Content marketing is supposed to be the engine that drives brand authority and demand generation long before a sales call. On average, B2B buyers engage with 13 pieces of content at the beginning of the purchasing journey, highlighting the importance of high-quality, authentic and authoritative content. However, many marketing teams continue to crank out blogs, videos, white papers and posts to feed algorithms and fill calendars, hoping something will spark engagement. The result? Often, it’s a lot more noise with a lot less bottom-line impact.
Research consistently shows that consumers value trust as highly as price and quality when making purchasing decisions—especially in B2B, where stakes for buyers can be high and strong relationships matter. With content playing an outsized role in discovery and credibility in AI-driven search, it can’t remain a supporting tactic measured by impressions and downloads. It has to connect directly to pipeline velocity, deal progression and long-term customer trust.
The members of the Senior Executive CMO Think Tank are experts in brand storytelling, digital advertising and customer engagement. Below, a group of them shares practical insights on how CMOs can transform content into a true strategic asset—one that compounds over time to drive revenue, strengthen pipeline and build durable trust.
“Train your team to ask, ‘Will this move the needle?’ If not, push back gracefully, and recommend alternatives that will.”
Start With Strategy, Not a ‘Marketing Menu’
Too often, content begins with a request instead of a goal. Rachel Perkins, Founder and Chief Strategist at Venturesome Strategies, says marketing teams must reset that dynamic.
“Content must be anchored in objectives, not whims, and marketing teams need to start with strategy, not tactics,” she explains.
Perkins goes on to relate a familiar pattern inside many organizations.
“Too often, internal stakeholders want to place an order off the ‘marketing menu,’” she says. “They ask for a piece of content, such as a white paper, a brochure or a social media post.”
Instead of simply fulfilling the request, Perkins says marketers need to dig deeper by asking, “What are we trying to achieve? How can we best do that?” For her, elevating content starts with discipline and education.
“The objectives should always drive the strategy and tactics,” she says, noting that marketing leaders often need to educate stakeholders within sales and client success teams, who are used to asking marketing teams for content rather than strategy driven by objectives.
Perkins adds that it’s not just leaders who need to get comfortable with resetting expectations.
“Train your team to ask, ‘Will this move the needle?’ If not, push back gracefully, and recommend alternatives that will.”
Choose Meaning Over Momentum
Paul L. Gunn Jr., Founder of KUOG Corporation, knows that content can become a compounding asset that influences buying decisions long before a sales conversation begins. Even so, he cautions against thinking that more campaigns automatically equal more impact. While marketers may be tempted to flood channels with content, Gunn says the ultimate goal isn’t ubiquity, it’s trust—and that requires restraint.
“It’s wise to forego excessive campaigns in favor of deeper insights, as well as to have the discipline to step away from platforms where content may perform well but ultimately erodes trust,” he says.
He argues that clarity and conviction are what build real traction, explaining that anchoring content with clear intent and optimizing for meaning signals conviction and transparency, fostering trust and positioning brands for accelerated growth.
“Smart CMOs prioritize meaningful content that creates clarity, reduces friction and strengthens trust,” Gunn says. “It demonstrates confidence and creates positive momentum by tapping into the emotional gravity of customers and inviting alignment.”
The payoff? “Customers who feel respected rather than persuaded are more likely to reward brands with lasting loyalty.”
“Content becomes strategic when it starts from the revenue plan, not from a content calendar.”
Treat Content as a Shared Revenue Asset
Heather Stickler, Chief Marketing Officer at Tidal Basin Group, says that to elevate content, CMOs must treat it as a revenue asset shared with sales and customer success teams.
“Content becomes strategic when it starts from the revenue plan, not from a content calendar,” she explains. “It should be anchored to target segments, deal stages and real buying questions, then measured on pipeline impact, sales usage and customer trust.”
Focus, Stickler explains, is essential—as she puts it, marketing teams must learn to say no to “random acts of content.”
“Create fewer pieces, invest more in the ones that move deals forward, and treat those assets like products you maintain, not one-time campaigns you launch and forget,” she advises.
Measure Business Outcomes, Not Impressions
In marketing, metrics often dictate decisions. Kathleen Lucente, Founder and CEO of Red Fan Communications, says it’s time to rethink what gets tracked.
“Tie content to business outcomes, not marketing metrics,” she suggests. “Stop measuring impressions—track how content supports pipeline velocity, shortens sales cycles and builds the trust that drives renewals.”
Lucente asserts that authority can’t be rushed.
“You can’t buy brand authority, but you can build a bench of qualified thought leaders customers actually want to hear from,” she says.
Like Gunn, Lucente stresses the importance of focusing on quality over quantity.
“Trade volume for authority,” she says. “One deeply researched piece positioning your CEO as the expert buyers need outperforms a dozen generic blogs.”
She concludes with a wake-up call about the changing discovery landscape, urging leaders to audit their AI visibility now—because the window to establish positioning is weeks, not years.
“Customers aren’t Googling you; they’re asking AI for ‘the best X company,’” Lucente says. “If you’re not on that list, you don’t exist in the buying conversation.”
“CMOs have to move budget away from channels that spike fast and instead invest in content that shapes thinking over time. Revenue follows trust.”
Shift From Lead Generation to Decision Support
Kurt Uhlir, Chief Marketing Officer at ez Home Search, says too many marketing teams are clinging to stale habits.
“Most teams say they run demand generation, but their content strategy reveals lead generation behavior,” he says. “Top-of-funnel volume, gated assets and sales-forward messaging dominate because they fit outdated scorecards and playbooks.”
Strategic content, Uhlir says, does exactly the opposite.
“It addresses decision-stage objections, explains tradeoffs and gives buyers language to defend the purchase internally,” Uhlir says, noting that this understanding is especially critical for organizations under pressure to deliver efficiency while protecting growth.
He notes that the mindset shift needed to create effective content is patience and courage.
“CMOs have to move budget away from channels that spike fast and instead invest in content that shapes thinking over time. Revenue follows trust.”
Let Content Drive Conversion
In the modern B2B marketplace, inbound leads dominate—and those are won through guided discovery.
“In B2B, content is king,” says Ron McMurtrie, CMO of Honeywell. “Discovery and early qualification happen well before a sales meeting.”
He notes that how content is delivered matters less than its substance.
“Powerful, insightful content drives behavior, while the marketing tactic is no more than a delivery vehicle,” McMurtrie says.
He concludes by observing that, in the AI-driven marketplace, the importance of authentic, insightful, accessible content has never been higher.
“Distinction and authority are influenced by content, and in a GenAI and agentic AI world, content drives conversion,” McMurtrie says. “Gating is and will become an anchor over time.”
Practical Ways to Turn Content Into a Strategic Asset
- Start every content decision with a clear objective. Before producing any asset, ask whether it supports a defined business outcome and challenge requests that don’t move the needle.
- Prioritize trust-building insights over campaign volume. Instead of flooding channels with content, focus on thoughtful pieces that create clarity, invite alignment and strengthen customer confidence.
- Align content planning with revenue goals. Treat high-value content as a shared asset with sales and customer success, anchored to target segments, deal stages and real buyer questions.
- Measure the business impact, not surface-level engagement. Track how content affects pipeline velocity, sales cycles and renewals rather than relying on impressions, clicks or downloads.
- Create content that helps buyers make and defend decisions. Move beyond top-of-funnel lead generation by addressing objections, explaining trade-offs and giving stakeholders language to justify purchases internally.
- Focus on insight and authority rather than distribution tactics. Powerful content shapes buyer behavior and drives discovery, while the channels used to distribute it are simply delivery mechanisms.
Content That Compounds Over Time
Across industries, the shift from “more content” to “more meaningful content” reflects a broader change in how buyers evaluate companies. In an environment where AI-powered research happens early and trust is built long before the first sales conversation, the most effective content strategies connect insight, credibility and measurable business outcomes.
For CMOs willing to prioritize substance over scale, the payoff is significant. When content is aligned with revenue goals, grounded in real buyer questions and built to establish authority over time, it becomes more than a marketing output—it becomes a long-term engine for trust, differentiation and sustainable growth.
