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Keeping Up With The Trends: 20 Strategies For CMOs

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Sourced from Forbes

As a CMO, staying on top of industry trends is key to doing your job effectively. In addition to understanding current marketing strategies, keeping up with the latest technology advances and broader business trends allows CMOs to adapt to market changes and make the right decisions accordingly.

Below, the members of Forbes Communications Council share some of their tried-and-true approaches for CMOs looking to keep up with industry tools and developments. From subscribing to trusted experts to collaborating with industry peers and stakeholders, here’s how you can stay ahead of the curve.

1. Attend Networking Events And Groups

Networking is the best way to stay ahead of the latest trends and tools impacting our industries. As a marketing lead, you only have so much time to research and self-educate; attending conferences and events and joining groups like The CMO Club are excellent ways to connect with other leaders and learn about how their strategies are evolving. – Nandini Sankara, Suburban Propane

2. Take A Hands-On Approach To Learning Marketing Tech

Staying up to date with the latest marketing tech tools is essential not only to stay relevant but also to lead. I took a hands-on approach to AI by exploring its practical applications and documenting my experiences in book form. Writing my book helped me cement core underlying theories of which to evaluate the deluge of AI tools. – Cheryl Goodman, FindGood.tech – Technology Communications

3. Subscribe To Expert Publications And Forums

I subscribe to publications, blogs and newsletters like Harvard Business Review and Marketing Week, and I regularly follow and read social forums on LinkedIn to stay informed about martech trends. I’m a secret tech geek, so I like learning how I can use AI and automation tech to improve operational efficiency, boost production and enable effective data-driven decisions to hone and improve strategies. – Heather Stickler, Tidal Basin Group

4. Have Regular Conversations With Your Team

I follow some key martech and AI tool influencers and encourage my team to do the same. We regularly have conversations about what we’re seeing and what tools could potentially address friction or inefficiencies we’re experiencing. I then partner with my CTO and/or RevOps lead to selectively engage with vendors. – Whitney Cornuke, TalentLaunch

5. Look Outside Your Normal Zone

Identify what everyone reads in your industry or profession, and then find the news flow or events that are outside that zone. If you live in the U.S., follow what’s next in Asia. If you are a marketer, figure out what creative directors read. Go outside your normal zone and you will piece together innovation and your needs in new ways. – Bob Pearson, The Bliss Group

6. Join Industry Slack Groups

I keep myself ahead and up to date by attending weekly webinars and panels on emerging trends. I also joined Slack groups where peers from the industry share and discuss new tools and insights. This peer collaboration helps me stay up to date with the latest in marketing, technology and broader business trends. – Thomas Guilbert, Lambs

7. Connect With Other CMOs

Ongoing training is an absolute must for a CMO. Subscribing to trusted experts who are proven in their field is an efficient way to stay on top of the latest trends across multiple tools and technologies. Additionally, connecting with other CMOs in my network has proven invaluable for sharing insights and strategies. – Stephen Spratley, Marketing Armor

8. Foster Internal Innovation And Experimentation

I review my strategic plan to identify emerging tech tools and market trends, leveraging partnerships with vendors and my marketing network through associations, forums and subscribing to specialized media. Most importantly, I maintain an open mind, fostering innovation and experimentation within my team, and encouraging them to propose solutions to enhance our action plan and objectives. – Jorge Lukowski, NEORIS

9. Leverage Your ‘Marketing Army’

Lean on your teams. Regularly gather insights from them on what they’re seeing and hearing in social listening, customer marketing and community programs. The best way to keep on top of insights and trends is by leveraging the eyes and ears of your “marketing army” because, collectively, they can bring you many more insights than you could ever gather on your own. – Scott Morris, Sprout Social

10. Follow Marketing Execs, Leaders And Recruiters

Follow people you trust on LinkedIn. This should include CMOs and other marketing execs you know, as well as other functional leaders at companies in your sector and across verticals. I also find that recruiters are a valuable source. They talk to many like you, and the good ones often summarize what they’re hearing to help make prospective future clients even more marketable. – Joe Garber, Radiant Point

11. Combine Education, Networking And A ‘Test-And-Learn’ Approach

To stay on top of marketing, tech and business trends, I blend ongoing education, networking and a “test-and-learn” budget for myself. I attend yachting conferences, subscribe to newsletters and engage in online forums. This approach keeps me connected to the latest developments, providing fresh insights and ensuring my strategies remain innovative and aligned with emerging trends. – Josh Valoes, VALOES Yachting Advisors

12. Participate In The Flow Of Innovation

To stay up to date, I make sure to follow the flow of innovation—collaborating with tech founders, beta-testing tools before they’re public and accessing exclusive insights from top analysts. Actively engaging with thought leaders across industries means I’m not just aware of trends but I’m also shaping and using them before they hit the mainstream. This approach ensures an upper hand in every decision. – Vikas Agrawal, Infobrandz

13. Review Trusted Newsletters On Your Time

I rely on a few trusted email newsletters that help me stay current on technology news and business trends. I might not get to read them on the spot, but I review them together. This way, if multiple authorities are addressing a topic, I can get varied perspectives and also a sense that it’s a trend worth watching. – Jennifer Best, AAE Speakers Bureau

14. Have An Advisory Council

Because marketing and advertising agencies vigilantly keep up with industry and technology trends to remain competitive for their clients, I maintain an advisory council with strong agency representation. The council serves as a consolidated and streamlined reference point and resource for me, allowing me to stay updated on the trends and tools they’ve vetted without a colossal burden on my time. – Stephanie Bunnell, Aki Technologies

15. Prioritize Recap Outlets

Regardless of how busy my calendar gets, I always block off time in my morning to catch up on trends and news. That said, we know every day is a firehose of news and trends, so I prioritize great recap outlets like pop culture podcasts or marketing websites and newsletters. This allows me to stay up to date without having to comb through multiple social media platforms and websites. – Dixie Roberts, DKC/HangarFour

16. Read Software Update Articles

When software updates are released and there is a notification about what is new, one way I stay up to date is by actually reading the articles. These can give you tips on how the technology can work for you or tricks that you may not have known before. It seems so obvious, but it is often dismissed without any thought. – Sarah Lero, A.L. Huber

17. Add A Marketing Technology Officer To Your Team

Every CMO needs a marketing technology officer on their team. And it doesn’t have to be a senior role. One of the functions of the marketing technology officer is to be the super user of the tech, platforms or tools the marketing team needs to operate and be innovative. This role can not only help a CMO to keep up with the latest tools but can also support driving implementation and adoption. – Kerry-Ann Betton Stimpson, JMMB Group

18. Consume Content From Diverse Voices

A way that I stay up to date on larger technology and business trends outside of marketing is to follow diverse voices on social media that not only include women and men in various functions and industries but also represent different cultures, races and ages. The content I consume from these influencers encourages me to see the world a little more broadly than I naturally would. – Rekha Thomas, Path Forward Marketing LLC

19. Build Synergy With Tech Leaders

Technology is the key driver of modern marketing—almost a twin to marketing. CMOs have to be up on technology and find ways to build synergies with technology partners for generative AI tools and analytics and data-driven marketing approaches. A CMO has to be a good friend to the C-suite, including the Chief Technology Officer, Chief Data Officer and the soon-to-arrive (or already-arrived) Chief AI Officer. – Namita Tiwari, Namita Tiwari

20. Collaborate With Peers And Stakeholders

One way to stay current is by constantly collaborating with various stakeholders and peers within the industry. Learning comes from observing the work happening around you, both within the industry and beyond. Listening to different perspectives is one of the best ways to learn and stay updated, as it offers real-world examples that go beyond trends and tools. – Arnav Sharma, Tech Mahindra

Feature Image Credit: getty

Sourced from Forbes

Communications, PR, public affairs & media relations executives from Forbes Communications Council share firsthand insights.

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Most CMOs expect role to change as a result of Covid-19, finds LinkedIn

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By John Glenday

Almost three-quarters of chief marketing officers (CMOs) expect their role to change as a consequence of the global pandemic, according to a survey of 300 senior executives conducted by LinkedIn.

The report found that 58% believe they will have to devote more time towards employer branding, internal communications and learning and development as priorities change.

The evolution of the CMO role

  • A survey of over 300 executives, authored by the business networking platform, found that a majority of CMOs expect to increase reliance on data and technology.
  • On top of this, 48% expect to wield greater influence in the boardroom as their roles evolve
  • The need for greater agility emerged as a fault line between respondents, with 87% pointing to the need for greater fleet-footedness to navigate the recession as 60% fret that agility is being favoured at the expense of strategy.
  • Tom Pepper, head of marketing solutions at LinkedIn UK, Ireland and Israel, commented: “Covid-19 has caused severe business turbulence and CMOs have been called upon to navigate the challenges ahead and fuel the return to growth.“

Marketers turn to tech to close the skills gap

  • Addressing the need for training to equip businesses with the skills they need, Pepper added: “CMOs have always required a diverse skill set, but it appears they’ll be taking on even more responsibilities in 2021. Upskilling will be an important focus for CMOs this year as they look to redeploy employees and plug potential skills gaps, but the savviest will also know when to bring in extra talent.”
  • LinkedIn’s prognosis finds echo in a CMO Council survey from last week, which established that 70% of marketers were embracing automation as the key to higher efficiency.
  • Marketers are in a race to improve ROI, efficiency and revenue optimization by leveraging the potential of digital marketing and customer data to drive engagement.
  • This digital drive is driven by a rise in marketing spend, which is expected to gain ground throughout 2021 as sentiments brighten with 65% expecting to loosen the purse strings this year according to the same report.
  • Despite widespread uncertainty, a scant 10% of CMOs are preparing to implement further cuts and 24% are holding out until the mists clear.

By John Glenday

Sourced from The Drum

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KPMG Australia steps up the battle of the consultancies with launch of CMO advisory business

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By Danielle Long

KPMG Australia has become the latest management consultancy to launch a specialist marketing advisory team targeting chief marketing officers.

KPMG has appointed Carmen Bekker as a partner to launch its CMO advisory team, which is part of the firm’s customer, brand & marketing advisory business.

Bekker brings 20 years experience working on leading international brands in the UK, Europe and Australia. Her previous roles include management partner and European marketing director for J Walter Thomson London as well as business director at Saatchi & Saatchi in London and Sydney.

Bekker said her role was to help CMOs and brand leaders to grow their businesses by providing new perspectives and leveraging best international practice, however, she also plans to focus on championing diversity.

“CMOs and brand leaders have a huge responsibility to consistently deliver and innovate for their organisations in today’s rapidly changing environment. They face challenges from global trends as they navigate the new world, including media transparency, marketing spend accountability, and creating meaningful customer engagement.

“I will champion diversity within the wider industry with a focus on female leadership, and also on diversity in the work that brands create when marketing to customers. Australia has all the ingredients to be an innovative leader within the global marketing sector, and I look forward to playing a role in this at KPMG,” she added.

Bekker is the latest senior hire to join KPMG’s customer, brand & marketing advisory business, which launched in June following the firm’s acquisition of research company Acuity Research and Insights.

The division also includes former Google industry leader for mobile and new business development Lisa Bora, ex-Virgin Australia chief customer officer Mark Hassell and former Telstra GM of Business to Business IT Melanie Evans.

Paul Howes, partner in charge of KPMG’s customer, brand & marketing advisory, said the division had experienced “rapid growth” since launching. “Our practice has proven there is increasing demand for new approaches in Australia’s marketing landscape. The launch of a new CMO Advisory practice under Carmen will take our business to the next level as we move into 2018.”

Consultancy companies have been ramping up their marketing divisions across APAC this year. PwC has appointed a host of former advertising executives to its CMO advisory including former Network Ten executive general manager Russel Howcroft who joined as chief creative officer in 2016. It also follows Accenture’s acquisition of creative hotshop The Monkeys earlier this year.

By Danielle Long

Sourced from THEDRUM

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Unclear CEO Expectations Often Inspire Marketing Officers to Quit

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More than 40 percent of CMOs have been in their jobs for 2 years or less.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

Nearly three-quarters of chief marketing officers believe their jobs aren’t designed to let them have the greatest impact on their companies, according to a new survey.

Chief marketing officers frequently suffer from having poorly designed jobs, accounting for why they have the highest rate of turnover among all roles in the C-suite.

The survey found that more than 40 percent of chief marketing officers have been in their roles two years or less, and 57 percent three years or less – a significantly shorter tenure than any other C-level executive.

This “revolving door of CMO short-timers” affects how consumers view the company, since new chief marketing officers often change some or all of their predecessors’ strategic direction for positioning, packaging and advertising. These changes also come at a significant financial cost.

The research was conducted by Neil A. Morgan, a professor of Marketing at Indiana University, and Kimberly Whitler of the University of Virginia. The results can be found in the Harvard Business Review article, “Why CMOs Never Last and What to Do About It.”

“We believe that a great deal of CMO turnover stems from poor job design,” Morgan and Whitler wrote. “Any company can make a bad hire, but when responsibilities, expectations and performance measures are not aligned and realistic, it sets a CMO up to fail.”

They interviewed more than 300 executive recruiters, CEOs and chief marketing officers; conducted multiple surveys of chief marketing officers; analysed 170 CMO job descriptions at large firms; and reviewed more than 500 LinkedIn profiles of CMOs. They found more disparity in how the chief marketing officer’s role was defined and much more than for any other C-level role.

Morgan and Whitler found common core CMO responsibilities. More than 90 percent of chief marketing officers were responsible for marketing strategy and implementation, and more than 80 percent controlled brand strategy and customer metrics.

“But beyond that, the range of duties – from pricing to sales management, public relations to e-commerce, product development to distribution – is mind-boggling,” they said. “Even before considering candidates for the job, a CEO must decide which kind of CMO would be best for the company.”

Their research identified three types of chief marketing officers: the strategist who makes decisions about firm positioning and products, accounting for 31 percent in their survey; the “commercialiser” who drives sales through marketing communications (46 percent); or someone who is an enterprise-wide profit-and-loss leader who handles both roles (23 percent).

The key problem is that CEOs and executive recruiters do not do a good job of identifying the type of role that the firm needs the chief marketing officer to play before they identify and evaluate candidates. Rather, they look at CMO candidates and select the one the CEO rates highest – which assumes that the CEO knows what type of chief marketing officer the firm needs.

That turns out to be a false assumption in most cases. This is much less of a problem for chief financial officers, chief information officers or even chief human resources officers, where there is much more standardisation in the role these executives play across firms and industries.

To solve the problem of identifying the type of chief marketing officer they need before looking at candidates, Morgan and Whitler said CEOs need to take into consideration:

  • The degree to which consumer insight needs to drive firm strategy.
  • How difficult it is to achieve firm-level growth.
  • The level of dynamic change in the marketplace.
  • The historical role of chief marketing officers in the organisation.
  • The firm’s structure, including whether the marketing function is centralised or dispersed throughout the organisation.

Once they have identified the type of chief marketing officer they need, CEOs must design the role to align with what the firm needs from that person before looking for candidates. This “role design” part of the process is also done badly most of the time.

“Alignment of responsibilities is the critical area where mistakes are made. It’s common for companies to describe a role in which the CMO is expected to change the overall performance of the firm,” Whitler and Morgan wrote.

“Expectations typically far exceed the actual authority given the CMO,” they added. “That problem is often compounded when CEOs are wooing candidates who already have good jobs.

“While overpromising and ‘up-selling’ are common in recruitment across many functions, our research suggests that they can be a bigger issue in marketing, because of the general confusion and lack of uniform expectations about what a CMO does and the knowledge and skill differences among marketing executives.”

Only 22 percent of the job descriptions Morgan and Whitler studied mentioned how chief marketing officers would be measured or held accountable, and only 2 percent had a specific section that clearly spelled out job expectations.

When searching for the best CMO candidate, Morgan and Whitler also point to the increased importance of experience in shaping knowledge and skills relative to other functions due to the lack of professional certifications in marketing, compared to those required of lawyers and accountants.

Only 6 percent of the chief marketing officers in their survey had degrees in marketing. Although 44 percent had MBAs, their educational backgrounds varied and included degrees in other disciplines such as engineering, philosophy and political science.

This means that most chief marketing officers learn most of their marketing “on the job,” making their prior experiences and employers of key importance in determining their knowledge and skills.

“Another stumbling point, in our analysis, is that in almost all CMO job descriptions there are significant gaps between the responsibility given and the experience required,” they added.

 

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