Why marketing leadership matters more than ever

Too often, companies approach marketing as a collection of tools and tactics. They outsource content, dabble in social media, test a few ads, and maybe create the occasional a newsletter. But without leadership, all of these activities remain disconnected.

They were never aligned or fully planned, so they don’t ladder up to strategy. They don’t drive momentum. And most importantly, they don’t deliver on business goals.

That’s where marketing leadership comes in.

Whether you’re a growing startup or an established business navigating new challenges, marketing leadership is what keeps the machine moving in sync—ensuring your people, tools, activities, and goals are working together to create real impact.

1. Leadership keeps your people aligned and empowered

Today’s marketing teams are more distributed than ever. Freelancers, remote employees, fractional specialists, and agency partners often work side by side—but not always in lockstep. Without someone leading the charge, it’s easy for teams to drift apart, duplicate efforts, or get stuck.

A strong marketing leader makes sure everyone is on the same page. They communicate the plan. They remove roadblocks. They ensure that contributors understand not only what needs to be done, but why. This kind of alignment doesn’t happen by accident—it happens through leadership.

2. Leadership ensures you have the right tools—and use them well

The marketing toolkit has never been more powerful. AI can now help with writing, design, video editing, and more. Platforms abound for analytics, automation, CRM, and personalization. But having access to tools isn’t the same as using them effectively.

A marketing leader evaluates what’s in the stack, identifies what’s missing, and ensures that your team isn’t just acquiring tools—they’re mastering them. The right tools, thoughtfully selected and fully leveraged, can multiply your team’s impact. But someone has to lead that process with an eye toward integration, efficiency, and outcomes.

3. Leadership brings focus to the work that matters most

One of the toughest parts of modern marketing is deciding what not to do. The to-do list is infinite. But budgets, time, and attention are not. Without clear prioritization, even the best teams can become overwhelmed or scattered.

Marketing leadership brings clarity to the chaos. Leaders zoom out. They consider the whole business picture and help decide which initiatives deserve focus now, and which can wait. They also connect marketing activities to real business metrics—so that decisions aren’t just based on trends, but on what will actually move the needle.

4. Leadership keeps everyone anchored to business goals

At the end of the day, marketing isn’t just about output—it’s about impact. A great leader constantly checks: Are we building awareness where it counts? Are we generating the right kind of leads? Are we investing in loyalty and retention in ways that support long-term growth?

Marketing leadership keeps the team aligned with the company’s larger goals. It ensures that every campaign, every piece of content, and every customer interaction is tied back to what the business needs most. And as goals evolve, leadership helps the marketing strategy evolve with them.

What it all means

Marketing doesn’t need more tools. It doesn’t need more noise. What it needs is leadership—someone who can connect the dots between people, platforms, plans, and purpose.

That’s what a marketing leader brings. Not just more activity, but more intention. Not just movement, but momentum.

In a world where execution is everywhere, it’s leadership that creates real progress.

Marketing leadership is not a deliverable

When rushed CEOs and other C-suite leaders try to cut corners with marketing, the line between tactical execution and strategic guidance can sometimes get blurred. Hoping for a quick solution to marketing problems and needs, company execs may look to familiar marketing agencies to fill a leadership void. And there the trouble begins. 

Agencies are expert at producing videos, managing social media calendars, writing blogs—all crucial tasks. But, in the absence of a dedicated marketing leader or strategy, the C-suite may also ask an agency to “handle” the CMO function, as if it could be just another deliverable. 

Let’s be clear: The fact that a firm is coordinating all of your marketing tasks does not mean they can or should act as your marketing leader. They are both essential but hugely different roles.

Strategic marketing leadership—true CMO-level thinking—is about owning the intersection of customer insight, company strategy, and market opportunity. It’s about making hard decisions, aligning teams, and being accountable for outcomes. The CMO is the person who works with the CEO and others to craft a strategic vision for marketing, and then guides the marketing agency as it executes aspects of that vision.

Marketing leadership looks upstream, asking: 

• Who exactly are we targeting – and are we missing important audiences? 

• Why are we losing deals? 

• What market shifts are we not capitalizing on? 

• How do we compare to competitors – in products and messages?

• How do we reposition to win? 

To focus on these types of questions, the head of a marketing agency might well be taking their eyes off of the most important tasks on their plate: Making sure the LinkedIn posts are scheduled properly or the podcasts edited and launched on time. 

There are a few issues that can underlie the tendency to hand off marketing guidance to the wrong people.

• To those who have never worked with a true leader of CMO, marketing may just seem like a series of activities to be lined up and then checked off.   

• Marketing is sometimes viewed as a “cost center,” rather than a growth engine – so investing in a marketing lead may seem like an unnecessary investment.

• When internal stakeholders – often salespeople and even the CEO – have been acting as a de facto marketing department, they may have mixed feelings about fully letting go of their “side hustle.” The truth is they do not have time to do justice to all that marketing should be delivering, and being liberated from this added responsibility will make their lives infinitely easier. 

More is possible – and essential

If you’re a CEO or sales leader, it is truly in your interest to make sure marketing is led, not just done. You wouldn’t ask your finance software provider to act as your CFO. You wouldn’t let your outsourced recruiter define your org chart. Why treat marketing any differently?

Hire or appoint a leader who owns the strategy. Someone who can guide agencies, vendors, and internal teams with clarity and purpose. Someone who speaks the language of revenue and customer lifetime value, not just impressions and clicks.

Because when marketing is led well, everything else becomes more effective. When you engage someone who owns the strategy and the strategic vision, you move from simple deliverables to 

• greater accountability and efficiency

• consistent brand positioning

• sustained cross-functional communication

• faster and smarter decision making

Want to learn how a CMO can guide your planning and execution? Contact me today at this email.

David Stanton is CEO and founder of The Marketing Solver. He brings over 20 years of marketing and communications leadership to every fractional CMO engagement.

When CMOs fail to own their strategic leadership roles, everyone suffers

Think about it – can you imagine any CFO inspecting employee timesheets or questioning why that guy in Product spent $37 for lunch last week?

Could such a person still claim to be living up to the “C” in their title?

And yet, all too often, we hear about CMOs who – in addition to their big-picture responsibilities – find themselves critiquing slipsheet designs or correcting punctuation in white papers. 

Somehow the CMO, more than other C-suite personas, is expected to be dotting i’s and crossing t’s – getting into the nitty gritty of anything and everything. This is partly the fault of companies and how they (mis)perceive the roles of Marketing and the CMO. Marketing is a “service” department, according to this line of thinking, and therefore should be willing to serve (coffee, tea, croissants?) the Big Folks who actually “generate revenue” … 

Ouch!

First of all, if you do not see Marketing as a revenue-generating department, then it is time for an immediate All-C-Suite meeting to level the playing field and correct perspectives.

Second, while Marketing may be designated as a “service” on someone’s org chart, that word should never be misunderstood to mean “taking orders from everyone at all times.” In this area, marketers need to own the problem as much as their colleagues; whether due to bad examples, or because they at times feel challenged to justify their existences, Marketers often reinforce the “small picture” perception of their abilities and purviews.

The truth is that CMOs need to own their authority – and insist on having others respect it – because the alternative represents a huge loss for the company and the Marketing team.

What the CEO thinks matters – in a big way

I have been reading with keen interest – partly encouraged, partly horrified – the latest annual Boathouse “CEO Study on Marketing and the CMO.” This in-depth report, based on interviews with 150 CEOs from top companies in key sectors, paints a very mixed picture of the ways that CMOs and their departments are viewed and valued.

On the plus side, the proportion of CEOs who see their CMOs as “Best in Class” has more than doubled in four years, from 21% to 45%. The study also shows similar dramatic leaps in the proportions of CEOs who say their CMOs “share my values” and “support me in driving my longterm vision.”

But there are major areas of concern, as well. Only 19% of CEOs give their CMOs a grade of “A” in terms of their ability to drive company growth. And half of CEOs feel their CMOs are “playing it safe,” with a 13% drop in CMOs’ scores for “innovation” and “generating new ideas.” 

Perhaps most disturbing is this statement: “Alarmingly, CMOs are often not seen as core to the company's growth strategy, with half on the periphery in an executional or operational role.”

The Boathouse report is complex – sometimes a bit contradictory – but well worth your time. While it can be used to affirm or dispute a host of theories about CEOs, CMOs, and organizations generally, here are a few key points that I took away.

• Relationships matter, but metrics still win

The new study suggests that CMOs have devoted worthwhile time and effort building connections to their CEOs. But while the CEOs may feel heard and supported, their gaze still inevitably falls to the bottom line – and what Marketing’s contributions may be. For the sake of the Marketing team, be sure you take a balanced approach that emphasizes relationship building and black-and-white results.       

• Stay away from your comfort zones

CMOs need to understand their strengths, their potential, and their opportunities. CMOs coming from creative backgrounds may still feel – perhaps even unconsciously – that producing beautiful, elegantly written signage and collateral is their sweet spot. Face it: Doing those things well makes you a Creative Director, not a CMO; and if you do not step up to the plate and dig into your strategic vision and priorities, the company and your Marketing team will pay a price.

• Stop trying to please everyone

The “justify your existence” mindset is a huge problem for CMOs and Marketing teams. It manufactures distractions and exponentially creates demands for things that the Marketing team should be handing off to someone else. Make sure that your role as the CMO is understood and honored from the get-go, because trying to fix the situation from two or three or ten years in will be difficult – maybe impossible.

From my view, even the troubling findings of the Boathouse report point to opportunities. The actions required are clear, so all that is needed is commitment to change and improve. And the number 1 improvement to make is for CMOs to insist – in their own minds and those of their colleagues – that their strategic role be seen as mission critical, and to act on that knowledge even when it may require some gentle educating and mindset adjustment.

David Stanton is CEO and Founder of The Marketing Solver™, innovation driven marketing agency bridging the gap between marketing strategy and activation. Please send your comments and ideas to this email. 

The thinker & the doer

In today’s world, staying “lean and mean” is the order of the day for B2B marketing teams. Even companies that are thriving are, at best, holding marketing budgets steady — or, more likely, making cuts by leveraging AI, automation, and other digital resources.

According to a 2024 Gartner survey of CMOs, marketing budgets now account for 7.7% of total revenue at the average firm, compared to 9% in 2023 — and 11% in the years before the pandemic. 

Stepping in to fill many shoes in this era of consolidation are “fractional” leaders — CMOs, creative chiefs, and other “freelance” department heads who bring needed expertise and guidance, but often work 20 or even fewer hours a week. They usually do not earn benefits but help deliver (or should) some of the focus and consistency that on-staff leaders would. 

But to be a marketing leader — fractional or on-staff — in today’s environment, it is not enough to say “I just do strategy.” It’s true that CMOs need to focus on the big picture — continually aligning marketing strategy to brand and product goals and synching up all of the department’s many activities. 

But because teams are thin and budgets tight, marketing heads also need to be able to switch gears, roll up their sleeves, and get stuff done. It is popular these days to say “multitasking is impossible” — but today’s marketing leaders need to find a way to make multitasking a way of life; otherwise, they will be letting precious opportunities fall thru the cracks.

What could and should a marketing leader do? Here are some thoughts:

• Talk to CMOs at your top three clients to find out their marketing plans for the rest of the year — and how your companies can partner.

• Help your COO or CTO prepare for a LinkedIn live interview on the ways that AI is helping your company raise its game.

• Develop a survey for clients on how they would like to see your company improve customer service in 2025.

• Host a podcast series on ways that your company is helping employees develop their personal brands. 

• Hold lunch meetings with the sales team to develop new techniques for making your conference booth truly irresistible and impactful.

Does it sound like a lot? In a world of shrinking marketing budgets and teams, “a lot” is the new “just about enough.” The marketing leader cannot afford to be a behind-the-scenes player exclusively, presenting to leadership and tweaking the same planning deck from quarter to quarter. If you are not visible and seeing the sun (physical or metaphorical) shine on your head every day, you are missing too many opportunities and letting your company down.

The truth is that the marketing leader has unique power in the organization to straddle departments and reach out to other C-suite leaders for … whatever might seem like a good idea! Making things happen and driving innovation is always the marketer’s purview — and if it isn’t, something is broken and needs to be fixed.

Is this a call to become a Superman? Maybe — and maybe that is what is needed. It’s not about keeping your job; it’s about making sure your company has what it needs to thrive in a truly tough marketplace.

If that is not the CMO’s mission, what is?