Finding the right creator-distributor balance for your brand

The role of the CMO is changing, and they often find themselves facing an infinite loop of responsibilities they must delicately navigate at all times.

CMOS must strike a balance between finding the right mix of skills and experience and ensuring they build a team that can work together effectively. They also need to consider the different ways that their team members can add value and how to allocate resources best to maximize impact. While focusing on the composition of their marketing team, CMOs also need to be aware of new technologies and trends and identify early on changes to the marketing landscape, how they can execute these changes, and if these changes, in turn, impact the composition of their team, which impacts their ability to execute, and so on.

To do that, CMOs need to focus on building the right balance between creators and distributors and ensuring each marketing team member's unique skill and experience, whether as a creator or a distributor, is balanced and in line with the company strategy.

It's a Creator World

Marketing teams play a crucial role in the creation of original, creative content. This content must be compelling and interesting enough to capture potential customers' attention while providing accurate information about the product or service being marketed.

To achieve this, marketing teams must first understand the needs and wants of their target audience, and they must then create a strategy for how best to reach these individuals with their message. Once a plan is in place, the marketing team can begin developing the actual content, which can take many forms, including written articles, videos, infographics, and more.

When searching for creators, CMOs need to look for original thinkers who can bring a different perspective to a commonly discussed topic. At the end of the day, most companies, especially in the B2Bdomain, do not operate independently in their vertical. This means they have a wide range of competitors, each with a slightly different perspective,  value proposition or USP. However, all of these competitors are all going after the same audience. To do that, they will all create content they believe their particular audience will be interested in, resulting in a lot of content on the same topic.

CMOS must be able to effectively convey their strategic vision and unique differentiators to a content creator, who will then be able to translate that message into something that really stands out.

But Distributors Run it

While the creators have to create what the audience wants to see, they will not have an audience without their distributors.  

To be successful, distributors within the marketing team must understand where their audience is and how to distribute content effectively across digital media, webinars, events, podcasts, blogs, PR, etc. The first step in understanding the audience is researching and identifying the target market. The next step is determining the best way to reach the target audience.

Once the target audience is reached, distributors must determine how to keep them engaged, what creative collateral to use per distribution channel, and so on. This often requires creating a unique variety of digital media, such as websites, social media, email, and mobile applications and combining that within-person and digital events.

Ultimately, the distributors are the ones who understand where each piece of creative collateral would be most effective for conversion, and it is the role of the CMO to ensure that strategic goals and long-term company objectives are met.

How To Balance The Creator- Distributor Conundrum

To balance the creators' output with the distributors' allocation channels, the CMO must serve as the missing link between creators and distributors, understand the needs, objectives and constraints of both sides, and reconcile them.

The only way to do that is to have a clear strategic vision of the company objectives and the team's functionality. Because of the complexities this entails, relying on a digital strategic marketing strategy platform can help by providing CMOs with clear insights into the effectiveness of their campaigns and marketing efforts, and the measure of their content per distribution channel.

 When the role of each marketing team member is clearly defined, their objectives and goals are known, making it easier to understand what they need to do their job and how the CMO can help them. The right content will resonate with your target audience and help you achieve your business goals, and the right distribution channels will ensure that your content reaches your target audience. The right collaborations will help you amplify your content and reach a larger audience, and the right marketing team will have a CMO with a clear strategy and vision of where their company needs to go.