Mike Bruno
Content Strategist // Marketing Operations // Growth-Focused Producer
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As a content marketing leader with 15+ years scaling high-impact programs, I help companies turn content into measurable business growth. I've built content operations that drove 75% year-over-year revenue growth, scaled teams from 3 to 75 people, and developed acquisition strategies that generated millions in organic traffic for major brands including CNN and Billboard.
I specialize in transforming content from a cost center into a revenue driver through data-driven strategy, efficient operations and cross-functional team alignment.
Ready to discuss how content can drive measurable growth for your business? Let's talk about your goals and challenges.
Content Strategy
What I deliver: Comprehensive content strategies that move prospects through your entire funnel, from awareness to conversion.
My approach: I combine audience research, competitive analysis and performance data to create content roadmaps that directly support revenue goals. Whether you need to drive trial signups, demo requests or direct sales, I build content programs with clear attribution to business outcomes.
Recent success: Developed SEO-optimized content strategy for CNN's Commerce website that captured high-intent search traffic during peak buying seasons, contributing to 75% compound annual growth rate over 5 years.
Core Services
Marketing Operations & Team Building
What I deliver: Scalable content production systems and high-performing content teams.
My approach: Through stakeholder interviews and workflow analysis, I design content operations that eliminate bottlenecks, improve quality control and accelerate time-to-market. I've successfully scaled content teams from startup size to enterprise level while maintaining brand consistency and meeting aggressive deadlines.
Proven results: Built and managed content operations that grew CNN Commerce from 3 to 75 team members across editorial, product, social and affiliate marketing functions.
Cross-Platform Content Production
What I deliver: Multi-channel content campaigns optimized for each platform's unique audience and conversion patterns.
My approach: I assemble specialized teams to execute integrated campaigns across web, video, social, email and emerging platforms. Every piece of content serves a specific role in your customer journey with clear success metrics and optimization protocols.
Recognition: Created award-nominated video series and content campaigns that drove significant audience growth and engagement for major brands.
Content Strategy
CNN Underscored
Developed effective content strategies for CNN's affiliate marketing reviews and recommendation channel, emphasizing traffic, SEO, RPM and revenue. Expanded the organization from 3 to 75 members in just four years.
BEST OF ARTICLES
Type: SEO Evergreen / Conversion Content
Sample Link: cnn.com/cnn-underscored/reviews/best-cooling-fans
Summary: Led a comprehensive, SEO-optimized tested-product roundup initiative designed to capture high-intent seasonal traffic during peak search volume.
Strategy: Aligned content with keyword trends and high-RPM product categories.
Execution: Managed editorial workflow, product testing process and curation, and affiliate optimization.
Outcome: Drove significant organic traffic lift and contributed to a 75% CAGR for the business over the first five years.
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AUDIENCE STRATEGY SPOTLIGHT
Reaching the 50+ Beauty Consumer Demographic
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Target: Women 50+ Content
Type: Mid-Funnel Engagement / Audience Expansion
Example: Makeup Tips for Over 50
To expand our reach among an older, underserved demo, I developed an editorial strategy aimed at women over 50, a healthy CNN.com audience segment with high intent and strong purchasing power.
Strategy Insight: Leveraged audience data to identify a gap in coverage for age-inclusive beauty content. Paired this with SEO research that showed high-volume, low-competition search queries around mature skincare and makeup tips.
Content Approach: Created high-trust, approachable content with an emphasis on clarity, tone and relevance specifically optimized for this demographic’s needs and browsing behavior.
Performance Outcome: Delivered consistent long-tail traffic via organic search. It also performed strongly on-site, attracting homepage and newsletter audiences. This piece became an evergreen success and a template for future age-specific vertical strategies.This is one of several playbooks I built to grow reach and engagement by aligning editorial tone, data insights and distribution with specific audience segments.
Video Production
"Underscored Explores"
Developed and launched this Webby-nominated shoppable video series, taking deep dives into product categories popular with our readers, talking to some of the obsessives who drive the culture.
Example: "NYC Coffee Culture"
We take a journey through the vibrant coffee scene in New York City, highlighting stories of passion and expertise. The episode features a historic coffee importing company, a dedicated coffee school, a vintage roasting company, a talented latte artist preparing for a national competition, and a visit to a popular coffee cart. Along the way, we’ll get expert tips and product recommendations to enhance your own coffee brewing experience at home.
"How It Went Down"
Developed and launched this weekly series mixing live-action and animation featuring major artists breaking down the origin story to their current hit. The series is Billboard's most successful to date and earned a Webby Award nomination in 2017.
Partnered with Snapchat to create the platform's first-ever music-themed show, "Artist Pass." Each five-minute episode was a mini-documentary featuring artists throughout summer festival season on the road and backstage, interacting with fans and performing.
Developed and produced weekly advice series aimed at educating viewers about credit card and travel strategy funneling them back to the site for conversion. The series regularly tallies 10K organic views and is a critical top-funnel device for the company.
More Work
Open Letter to Congress
June 12, 2016: We woke to news that a gunman murdered 49 people in cold blood at a gay nightclub in Orlando. Forty-nine souls out for a night of friendship, music and dancing, stolen at the hands of a man wielding two legally purchased semi-automatic firearms. It was the deadliest mass shooting in US history and the nation's worst terror attack since 9/11.
I was the editor of Billboard, a publication that celebrates music and fandom. I needed to do more than just cover this story. I was blessed with an opportunity to turn the outrage, sympathy and disgust we all were feeling that morning into action. I answered the calling.
The response was Billboard's open letter to Congress calling for sensible gun law reform. In just a few days, we got nearly 200 top artists and executives — pop stars, rappers, rock legends, Broadway heroes, even two Beatles and Yoko Ono — to lend their voices to the chorus of Americans looking to our political leaders for change.
The letter and signatures graced the starkly beautiful gatefold cover of the July 2 issue of Billboard magazine, shown here. I wish I could say the effort ended that day, that Congress acted and gun violence waned. But 15 months later, we woke on the morning of October 2, 2017 to news of another mass shooting in a space where music fans had gathered when 58 people were murdered at a Las Vegas music festival.
I'm proud to say Billboard continues this campaign for change.