m inclined to say they’re both right. Avoid getting too in the weeds, but still balance the big picture with the tangible data points. 

If you’ve started educating your CEO on the buying process or how content plays into the customer journey, use that momentum to share data on how content:

• Lowers customer acquisition cost
• Shortens the sales cycle
• Upsells through problem education
• Reduces churn by equipping CS

As you work with your CEO more, you’ll naturally get a feel for which metrics matter to them. Sam’s CEO really cares about brand affinity: “Do people want to be associated with our brand? Do they ask for shirts, swag, and stickers?” Camille reports on content metrics specifically for high-intent podcast episodes and written pieces as a clear indication of engagement quality.

If your C-suite wants every data point you can find, automate reporting and find a way to bring that. If they have a favorite metric, keep them posted on how content contributes.

6. Use data-plus-storytelling to inspire investment

We marketers tend to see ourselves as right-brained creatives. Camille agrees: “Content marketers are naturally good communicators, but we tend to be weaker on the numbers side.” 

Our advice? Shore up that weakness to balance the art and science sides of marketing. “It’s all about data and storytelling when bringing proof points to the C-suite,” Tara explains. This is true whether you’re trying to get a bigger budget for next year, making the case for a new format or channel, or simply reporting on how content is fueling the business.

Step by step, here’s how Tara breaks it down: 

1. Start with the numbers. Make a case for the ROI of content by comparing the investment to how many GTM functions it supports, how many pieces of content customers engaged with, and how much of your current pipeline was influenced by content.
2. Make it real with examples. “Share a customer success story where content drove a conversion, or spotlight a competitor whose content strategy built trust and drove growth,” she says.
3. Tie it back to your company’s goals. Once you’ve shared both data and compelling stories, connect it all to outcomes. How will content amplify awareness to achieve industry leadership? How does content deepen engagement for happier customers? 

Harness that right-brain creativity and brush the dust off those left-brain data chops to make a case your CEO couldn’t argue with.

💡Want another resource? Ronnie recommends reading Nancy Duarte’s DataStory. “It helped me understand how to explain the implications of the data and tie it into a narrative that helps leaders understand how content is impacting the business.”

7. Gather anecdotal evidence from other teams

Content serves just about every GTM function, from demand gen to customer success to sales. But your CEO might not know that. Lean on your cross-functional partnerships for powerful qualitative data to prove it. 

Review discovery calls

Sam looks at BDR calls with prospects. Content marketing makes these calls easier, since prospects are more likely to say, “Oh yeah, I saw your video or listened to your podcast” than, “Loxo who?” “Usually, it’s a much better outcome,” he says. 

Ask where they heard about you

Camille builds attribution into sales calls by having reps ask how a prospect found out about the brand. “We learn what resonated with them along the way and what piece of content helped build that trust to get them there,” she notes.

Map the content journey

During Ronnie’s time at Eventbrite, his team had a weekly practice called “Journey to SQL.” A marketer looked at Marketo and Salesforce data to track the role content played in a recently won deal. They showed how it created an easy sales handoff by showing the sales rep what content they consumed so they could tailor the conversation to the prospect’s pain points. The weekly exercises showed senior leadership how content played a major role beyond last-touch attribution.

Create an ongoing spreadsheet or craft a deck template for monthly or quarterly stories from CS or demand gen about the power of content. Build up a cadence for regularly gathering these cross-functional inputs from other teams so you have them on hand to share with the C-suite.

How to build a true partnership with the C-suite

So far, we’ve covered how to help your CEO see content differently and how to build trust through numbers. Once you’ve built a foundation, it’s time to build a true partnership—one with trust and an ongoing give-and-take, which doesn’t come easy. It happens through new processes, new cadences, and repeated successful content launches. Here’s how you can forge an enduring partnership where the C-suite has your back.

8. Learn how leadership likes to communicate

Partnership doesn’t come from passive periodic content updates. It’s built by proactively learning about your leadership’s preferences and needs and meeting them where they are. (We’re big fans of empathy around here.)

If you’re new to a role or working on rebuilding a connection with your CEO or CMO, gather answers to these kinds of questions: 

• How often do they expect updates from you? Chelsea sends weekly email updates about key projects. Ryan takes an ad hoc approach to “pulse check” reporting—he has a dedicated place to regularly post high-level metrics and feedback for leadership to review when they can. “Make sure you’re consistent,” Chelsea says. “They’ll appreciate that they can rely on your update.”
• What format do they prefer to take in information? If you don’t know, just ask. Chelsea has had success sharing updates via email, Loom or Slack summaries. “Folks have strong opinions about whether they’ll watch a Loom or listen to a voice memo,” she says.
• How involved do they want to be in the work? The best partnerships will work well for content and the C-suite. Gauge how actively your CEO wants to be involved. Chelsea’s advice is to get them excited about what you’re working on, and incorporate them into the work if they’re willing. If they’d rather have a no-strings summary, give them that—even if your long-term goal is to make content efforts a two-way street. 

Build your partnership around the individual and leadership culture you have now. Stay open and proactive to create the kind of relationship you want in the future.

9. Start small and experiment

If you’re angling for more budget or major project signoff, you might need to get your hands dirty and try something first. 

Ryan argues that the most persuasive proof for new content efforts comes from saying, “I already created this small-scale experiment, and here are the results it yielded. I want budget to scale up this now-proven process.” Show your CEO something tangible instead of a theory about what could work. 

Chelsea says an experimental approach is a great way to set expectations about the measurement, performance, and length of time to see possible ROI from a content project. 

In the past, senior leaders asked Amanda to spend time on projects she was confident wouldn’t yield results. She did what they “assigned” as efficiently as possible, then spent the rest of her time experimenting with high-impact deliverables. She then compared the results side by side to show why it was worth investing in her idea. 

Experiment cross-functionally across team lines, too. Start with a smaller customer playbook in partnership with customer success. Create a lighter-lift report to support demand gen, then report on the results for each of these teams to make the case for even more content across the GTM org. 

10. Bring a strong, informed opinion

One of the best assets you can bring to the C-suite is your belief in an idea. “Come with a theory that you’ve tested and that you feel strongly about,” Camille explains. Outside the data you’ve already collected, you need a bold opinion—or maybe a classic B2B “spiky POV.”

Your passion for a content strategy or idea shows your leadership that you’re invested in the work and that you care about the results:

• Bring bold ideas to the table about a new tactic or format—better yet, bring outside examples or audience research data that proves your buyers will gravitate toward the new approach.
• Remember our AI narrative example earlier? Take the feedback you’ve heard from customers and sales to make a case for a different (or even opposing) AI narrative with a plan for how to execute it. 
• Ask well-crafted questions—that’s how Amanda has addressed CEOs with misplaced priorities in the past. When they wanted to rank #1 on the SERPs for the wrong keywords, she would ask, “Why do you want us to achieve that goal? Who’s the target audience, and why are they the ones we want to reach?” Even when it was hard, she offered an alternative viewpoint.

While not every exec will play nicely with this pushback, you’ll get a better response if you bring the data, examples, and results to back up your passion—and you’ll likely earn their respect.

11. Stay flexible

When leadership’s plans change, your content plans often have to change, too. 

“It’s very easy to become overly precious about your existing campaigns and processes,” Ryan says. “But working with leadership often means realizing that the world has changed and the thing you were doing doesn’t make sense in the same way it used to.” 

There’s a time to fight for your plans, and there’s a time to bail. Steer clear of the sunk cost fallacy that entices you to deliver whatever you had planned, even if changing priorities make the project irrelevant. “Content plans—even the most late-stage, rigorous, well-planned ones—sometimes need to be abandoned in service of something different,” Ryan says. 

You can’t control outside market forces or command decisions the C-suite might make at the end of the day. You can control how you show up to the relationship, the data you bring as proof of the power of content, and the effort and energy you spend on every project. In the end, those are the things that will win a seat for content at the table anyway.