If you’re trying to run a business without adequate marketing leadership in place, there’s a very good chance that you’re the one juggling a lot of things—or, worse, you expect someone without the necessary experience to juggle for you.
For many CEOs and business owners, marketing sounds simple enough. You’re just educating the public about your company and your products, right? Maybe figuring out how to convert those who are interested in what you’re selling into paying customers. Why would you need a CMO to do those things?
The truth is that a CMO—and a Fractional CMO—juggles quite a few things every day. Educating potential buyers is just the start. In other words, if you don’t have solid marketing leadership in place, quite a few things are likely getting dropped.
Return on Investment
A content marketer or social media marketer—even a marketing generalist—won’t have a care in the world if your company receives a return on your marketing investment, aside from saving their jobs. They’re even less likely to know how to calculate it. Without marketing leadership in place, you can be certain that your marketing output will be put to work educating and informing your audience about your brand. They may even be able to tell you how many potential buyers you reached on Facebook or how many people read the latest blog.
What they won’t be able to do, however, is analyze your marketing spend to determine if the return on that investment meets their specific goals. The CMO knows when to make changes to your marketing strategy and when to increase efforts for an even bigger bottom line.
And the bottom line here is, if you don’t have a CMO—or a Fractional CMO—you’re missing out on key information about the investment you make in your marketing.
Competitors
Sure, you know who your competitors are. You know why you’re different. Does your marketing team? If you don’t have marketing leadership at the helm guiding your marketing team through the branding and messaging for your business, your competitors definitely have the edge.
The job of a Fractional CMO isn’t just to know your competitors and how your brand is different. Your marketing leadership will also know where to find openings in the market to get your brand in front of the right audience. They’ll know how to target the best customer personas, how to segment your buyers for marketing that provides a relevant experience, and where to categorize your products and services for the best possible exposure.
Here’s a real win with a Fractional CMO, too: They’ll know that your industry isn’t the only place potential competitors are found. If you’re selling airline services and failing your customers, other airlines aren’t your only concern; you need to watch the buses and trains, too. You can be sure your marketing generalists haven’t considered this.
Innovation and Automation
There is a good chance anyone on your marketing team—even a team of one—will be familiar with several of the latest marketing innovations. From artificial intelligence to automation, many tools are available to make the job easier and more effective.
However, just knowing about the latest doesn’t meant they’ll know which are the greatest. Many of the latest innovations are also expensive, and they may not pack the punch you’re hoping for. With the right marketing leadership in place, your company can make the most of the available technology without going overboard and spending more on the hype than you receive in revenue.
It’s a Fractional CMO’s job to know which tools are the most effective. Some automation tools take so much of the personalization out of the process that your buyers will feel like little more than a wallet rather than a person. And AI still has many strides to make before reaching the level of intelligence and storytelling that a person can achieve.
The Customer Journey
The customer journey seems simple enough: awareness to education to consideration to decision. The Fractional CMO understands that there are actually many more steps to the journey and that some buyers move more quickly through the process than others. They know how to match the marketing funnel to each stage and what messaging those buyers need to receive so they can make a decision.
By fully understanding the journey each buyer takes, providing the information those buyers need exactly when they need it, and then validating the decision after the purchase is made, marketers work to develop trust from your buyers. That trust means they’ll not only come back for future purchases, but they’ll also work on your behalf as an advocate for your brand by sharing their experiences with others.
If you think you can implement a marketing funnel and messaging strategy so that you can enjoy this kind of loyalty from your buyers, all without a marketing leader at the helm, you’re setting yourself up for failure.
At this point, we’re right back to the beginning—the return on investment. If you’re trying to juggle all of these things on your own or with only the help of a marketing generalist, then you’re not achieving the highest possible return on your investment. You simply can’t. There is too much to juggle and too much specialized knowledge and experience is necessary.
We’re here to help. As a Fractional CMO, I can provide that marketing leadership and help juggle these things for you. In addition to years of experience in marketing for companies of all types, sizes, and industries, I bring along a team of seasoned content, social media, SEO, design, and branding specialists. Let us juggle your marketing so you can get back to running your business.
