Over the past 25 years, marketing has fundamentally changed. It has moved from offline to online, from brand to growth, from campaigns to customer journeys. At the same time, the CMO role has moved closer to the core of the business, and experience in driving growth has become increasingly important for companies. In many ways, Anna Bergius’ career reflects every part of this development.

Today, Anna Bergius is CEO of the publishing company Bookea. When we ask what has taken her there, she points to curiosity. Not just as a personal trait, but as a way of working. Understanding the business. Understanding the customer. Understanding the product. And constantly daring to change.
– I studied marketing at university and expected to end up in a marketing department when I graduated around the turn of the millennium. Back then, I thought it would be about advertising, positioning, and intuition. It did not take long to realize that what really interested me was the business itself – the numbers, the hypotheses and making things happen.

Anna accepted a trainee program, but ended up right in the middle of the internet boom through an e-challenge tied to “the best business idea on the internet.” It became a shortcut straight into a new type of market, where business plans, digital distribution, and growth suddenly became everything.
– I met many exciting companies and received job offers early on. In the end, I joined Jobline as a trainee, and there I quite quickly felt that marketing was where I really wanted to be.

“That is where I thrive. When you own the full chain instead of acting as a support function.”

Her roles evolved from offline marketing responsibility to online, then quickly to Head of Marketing. Over time, she also became Head of Business Area and later CEO.
– I have worked in several companies where marketing and business are tightly connected. That is where I thrive. When you own the full chain instead of acting as a support function.

A large part of Anna Bergius’ early career was spent in the gaming industry, where the pace and level of data maturity demand a very clear way of working.
– Eight years at Betsson taught me a lot about growth marketing. You run the business digitally, you see results immediately, and you become very disciplined in optimization.

From there, she moved on to Schibsted including a role as Head of Marketing at Blocket, working with large teams and large budgets, but always with a strong focus on marketplaces.
– I love marketplaces. There is something special about the dynamic between buyers and sellers. When it works, it creates value on both sides, and it is inspiring to help build the conditions for that.

In 2020, Anna Bergius became CEO of the marketplace Offerta. She had barely settled into the role before Fortnox acquired the company, which changed both the setup and the plans. She was given responsibility for several operations and for the marketplace business within the parent company.

Today, she leads Bookea, a publishing group. It is the first time she has worked with a physical product.
– I like switching industries. I have never worked with a physical product before, but here there is a strong product at the core and a lot of potential. Demand is strong, but there is also a great deal to refine and make more effective.

Bookea operates on two main pillars and includes four brands. One focuses on self-publishing, while the group also includes a more traditional publishing house.
– To some extent, these businesses overlap. However, the beauty is that you can meet different needs within the same target audience. As CEO, my main priority will be to create a team that feels good, collaborates well, and works both efficiently and creatively, always with the customer in mind. I’m a true team player and love developing organizations by bringing strong teams together.

The business is performing well, especially in Sweden and within self-publishing of printed books, e-books, and audiobooks.
– It’s here we see the strongest growth. There are so many people carrying a story and wanting to get it out quickly. Many are willing to do a lot of the work themselves and do not want to spend much just to get started.

In more challenging times, being concrete about how you drive growth becomes even more important. Anna describes Bookea’s approach as almost textbook.
– We work with an extremely focused growth marketing setup. We convert traffic into interest, interest into manuscripts, manuscripts into customers. Right now, we put less emphasis on brand building and more on the conversion flow itself.

At the same time, there is a clear long-term ambition to build a stronger brand and become the obvious choice in the category.
– The industry has room for a truly strong brand. If you do it right, this could be a company ten times its current size. We are not publicly listed and we have supportive owners, so there is room to grow. But in today’s competition for attention, the offering has to be crystal clear. Identity, attributes, color, packaging, and value proposition all need to be unmistakable. That is where we look to other industries that have already taken this further.

What does it take to become a really good marketer?

– Curiosity. And the ability to combine creativity with data. Working with hypotheses, improving the customer journey, and understanding how sales, marketing, and product connect.She also explains how much easier this can be in smaller companies, where the boundaries between functions are less rigid.
– In a small company, you work in a much more integrated way. For us, it is not that difficult to make things connect. We sit close to each other.

The team consists of around 35 to 40 people in total, but the model includes several freelancers instead of full-time employees, as well as external partners such as Klingit.
– I believe we will continue to rely on external partners. We will bring very few specialists in-house. Given how things look today, you need to build smart, not big.

Moving from marketer to CEO was never a clearly defined goal.
– I never dreamed of becoming a CEO. My dream was to become a Head of Marketing. I genuinely enjoy numbers and data and can spend a long time calculating different scenarios. I did not think that would be my thing at first. But the more you understand the business, the more you can contribute. In the end, it always comes back to curiosity. Whether you run Google performance, build a brand, lead a team, or sit in the CEO chair, the same thing will take you the furthest: never stop being curious.