How CMOs Can Face This Year’s Biggest Challenges Head On

The past few years have been chaotic and challenging for many brands, to say the least.?As digital innovation took center stage, brands unable to drastically change how they did business were left in the dust.?But even as brands learned to embrace digital transformation, marketing leaders in 2023 are facing a host of additional challenges—everything from economic uncertainty and customer privacy to changing customer behaviors and hybrid working demands.?

On top of these obstacles, CMO turnover has become a major concern.?CMOs currently have the highest turnover in the C-suite, with a median tenure of just 28 months which is roughly half of the typical CEO tenure. ?If you think your CMO is exempt, think again.?Remember that rockstars and unicorns are among the most hunted in the business world.

Unfortunately, all of this is occurring at a time when brands are being asked to do more with less.?So, how can marketing leaders tackle the challenges that lie ahead while still delivering a stellar customer experience??

Meet your customers where they are.?

Instead of trying to reach customers everywhere, marketers today are changing their focus and meeting their customers in their preferred channels. ?I believe that becoming more customer-centric is one of the most important things a brand can focus on in 2023. ?

Brands must collaborate with product development, operations, and sales to ensure that they have a truly customer-focused approach. ?The most effective CMOs are able to articulate to all stakeholders their approach to both customer- and performance-driven marketing.

CMOs today must ask thought-provoking questions and work with their marketing colleagues and across departments to determine how to provide the most value to customers.?This includes developing consistent and engaging messages, which can be especially challenging in a sea of new social media tools and technologies, but essential to success.

Lean into growth marketing.

In 2023 marketers realize that are responsible for taking ownership of the overall growth agenda.?This includes uncovering new growth marketing methods, new audiences (and how to reach them) and opportunities for brand growth.?

I’ve written previously about growth marketing and its contributions to sustainable progress. ?Marketing leaders that embrace growth marketing and leverage it as a primary capability will be much better positioned to reach short-term goals and enjoy long-term success.?As growth marketing continues to transform, I predict it will become one of the key ingredients defining business success in 2023 and beyond.?

According to the Salesforce State of Marketing report, 91% of CMOs say they must continually innovate to remain competitive. ?This reinforces the importance of staying open to new opportunities for both growth and measurement.?CMOs can get ahead by staying on top of new technologies and optimizing their MarTech stack with tools to provide real world attribution and more precise and meaningful measurement.

Embrace AI.

According to Gartner, by the end of 2024, 75% of enterprises will operationalize AI, driving a 5x increase in streaming data and analytics infrastructures. ?As I shared on LinkedIn earlier this year, it is likely that AI will be able to handle both the art and science of data. But how?

I believe AI can help bridge gaps and fill in likely options beyond the initial data set if the data model is trained correctly. ?With the help of machine learning algorithms, AI systems can automatically analyze data and uncover hidden trends, patterns, and insights that can be used by businesses to make better-informed decisions.?When CMOs embrace AI, working alongside it to ensure proper oversight, they can really unlock greater business value.?

Welcome the shift to hybrid work.

Amidst great economic uncertainty and the quest for a healthy work-life balance, today’s workforce is feeling the burn.?Way before the pandemic, I had a lot of experience leading distributed teams.?This has shown me time and time again that decisions around work flexibility must come from the leadership level to retain and draw in talent and truly become part of the overall culture.?To keep teams engaged and purposeful, leaders must be bold and tailor their leadership style according to different needs, locations and office configurations.?

When leaders are able to embrace hybrid and the future of work as an opportunity, involving their teams in the solution, an amazing thing happens— employees are happier; work is done and done well; and everyone can relax knowing that their voice is heard, and their needs are acknowledged. ?It’s good for culture and good culture is good business.

Develop a framework for crisis.

In times of turmoil, brands must invest in marketing and make strategic investments to put out fires without losing sight of the bigger picture. ?It is especially important for marketing leaders to place broader issues into context, particularly for those, such as the full C-Suite or board members, who don’t understand the ins and outs of the role marketing plays during these times.?In my opinion, crisis management both at a point in time and for crises that are prolonged is one of the most overlooked, yet integral leadership skills.

The unique challenge for CMOs in 2023 is to identify strategic priorities and invest for the future, all while managing crisis communications and day-to-day changes to the business context. ?To avoid figuring out how to be in a crisis while a crisis is taking place, CMOs today must have an effective crisis response framework ready to roll.

Now, what?

To meet existing and emerging challenges head on, CMOs must consider both short-term and long-term strategies.?Whether that means leveraging technology like AI, being more targeted in customer marketing efforts, or using hybrid working styles to boost engagement, marketers have a number of tools at their disposal.?The trick is knowing which lever to pull (and when to pull it) to get the best results.