In my last email we saw that 100% of business leaders said they want marketers to push back, tackle risk aversion, and lead the conversation about storytelling.
So, why then are so many quick to listen to a random internet guru than the people they hired?
Why would they rather copy competitors than set the pace?
One word: Trust.
Here's what marketing agency Alison found:
- 97% of leaders say humanizing their brand with storytelling is important
- 60% believe it drives sales
- Yet 65% admit they don’t know where to start
Reading between the lines, leaders don’t dismiss storytelling because it’s useless. They dismiss it because they don’t trust us to deliver.
But there's something else going on behind closed doors: leadership is even more fractured than they admit.
McKinsey's research tells us only 70% of CEOs believe marketing’s role is understood at the C-Suite level — down 20 points in one year.
Meanwhile, just half of CMOs are trusted to be included in strategic planning, many CMOs don't trust marketing's KPIs align with business growth, and the majority don't trust their organizations have a clear definition of what ROI looks like.
Translation: if the boardroom can’t agree on what marketing is, how can they possibly trust us with narrative?
So what happens to us downstream?
Everyone defaults to “safe” metrics like clicks, rankings, and leads, not because they’re the most meaningful — but because they’re the only things everyone can agree on.
That’s why I say content marketing died in 2014.
When Brian Dean’s Skyscraper Technique went mainstream and Google rewarded derivative content, leadership learned “content marketing = SEO.”
An entire generation of content marketers was raised to sit down, shut up, and feed the machine.
It worked just enough to keep our jobs.
For almost a decade, undifferentiated content of middling quality drove traffic and leads.
It wasn’t brave, but it was defensible.
And "success" only reinforced that producing undifferentiated work is all we were capable of.
Is there a shift happening?
Now "the playbook" is collapsing.
AI-generated sludge floods search. Organic clicks are vanishing. Leaders are desperate for new ways to differentiate.
And for the first time in years, some optimism is creeping in.
Walker Sands found 94% of business leaders are experimenting with non-traditional media — LinkedIn thought leadership, newsletters, YouTube, even TikTok.
Others are sharing this is the first time in years they've felt leaders are more willing to "get" content.
Even if AI forced a lot of hands, it's great that we're there.
But I remain cautiously optimistic because historically the numbers do not work in our favor:
Couple that with many saying they don't know how to quantify success or lack the tools to capture meaningful data.
If we don’t fix this, CEOs will retreat to the safety of clicks and rankings and drag us back with them.
But that's not even the biggest problem.
There's a massive blindspot
In that same Walker Sands study, only 11% of leaders said “narrative structure” is a top component of a strong non-traditional media story.
🚩🚩 That’s the biggest blind spot. 🚩🚩
Leaders say they want storytelling, but they undervalue the one thing that makes it work.
Without conflict, stakes, setups, and payoffs, every new channel looks like a random experiment.
It’s not the channels failing.
It’s the lack of narrative spine holding everything together.
So many "non-SEO blog" strategies have been abandoned over the years because they don’t show immediate ROI and are built on tactics, not narrative design.
Until we bridge that gap — until we connect narrative principles to metrics leaders already trust — storytelling will keep being dismissed as “fluffy” and we'll continue to be a cost-center.
We need to redefine what "effective" truly means
The opportunity isn’t about chasing new platforms or abandoning the old ones.
It’s about proving that narrative structure isn’t creative garnish — it’s the operating system that drives trust and growth.
Here's how I propose how we rewrite the rules:
Step 1: Redefine “effective.”
Traffic, leads, and sales are important, but too blunt.
We should be championing:
- Scroll depth / retention → Are people consuming?
- Return visits → Do they come back in 30, 60, 90 days?
- Sales cycle velocity → Do buyers move faster after engaging with content?
These are trust signals — not just volume.
Step 2: Build the habit.
One data point won’t win credibility. We need repetition.
That means:
- Explaining the narrative principles behind creative choices
- Reporting how those choices shift behavior
- Calling out early wins (“scroll depth up 20% in two weeks”) before waiting for revenue
Over time, leadership learns your decisions aren’t based on “vibes.” They’re deliberate, measurable, repeatable.
Step 3: Tie it to growth.
Once you show consistent engagement impact, connect the dots to the big picture:
- High-engagement content → faster closes, higher ACVs
- Repeat engagement → retention and expansion
- Content-driven education → fewer support tickets, lower churn
Remember: CEOs and CMOs are often misaligned on what “success” means.
When narrative-rich content speeds up deals or grows ACVs, that’s pipeline impact leadership can’t ignore.
And by showing both leading indicators (engagement) and lagging indicators (revenue), you’re not only measuring content, you’re solving a boardroom alignment problem.
Why this matters now
Right now, most content leaders are exhausted. 83% report burnout, with half saying it’s “high” or “extreme”.
That's because they’re stuck chasing traffic with an outdated playbook, while being told to hit revenue targets with fewer resources and 3+ approval layers.
It's a paradox: C-Suite execs want storytelling.
Without narrative structure and a proper way to measure effectiveness, burnout worsens, experiments implode, and teams stay stuck in reactive mode.
The opportunity: turn Narrative Design into a shared language that connects story principles to business results.
Fix the 11% Problem, and we stop being order-takers.
We become the authority the C-Suite can’t ignore.
| Does leadership "get" content more than ever before? |
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Tommy Walker | The Content Studio
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