The role of Chief Marketing Officer is a coveted one in the marketing and business space and one that is rapidly changing as consumer expectations evolve.

Put the customer first and align the business smarts behind it 

The primary objective of a CMO is understanding how to bring together the customers, your business knowledge and your team to the table to hit the business’s objectives, and operating at the intersection of all three. Focusing on the customer and their needs over the business politics is what’s going to have the most value long term. This is why we’re seeing titles like ‘Chief Growth Officer’ gaining popularity. After all, the fundamental purpose of the role is to expand new business opportunities, which will always come back to the customer.

Collaboration and communication are key

The day-to-day life of a CMO will vary depending on the size of the organisation, but one of the most important aspects of the role is ensuring collaboration and communication within the company and within your team. As a leader, outstanding communication and interpersonal skills will be crucial to developing and executing new initiatives and delivering consistent marketing messaging. An important part of the role is facilitating conversations between different functions of the business to find answers to problems and identify new ways to generate revenue for the organisation as a whole. 

Data is like money – it doesn’t mean anything until you use it

At the core, a CMO must understand Analytics, Data and Insights. From there, you can broaden your knowledge about Always On, Strategic Models, Deep Digital, Spending Your Own Money, Learning to Learn, Incremental Growth – and finally Culture, Finance and Governance.

Clients and even marketers themselves can often get confused by the volume of data out there. The job of the CMO and marketing agencies as a whole is to help people navigate through the data and pick out what’s most valuable for their business. 

Disrupt yourselves before somebody else does 

One of the most common questions a CMO can ask themselves is “are we going big enough?”. Generally, you’ll know if you’re on the right track if you’re evolving along with your competitors and continuing to innovate around them. This doesn’t mean copying what they’re doing, but rather building in systems to ensure you’re consistently innovating and keeping on top of industry trends to stay ahead of the curve. 

Beware of the ‘Drug of Discounting’ 

A common pitfall of the CMO is getting caught up in a cycle of continuously discounting your products or services to the point where you rely on it to get results. This generally happens in four stages:

1. Experimental Stage – Let’s try out some discounting, and see how it goes.
2. Social Stage – Everyone else is doing it (e.g. Black Friday, Click Frenzy), so we should too. 
3. Instrumental Stage – We’re starting to use discounting often to hit our revenue targets.
4. Compulsive Stage – We’re completely reliant on discounting as a means to an end.

The danger of frequently and heavily discounting your products is that it will eventually end up detracting from your brand, which can be particularly detrimental for high-end or luxury names. To avoid this, make sure you bring it back to the customer and what they expect to see from your brand. As long as you’re meeting their needs and getting positive feedback from what you’re doing, there’s no need to resort to discounting at every opportunity that arises.

Key Tips:

After a great evening of networking and panel discussion, the speakers shared these final key tips for those looking to pursue the CMO role:

• ‘The Rule of 7’ – You need to say the same message seven whole times before someone hears you.
• Show your opinion through data.
• Find your favourite models and master them.
• Be brave and take risks. Success comes from patiently seeking solutions despite the chaos around you.
• If you’re going for a CMO role, don’t just show how you’d do the job, show where you would take the job.

With Salam Digital

Form confident and innovative strategies with data–driven decisions. Harness the power of data analytics to understand your customers, competitors, and brand.

Contact our Team Now

They are no longer a matter of option or prestige, but a matter of necessity.

Social Media is your gateway to stronger bonds with your clients, improved customer support communication, perfect ads, and soaring customer engagement whenever you do your stellar social work.

However, many novel and veteran brands cannot build a social media strategy even if their success depended on it.

Too busy handling other core work, business owners can benefit from outsourcing these particular chores to other business entities, individuals or teams alike.

Does your company fall into the category of companies that will benefit from each of these 5 reasons to outsource social media management?

Building a reputation

Still wondering if outsourcing pays off both financially and saving time?

Brands depend on a reliable reputation to grow and succeed.

When you don’t devote enough attention to your social networks, you neglect one of your brand’s most relevant reputation management resources.

Be sure to have a manager devoting the time and skill required refining your brand voice on social media.

Often managing potential social crises, encouraging feedback and reviews, and of course, inspiring those shares and likes with engaging posts.

While it’s true many businesses use an in-house team managing their social profiles, outsourcing is often a better option.

This is especially true for up-and-coming brands that have yet to prove their value to the world.

Ensure you evaluate your needs carefully; make the best choice that will ultimately build your successful brand!

Better customer communication

Randomly showing up on your social media channels creates a challenge.

You will not be present often enough to respond to customer queries in comments as well as direct messages.

Inconsistency will be enough to deter them from coming back to your brand.

You already know that we live in a deeply connected world, giving us access to the world at our fingertips.

To grow sales and ensure customer satisfaction, you be responsive to your clients and prospects.

That means that with a professional social media manager, outsourced or in-house, you’ll provide your customers with a reliable resource to connect your brand, simplify decision making, and convert more shoppers to buyers.

To be successful, you need to be available consistently with a backup plan.

Ensured consistency

Do you find yourself posting Facebook statuses haphazardly throughout the week without ever checking to what extent they have an impact on your follower base?

It’s not uncommon for brands to postpone developing a social media schedule until late in the game

Getting started late comes at a cost for your brand visibility, not to mention the missed quality of relationships that could have been  established earlier.

It’s been said so many times, yet it pays to repeat it as a mantra for the sake of success:

“Consistency is the lifeblood of branding.”

The same philosophy applies to your social media approach.

Your business needs a recognizable voice and a pattern your customers find useful.

Create expectations and be prepared to satisfy them as soon as you enter the social media realm.

You cannot realistically accomplish that on your own; you need outside help to manage your accounts.

Expertise front and center

The digital revolution has brought about a slew of positive changes to the way we hire and collaborate.

As a brand, you now have the freedom to work with freelancers as well as entire agencies that specialize in a certain area, without ever hiring them for a permanent position.

This approach pairs the best of both worlds: the recurring stability of an in-house team with the freedom to change providers and seek out the finest in the industry no matter where they reside in the world.

That is precisely why freelance digital marketing services have exploded in popularity around the world, with more brands seeking out help from individual experts scattered across the globe.

You now have access to top talent not merely within a ten-mile radius, but wherever your heart desires.

The only factor you can now focus on is to find the best match for your social media needs, and you’re good to go.

Cutting costs and time-wasters

Working with a social media expert creates a benefit for your team and overall brand growth.

1. You’ll reduce costs to hire someone full time to run your social accounts.
2. You will benefit from spending more time on essential brand-related matters, such as perfecting your message and working with investors.
3. The benefit of engaging someone truly experienced manage that aspect of your business.

Make good use of these 5 Reasons to Outsource Social Media Management when you make your decision.

With Salam Digital

Form confident and innovative strategies with data–driven decisions. Harness the power of data analytics to understand your customers, competitors, and brand.

Contact our Team Now