In larger organizations, a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) plays a crucial role in helping the company scale and grow intelligently. The CMO is an executive level leader who contributes to the strategic planning and implementation of programs designed to help your company grow.
Why does your company need a Chief Marketing Officer? Most smaller companies work with a marketing agency – or several agencies – to implement and manage their marketing. Partnering with agencies is a great way to minimize the cost of a budding marketing department and gain the expertise of much more experienced marketers. But agencies focus on promotional strategies and getting your company name and brand out into the market. The focus of a Chief Marketing Officer goes beyond that. The CMO has five areas of focus:
- Growth Driver: The CMO plays a crucial role in creating the strategy and plan for an organization to achieve and sustain profitable growth. As such, the CMO is an important player in the achievement of the company’s vision.
- Customer Champion: The CMO must understand the customer well enough to ensure that the company provides the best possible customer experiences and creates a strategy for converting those experiences to sales, driving growth. Typically this involves the use of data analytics and insights into the customer base, as well as aligning metrics with the experiences that produce the best conversion rate.
- Capability Champion: The CMO drives the development of the company’s marketing capabilities and oversees the selection, implementation, and use of technology to help keep the company competitive, even in an ever-changing market.
- Innovation Catalyst: Because the CMO sits in a position between the company and its customers, they are in a unique position to drive innovation by creating new offerings, pricing models, and programs that generate memorable customer experiences to fuel profitable growth.
- Chief Storyteller: As the architect and steward of the brand, the CMO guides and creates the brand story, inviting the customer to participate in the narrative, thus furthering the brand’s reputation and position within the market.
