Domenic Colasante | Source | CEO at 2X

Recently there’s been talk of fractional CMOs, and CMO partnership, but it’s not quite clear on what is truly the role of CMOs today. Domenic Colasante, CEO of 2X, goes on to answer:

What are some of the specific actions CMOs can take to demonstrate their value and the value of marketing within the c-suite? Should other c-suite executives be included in marketing efforts? Are there specific metrics that resonate with c-suite colleagues that demonstrate the value of marketing?
“The CMO’s job isn’t just to own the brand and engage prospects/customers, it’s about being the lead thinker on the market – the opportunity, the competitive dynamics, how the product supports, and how sales targets and prioritizes their craft to the areas of the most opportunity. It’s about being an executive of the business who drives the strategy of the company first, and the lead SME on marketing second.

Marketing has great importance in customer retention and expansion in recurring revenue businesses. This is the number one priority of most tech companies and other types of recurring/subscription models. For too long, marketing was fully focused on customer acquisition and new revenue growth; but marketing can (and should) plan a meaningful role in keeping customers here, in driving their satisfaction and advocacy – through that you get retention, growth, and the part of the new customer acquisition engine that is sourced to word of mouth and customer advocacy. The key metrics here are NRR, GRR, and NPS/Advocacy.

Other C-suite execs should definitely be involved. Marketing can help on employer branding, recruitment, employee retention, in collaboration with sales and customer success. There should also be CMO-CFO collaboration when it comes to the use of scarce marketing resources, including the large fixed-cost block of labor in the marketing function that could be made more flexible.

Marketing is a large P&L and budget owner, and collaborating with the CFO on being a steward of these scarce corporate resources—and reducing the cost of marketing while increasing its impact. For example, IT, Finance, HR, and Procurement leverage global managed services and outsourcing in this lane – and marketing doesn’t often do that. CMOs should be looking at key metrics around unit cost economics (i.e., cost per customer acquisition, cost per opportunity, etc.).”

Are there specific skills future CMOs need to get a better handle on martech and data that can improve marketing performance?
“The job of the marketing leader is transformation. It is not to run the marketing function and just operate marketing. Companies that haven’t seen transformation and continued evolution and new competitive advantage building scale or driving impact may decide that they don’t need the marketing function to run marketing—it can just be under sales, operations, or other local functions. But when marketing is driving breakthrough impact, such as in the categories above, it maintains its strategic importance.”

In a published Harvard Business Review article, data from Gartner's annual CMO Spend and Strategy Survey shows that marketing budgets have yet to fully rebound to their pre-Covid levels. There's a pressing need for marketers to adapt and thrive in this new reality. The report indicates that average budgets have slipped from 9.5% of company revenue in 2022 to 9.1% in 2023.

Dom emphasizes the crucial shift in mindset needed for modern marketers. He asserts, "Marketing is an investment, not an expense. As CMO, the only way to protect our teams, budget, and brand is by putting 'points on the board' that the CFO understands and can endorse. Demonstrating changes in real business trends influenced by marketing – like in-store traffic and sales trends vs. a control – can show your CFO and C-suite that marketing is an investment, not an expense."

AI Isn't Coming For Jobs:
"I think there is a misconception about 'AI ending remote work,’ which is not the real issue in the B2B world. There are real needs to optimize efficiency and right-size an organization, and that includes getting more efficient with labor. AI isn’t about reducing or taking away the amount of work that humans do. It’s about increasing the value that humans can provide. Outsourcing has been a long-used solution that is now enhanced by combining AI with humans (including those remotely working) to produce exponentially greater results. That’s more important than mildly lowering costs."