Marketing Edge | May 2024
Paul Mills
Fractional CMO Providing Marketing Leadership to SMEs | Founder of VCMO | Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing | SOSTAC? Certified Planner ???Host of Fractional Futures Podcast ??+44 (0)331 630 9395 ??vcmo.uk
Welcome to the latest issue of Marketing Edge, your monthly destination for staying at the forefront of marketing innovation. As business landscapes evolve at an unprecedented pace, this newsletter is your helpful guide, tailored for visionary business owners, esteemed leaders, and dynamic marketing professionals. Let me curate insightful thought leadership and handpicked content from diverse sources.
Leveraging Fractional CMOs: Strategic Partnerships for Investor Success in Portfolio Companies
In the competitive landscape of venture capital and private equity, the role of a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) is pivotal, yet not all portfolio companies can or should sustain a full-time executive in this role. In this article, I discuss how Fractional CMOs come into play, offering strategic marketing leadership without the full-time commitment, thereby aligning perfectly with the investment thesis.
"Fractional CMOs excel in translating broad business visions into actionable marketing strategies, ensuring portfolio companies not only grow but dominate in their markets."
Paul Mills, CEO & Founder, VCMO
How Fractional CMOs Can Reinvigorate Established Brands
Many established businesses come to a point where they find their marketing efforts becoming stagnant or ineffective, leading to a loss in market position and brand engagement. This scenario often prompts a reassessment of marketing leadership and strategy. In this article I explore how a Fractional CMO can be a crucial asset in reinvigorating a company’s marketing approach.
VCMO & PR Smith Unite to Equip SMEs with Essential Business Planning Skills
Earlier this month I announced VCMO’s collaboration with PR Smith Marketing Limited to share the SOSTAC? Certified Planning Course with SMEs lacking formalised business and marketing planning processes.
Developed by?PR Smith, and ranked as one of the Top 3 Business Models in the Chartered Institute of Marketing Centenary Poll, SOSTAC? offers a proven, systematic framework for business planning. With statistics showing that over half of SMEs lack a robust business plan, this initiative aims to democratise access to top-tier strategic planning tools, thereby improving commercial outcomes.
VCMO is now promoting the 20-hour online SOSTAC? Certified Planner course to our clients and Fractional CMOs wanting to join VCMO must hold the accreditation.
Business Model Canvas – Marketing GPT Chatbot
Following OpenAI’s launch of GPT-4o, anyone with a free Chat GPT subscription can now access millions of customised GPTs through the GPT Store. VCMO is building a library of customised Marketing GPT Chatbots that are a useful tool for early-stage scaleups or small businesses that operate without a full-time senior marketing leader. They can be used to guide you through the marketing planning process helping you avoid blind spots.
One of our chatbots can be used to assist businesses in utilising the Business Model Canvas (BMC). It covers understanding BMC's nine components, step-by-step usage, decision-making leverage, avoiding pitfalls, and integrating it with other frameworks in strategic business planning.
Sonic Jingles – What are they?
In TV or radio advertising a sonic jingle is a short and catchy musical tune or audio slogan to promote a brand, product or service. And whilst a jingle often comprises of a few musical notes, their construction and use can significantly aid memory recall and brand recognition. Discover all you need to know about jingles and how they are used in advertising.
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Marketing Book Club
In each issue of Marketing Edge I will share a book that has changed my approach to marketing in some shape or form. This month’s book is one that I would have written had it not been for the brilliant Sara Daw getting there first! Strategy & Leadership as a Service: How the Economy Meets the C-Suite perfectly articulates the vision of the future of work for senior executives. Whether you’re a seasoned marketing professional looking to transition to a portfolio workstyle, or an owner-manager considering the commercial benefits of fractional leadership, put this book on your bookshelf – or hard drive!
(I am not on any commission from the authors or publishers).
LinkedIn Expert Of The Week: Nadio Granata
In every issue of Marketing Edge I will introduce you to an expert I personally follow on LinkedIn. I follow some brilliant minds who regularly share thought-provoking and valuable content that has changed how I think about marketing and leadership.
If you’re not already doing so, I recommend that you follow Nadio Granata – who is a Chief Marketing Artificial Intelligence Officer, Founder of the AI Collective, and part-time university lecturer. He also wrote and delivers the Chartered Institute of Marketing’s (CIM) Specialist Award in AI Marketing. Put simply, Nadio knows a thing or two about AI and he recently completed a mission to build 100 customised GPTs in 100 days! If he doesn’t know something about AI, he knows something who does. And look out for his AI Collective Summit happening later this year.
If you want to stay sharp on all things AI in marketing innovation, make sure you’re following Nadio!
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Interesting Thought Leadership & Events
I spend a lot of time on social media and receive plenty of content to my inbox. Here I share some of the best thought leadership I've recently come across on topics from marketing strategy and business leadership excellence to market intelligence reports and useful stuff for owner-managers. I hope you find the content equally useful.
About the author
Paul Mills is the CEO and Founder of VCMO, an award-winning provider of fractional marketing executives for SMEs and investor-backed companies lacking senior marketing leadership. VCMO’s mission is to transform marketing potential into a competitive advantage through fractional leadership, audits, and learning solutions, driving sustainable growth for SMEs.
Paul is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (FCIM) and SOSTAC? Certified Planner. With a proven track record of delivering results both domestically and internationally, he is renowned for transforming marketing performance in SMEs and global organisations, with significant contributions across legal, professional, and financial services sectors.
Find out more at vcmo.uk. ? 2024 VCMO Limited. All rights reserved.
CEO at THE LIBERTI GROUP and THE CFO CENTRE GROUP | Researcher, Writer & Speaker | Future of Work Expert, Access Economy for the C-suite | Warwick Business School
6 个月Thank you Paul, for sharing my book! I am so pleased you like it and hope others will find value in its pages too!