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CMSWire Reporter Jennifer Torres chats with Acrolinx Chief Marketing Officer Chris Willis on this edition of CMO Circle. Willis is a recognized thought leader and is active within industry groups dedicated to the growth and health of marketing technology and the verticals he serves. CMSWire caught up with Willis for a five-question Q&A on his role as CMO in our latest edition of the CMSWire CMO Circle series.

Christopher Willis, CMO of Acrolinx, on how he manages his expanded role. When Christopher Willis started as chief marketing officer at Acrolinx in 2017, his mandate was to help the Berlin-based content software company grow beyond its European footprint. Five and a half years later, Acrolinx has a strong customer base in the U.S.—thanks in part to Willis adding the role of chief pipeline officer in 2020.

Chief Marketing Officers name the one metric they live and die by — the one that keep them up at night. Marketing is an increasingly data-driven field, and the importance of metrics and KPIs can’t be overstated. But with so much available data, it can be difficult to determine which metrics are the most important. Learn which metric Acrolinx CMO, Christopher Willis, prioritizes.

Content is the core of customer experience. A company’s product or service can be phenomenal, but if the enterprise content — marketing, messaging, customer service communications, product documentation or even brand voice and style — is poorly written or unfocused, you’ll have a difficult time attracting and retaining customers. That’s where content governance comes in. It involves taking a systematic approach to measuring your current content’s status and actively guiding content creation to achieve your stated goals, such as increasing sign-ups for a newsletter or increasing conversion rates.

As part of our series about the future of Artificial Intelligence, I had the pleasure of interviewing Christopher P. Willis. Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you share with us the ‘backstory” of how you decided to pursue this career path in AI?

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are not just the future of technology, they are also the future of many industries. Whether the technologies are being used in health tech, creative production, or to help our online interactions, incredible advancements have been made through extensive investment. These automated technologies are entering widespread use to make our lives easier.

It’s almost too obvious to say out loud, but customer experience is the most important determinant of success or failure in every market. What’s less obvious is the value of content in customer experience and how content operational excellence ensures positive experiences. Customer experience isn’t just confined to product experience, and content touches every part of the customer journey. Everything ranging from emails, website copy, blogs, brochures, and product information, to technical documentation, eBooks, support and knowledge base articles, and social media posts — the list is endless.

The financial industry is about to see a communications reckoning. Between ongoing diversity discussions, upcoming regulations, and the threat of recession, financial institutions are facing a lot of pressure regarding their customer-facing communications. When company content is unclear or confusing about banks’ or brokers’ products and services, consumers make poor financial decisions. This contributes to unsustainable debt, poor credit, and even bankruptcy. These issues don’t just impact the consumers; they can have lasting effects on both the economy and the finance industry.