?? Let's talk about the CMO's top ally.

Welcome to the Data-Driven CMO, a weekly newsletter for marketing leaders who use data to build winning brands.

Hello there!

In this week's edition, I'm remembering an old article from Harvard Business Review.

The title:

"If Brands Are Built Over Years, Why Are They Managed Over Quarters?"

This article is nearly 20 years old now, but continues to be cited often.

Brands are not managed over quarters.

Businesses are.

There's a big difference between the two.

Financial results are reported quarterly.

The right to build a brand is not a given.

It has to be continually earned with business results.

Most CMOs have to do both at once.

More on this topic below.

?? Nataly Kelly

Chief Marketing Officer

Zappi

One of my favorite things about leading with data is that it has a nearly magical quality:

It forces alignment and clarity to guide strategic decisions in business.

This is also true when it comes to driving financial impact.

Where do you place your business bets with your marketing resources?

Marketing leaders typically have one of the largest budgets at a company.

It's no wonder we tend to be BFFs with Finance.

In fact, many of us treat our budgets as investments within a portfolio, designed to drive a specific return, in the form of growth and revenue uplift.

To do this requires both art and science, data and creativity.

But the fastest-growing companies have a secret.

Their C-suite leaders agree on which marketing metrics matter.

The highest-growing companies routinely indicated that C-suite leaders agree upon marketing metrics (79%) relatively more, compared to lower-growth companies (55%).

Building a brand takes years, but businesses are managed over quarters.

When the executive team manages the business well, and you help the company hit the numbers, you'll hopefully be rewarded with the ability to steward a brand for a significantly longer period of time.

? Resource: Check out “Marketing and Finance: a Partnership for Growth” for more on this topic. It was written Sarah Echols Allred and Tim Murphy at Deloitte Insights .

How can you use this important datapoint to drive action?

Here's how you can improve CFO<>CMO alignment at your company.

Actions to Take

• Learn their language. Frame marketing activities in terms of investments tied to specific financial outcomes—growth, profitability, and efficiency. Ask questions to determine which financial metrics are most important at any given point in time.
• Align on which metrics matter most. Agree on the key performance indicators (KPIs) that drive business growth. Ensure marketing metrics tie back to revenue, margins, and ROI, not just awareness and engagement.
• Forecast like finance. Build a data-backed marketing model that helps to predict revenue impact. Show scenario planning for different budget levels (e.g., “If we invest $X, we expect $Y in return”).
• Improve budget visibility and transparency. Break down spending categories clearly so Finance can track ROI. Regularly update Finance on budget shifts and performance to avoid surprises.
• Communicate more during times of change. Companies go through peaks and valleys, and you need to know if you're a "wartime" or "peacetime" CMO to determine how you should budget. Be proactive in justifying investments with clear business cases.
• Build recurring Finance-Marketing check-ins. Set up regular syncs with Finance to review marketing budget and impact, if you don't already do so. Make sure marketing and finance roadmaps stay connected throughout the year.

Remember, Marketing wins when Finance sees it as a growth engine, not a cost center. Typically, if you're doing a good job on keeping your alignment in order with Finance, the CEO will give you more grace as well.

Align on the numbers, partner with your Finance leader and other functional leaders to deliver repeated quarterly wins, and you’ll earn the credibility (and budget) to keep building a brand for the long haul.

?? Who else loves connecting with fellow marketing leaders? I sure do.

• Email me: [email protected]
• Engage with me: LinkedIn | Instagram
• Enjoy my books: Brand Global, Adapt Local | Take Your Company Global
• Meet me in person: Going to the Adweek Big Game in New Orleans? Let's meet up!

See you next week, marketing friends!