Marketers drive topline (aka revenue) growth and our impact are often dismissed.
In a CMO mapping study done by Raines, CMOs are losing their influence (73% of Fortune 250 companies have a Global CMO, but only 44% of Global CMOs sit in the C-suite). CMOs don’t feel valued (23% of surveyed Fortune 500 CMOs were unsure their CEO understood their job). CMOs don’t have clear alignment with their CEOs on key performance metrics (42% of surveyed Fortune 500 CMOs considered “Topline Revenue Growth” a top priority) whereas “topline growth” is typically one of the major priorities for CEOs at any stage of a business.
As a marketer, we spend a lot of our time thinking about the customer, the psychology, and the creativity of the campaigns, activations, and initiatives we produce. We’re like artists painting a Picasso or musicians scoring a Mozart. Sometimes, in the midst of our artistry, we forget the science of marketing. We forget to ask ourselves the burning questions that our partners (e.g. Finance, Product, Tech, etc.) like to know:
Why is marketing important? How do you know it’s working? Why should we care?
We used to be able to say “we trust our gut” or “it’s standard” but those days are gone. Now, we need data to support.
As part of this Shortcut series, we will breakdown some of the most important parts of our partner teams’ jobs and goals so marketers will have a better way of communicating our impact to them as well as be better business partners.
Because… at the end… we can’t drive growth alone. We need the support of our partners.
