In its recent State of Marketing 2012 Report (n=550 senior marketing executives), the CMO Council has declared 2013 “the year of the marketer.”
According to a CMO.com interview with Liz Miller, vice president of operations and programs for the CMO Council, marketing is now the first line of defense as confidence in the marketing function grows, which heralds a shift from the 2008 recession, wherein marketing departments were often the first to sustain job cuts. The CMO’s role today has evolved into a position of growing influence, according to the report:
As a function and a leadership position, CMOs are hitting their stride. For the most part, the belief that marketing’s function is to make logos and collateral shine and give the website a refresh every year or two is safely heading into history. Today’s marketer must be a savvy strategist, customer analyst and business leader—not just a branding powerhouse and advertising genius. Marketing must do it all. But this is also precisely where some of the greatest challenges emerge.
While the study reports that many marketers have earned a ‘seat at the board,’ with more credibility and visibility comes greater accountability: As confidence in the marketing function grows, marketing leadership will be increasingly responsible for driving top-line revenue growth and market share gains, and move beyond the functional marketing silo to assume an ownership stake in the customer experience. Here are four trends and their implications for all marketers.
1. Bolstering digital competence with analytics and closed-loop measurement. Only 18 percent of the study’s respondents rated their digital marketing performance as excellent or good. According to Miller, on average, 27% of marketing budgets are going to digital initiatives, versus 23% of funds directed to traditional marketing expenditures. With the proliferation of digital, CEOs expect visibility into the marketing spend and metrics, prompting closer scrutiny of marketing ROI.
2. Gold rush for digital talent. The race for digital talent will manifest in a shift away from outsourced agency work as marketing departments develop in-house digital teams with individuals possessing a hybrid of ‘hyper-creative’ and ‘hyper-nerdy’ talent who are well versed in marketing technology and analytics, says Miller.
3. Sights set on mobile marketing. 50 of marketers indicated that a digital marketing makeover is a key transformational mandate for 2013, and 65 of marketers are setting their sights on mobile marketing as the next frontier for growth.
4. Rise of the cross-functional ninja. As the scope of the CMO’s role expands, marketing leaders will be increasingly charged with overseeing customer intelligence and analytics across multiple functions, demanding even greater cross-functional collaboration and the ability to take on a leading or supporting role in championing the customer perspective, according to the business needs.
Conclusion
Confidence in the marketing function is growing, with only 1 in 10 CMOs reporting that their jobs are at risk and 69% of marketing leadership reporting an increase in salary or bonus in 2012. However, as digital marketing goes mainstream, measuring the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and activities has become a top priority for CEOs who understand both marketing’s value as a strategic business function and the need to consistently monitor, measure and adjust the marketing mix according to market and competitive pressures. Marketing technology systems such as marketing resource management systems can help marketing leaders to gain better command of marketing measurement and ROI, while marketing technology champions will spearhead the transformation to data-driven marketing.
Are your marketing measurement and analytics capabilities developed to accommodate data-driven marketing? Stay turned for our future blogs with recommendations for taking on your own Digital Marketing Makeover and Driving Digital Value.
