The 3 Different Types of CMO — Which One are You?

Whilst the nature of Chief Marketing Officer often varies from business to business, it’s suggested to identify three broad categories of this role: Tech Visionary, CRM Champion, Big Thinker.

CMOs will continue playing a crucial role in delivering the right messaging to targeted audiences across different channels and meeting the sales objectives of an organization.

1. Tech Visionary

• Conceptualizes how marketing technology is to be used in the organization
• Fuels up the marketing strategy with latest technologies for driving the organization’s success.
• Controls the overall marketing supply chain to ensure that marketing materials are produced and delivered on time, on budget.
• Likely to have been with the company since its inception.

2. CRM Champion

• Takes primary responsibility for building customer relations and influencing the delivery of right messaging and positioning to the target market.
• Greatly contributes to creating unforgettable customer experiences in social media, advertising, email, and other channels.
• Increases loyalty through adopting CRM innovation and hyper-personalization to engage with prospects and clients like never before.
• Develops and controls the implementation of a scalable, automated, and personalized content marketing model to create content that resonates with the target market.

3. Big Thinker

• Expands the boundaries of how digital technology like AI and advanced analytics is used within the organization’s marketing framework and encourages everyone the marketing team to operate ambitiously.
• Plays one of the leading parts in defining not only the marketing strategy but the corporate strategy and driving overall technological change to the business.
• Explores existing and new marketing channels, contributes to experimenting with and adopting new technology.
• Has a close relationship with both the CEO and the CTO within the organization. Likely to be part of an established company, rather than a startup.

Which of the CMO Types are You?

Your CMO role is largely defined by the point at which you joined your organization.

When you as a senior marketing executive have been in place since the organization’s inception, you likely find your role more diverse and all-encompassing.

In case you get appointed into a more mature company, you tend to inherit a well-defined set of responsibilities relevant to the specific industry the organization operates in.

With emerging technologies transforming the digital marketing landscape in a matter of months, CMOs need to keep on top of key trends and adopt innovation into marketing strategy when appropriate. That can be your way as a successful CMO moving forward.

The COVID-19 pandemic is forcing CMOs of all types across industries to update their thinking and approach to customers, offerings and value — likely for the long haul. Marketing technologies can help here increase the effectiveness of marketing activities.

In these circumstances, more responsibility is likely to be placed on a skilled CMO than ever before. It is therefore vital that the CMO drives digital innovation and is prepared with the ‘Next Normal’ plan that can be quickly put into place.