What are the core skills a modern Chief Marketing Officer needs to succeed? How can you become a better CMO?

As the role of the Chief Marketing Officers (CMO) has evolved from setting brand positioning to owning the entire customer experience, it is imperative that aspiring and existing CMOs act with clarity and confidence.

In this post learn what the core skills of a modern CMO should be and how to become a better CMO.

The role of the CMO has undergone a dizzying transformation in recent years to include not just management of creative and brand but every aspect of the customer experience), selecting the right technology stack, interpreting customer data and analytics, overseeing existing account growth and, ultimately, significantly impacting the bottom line.

The modern CMO has had to evolve and adapt more than ever before, asked to embrace change by learning how to integrate emerging technologies with traditional skills to bring value to their organisation.

CMOs are the ultimate customer representative, relating clear understanding of customer needs and their perspectives to the C-suite in a way that clearly directs strategy and execution.

And whereas the the traditional role of the CMO may have been rooted in more tactical activities – things like creating a marketing plan, setting the tone and the voice – the demands of the modern C-suite require CMOs to be able to understand and lead all aspects of customer experience in order to consistently scale revenue.

What are the five core skills essential for the modern CMO to succeed?

From our experience of working with a range of CMOs, there are five core skills essential for the modern CMO to succeed.

1. CMOs need to be excellent team leaders

CMOs represent the voice of customers and consumers and need to integrate consumer needs and marketing strategies to add value to the organisation and its stakeholders.

A deep understanding of harmonious organisational structure is crucial so that marketing can interact successfully with other departments. High performing CMOs collaborate, explaining how effective, targeted marketing results in tangible and measurable outputs. It is crucial marketers demonstrate their value and return on investment, and not simply as a ‘black box’ that consumes resources.

2. Successful CMOs are comfortable with data

Data-driven marketing isn’t new and the modern CMO needs to be comfortable collating data from a variety of sources, making sense of it and drawing out insights to make decisions on.

The ability to use data and analytics can mitigate risk as well as inform real-time decision-making and strategic planning. Using meaningful data helps marketing teams can adjust and improve promptly when necessary.

The vast wealth of data available to marketers is only as helpful as a marketer’s ability to interpret and use it. So it is crucial for the CMO to understand how to leverage the technology to derive maximum benefit and educate their team and the wider organisation in its optimal use.

Marketing leaders who understand and can share data knowledge with their peers will be seen as a crucial part of the organization and a key part of driving growth.

3. High performing CMOs understand the customer journey and need for greater personalisation

The CMO needs to be the master of crafting a brand experience that supports individual consumption preferences and tap into analytical tools to track interactions and manage their experience.

By prioritising the customer and using personal data to create value at every step of the journey, marketers can generate more engagement, more transactions, loyalty and advocacy. CMOs can demonstrably show they grow businesses and stronger customer bases.

4. CMO’s are tech savvy and use it to add commercial value

It is essential that CMOs understand critical technologies that help organisations scale and deliver superior products and experiences.

The technology space is relentless and offers unprecedented opportunities for personalization predictive and account based marketing.

With bewildering choice, CMOs need to be the voice of reason inside their organisation understanding which bring value at the right time. Designing the right technology stack is another area that the top CMOs embrace with confidence.

5. Highly regarded CMOs still need to have strong traditional skills

CMOs are still required to deliver creative ideas, campaigns, and strategic storytelling in order to build a strong brand. Successful CMOs use the latest technologies in conjunction with older core abilities to bring value to an organization.

How To Become A Great CMO

Looking for a checklist of things that will help you ascend to the role or have instant impact on what you’re doing right now? We think these elements are a great place to start.

Listen to customers. It’s critical for CMOs to gain insight into what customers want, need and sometimes don’t even realise they need. Take the time to pay attention to complaints, call logs and customer feedback so you incorporate it back into your delivery. Even better when it is acknowledged and acted on. It’s important that CMOs take interaction with customers seriously and build continuous feedback loops back into the business.
Engage wherever customers are. You need to be active where customers are. It’s not enough right now to stick to platforms that work for you. On one level, you’re missing out on all the positive sentiment but you’re missing out on the opportunity to turn negative experiences into positive ones and demonstrate you are a truly customer focused brand.
Market as a team. On that note, it’s also important for CMOs to foster ownership and ask “who is doing what” when listening and responding to customers, designing and delivering campaigns and connecting marketing activity with sales objectives. The best marketers have a service mantra and a strong commercial understanding. When customers win, you win too.
Service customers everywhere. Buyers have the power and it’s very much up to them to decide how they want to interact with you. Remember if someone has a great experience with you, they’re likely to tell someone about it. But if they have a bad experience, they’ll tell everyone about it.
Create communities. Every organisation has an opportunity to build a community of customers. This could be in the form of simple discussion forums answering standard questions, training, product information, best practice or simple peer-to-peer support. A strong minded CMO will solve the problem of how to build a community in a way that will engage customers and build loyalty.

Summary

To be a highly valued CMO, you ultimately need to ask yourself how you can engage your customers, bring your colleagues with you, connect to your partners and create brilliant transformational products, services and experiences that deliver competitive advantage and commercial impact.

We’ll be offering a lot more insights i