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. 

If you are mass producing “thought leadership,” you are missing the point

The term “thought leadership” has become so commonly used – to apply to so many different things – that it has lost a lot of its meaning and authority. Some people believe that reposting an article on LI with a one-sentence comment counts as thought leadership. Or that articles or presentations written primarily by AI and published in mass quantities to drive leads and SEO should be called thought leadership.

I disagree.

Too often today, thought leadership is conflated with “content marketing” and even PR. While all of these content categories have their value, you and your firm can only benefit from the unique nature of thought leadership (also known as “TL”) by understanding and executing it correctly.

The purpose of thought leadership is to show the substance of a company – and an individual. It provokes thought as well as providing it, disrupting patterns of thinking and demonstrating a real immersion in the subject at hand. More than anything, it gives clients and prospects a window onto what it will be like to work with this organization or expert.

A thought leader has something to say that has little to do with selling – and while their work may have the indirect goal of promoting a company or product, their words and ideas have intrinsic value that rises above the commercial.

A word-by-word approach

“Thought leadership” should be grounded in the two words of that phrase, which is repeated so often that we may not even think about its promises or implications.

Thought requires more than copy-and-pasting from different sources, or simply echoing the ideas delivered by a Google search. Through hands-on work, conversations at conferences and with colleagues, continuous research, and reflection, the thought leader comes to a point of view about a highly relevant subject – integrated marketing, cybersecurity, the future of energy, or something else.

They share those insights in a variety of ways: conference presentations, articles in journals, white papers, LinkedIn live sessions – and, yes, blog posts. Their ideas are offered without strings attached, showing clients and prospects the intelligence that they get when they work with the thought leader’s company.

Leadership should be viewed as a challenge, and a complex one. To be really valuable to their firm, and elevate their personal brand, the thought leader needs to do more than repeat the ideas everyone else is already saying. That is following, not leading.

I know nothing about solar wind farms – but if you were to say that these farms hold great promise as future sources of energy, I would say that you have not broken any new ground. You are not a thought leader. On the other hand, if you have a novel idea about how wind farms should be arranged, or how their energy should be used in combination with electricity from other sources, then I think you might be onto something.

Inherent innovation

To anyone immersed in a particular field, true thought leadership should have intrinsic interest, because it breaks new ground – even in small measures – and points the way to innovation. If something presented as thought leadership has the reader starting to nod off after just one or two sentences, then nothing new is being said, and no leadership is being provided.

According to my definition, thought leadership is not a simple thing. For companies that want to promote their potential thought leaders, it requires a commitment to doing more than selling. If your manager has no patience for anything that does not deliver revenue directly, it is unlikely that thought leadership will be supported. This does not mean that the thought leader needs to be nestled in an ivory tower, thinking big thoughts all day long; most will have worldly responsibilities – like sales quotas and other goals – and will probably need to keep thought leadership as a “side hustle.”     

My point of view also requires tha we treat the phrase thought leadership with greater care and respect. When an intern writes a blog post about company participation in a local charity race, we can applaud – but we should not call them thought leaders.

A little help from … 

Of course, thought leaders can still get help along the way. Gen AI can be an excellent source of core research and help expand or polish texts. And firms like The Marketing Solver can help create and guide thought leadership programs to make them more impactful and less of a burden. 

But the core of thought leadership needs to be innovative ideas generated by people who have given deep thought to what they do – experts who can bring that knowledge and disruptive spirit to client projects, industry presentations, and more. If you do not have a thought leader behind your “thought leadership,” then that knowledge cannot be activated in practical terms – and has little real value to the company.

In a deeper sense, this approach is about how we view our work. Maybe a series of SEO-focused blog posts will deliver prospects to your door – but will you have the goods to deliver on that “next step” in the conversation?  If a prospect in a meeting asks a followup question about the blog post you just published, will there be someone who can pick up the thread and really bring those ideas to bear on the project at hand?

Quality over everything

The truth is that, as competition has grown and digital platforms have multiplied, the need to be talking everywhere on a 24/7 basis has become almost inescapable for companies large and small. As a result, brands and individuals have dialed back quality in the pursuit of quantity – just to be sure that their social posts or press releases or blog posts are the last thing the client sees before he or she goes to sleep at night. 

This is largely a top-of-funnel focus – get their attention, rise in the SEO rankings, and be noticed. But what happens when the client or prospect scratches the surface? Will there be any substance to share, or innovative ideas to set you apart?     

By thinking clearly about what thought leadership is and should be, and asking more of ourselves than simply parroting received ideas in the hope of catching someone’s attention, companies have the potential to really stand out – to provoke thought, conversation, and fresh ideas. 

And that, I would say, is the essence of smart marketing. 

David Stanton is CEO of The Marketing Solver and a 20-year veteran of marketing and communications. Connect with him at dstanton207med@gmail.com.

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?