Marketing executives, the first 90 days can make or break you
So, you are now the executive in charge of marketing for the company. Take heart, the average tenure for a CMO is 45 months – good news, right? But, while tenure has been lengthening over the past four years, many marketing executives say the pressure has greatly intensified. Companies now have different expectations of what marketing can do. There are new channels to consider, and everything has to be more measurable, more targeted and more effective. Marketing executives have to prove their work has a real impact on driving the business. Unless they can prove marketing is delivering and clearly showing ROI, budgets are inevitably going to be cut, and possibly positions, too.
Let’s face facts: the clock starts ticking on the first day. There are way too many priorities and not enough time. So, where to start? Do you have a game plan? How do current resources stack up to your goals and objectives? The first 90 days can set the tone and show that you have a handle on everything – or not. I’ve taken the liberty to list a few helpful topics to consider during your first 90 days.
First, your current marketing strategy should be carefully evaluated. Does it fit with the goals and objectives you have been charged with and are the current activities in line with the strategy? The strategy will dictate the development of marketing key performance indicators. KPIs will guide the elements of the overall strategy and ensure measurable results. When evaluating or determining marketing KPIs, be sure to keep them SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely. This will ensure that your KPIs have the rigor and accountability that management require.
Marketing trends should also be considered to help guide your efforts. Success of other marketers should be observed. What areas are you not addressing that seem to be working for others, and how can you incorporate that into your efforts? With so much talk of omni-channel solutions, what has proven to be most effective for the industry could potentially assist you. There may be other channels that you are not currently leveraging that could be incorporated for greater effect. Keeping track of marketing trends will also be a big help as you analyze your program results.
Another area for new marketing leaders to evaluate is their agency roster and current resources. Is your agency providing innovative ideas, detailed analytics and suggestions for improving your current efforts? Perhaps it’s time to do an evaluation of your agency. An Agency Scorecard can be very helpful with evaluating your agency. Making sure you are getting the best work from your marketing agency is key to the success of your communications and overall strategy.
Finally, often marketing executives find that there are many areas that are not being utilized to their potential. Cohesion between channels should be seamless. Each channel must support the other, as no one channel can stand alone in today’s marketing environment. By optimizing your efforts through multiple channels, greater ROI can be achieved, not to mention improved results in your key performance indicators. Careful attention should be paid to techniques that can optimize current marketing communications. Analytics and metrics can be used to determine where and when changes should be made to ensure marketing activities are yielding the greatest results.
So where should marketing executives start? I would suggest a close look at marketing trends. Monitor what has been working well and where things are headed in the industry. Then evaluate your current agency resources and see if you are getting what you need from them, or if you need to make some smart decisions moving forward. Explore content and determine if more needs to be done with content marketing to help your efforts. Content marketing can help marry inbound and outbound efforts for greater results. Look everywhere for opportunities to optimize. Most marketers don’t realize how many opportunities exist until they take the time to look at optimization techniques.