Back to My Roots

Welcome to The Beat by Rockstar CMO. I’m Ian Truscott, not a rock star, but a CMO and trusted advisor, and in this newsletter, I’d like to share a mix of marketing street knowledge that I hope will help unlock the rockstar marketer in you.

Hello Rock Star :-)

What are you known for?

It’s something I’ve been grappling with recently, and it might be something you don’t think about as you are in a full-time, fully defined role.

But maybe, like me, you are roaming around free of your master’s lance (where we get the term freelance from), going from village to village, challenged by “well, what do you do?” and wondering what you should put on your personal sandwich board.

But I suspect, as the discipline of work as we know it seems to fragment, it is something we will all need to think about in our careers.

What would people call you for help with?

I could say I am a fractional CMO, but then every part-time comms intern who needs to stay home to look after a needy cat is calling themselves that now. There are a billion of us.

Not that I don’t have sympathy for the care of needy cats - absolutely feel it - but it puts me, or you if you are playing along at home, in a broad category.

The question really should be:

What would people call you for help with specifically?

Hmmm.. This is starting to feel like the 5 why’s game.

Yes, specifically.

I could say I’m a “B2B tech fractional CMO” - but aside from it reducing the pool of people like me down from a billion to a fucking boatload, it doesn’t answer the question.

People don’t call us looking for a job title; they are looking for help with something specifically.

A task, an outcome, a fear, a gap, a reassurance, expertise, based on an attribute, skill, or feature of you.

And that personal brand (yes, I said brand) may not be what you think you are known for, or at least what you think you should be known for now.

In my case, someone approached me for a content strategy, as that is who I am to them.

Yes, they asked about Fractional CMO’ing, but really they had a content problem, and despite my claims of being a 4xCMO in every online breath, to them (and I suspect a lot of my audience) I am the guy to solve a content problem.

Which I will more than take, as well as enjoying solving CMO’y problems, I love anything content-related, from strategy, the actual writing and creative process, to the tech, content management systems, the industry category, and all of it.

Maybe you knew that - right?

Maybe it’s who I am to you - please hit reply and let me know :-)

But, this isn’t about me, it’s just an example I know well; I’ve had quite a career, and maybe like you, I’ve done some different things.

But - What are you known for?

Take a look at what people actually ask you for help with; that's your positioning, and I am willing to bet it won’t be your title.

Maybe you are the type of marketer people call when they can’t get the CRM to report what they need, or they need a subject line turned into a lead magnet, or someone who turns a dull product feature launch into an event, or they need a customer whisperer to understand why we lose, or whatever it is.

But ask yourself, what am I known for?

The subject line and tune this week is obviously “ Going Back to My Roots”, by Odyssey - as I rock out to a bit of content strategy.

Please check out the articles I picked out below and have a splendid week!

Cheers,

Ian

This one is a disco classic, from before any of us were born… of course…