If you are in a growth phase at your company, it is important to bring on a Fractional Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). What exactly is the role of a CMO? How does one help a growing company? And what are the benefits of bringing on such an executive at this stage?
The answer: A CMO helps align all marketing efforts toward one objective: increasing sales. They also help with brand development, advertising, and messaging for external and internal audiences. The goal is to create an overall strategy that works for all parts of the business so that everyone, from product managers to salespeople, understands how they can contribute their specific skill set toward making money. What makes having someone like this person so valuable at this phase, as opposed to any other time during your company’s lifespan, is that you are scaling up quickly. Hence, there needs to be someone who understands where everything fits into place within each departmental structure. A CMO will bring a fresh perspective and focus to your company. They will help guide you through the best strategies for growth, as well as measure their impact objectively.
A Fractional CMO and Fresh Perspectives
Your company may have been doing well, but that could change instantly. If you are not bringing in fresh ideas and perspectives, your business will be stuck in the same place it is right now. A CMO will help you grow your business by providing new ideas, connecting with potential customers, increasing sales, and getting more people to work for your company.
Developing A Marketing Strategy
A marketing strategy is a comprehensive plan that describes the overall direction of your marketing program. It includes your goals and objectives, budget, resources, and tactical plans for each product or service. A well-defined marketing strategy will allow you to evaluate the effectiveness of your efforts and make changes as needed. This ensures that you are always heading in the right direction toward achieving your company’s vision.The marketing mix comprises a collection of promotional tools you use to get customers’ attention and persuade them to buy from you instead of your competitors. These include:
Branding – Your unique identity as it is expressed through products or services offered; how customers perceive what they are buying from you (or not buying).Advertising – Information about a product/service conveyed through any media channel—including TV commercials, billboards, magazines ads, etc.—to inform potential customers about what is available on the market so they can make informed purchase decisions about whether or not something fits their needs/wants before making purchases themselves.
Implementation, Execution, And Analytics
This is where you need to decide what is most important and focus your resources on the top 10 things that will drive growth. What are those? They could be product development, branding, marketing channels, or sales strategy. The key is focusing on what works and why it does—and then doubling down on those efforts.How do you know which efforts are paying off? You can use analytics tools to track user behavior across different channels, such as web traffic or app downloads. This will give you an idea of how many people are coming through each channel so that you can effectively allocate resources based on ROI data rather than guesswork (or, worse yet—opinions).Implementing data analytics into your marketing means you can improve the way your business runs and better optimize its performance. Data analytics have the ability to help a business reduce costs by identifying more efficient ways of doing business and by storing large amounts of data for future reference. It is critical that a CMO understands data and can identify areas for improvement and opportunities for growth while being financially prudent.
Advantage For Growth
Inserting the Fractional CMO role at any point in the growth of a company can help give you an advantage.
The benefits of having a fractional CMO are numerous, but they do not come without their own challenges. If you are considering hiring a CMO for your company, here are some tips to help you along the way.Using an agency or freelancer can be advantageous in certain situations. Still, if you are looking for someone who will work with you on building marketing strategies and campaigns, it is best to find someone who will focus on your brand building. Too often, companies think an agency will take on the role of a CMO. That can be a bad assumption as most agencies use salespeople to bridge the gap with companies. The issue is that they only sell you what they have, not what you need. When searching for a CMO candidate, look at their previous experience and how it relates to where your business is currently and where it might go in the future. Also, does the CMO have experience in running a business? Do they understand the numbers and data needed to be a successful entrepreneur? Do they have the passion and drive for your industry? Too often, we see marketers talk about web promoter scores, brand and social metrics as success tools. This is merely fluff. A CMO can explain the data and answer financial questions on how this affects the bottom line. A CMO needs to show the impact of the work and defend the budgets. I hope this article has helped you understand the value of bringing a Fractional CMO into your company. As we have seen, their role is important not only for large companies but also for small businesses that are looking to grow quickly and effectively with their marketing strategies. If you want more information on hiring a Fractional CMO and discussing your marketing strategy, contact us by making an appointment at www.gzoo.co/strategy.
