Regardless of the industry, the marketing function has become, the company’s most data-driven division. Despite this, not all marketing organizations utilize the data at their disposal to its fullest potential. According to a survey conducted in 2021 by Harvard Business Review (HBR), 77% of participants stated democratizing data access was crucial for their company’s success.
However, if teams aren’t truly utilizing the insights derived from data analysis to drive the right approach at the right place and time, then all the access in the world won’t make a difference.
Organizations are revising their marketing tactics in the post-COVID age to utilize data and analytics better to stay ahead of the competition. To boost digital adoption and serve as the organization’s digital evangelist, the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) must take the initiative more often. Data is everywhere, and the CMO is expected to employ various tools for data analysis and marketing intelligence to increase growth and income.
But that’s not all; instead of functioning as self-serving advocates, today’s CMOs want to take the lead in data analytics. Why? Let’s explore.
Big Data and Marketing Hand-in-Hand
Not everyone is a data scientist and doesn’t have to be. This does not preclude the CMO and their team from maximizing the potential of big data and data-driven marketing activities. Big Data and marketing were made for each other! Chief marketers are expected to take the lead in data analytics, customization, personalization, and optimization, and to oversee the development of digitally based campaigns and initiatives that are highly targeted, smart, and complicated.
The future CMO must interact with top management and the board of directors. For the organization to accept change more quickly and introduce products and services to the market that are representative of what the consumers want, they also need to work as a strategic partner with the CEO.
Nowadays, marketing serves as a communications hub rather than a cost center. The capacity to develop and implement a marketing vision that is constantly changing depending on fresh consumer insights, and to ensure that the best and the brightest employees are utilized internally to realize that vision of a company is now the most crucial component of the CMO role.
There is a definite movement toward marketing adopting an overt and explicit growth strategy as the function is moving away from its old role and now has its own unique revenue targets that directly promote revenue development. The Chief Marketing Officer must acquire a broad, diversified set of abilities to remain relevant.
How the Role of CMO has Evolved in a Data-Driven World
Since marketing has evolved, so has the job of the CMO. Today’s CMO is ultimately responsible for using data to generate outcomes that influence the expansion and profitability of the company since it is more results-oriented than ever before.
CMO’s are adopting a more intelligent strategy approach or plans built on richer, more thorough information and are intended to be flexible and dynamic. The past several years have demonstrated how swiftly and drastically the world may change. Organizations that can’t or won’t make swift strategic changes will struggle now and in the future.
Another significant change for CMOs is their tremendous success with lifetime value (LTV) optimization, as opposed to only short-term transactional goals. Balancing short-term company goals with long-term requirements is never easy. Finding and engaging the right set of customers have become more crucial due to the rising friction and high expenses associated with client acquisition. LTV has become a top focus for companies and CMOs with a clear direction and solid financial standing.
Finally, the brand’s importance has increased significantly. Many firms have survived difficult times thanks to the strength of a solid and enduring brand, and as consumers are overrun with alternatives in almost every category, the impact of this power is now abundantly evident.
CMO as a Data Evangelist
Historically, although marketing was usually based on facts, it was frequently driven by intuition, making it challenging to collect precise information on a campaign’s effectiveness. Because of the COVID-19 outbreak, people’s purchasing patterns drastically changed. Customer expectations rose as the prospect-to-purchase process became increasingly digital and self-directed. CMOs have therefore been forced to devote greater resources to digital initiatives and touchpoints.
However, it’s important to capture the value of the massive volumes of data this creates. It is feasible to slice and dice the data using business intelligence and analytics (BI & A) technologies to gain insightful knowledge about the client and deliver it to non-technical users and stakeholders. And CMOs today are set to take full advantage of these technologies.
But more importantly, CMOs may collaborate closely with the CIO/CDO and offer a comprehensive understanding of the client to the boardroom.
With the use of these data insights, CMO’s can seize the chance to emphasize marketing’s long-term effects on brand, revenue, and growth while promoting the customer experience. The C-suite will find this especially useful given the pressure organizations are under to become more customer-centric or risk becoming irrelevant.
Data-Driven Marketing: More Than a Catchphrase
Every company wants data-driven marketing, and marketing executives are expected to leverage the deluge of new consumer data and insights at their disposal to influence their plans.
Every CMO will try to elevate their organization with relevant, and actionable insights provided to the right people at the right place and time as marketing (in every industry) continues to transform, becoming more data-driven and with narrower and tighter margins. Companies may differentiate themselves from the competition and eventually boost their marketing success by selecting a solid analytics solution that can connect to various data sources and inject insights into user workflows.
The CMOs creative thinking was traditionally tasked with considering the most effective consumer connections. Most decisions were made based on intuition and experience in the past.
The modern CMO must combine their original ideas with marketing information that identifies which advertisements convert the best, customer triggers, unmet wants, and affinities that may open new business options.
Data-driven and innovative marketers promote more growth than those that don’t. Instead of utilizing analytics as a distinct and separate process, the top-performing marketers constantly incorporate four or more insights on average into the process of enhancing the customer experience.
Today’s CMO’s Want to Create Plans Based on Insights Rather Than Reports.
The CMO’s responsibilities are evolving. Well, kind of… Over the next ten years, the objectives of developing strategy and generating growth will probably not change, but how they are achieved may.
One of the most significant transformations in approach has been away from gathering data for the sake of it and toward gaining insight to drive informed choices. Teams are beginning to consider what sort of data they need to make their most important choices more carefully instead of developing a strategy around generating countless reports without a clear aim.
Tech is undoubtedly a significant emphasis for the upcoming years, but what else should CMOs concentrate on in the race for data-driven insights?
Article is authored by Kulwinder Singh, Chief Marketing Officer at SG Analytics.
