Firstly, marketing is critical to success and marketing on the board can yield an 8% average increase in revenue. However, not all CMOs and marketing directors are the same.
According to the Harvard Business Review [1], 46% of Chief Marketing Officers focus on commercial marketing such as advertising, digital content, social media and events. 31% focus on growth, innovating, understanding the customer, analysis and product design. The remaining 23% do both and own a P&L. They focus on the design and implementation of strategy and may be considered future CEO material.
A typical B2B business is usually sales or technical-led and these tend to have the commercially-focused CMOs; supporters not seen as critical to success. However, it gets worse. According to Marketing Week [2], CMO churn in the UK stands at 82% planning to leave their roles within 3 years and 41% within the next 12 months.
Marketing is critical to success so why do marketers fail?
Marketing Week suggests that the inability to express results in terms of financial performance or frustration with the job (unappreciated or unable to change the organisation) are the primary reasons.
Marketing Return on Investment (MROI) is something we keep repeating, but it is crucial to be able to measure the value add from marketing, especially for the commercially-focused set. The CEO and CFO may be disillusioned with the lack of measured results from their investment and the opportunities from sales and marketing alignment may fail to materialise.
Why you need a marketing expert on your board
Deloitte [3] suggest that marketers need to be able to communicate across the organisation, “To make sure that a CMO has credibility, they have to be able to know how to talk to other members of the C-suite. CMOs must be comfortable talking to the CFO about P&L and to the CIO about technology needs.”
Think Beyond is a management consultancy operating in Wilmslow and Alderley Edge in Cheshire. Our marketing experts partner with clients across the North West and beyond. We help you make sense of marketing, understand the customer journey and leverage data insights for sales growth. We offer Marketing Director as a Service (MDaaS), a board-level chartered marketer to help set the direction for marketing and communicate across the C-suite. A necessary strategic partner because marketing is critical to success.
If you would like to discuss your marketing strategy and you don’t have a CMO or marketing director, call 01565 632206 now.
As a CEO or business owner, how is marketing critical to success?
The Digital Marketing Institute [4] suggest that 68% of senior people expect CMOs or marketing directors to be growth drivers; to be finance experts, technologists and understand how to connect with customers. Typically, the tenure of the top marketers is the lowest in the C-suite.
A startling 80% of CEOs expressed dissatisfaction with their CMO, which is either an expectation gap or a measurement gap. The importance of marketing KPIs to evaluate success, measuring MROI to prove the value add from marketing and leveraging data analytics to talk to the CEO and CFO/FD on their terms are crucial skills of a modern marketer.
My marketing budget may be cut if I don’t support sales
Nothing frustrates a marketer more than being called the ‘colouring-in’ department or where you go for ‘pretty brochures’. Some organisations fail to realise the strategic gains. The customer insight, product development, lead generation and increased sales that can come from positioning marketing at the heart of business strategy. Marketing is vastly different to 20 years ago, even 10 years ago, but marketing is critical for success.
Forbes [5] state the following 5 trends shaping the marketing profession:
- Use the right data, at the right time, for the right purpose
- Focus content on customer experience and understand responses
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning to predict next actions
- Personalise the customer journey, tell them a story, tailor it to their situation
- Display advertising is less effective but native, video and live content are growing
Why you can’t afford not to have Marketing Director as a Service (MDaaS)
Looking at the key trends from Forbes, are you geared up for the coming (and in some cases present) landscape? Data analytics, neuromarketing and neuroscience, AI, deep customer insight for personalisation and more dynamic, relevant content. Marketing are becoming technologists. Can you afford to rely on word of mouth, referral marketing, a bland website, pay for a few Pay Per Click (PPC) keywords and print a glossy brochure? Marketing is critical to success but it must keep pace with technology and change.
Think Beyond are your experts in marketing strategy
Think Beyond were borne out of a philosophy of partnership, driven by marketing as a science and focused on increasing marketing ROI. We call our business model PSR (Philosophy, Science and ROI). Our CIM chartered marketers are experts in marketing strategy, digital marketing, lead generation and much more.. We design bespoke training courses to boost your in-house marketing skills. Why not read why hiring a professional benefits your marketing.
Also, see how you can benefit from a marketing director on your board with a free one-hour initial consultation. Call 01565 632206 or complete our contact form to request a call back.
Finally, see what our happy customers think by visiting our testimonials page.