Episode SummaryBrian Finnerty of Udacity discusses effective strategies for aligning content to different stages of the buyer's journey. He stresses the importance of investing in lower funnel proof points like customer success stories and third-party reports. Finnerty also provides tips for validating content assumptions directly with customers. Additionally, he emphasizes optimizing the content mix based on performance data and attribution to opportunities. Throughout the conversation, Finnerty reinforces the importance of tying content marketing efforts directly to pipeline and sales goals. About the guest Brian is a senior marketing executive with deep experience leading successful marketing teams. He believes that marketing can deliver extraordinary results when it harnesses the right blend of full-funnel demand, sales alignment, and rich customer insights. Brian's expertise includes brand strategy, B2B demand generation, and global customer acquisition from mid-market to Fortune 500.  Connect with Brian Finnerty Key takeaways- Map content assets to stages of the buyer's journey, including top-of-funnel awareness content and bottom-of-funnel proof points - Invest in lower-funnel customer success stories and third-party validation reports - Validate content assumptions directly with customers through feedback - Optimize the content mix regularly based on performance data and attribution to opportunities - Track pipeline as the primary metric for measuring content marketing success Quotes "If you're able to track all of those touchpoints, and make sure that they're associated with opportunities in your CRM, then I think you've got a fairly consistent way of assessing how your content engine is performing." -Brian Finnerty Recommended Resource BooksBrian suggests "No Rules Rules" by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer about Netflix's approach to talent and culture. Podcast Professor Galloway's podcast, ‘The Prof G Pod’ for marketing and sales insights. ⁠Connect with Brian Finnerty⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow us on LinkedIn ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ |⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠