Top 5 areas of improvement business leaders want CMOs to overcome

C-suite leaders want marketing to step up and lead the charge in revenue-generating activities, according to a new report by the CMO Council. Business leaders also expect marketing to drive demand generation through impactful and relevant campaigns and a seamless, cohesive customer journey.

However, the report found that C-Suite leaders still feel their marketing team is behind the curve in areas such as a digital customer experience if the organisation is to meet the needs of the modern customer. C-suite leaders listed the modernisation of marketing organisation, systems and operation (42%) as the top area of deficiency in digital leadership that marketers need to overcome.

This was followed by proficient, technically savvy managers in key digital roles (40%), greater customer knowledge and market understanding (37%), adaptive, informed decision-making based on good data (34%), and the ability to make a business case for marketing spend (30%).

At the same time, C-Suite leaders also identified demand generation and sales pipeline development (50%) as the top key area that marketers need to improve on when it comes to taking charge of revenue-generating activities. Campaign ideation, execution and impact (47%) came in second followed by customer journey, acquisition and conversion (45%), marketing planning to support digital growth strategies (42%), and actioning on customer data insight (42%).

The pandemic has been a challenging time for most companies globally and organisations are turning to marketing to spearhead the road to recovery. According to the report, 52% of C-Suite leaders are moderately confident in marketing's ability to lead growth recovery in a challenging global economy this year. Meanwhile, 17% said they were extremely confident while 29% said they were somewhat confident. Only 3% said they were not at all confident of marketing's ability to achieve success in this area.

In the same thread, as C-Suite leaders turn to marketers to build a customer-first model for the company, they feel it is important for CMOs to be customer experience advocates and champions (62%) of the brand. It is also essential for marketers to act as digital transformation/marketing automation leaders (54%) within the organisation. Being a brand reputation custodian and value creator (51%) and maestro of communications and demand generation (51%) were also among the top few essential roles listed by C-Suite leaders in the report.

The CMO Council surveyed 120 senior corporate executives in partnership with the C-Suite Network, Business Performance Innovation Network, and the Harvard Business School Association of Northern California. The report was sponsored by consulting firm Chief Outsiders. The C-Suite Scorecard survey was fielded online using the Qualtrics platform in the second quarter of this year. Survey participants included a mix of senior management executives across companies of all sizes, industry sectors and diverse leadership roles.

Nearly 40% of respondents were in companies of more than US$1 billion in annual revenue and an additional 21% were drawn from mid-sized companies with revenues of US$100 million to US$1 billion. The remaining 39% came from companies with less than US$100 million in annual sales. The majority of respondents were from North America (84%), with some representation from Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East. Key titles represented in the survey population included CEO (15%), president/COO (12%), EVP/SVP (21%), line of business (LOB) leaders (14%), functional leaders (14%), department heads (8%), and business team leaders (8%). All major industry sectors were represented with the largest percentage coming from the technology, financial services, professional services, pharmaceutical, entertainment, and consumer product sectors.

Digitalisation has meant that it is no longer enough for a company to simply have a web presence. Explore the challenges and opportunities that digital marketers face at MARKETING-INTERACTIVE's Digital Marketing Asia conference. Please contact czarinas@marketing-interactive.com for more details.

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