The pressing question on every CMO’s mind today is: How can I do better, get more, for less?
Brands are navigating economic uncertainty, industry disruption, and rapid technological advancements that are reshaping the marketing landscape. Some approach these challenges with a sense of opportunity, while others are driven by necessity.
Regardless of your starting point, here are five key areas of opportunity that can elevate your brand—whether it’s thriving or struggling.
Golden Marketing Opportunity #1: Create Accountability for Marketing Investments
- Mistake #1: Tying all marketing strategies to immediate revenue.
- Mistake #2: Failing to identify and measure the long-term business impact of marketing activities.
To optimize your CMO strategy, shift toward an outcome-based measurement framework. This allows you to demonstrate and optimize the real impact of marketing on your business. Top-performing brands like L’Oréal excel in this area, continuously advancing how they measure marketing effectiveness beyond just immediate revenue generation.
When developing your marketing investment strategy, keep these three considerations in mind:
- Comprehensive Data Collection: Ensure that all input data is standardized and accurate. Models are only as good as the data they process.
- Build In-House Models: Bringing these models in-house turns them into proprietary assets that provide valuable insights.
- Make Outputs Digestible: Ensure your findings are easy to interpret for your operational teams and external partners.
Leveraging AI and sophisticated Marketing Mix Models (MMMs) can help simplify complex data sets and allow for smarter, data-driven decisions. In the competitive landscape, the balance between precision and simplicity is where CMOs win.
Golden Marketing Opportunity #2: Break Down Silos and Foster Collaboration
“The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.” – Phil Jackson
The future of marketing is not linear—it’s interconnected. Over the past 15 years, we’ve built silos within organizations, but the future demands integration and collaboration across all marketing functions. Brands like Kenvue have shown how to break down these silos effectively, benefiting from the network effect that comes from integrated marketing practices.
To get started on enhancing your CMO strategy through collaboration:
- Clarify Roles: Define clear roles and objectives for every member within your team and among your external partners.
- Streamline Processes: Establish cross-functional workflows for critical marketing processes to reduce inefficiencies.
- Leverage Tech & AI: Automate wherever possible, and use technology to share knowledge and insights when automation is not feasible.
- By fostering a collaborative, cross-functional approach, you set your brand up for exponential growth and success.
Golden Marketing Opportunity #3: Increase Marketing Velocity (Time to Impact)
The world is moving faster than ever — creating a new kind of challenge for CMOs. News cycles, technological advancements, and changing consumer behaviors have made it imperative for brands to act quickly. Today, success hinges on the ability to reduce the time between idea and impact, especially when the marketing funnel is collapsing. Consumers can go from discovery to purchase in the blink of an eye!
So how can you speed up your marketing efforts?
- Unified Measurement Framework: Create a framework that integrates input, output, and outcome data across your organization.
- Break Down Data Silos: Allow data to flow freely across teams to enable faster decision-making.
- Adopt a Single Tech Solution: Implement one solution that accelerates the process—from input and insights to action. For example, enabling your team to quickly identify high-performing influencer content and boost it instantly.
A case in point is E.l.f. Cosmetics, whose marketing team has rapidly tested various social platforms, technologies, and creative strategies. The result? A 12x revenue growth and a brand that resonates deeply with consumers. Speed is essential to capitalizing on new opportunities.
Golden Marketing Opportunity #4: Reevaluate KPIs to Maximize ROI
A top reason marketing budgets are wasted? Leadership fails to establish clear KPIs for success.
In today’s landscape, CMOs must embrace a culture of accountability. Efficiency is crucial, and optimizing marketing spend is a necessity. The solution begins with reassessing your KPIs to ensure they align with your business goals. To refine your CMO strategy:
- Define Common KPIs: Establish a shared understanding of what success looks like across your team and stakeholders.
- Communicate the New KPIs: Make sure everyone—internally and with external partners—understands the new metrics.
- Optimize Budget Decisions: With clear KPIs, your team can make smarter, more data-driven decisions to get the most out of every marketing dollar.
As a CMO, this approach allows you to continuously optimize your spend and deliver stronger business results.
Golden Marketing Opportunity #5: Lead with Values, Ethics, and Compliance
Marketing is storytelling, and today’s consumers want to know what a brand stands for.
Simply having a good product or flashy campaigns isn’t enough. Brands are under increased pressure from consumers, employees, and regulators to demonstrate strong ethical values and commitment to compliance. This pressure presents an opportunity to build trust and loyalty with your audience.
To build a brand that stands for something:
- Surface Your Brand’s True Values: Ensure your brand’s values are clear and visible across all marketing materials.
- Align Actions with Values: Consumers want to see that you’re not just talking the talk—put your money where your mouth is.
- Be Transparent: Openly share how your brand makes decisions, especially in areas of ethics, sustainability, and corporate social responsibility.
Brands like Rare Beauty and Dove have successfully integrated values into their marketing strategies, and as a result, have built strong emotional connections with their audiences. In today’s climate, your brand’s values can be a significant differentiator.
As a CMO, your strategy must evolve to meet the challenges of an increasingly fast-paced, data-driven, and ethically aware marketplace. By embracing these five golden opportunities—creating accountability, fostering collaboration, speeding up marketing processes, optimizing KPIs, and leading with values—you can build a resilient brand capable of thriving in the face of uncertainty.
