Strategy 2: Evolve to CMO 3.0
Seven Key Elements
The CMO role continues to transform, in large part due to the rapid pace of digital and AI-based advances, such as ChatGPT, which is becoming more pervasive and will certainly change the very nature of business and marketing.
For the modern CMO, success can be largely determined based on whether he or she will succeed in shaping the company trajectory or be relegated to a more narrow and less impactful role.
Old vs. New
The old CMO was focused primarily on corporate and product marketing and strategic communications, without full operational responsibility or a regular seat at the table in the C-suite. The new CMO has more cross-functional role and now can influence every part of the business. CMOs now must be looking at all things and evaluating usefulness from a strategic point of view to determine what they can do to impact the business better. To succeed in the new world requires not only a firm grip on navigating the complexity of the business environment, but also the ability to influence C-suite peers and share learnings and insights across the organization that help shape both corporate strategy and operational and commercial excellence. It’s a balancing act to maintain an operational focus which keeps the engine running smoothly, while regularly looking over the horizon to what’s coming next and what to pay attention to. The new CMO is figuring out how to do enough of both to increase impact on organizational growth and success. I think the CMO role can positively impact nearly every other function in the business. And while the CEO is the functional leader, when done well, the CMO is really the orchestration leader. As my peers have attested, it’s not for everyone, but becoming more influential across the business is invigorating for many of us who are renewed in this process of evolving.
Marketing Science
In the old days, marketers could assert that “half of my marketing spend works, but I just don’t know which half.” The dominance of digital strategies, channels and tactics, combined with the ability to measure the effectiveness of the increasing amount of digital marketing spend, means that marketers are now being held far more accountable for the results of marketing expenditures. But it goes beyond just measuring marketing ROI. Modern marketers need to become experts at understanding digital customer behaviors, the buyer’s journey and data mining so they can architect a customer strategy that maximizes the efficiency of how their company targets, acquires and grows customers – and ultimately increases market share and business value. We are in the customer-driven era and the age of customer empowerment. Marketing needs to become more scientific and data driven, while leading the company to build out a capability, be more responsive to the customer voice, and more involved in the user and overall customer experience across the entire customer journey.
The best modern CMOs also excel at understanding the customer mindset and leveraging first- and third-party data (think ABM and intent platforms) and partners to drive demand and increase influence. The new CMO must now become adept at analytics and data-based decision making, and today, more than ever before, CMOs are fully accountable for the results of marketing activities. We are now in the era of what I like to refer to as “the ROI of everything.” This means we have to be more metrics oriented. Being fully accountable is a must have to both survive as a CMO and ideally optimize one’s impact across the organization.
Marketing Technologist
From a career path perspective, marketers have educational backgrounds in a wide range of liberal arts, as well as more technical backgrounds, such as computer science or engineering. With the continued increasing role that technology plays in helping companies optimize their operations, engage with and convert customers, and build lifetime customer value, technology adroitness is now a mandate that all marketers can’t ignore. Marketers need to not only understand the broad range of technologies that can help the company compete more effectively (e.g., predictive analytics, social media leverage, generative AI, all types of marketing automation), but also how to create a cogent technology adoption roadmap.
Except for CMOs starting out at new companies, most of us have a technology infrastructure that is a collection of capabilities which are not fully capable or integrated to serve current business mandates. So, it’s now required to closely partner with CIO and CTO peers to articulate a comprehensive roadmap to acquiring, improving and integrating marketing technologies that help the company meet its strategic objectives. Technology has changed the way customers interact with information and how they choose to interact with every company (and how they consume content), so CMOs must now drive how technology is utilized, just as they drive marketing strategy and tactics, to ensure their company can successfully engage with the more empowered, digital, and social customers.
Achieving Alignment
Alignment used to mean that the CMO needed to inform sales on what new products or services were about to be announced, and what new marketing campaigns would be running. We could approach alignment in a siloed fashion, seeking it where needed, such as budget approval for major expenses, and avoiding it where unnecessary, such as testing offers and messaging to increase response rates. It’s a lot different nowadays. Getting others in the C-suite unified around a central strategy is critical. It’s about getting sales, products, engineering, customer success, revenue operations, and support aligned around delivering a superior customer experience across every touch point. As CMOs, we are expected to contribute to the shape and trajectory of the business and bring ideas, energy and inspiration about how to grow more profitably and compete more effectively. It takes a lot more effort and cycles to drive company-wide alignment than functional alignment, especially when any significant change is contemplated. It also takes someone with more business savvy (i.e., typically an MBA or advanced degree is required) than marketing professionals may have been expected to possess in the past. It also takes a lot more gravitas today, both in and outside of the boardroom. Today’s CMOs have to earn the right to be both the chief and the officer, not just the top marketer in the company.
Business Partner
In order to fully achieve alignment, a CMO must be adept at becoming a full-fledged business partner. While the opportunity to impact business results has increased for CMOs, the expectations have also risen commensurately. CEOs expect CMOs to tell them about the things that are coming down the pike and bring new ideas to the table, so they can better navigate fast-changing global markets and seize opportunities more rapidly, while having a regular pulse on the customer to gauge how they are reacting or changing. The CMO is uniquely qualified to optimize the customer experience and to do so successfully, which requires substantive insight into customers to fully understand their preferences, predict their behaviors and drive measurable outcomes to marketing initiatives.
In the past, marketing could sometimes speak in a slightly different language, just as engineering might have. Today, however, a CMO needs to speak in the language of outcomes and business results. They need to connect marketing language and programs to key corporate objectives and priorities. They also need to spend more time in crafting, articulating, and refining strategy to be the business partner that others in the C-suite now expect. CMOs are coming to the table with exceptional business skills and a more pragmatic view, which is a lot different than when their role and scope was much narrower. CMOs choose this role because you can touch every part of the business. You can change market perception, business trajectory, create or redefine a category, move the needle more and have an incredibly positive impact on the longevity of the business.
Customer-Driven
As I’ve alluded to earlier, being connected to the customer is more critical than ever for today’s CMO. The roles of marketing have been reimagined, and CMOs are much more customer-focused than before. How customers consume messages, if at all, is being considered more intently now. It makes the role a lot more fun if you are customer-driven, but not so much fun if you aren’t. In nearly all companies, the CMO does not have direct control over the entire customer experience and journey, but he or she must somehow understand every interaction the customer and company have with each other and drive, or at least influence, how to shape and orchestrate the right experience at every moment.
Marketing has often led cross-functional strategies and tactics around the customer lifecycle, from contact to acquisition to cross-sell and retention. But leading an organizational shift to become truly customer-driven is a much bigger undertaking, and one that requires both fortitude and stamina. But there’s no going back. In the web 3.0 world, customer experience and loyalty have become the key differentiators between leaders and laggards. While the importance of delivering great experiences for customers is generally understood by most companies, executing well (and consistently) across all customer touch points remains a challenge and thus an opportunity for CMOs to make a major difference. In today’s customer-driven era, many companies are approaching this shift to a more empowered customer by driving greater integration in customer management across functions and systems. The CMO is naturally one of the primary executives that companies are asking to orchestrate a cross-functional, strategic initiative to ensure a uniformly positive customer experience, enhance customer lifetime value and operational efficiencies across functional areas, including sales, marketing, service and support. Without appropriate department processes systems linkage, and cross-functional orchestration, however, the impact will be diminished. So while taking on this critical leadership role is no small task for CMOs, the endeavor can be very impactful on long-term success.
Digital Master
As I reflect back on the first edition of this eBook, it was already clear that, whether or not a marketer was digitally inclined, mastery had become a mandate and a key differentiator among CMOs. Fast forward to today, and ChatGPT’s suggested Top 10 marketing success strategies included content marketing, social media engagement, email marketing and SEO, and it’s now obvious that digital prowess is a must-have for everyone leading marketing. It doesn’t mean that the CMO has to be a deep subject matter expert of each digital sub-specialty, but you have to know what good looks like, understand key performance benchmarks, know how to hire and coach specialists, and master how to drive continuous, measurable improvements. And finally, understanding best practices in digital marketing investment, such as PPC, audience conversion, and other performance marketing tactics, is essential to delivering expected results and optimizing marketing spend.
CMO Mentor 