Bob Van Rossum June 25, 2020 What a challenging year for marketing executive search in 2020. The economic downturn due to COVID-19 has made top CMOs’ responsibilities even more complicated.
Extensive research demonstrates marketing executives have three main focuses during rough times. How will you support the business to exceed revenue goals? What is the best allocation method for a new smaller marketing budget to get maximum ROI? How to keep their top performing team motivated in the new virtual working environment?
The importance of a CMO role is more crucial than ever. The success of the business depends on digital, brand, and customer experience to stay one step ahead of your competition.
So, what exactly should top marketing executives do to ensure quality results?
Here Are The Areas Keeping Marketing Executives Up At Night:
Revenue/Sales
The Coronavirus outbreak has forced companies to reevaluate their marketing strategy. Companies who decide to slow down risk the possibility of falling behind their competitors and losing customer loyalty. We are already seeing organizations that have stayed the course and continued to market, message, and promote their brand move ahead of their competitors who have decided to stop marketing during the pandemic.
From the beginning, MarketPro, the leading marketing executive search firm has believed companies should continue marketing and investing in the customer experience during this time of uncertainty. This is an opportunity to reach out to new customers and claim market share when your competitors are being fearful. Now is the best time to invest in your company. By continuing to tell the story of your brand to customers and potential new customers, your company has the ability to recover as fast as possible as we return to the new normal.
Marketing Budget
During this pandemic, businesses must properly communicate with their customers. People want to work with brands that are trustworthy and you cannot establish trust while being silent. Finding cost-effective ways to execute your marketing is always important especially with these circumstances.
Even with a reduced budget, smart re-allocating tactics can help your company maintain sales. Here are things to consider:
Digital Marketing
Over the past few months, many companies have seen a drop in sales numbers due to the Coronavirus. Without the ability to physically interact with their customers, marketing executives are embracing digital marketing now more than ever. As everyone moves online, it is both a blessing and a curse. The good news is you can reach your audience; the bad news is everyone else is shifting online as well.
Therefore, making sure you have the right data science, analytics, and online customer experience to drive your company’s ability to message accurately and increase customer engagement is crucial. It takes more than just switching your promotions online.
One of the biggest mistakes businesses fail to recognize is the growing and changing expectations and demands of the consumers. Companies need to research and develop a better marketing strategy that will resonate with their newly evolved audience. Fortunately, digital marketing makes it easier to engage with a wider range of audiences.
As the market gets back to the new normal, companies have a small window when it comes to connecting with their customers. This is a great time to consider a marketing contractor. Marketing contractors are subject-matter experts who are able to add value to the business in a short period of time. These contractors will be able to take your online data science, analytics, paid/earned media, social engagement, etc to the next level. Ultimately, marketing contractors add expertise to fill in gaps within your current team at a significant discount from utilizing an agency.
With a tight marketing budget, marketing executives can not afford to waste a single dime. The simple fact is investing in digital marketing is cost-effective. However, maximizing your ROI is more complicated than ever.
Promote A Purpose-Led Brand
As mentioned before, COVID-19 has changed the customer’s focus and perception. Do you understand what your customers are looking for now and how it has changed in the last six months? If not, how are you building the connection you need to ensure customer loyalty.
A purpose-driven brand should be the embodiment of your company’s vision going forward. You want customers to relate to your story. Not only are you building trust with customers but you are forming a community that will support your company for years to come.
The need for brands to be more purpose-driven is now more important than ever. The social impact a brand has in the community creates an authentic and credible name for the company. While reasonable pricing and great product standing will keep companies competitive, brands that can relate to their customers and have more meaningful conversations become a part of their customer’s life.
Customer Experience Leader (CX)
Customers are making their daily purchases online and minimizing direct contact. This requires communication departments to provide smooth and clear content across all platforms. However, the decline in the attention span of customers has made it harder for businesses to reach them. By adding a customer experience leader, they will be able to concentrate on who the customers are and how to obtain/maximize that person’s interest.
The biggest weakness of online marketing is ensuring customers follow through their buyer’s journey. A small obstacle within the buying process could alter the direction of the customer. Finding new ways to stand out and catch the attention of these buyers will help optimize the buyer’s journey. The ability to nurture prospects with digital and personal outreach makes a customer experience leader a great investment all on its own. However, partnering a top data science expert with your customer experience team will enable you to be more nimble, while making better decisions in less time.
Productivity Of The Marketing Team
Most firms have managed to shift their employees over to 100% remote work. While remote work is not new, leaders need new ways to manage performance and output.
The CMOs’ responsibilities during this moment in time are to ensure the marketing team is effective. As a marketing recruitment company, we know remote marketing is no longer a trend. Businesses have found remote work is necessary for the health and growth of their organization.
Remote work adds a list of benefits like saving time and potentially improving work-life balance. However, the lack of face-to-face interactions can result in a decrease in productivity for some team members. Basically, not everyone is good at working from home. Therefore, you need to change how you lead and manage productivity.
One of the things we have learned from the COVID crisis is how time is of the essence within marketing. As marketing executives, the fastest way to get the best results is to foster collaboration. The uses of interactive platforms such as Microsoft Teams or Zoom can optimize face-to-face interaction. By helping the team understand their priorities for the week, the organization can engage with the customers quickly and become more competitive.
However, it is hard to lead a team that doesn’t have all the things it needs to be successful. While most marketing teams are able to branch out into different areas of marketing, employees who are stacked with work will rarely generate quality results. By adding a marketing contractor to your team, they will be able to fill in gaps that will improve the quality of the output and help keep your existing team motivated.
With the right support, these questions that are keeping CMOs up at night can be transformed into great opportunities and major wins.
In the end, every company has its own kind of challenges and goals. There are many methods that can be used to potentially increase productivity, revenue, and manage the budget. There is no right or wrong answer. The best CMOs will be able to execute the best strategy for their business at any moment in time. Partnering with a leading marketing recruitment firm will help feel in the gaps the organization needs to become fully stable quicker.
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