This week our resident marketing sage Jeff Clark, former Research Director at SiriusDecisions/Forrester, brings another book to the Rockstar CMO penthouse as we dip into another classic, “The Pyramid Principle” by Barbara Minto. He and Ian Truscott discuss this structure and approach to storytelling, whether for an email or your content strategy.

Ian’s guest this week is Chris Smith. Chris is the co-founder of Curaytor, a US real estate marketing solution that helps listing agents attract more listings and the author of The Conversion Code, a fabulous book that is taught at colleges like Johns Hopkins University, the second edition of which is out shortly. Unlike some theoretical marketers, Chris has drunk his own champagne and used the blueprint he shares in his book to quickly grow his own company to eight figures in annual recurring revenue without raising any venture capital. His work has been featured in Adweek, Forbes, Fortune, and many other publications, and he has been a guest lecturer at NYU. In an enjoyable interview, they discuss the practical tips in the book, and Chris has an excellent nomination for the Rockstar CMO Swimming Pool, our portal to marketing hell.

Finally, Ian winds down the week with his content marketing guru, Robert Rose, the Chief Trouble Maker at The Content Advisory who transports the Rockstar CMO virtual bar to a fabulous location for a cocktail to discuss the challenge of managing up.

Enjoy! 

The people:

• Ian Truscott on LinkedIn and Twitter 
• Jeff Clark on LinkedIn and Twitter
• Chris Smith on LinkedIn and Twitter
• Robert Rose on Twitter and LinkedIn

The mentions:

• Rockstar CMO Advisors
• The story of the big fish from an Avis ad
• The Pyramid Principle (a summary article on LinkedIn)
• The Conversion Code
• Robert’s The Content Advisory Blog
• Robert’s podcast with Joe Pulizzi – This Old Marketing 
• Robert’s new series on YouTube with the Content Marketing Institute

 The music:

• Piano Music is by Johnny Easton, shared under a creative commons license
• Stienski & Mass Media – We’ll be right back on YouTube
• Walk like an Egyptian – The Bangles – on Spotify

This episode was supported by Storyblok and their new report – The State of Content Management Report. 

Previous episodes, show notes and transcripts are on Rockstar CMO FM and the podcast is available on all your favorite platforms, including Apple and Spotify.

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