Could a team of three be even better?

Back just a few years ago, the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) was often referred to within financial and professional services firms as the “creative person who manages the outside agency relationships.”

How times have changed!

Today, a CMO is the corporate executive responsible for all marketing activities across an organization. This includes overseeing everything related to:

• Analytics — goal setting, data tracking, campaign metrics
• Creative — advertising, promotion, video production, event planning
• Strategy — budgeting, pricing, branding, sales process, competitive positioning, customer experience
• Communication — messaging, writing, content development
• Process — creative production, compliance and legal review
• Technical — systems development, integration, dashboard design, artificial intelligence
• Digital — web development and maintenance, social campaigns, online advertising
• Personnel — training, organizational alignment, team building.

Being a CMO always used to be a “right brain” creative job. However, with the vast majority of marketing moving to channels where results are tracked instantaneously, more of a CMO’s time today is spent on “left brain” data-oriented activities. In fact, many firms are deciding to hire or promote people with accounting or math backgrounds into CMO positions.

Sometimes, putting a “number cruncher” into a CMO job leaves creatives feeling short changed. Firms that have creative people in charge often lag behind in data-driven marketing.

The chance of finding someone who is a perfect left brain / right brain thinker to fill a CMO job is a challenge, so some firms split the role into multiple positions. These could include:

• Chief Creative Officer or Director: Oversees development of all corporate creative and manages agency relationships.
• Chief Digital Officer: Manages all online marketing including web sites, social media, online sales and reporting.
• Head of Content Marketing: Drives branding, messaging and content development and aligns it across all channels.
• Chief Marketing Technologist: Oversees all the systems and technology that deliver marketing messages and drive sales.
• Chief Customer Experience Officer: Manages all aspects of the branded prospect and client experience.

Is it time to make a change at the top of your marketing team? For many firms, despite the risks, it’s an opportunity worth exploring. Not surprisingly, many CMOs find themselves overextended and are open to a restructuring and redistribution of responsibilities.

Another option: Maintain your current marketing leadership and team structure and fill gaps in it with experienced agency support. An agency like Carpenter Group can provide strategy, data-driven marketing and creative support to help you develop effective advertising, branding, content and digital marketing strategies and campaigns without taking the risk of restructuring your marketing department.

Contact us today to learn how we can help.