Most companies have a CEO – the person who drives the direction of the company and makes the important decisions. And although they may not have started with one, they also likely have a CFO, COO, CTO, and even possibly a Chief Product Officer, Chief Revenue Officer, even Chief HR Officer.
But what about Chief Marketing Officer? Lots of companies choose to go without one, full-time or fractionally. There are a number of reasons for this. Firstly, marketing is a “fuzzier” function than, say, technology or finance. Meaning, it’s a little harder to be specific about what a CMO does or adds. “If I have junior marketers doing work, what does a CMO add?” they may ask themselves. In addition, senior businesspeople often believe they know enough about marketing to do the work of oversight.
But the biggest reason companies go without a CMO is that they have gotten used to what it’s like without a true marketing leader. Like a homeowner who foregoes rehabbing their house for so long that they stop noticing the peeling paint, leaky faucets, and outdated look & feel, these companies just can’t seem to put a priority on what real marketing can do for them. They’re resigned to their current reality – mostly because they remain oblivious to the signs that they need one. And because of that, they also aren’t recognizing what it costs their business.
So here are a few signs that your marketing may not delivering enough value for you and your company – and that you might need some experienced marketing leadership to get you over the hump.
- You’ve been saying “we need a website update” for so long you’ve lost count. Websites get old. However, there’s nothing more important for your business. And letting it molder is a sure sign that you have lost the ability to recognize the business that is lost by giving prospects the wrong first impression about your company and its offering.
Plus, if you haven’t invested in your website, you likely also aren’t using your web presence to drive inbound interest, you aren’t leveraging SEO strategy to show up for the searches your customer is interested in, you aren’t driving engagement that keeps a prospect coming back or nurtures them through their path-to-purchase, or other purposeful and strategic approaches. It’s time to wake up. - The marketing you do is a series of tactics and one-off’s. No customer ever sees your strategy. So, at the end of the day, marketing actually is a series of activity and behaviors you place in the world. However, your strategy is what helps connect your actions and execution across time, channel, and customer. Without strategic leadership and the rigor that comes from it, you likely are merely pushing out transactional messaging, transitory promotions, random product news.
And because no one has built a holistic plan, nothing is building or adding up over time in the customer’s mind. As I’ve written here before, great marketing is a “system” – working together as “connective tissue” to add value to an organization. - Your brand’s story is all about what you do, but not why. A clear purpose is a sign of a strong strategy – and it helps frame your narrative around the value you provide, vs. the attributes of your products and services. Often in companies without CMO, a more tactical approach will instead focus on products, attributes, RTB’s – but this will rarely be meaningful, differentiating, or persuasive.
Buyers buy solutions that promise to solve their problems and challenges; product attributes are the reasons to believe your promises, not the main message you tell.
- You aren’t obsessed about your customer. When marketing is strategically led, it is always developed in the service of its customers. Thus, knowing about your customers, what they need, how they shop, what drives them – this is the key to great and effective marketing. But without a CMO driving it, it’s likely that your company’s efforts are focused on “push-based” marketing, vs. insight-based marketing built around customer need.
- Every good marketer at your company leaves. The thing about good marketers is that they love marketing. They want to do strategic, interesting, big things. They want to be involved with good ideas and successful efforts. Without a leader in marketing, their work instead usually ends up being completing a long to-do list, and scrambling all day, spinning plates, juggling balls, and working on putting out the latest fire. Good marketers don’t feel fulfilled by this type of work.
- No one is setting objectives, developing goals, or measuring your results. When marketing is focused on today’s fire drill, it’s likely there aren’t marketing plans with objectives and goals. And, importantly, you’re more than likely not measuring, tracking, or optimizing your efforts on an on-going basis.
A CMO – full-time or fractional – may seem like an indulgence or luxury, especially for an early-stage or startup company. But if you know how to spot the signs, you’ll realize that without one, your marketing is likely to not leave a mark at all.
*Originally published in MediaPost’s Marketing Insider July 11, 2024
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