Let me be frank with you MainWP peeps. Roundups can be too insulated if we aren’t careful.
It would be too easy for me to add a lot of WordPress content to this or any roundup. However, I have learned a lot of good information from outside the WordPress space.
I feel like we need look into other areas of business such as copywriting, content marketing, SEO, and other marketing industries.
That is where I have learned the most.
We are all WordPress specialists, but we can benefit from learning outside our WordPress bubble.
With that said, here is another addition of the MainWP Roundup for the month of November 2023.
CMO vs CEOs and Marketing
Read Divide Between CMOs and CEOs Is Growing, Research Finds
I found this article in an email from my friend Austin Church. It talks about C-Suite roles, but I’m not sure how many of you are C-Suite executives.
But I found it very interesting.
I think it underscores many have with marketing. It appears that the Chief Marketing Officers do not believe their CEO is clear about what they do or what they should do.
On the contrary, CEOs think that they do.
“Chief executives and chief marketing officers often don’t see eye-to-eye on what precisely the role of CMOs entails or even on the effectiveness of corporate strategy. And in some cases, the disconnect is growing.”
It has widened in recent years.
Certainly, the issue is always going to be what metrics are being used. Sometimes, we marketers get caught up in vanity metrics.
Finding a consensus between the two roles is key. Further, CEOs could learn a little more about what marketing does.
The final chapter, Rand Fishkin
Read The Final Chapter of My First Startup
Making the rounds in the SEO world is THE article by Rand Fishkin of how he left Moz. Due to a number of various legal issues, he wasn’t able to open up about his exit from the company he started.
If you are like me, you cut your teeth learning about SEO from the website Moz. So, when something like that happens, the founder leaving the company, it certainly gets your attention.
“For 17 years I had one job. A job that defined my adult life, my self-worth, the majority of my friendships, and entirety of my personal finances. On February 27, 2018, I left. Or, depending on who’s telling the story, got pushed out.”
And with that, the story begins.
Rand is very honest and raw with his thoughts.
He was honest about not really having much savings when he was forced out.
He was honest about the hardships.
“My last day was one of the worst of my career. Topped only by the layoffs my company had done 18 months prior.”
He was even honest about how Moz should have accepted HubSpot’s offer to buy them out at one point.
Rand was honest that the perspective of his former CEO might be quite a bit different from his own.
Being a shareholder, he still was a part of the process when selling the company, especially when it didn’t go through in 2019.
Eventually, in 2021, the company sold. Even though the amount was not the same as what he expected to gain in 2019, it was, as he says, life-changing money.
He talked about his and his wife’s idea to bless others from the wealth they gained.
All in all, I’m sure it was a cathartic experience to write about this process, this story of his and a chapter that is now closed.
So, if you ever wondered what happened with Rand Fishkin and Moz, now you know.
Black Friday Deals
We are just a few days from Black Friday, which means deals will be en masse in the WordPress community.
There are tons of Black Friday Deals pages on the interwebs, but one of the first to do is The WP Weekly.
Davinder already has his page up with lots of deals to peruse.
Additionally, MainWP has a huge deal right now. Get it before it “fades to black.”
Get ready for WordPress Web Care Consultant Survey 2023.
For the past two years, I have conducted a WordPress Web Care Consultant.
You are invited to participate!
I have created the survey with the option to remain anonymous and ask several questions about your web care business. Every year, I try to update the survey based on user feedback.
I have added a few questions to this year’s survey. My plan is to open it for submissions within the next week.
For now, you can look back at the results for the past two years:
Wrapping it up
This edition of the MainWP Roundup discusses the disconnect between Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) and CEOs, highlighting the need for a shared understanding of marketing’s role and objectives. We also talk about the candid and compelling narrative of Rand Fishkin’s exit from Moz.
Don’t forget the coming Web Care Survey for 2023 and the Black Friday deals at MainWP.
