How CMOs Can Align Budgets, Metrics, and Customer Value With Christine Royston

About Guest

Christine Royston is the Chief Marketing Officer at Wrike, an intelligent work management platform that helps teams build, connect, automate, and scale workflows. She joined in June 2024 after more than 20 years in B2B enterprise marketing. Before Wrike, Christine was VP and Global Head of Marketing at Udemy, where she helped grow annual recurring revenue from $100M to over $450M and led initiatives including an IPO and rebrand. She also held leadership roles at Bitly, Dropbox, Imperva, and Salesforce.

In this episode…

In today’s marketing landscape, every dollar spent is under a microscope, and leaders are under pressure to prove impact faster than ever. How can CMOs align their budgets, metrics, and customer strategies to show real business value while navigating constant change?

According to Christine Royston, a seasoned B2B marketing leader with global experience, the key is balance. She emphasizes that marketing must be both data-driven and customer-focused, ensuring pipeline and bookings remain at the center of conversations with executives. She highlights how aligning budgets with measurable outcomes builds trust across the business and creates room for innovation. By focusing on efficiency, clear communication, and proactive performance tracking, marketing leaders can demonstrate value early and often.

In this episode of the Revenue Engine Podcast, host Alex Gluz sits down with Christine Royston, Chief Marketing Officer at Wrike, to discuss how CMOs can align budgets, metrics, and customer value. She explains why data transparency builds stronger executive relationships, how to balance brand and demand generation, and the role of customer-centric thinking in growth. Christine also shares insights on adapting to AI-driven changes in marketing.

A glimpse of what you will learn

• [3:37] Lessons on balancing brand building and demand generation
• [5:20] How global experience in Europe and Asia shaped Christine Royston’s marketing perspective
• [6:45] Why Christine joined Wrike and how she customizes messaging for diverse industries
• [8:12] Using a data-driven leadership approach focused on pipeline and bookings
• [19:37] The biggest challenges for B2B SaaS marketing leaders in 2025

Resources Mentioned in this episode

• T.A. Monroe Digital Agency
• Alex Gluz on LinkedIn
• Christine Royston on LinkedIn
• Wrike
• Cisco
• Salesforce
• Dropbox
• Udemy
• Imperva
• Bitly

Quotable Moments

• "If I think about a theme that runs through those learnings, I think it's balance."
• "You really have to drop your assumptions about people, processes, the way life works, and be open to change."
• "I want to speak the same language as the rest of the business. How is marketing helping to drive growth?"
• "Great marketing, it actually makes you become more sharp. You've got to be on top of your game."
• "You own your own career path. You cannot wait for somebody to offer help."

Action Steps

1. Align marketing metrics with business outcomes: Connecting efforts to pipeline and bookings ensures marketing is seen as a growth driver.
2. Balance investment in brand and demand: Supporting both builds long-term awareness while delivering immediate, measurable revenue impact.
3. Lead with data in all decisions: Using metrics to guide strategy builds credibility and sharpens marketing effectiveness under scrutiny.
4. Foster global and cultural adaptability: Embracing diverse markets and perspectives strengthens communication and creates more relevant, impactful campaigns.
5. Proactively demonstrate ROI to stakeholders: Showing value early builds trust, secures resources, and positions marketing as a strategic partner.

Sponsor for this episode

This episode is brought to you by T.A.Monroe Digital.At T.A.Monroe, we build world class revenue engines for B2B SaaS companies. What that means is we do everything behind the scenes to generate you tons of qualified leads, opportunities and customers.

1. We build highly effective marketing systems and scale their profitably through our demand generation strategies.
2. We think scientifically on how to scale your demand and revenue.
3. We bring decades of experience.

Email us at alex@tamonroe.com or visit www.tamonroe.com today to schedule a strategy session or learn more about our mission.