In 2013, I spoke with Velocidi CMO Margaret Molloy, who had just attended the CMO Club Summit in Naples, Florida. This event had some of the industry’s brightest minds in attendance, including over 100 CMOs from some of the country’s most successful firms.
Following this event, I asked Molloy to share what she discovered during some of the Summit’s lectures. Surprisingly, many of these ideas hold up to this day, as marketing leaders still need to shift their mindset to keep up with the times and reach potential customers in the most efficient ways.
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Applying some ideas from this event can help you change your marketing mindset, so you can rise above the e-commerce industry’s 1.5% conversion rate. This article recounts Molloy’s experiences at the 2013 CMO Club Summit, and it offers some first-hand quotes from the lectures she attended.
Quick Takeaways
- Marketing is continually evolving, so marketing leaders must change their mindsets to keep up with the times.
- Walking in the customers’ shoes and understanding what they’re looking to find when interacting with your brand is a step in the right direction.
- You need to differentiate your company from the crowd and treat yourself as a startup that’s constantly trying to build a new audience.
- Using data to your advantage and turning one-time customers into loyal followers makes your life much easier as a marketing professional.
1. CMOs Must Walk in Customers’ Shoes
Top performing CMOs consistently recognize that customer-centricity is more than a buzzword—they understand that having a first-hand knowledge of the end-to-end customer experience is critical. Katrina Klier from Accenture put it plainly, “Be a user, trier, tester. Don’t rely on the experience of others; get your hands dirty.”
The benefits of this field-based approach are manifold. As Sandra Zoratti from Ricoh pointed out: “The best way to give an idea a sense of urgency is to invoke the voice of the customer.”
As it relates to getting closer to customers, it was clear that big data was top of mind as a means to help marketers “walk in customers’ shoes” at scale. But while big data may serve as a new route to customer insight and behavior, it hasn’t yet fully lived up to that promise.
Perhaps data alone is not the answer—intuition and action are required. Jonathan Becher from SAP spelled it out: “It’s about big decisions, not big data.”
I believe CMOs must walk in customers’ shoes (often), ask the right questions, and be guided by experience to deliver the right outcomes for their businesses and their clients.
2. Firms Need to Differentiate Through Brand Experience
This was a recurring theme throughout the conference. Cammie Dunaway of Kidmania took it a step further by linking customer understanding to engagement: “True engagement is about changing customer behavior.”
Mary Ann Fitzmaurice of American Express OPEN shared the impact of the Small Business Saturday initiative, a program designed to help small businesses: “Our customers love us because they know we have their backs.”
In addition, Jonathan Becher of SAP underlined the magnitude of this desired shift: “There are now more mobile phones in the world than people.” When we look at mobile and social together, it’s clear we are now in an “always-on” era. Becher emphasized the urgency of the situation: “Business will need to run in real-time to facilitate personalized engagement with customers.”
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Dunaway also offered a powerful analogy to illustrate the contrast between a customer and an advocate’s relationship to a brand: “The difference between customers and advocates is like the distinction between tourists and citizens in a country.”
In my view, motivating customers to that level of devotion requires CMOs to deliver a great experience at every customer touchpoint.
3. The CMO Role is a Great Gig, But It Requires Major Skills
The CMOs in attendance engaged in candid discussions on skills and careers. Tom Seclow of Spencer Stuart presented a case study with the message that CMOs’ tenure continues to climb as they become more entrenched in their roles and expand their influence across their organizations. However, he warned that “short-term thinking and focus on quarterly earnings is a big challenge.”
Douwe Bergsma of Georgia-Pacific laid out three critical requirements for the role: “CMOs need to be:
- Scientists
- Storytellers
- Army generals”
And if that wasn’t enough ground to cover, Maryam Banikarim of Gannett told CMOs to “have creative agility, be connectors, [and] use interpersonal skills.”
Despite the heavy responsibility, the mood about the CMO role was upbeat. Mark Wilson of Avaya captured the sentiment when he contended that “there has never been a better time to be a marketer.”
Terri Funk Graham, Chairman of The CMO Club Presidents Circle, made an assessment that resonated with me: “The most important skill of a great CMO is courage.”
I’d like to add curiosity. Without curiosity, you don’t ask the great questions that will inform the intuition and insight to fuel that courage—as well as all the other necessary skills listed above.
4. Marketing Teams Need to Behave More Like Smart Startups
The innovation imperative surfaced many times during the Summit. SAP’s Becher hammered home the importance of culture: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, so fix your culture to make your strategy work.”
Kidmania’s Cammie Dunaway also offered a pragmatic analysis: “Changing organizational behavior is as much about muscle memory as resistance.”
Stephanie Anderson of Time Warner Cable reinforced that “we need to continually train and educate internally.”
Nancy Smith of iRobot also offered practical tips based on iRobot’s rule: “Leave at least 5 percent of your budget for crazy stuff (aka experiments). Why not give everyone on your team an opportunity to do a cool project, to be a part-time intern?”
On organization, Denise Incandela of Saks Fifth Avenue advised: “Create an environment that rewards innovation and rapid testing. Don’t say yes to every new thing; focus and do what your firm can do well. Think scalable programs.”
To me, this body of advice can be summed up in a simple idea: marketing departments need to behave more like high-performing startups. CMOs must embrace experimentation, fail fast, get close to the customer, reduce internal approval cycles, and focus on fewer, more actionable metrics.
5. The B2B Versus B2C Dichotomy is Becoming Irrelevant
We had a vigorous debate over dinner about whether the B2B/B2C divide was still meaningful. Jonathan Becher of SAP nailed it with his pithy insight: “Glass buildings don’t buy software; people do.”
Although there are differences in tactics in B2B versus B2C models, the need to engage buyers with relevant content in their vernacular and in a timely manner is common to both B2B and B2C. David Newberry of Pitney Bowes reasoned that “the widespread availability of information means that all buyers are more informed than ever before.”
This erosion of asymmetry of information, the consumerization of IT, and the lower entry-point pricing of many products (e.g., freemium models) is compounding the need to think of all buyers as people—whether they are acting in a B2B or B2C capacity. Becher captured the shift well: “Marketing’s job is not to help salespeople sell; it’s to help buyers buy.”
6. Gut Instincts to Data-Driven Decisions
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Marketing leaders traditionally rely on their intuition and past experiences to guide their strategies. While instinct has its place, it can lead to inconsistent results.
The shift towards data-driven decision-making allows marketing leaders to base their strategies on solid evidence. Leveraging data and analytics means they can track what’s working, identify trends, and optimize their efforts for better outcomes.
Marketing metrics like conversion rates, customer engagement, and return on investment provide concrete insights into the effectiveness of campaigns. Customer behavior data shows what motivates actions, while performance analytics reveal areas for improvement. Relying on these insights helps create more targeted, efficient marketing strategies.
Marketing leaders can use tools like Google Analytics to track website performance, CRM systems to analyze customer interactions, and customer insights platforms to gather feedback as they embrace data-driven decision-making. These tools make it easier to refine strategies and maximize results.
7. Building Communities Instead of One-Time Transactions
Traditionally, marketing leaders focused on making a sale, viewing the transaction as the ultimate goal. Once the sale was complete, the customer relationship often ended.
Today’s marketing leaders recognize the value of building communities around their brand. The goal isn’t just to make a sale but to foster long-term customer loyalty and engagement. Creating strong brand communities means businesses can turn one-time buyers into repeat customers and even brand advocates.
Building a loyal community helps boost customer retention and inspires word-of-mouth marketing. Engaged customers are more likely to stick around, share their experiences, and recommend the brand to others. This sense of belonging creates a stronger connection between the brand and its audience, leading to sustained growth and loyalty.
Marketing leaders can foster community by creating social media groups, launching forums for discussion, or introducing loyalty programs that reward repeat customers. These strategies help keep customers engaged and invested in the brand beyond a single purchase.
Changing Your Marketing Mindset
As you begin following these tips, you might have questions about using data to your advantage and keeping a strong community around your brand. These changes can significantly influence your company because they reduce the resources you’ll waste trying to reach prospects who will never buy your products.
Marketing Insider Group can help you optimize your marketing with our CRM and Marketing Management solution. Reach out to learn more or book a free consultation with our team.