Times are changing. And quickly. Every year it seems CMOs are having to change tack in order to meet CEO expectations. Right now this pressure filled environment is all geared towards growth – but how can marketers balance their many responsibilities while also ensuring growth is quickly achieved and sustained?
Stacking up responsibilities
The introduction of GDPR earlier this year has had a profound impact on CMOs. In many instances, marketers have been handed responsibility over data interpretation, and have to also ensure transparency with customers is maintained within this new permission based marketing world.
This means CMOs must create a value exchange that appeals to each customer’s specific needs. And for today’s consumers, added value comes from the flexibility to interact with a brand via multiple channels – including social, online, phone, apps and desktop.
Navigating through this complex marketplace, ensuring customers can be interacted with via a multitude of channels, while remaining GDPR compliant and effectively analysing data creates a challenging and fragmented environment for CMOs. But one that is also critical to grasp in order to meet those demands for hyper-growth.
Also Read: Six Ways CMOs Can Keep Pace with Technology Innovation
Tapping into tech
Technology has been a fundamental contributor to this diversification of marketing. As of April 2018, there were reportedly 6,829 martech tools available – which is up 27% on the previous year. Using these tools, we can now analyse how every marketing function contributes to creating new business leads, scale and ROI.
Additionally, accessibility to tools is better than ever before from a cost perspective. Ubiquitous products like Google Marketing Platform, which includes widely used platforms such as Google Analytics and Google Data Studio, are free to use up to a point. Low-cost marketing solutions enable smaller brands with limited budget to analyse the impact of marketing on business success, boost customer engagement and deliver more relevant experiences.
Also Read: The Next Power Couple: How the CMO and CCO Together Can Nail the Customer Experience
Continuous re-skilling
Digital training is essential for marketers working in today’s tech saturated environment, especially since they are expected to already have grasped the skills necessary to navigate their way through tech. Yet often, many haven’t been supported with the necessary training to do so. The extent of this skills gap is proven via government estimates that show the digital skills costs the economy £63 billion a year.
In order to bridge this gap and ensure CMOs have the skills to continue succeeding, organizations must invest in training courses and external support from those experts in tech such as agencies or consultancies that can educate CMOs and marketers on how to diversify their capabilities using digital.
Also Read: Top Efficiencies Gained by CMOs While Procuring and Managing Agencies
Embracing today’s change for tomorrow’s success
CMOs have undoubtedly had more complexities added to their roles. But despite the challenges this creates, they must embrace it. Using the plethora of tech tools available to analyse the broader business success linked to every marketing move, CMOs can create engaging and creative marketing initiatives all the while ensuring that marketing activity helps ensure growth.
When this balance is achieved, CMOs will be on track to help fulfil broad business goals and will themselves benefit from profound career success.
Also Read: Top Five Reasons CMOs Need to Digitize Marketing Events
