by George Huff
We’ve all read the statistics on CMOs’ tenure in their jobs. On average, a CMO lasts just 18 to 24 months in a new role. There’s a large amount of pressure to create impact in a fairly small window of time. Considering the timeline, hitting the ground running isn’t just advised – it’s essential. This article highlights what a CMO’s first 90 days should entail to set a foundation for a successful tenure.
I collaborated on this article with my friend and marketing leadership consultant Doug Busk, who has spent his career advising a large network of CMOs, SVPs, and other senior level leaders on marketing transformation. Since many of the world’s largest and most iconic brands trust the Opal platform, I have the privilege of speaking with C-suite marketers at these organizations. In addition, I also interface with other CEOs about what they wish their marketing leaders did, especially as it relates to ensuring a successful start.
Explore our CMO strategies that lead to a successful first 90 days – all inspired from my and Doug’s real C-suite conversations and observations…
Top CMO Priorities when Starting a New Role
On the first day of your new job as a CMO, the clock is already ticking. Your new org expects performance and transformation. Typically, that transformation is required because the organization needs better performance from their marketing function, better visibility into it, or both. You’ll see these themes throughout our top priorities for a CMO’s first 90 days.
As Doug says, “There is no on-the-job training for these kinds of high-level roles – you’re expected to hit the ground running.”
Trying to do everything leads to being spread too thin and accomplishing too little. That’s why setting your top priorities correctly as a CMO is absolutely essential.
These are the 6 core strategies for a CMO’s first 90 days that Doug and I have seen bear fruit.
1. Look at Brand Voice and Current Story
This step should actually take place before the CMO’s first 90 days! However, we believe that fresh eyes can bring incredible insight early on. While no CMO is likely to overhaul a tried-and-true brand story in their first quarter, you need to have a POV.
The reason to do this before you officially hit the ground is simple: you only have one chance at a bias-free first impression. If you wait too long to canvas the brand, you introduce bias towards people, historical processes, company politics and more.
Even established legacy brands have room to evolve, even in small ways. That’s why all brands should undergo an exercise in evaluating storytelling by answering these 3 key questions:.
- Who do we want to reach?
- How do we reach them?
- What are we telling them when we reach them?
As Doug also points out, “Things change faster than ever now. Brands are no exception. Voice and method of communication can – and should – be reconsidered if it makes sense.”
2. Take Control of Marketing
A main priority of a new CMO needs to be getting their hands on what’s actually happening in the marketing function. No question that marketing organizations are complicated with siloed teams in charge of separated functions. That’s why this action item needs to be undertaken right away. Typically, this is done manually, by asking questions, sifting through dashboards, and looking through campaign documents and content calendars.
In most organizations, you’ll want to immediately understand and ensure these elements are under control:
- Where is the majority of the money being spent?
- What initiatives are always being worked on?
- What are the upcoming tentpole campaigns?
- What channels are being utilized?
- What stories and themes are being told in the market?
- What do different users experience from the brand?
- What content and promotions are coming out in the next few weeks?
3. Set the Foundations of Goals & Accomplishments
Achieving success in your new CMO role requires understanding what success looks like. Ultimately, defining this success requires setting metrics. Setting objective metrics is essential, both to understand expectations and to prove value to your leadership team.
As Doug says, “If the metrics or qualifications that define success are unclear, marketing leaders have the tendency to devolve into tactical thinking. This puts them in a war with reactivity – where a marketing leader addresses the symptom rather than the disease.”
Work with your CEO or the Board to set 2 to 3 essential KPIs that can be the measuring stick of your tenure as CMO. You need to operate off of metrics that leadership understands and finds value in, right out of the gate. You’re better off using the metrics that matter to the leadership structure now – rather than trying to sell them on a new way of thinking.
However, you can suggest KPIs that you know are important to track as long as you establish why they drive business value.
4. Establish Communication with Leadership
Now that you’ve defined success together, you’ll want to communicate updates frequently. This is a top new CMO priority, both as a way to collaborate with leadership towards success, but also to ensure good standing.
One of the primary complaints I hear from my CEO network regarding their CMO is that they have no idea about what marketing is doing and what’s the outcome. Too often, these CMOs think that sharing the link to a data dashboard without context counts as visibility. Their CEOs don’t agree.
That’s why a crucial CMO strategy is to set up a cadence of sharing crucial information with leadership. Whether it’s a regular review meeting or a wrap-up document, it must include actionable data, the meaning of that data, and visibility into the marketing efforts that ladder up to those outcomes.
Doug says, “Data without context is close to useless. Instead, the real superpower is actionable insight.”
We’re laser-focused helping CMOs tell the qualitative and quantitative story to their peers in leadership and it’s a core product bet we’re making with Campaign Planner.
Learn more about Campaign Planner here.
5. Look at Your Tech Stack
MarTech is an increasingly important piece of the modern marketing department. Any incoming CMO will need to get acquainted with their tech – just like they would with team members. While as CMOs, you won’t be the one who utilizes the tools everyday, you still need visibility into the tech stack. Your outside perspective can help you identify gaps in the current stack.
One of the most essential questions to ask is what they use as a source of truth for marketing. This platform will be a space where you can track objectives, understand what’s happening, and ultimately communicate with your bosses. If they show you a project management tool as their source of truth, you have a problem. While PM tools do a good job at coordinating workflows, they are not built for your needs as a CMO.
Plus, since CMOs often come aboard during change cycles, it can make sense to begin change management on tools at the same time. When evaluating the current tech ecosystem with fresh eyes, if you identify a gap, make note of it now.
Explore why software implementation fails, and discover a playbook to fix it.
6. Look at Processes
More than anything, as a CMO, people will determine your success. That’s why another great CMO strategy for the first 90 days is to understand and improve processes. Once again, a fresh set of eyes can be your superpower to improve workflow, make people happier, and drive efficiency.
One of the main questions to ask is: “How does strategy connect to execution.” As you go through processes, you should constantly be thinking about how everything rolls up to your strategies so that you can tell one or two big brand stories at a time – in addition to all the tactical marketing you’re doing
Here are some other broad things to consider when looking at this:
Look at how teams do their work and contrast it with their ideal state of how they would like to do it.
- Understand where teams are spending the majority of their time
- Identify places where inefficient processes have been allowed to take root
- Look at the key reporting metrics teams and managers offer to show output
- Understand how current marketing metrics ladder up to company KPIs
As Doug puts it, “Every company deserves a process revolution. You need to have the courage to ask, ‘What are we doing and why?’”
The most important way to do this is to be a listening leader. Value the opinion of the team and you’ll learn something valuable.
Opal is Purpose-Built for CMOs
One of the myriad reasons that Opal has insight into CMOs’ first 90 days is because our software often plays a role. Our footprint in the market has grown due in large part to marketing leaders bringing our software from organization to organization.
Opal is indispensable for CMOs and other marketing leaders because of the unique value delivered to leaders and to the organization as a whole. Opal is the only platform that connects the strategic vision of leadership to tactical marketing execution. Since Opal delivers value for every layer and every role in the org, we call it the Salesforce of marketing!
To support CMOs and other senior leaders, Opal offers Campaign Planner. This space is purpose-built for marketing leaders to create a visual representation of their big-picture strategies. Campaign Planner also incorporates data KPIs from a variety of sources into the free-form planning space. And lastly, Campaign Planner connects the high-level marketing strategies to the workflow and the final products.
If you’d like to see Opal for yourself, request a product tour right here.
