CMOs offer glimpse at 'State of Marketing'
I was on a recent panel for the American Advertising Federation Nashville in which five local advertising agency leaders discussed their companies' challenges.
Not surprisingly, we talked a lot about how digital marketing is affecting us. We discussed media, analytics, the pace of message delivery and the task of finding talent to execute digital work.
When done, I wondered about being in the audience for a similar panel of chief marketing officers.
Until Jen Sanning, president of the Nashville chapter of the CMO Club, puts that panel together, I found some interesting studies on the work and life of the country's top marketers.
My first find was the "State of Marketing" report from the Chief Marketing Officer Council. Its survey of more than 500 global marketers showed this:
• Eighty percent believe they will attain budgeted top-line revenue goals this year.
• Fifty-five percent expected to add full-time marketing employees this year.
• Only 10 percent feel their jobs are at risk.
• Two-thirds see themselves as trusted strategic members of their organization's C-suite.
• Sixty-three percent rate their marketing agencies' contributions as either extremely valuable or good. However, two-thirds plan to make changes in their agency roster.
As you can see, they are a confident bunch.
"A big benefit to marketers is the growing level of collaboration and interaction with functional heads and line-of-business leaders," said Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council.
"This is giving marketing more weight in strategic decision-making and also ensuring organizational alignment around the customer experience," he said.
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A day in the life
Another survey — this one from management consultants AtTask, along with MarketingProfs — got a glimpse at a CMO's typical day. Some findings:
• Twenty-five percent work a minimum of 10 hours a day.
• Forty percent multi-task during meetings.
• Eighty-two percent typically have at least six applications or tools open on their desktop computers.
• Forget the leisurely lunch. More than half eat lunch at their desks.
"Marketers have a lot on their plates ... but we were still surprised at just how hectic their days really are," said Ann Handley, chief content officer at MarketingProfs.
Management consulting giant Korn Ferry adds to the research file. Here are tidbits from its survey of top marketing executives in the U.S.
• Eighty percent expect to increase spending on content marketing.
• Facebook, online advertising, Twitter, events and customer service are their most popular channels to engage customers.
• One-third says their biggest problem is creating sustainable and engaging customer relationships while improving the customer experience.
• More than 25 percent lose sleep worrying about how to connect marketing efforts to bottom-line results.
"Customer engagement is critical and must be a key focus, but CMOs need to remember that the overarching purpose of driving this engagement is to drive business results," said Caren Fleit, head of Korn Ferry's Global Marketing Center of Expertise.
"In order to be successful in today's business environment, CMOs and marketing executives need to be 'learning agile' and strike a balance, achieving both internal and external objectives," she said.
There is a lesson in these studies for all marketers and agencies.
They remind us that we must create platforms where our customers and prospects can share their thoughts on the challenges they face. It is marketers' job to help them achieve their objectives.
David Bohan founded Bohan Advertising in 1990. He has worked in marketing and advertising since earning a degree at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville in 1970.