First Things First discussed the first of five key things the CMO must do well*, getting the marketing mandate right. Allies, Agnostics and Antagonists focused on the second, building meaningful relationships with functional and business leaders. Meaningful Metrics addresses agreeing on how to measure success.
The fourth focuses on collaborating with external partners.
Once you've got measurable objectives in place, you need to determine how to accomplish these objectives. You’ll need to carefully evaluate the capabilities of your staff against those objectives and then determine whether to retrain, hire or seek outside assistance.
Luckily for you, marketing may be the most outsourced function in business. There are a plethora of advertising, brand, marketing communication, marketing strategy, public relations, demand generation, digital marketing, marketing research, print and social media agencies, all of whom provide specialized skills that few but the largest of marketing organizations can afford to keep on staff.
How you manage these firms can make or break your success.
First, determine exactly the type of help you need. For this, you need to be very, very clear on what needs to be done. There are subtle but important differences in the types of firms and the types of personnel they hire. Many of them, like your organization, look to expand their offerings to meet the needs of their clients. Some of these expansions make sense, but only if they deliver real results and, importantly, provide real experts. I, for example, am immediately skeptical of the branding firm that launches a PR or social media offering, which require different skill sets than their core business.
The fourth focuses on collaborating with external partners.
Once you've got measurable objectives in place, you need to determine how to accomplish these objectives. You’ll need to carefully evaluate the capabilities of your staff against those objectives and then determine whether to retrain, hire or seek outside assistance.
Luckily for you, marketing may be the most outsourced function in business. There are a plethora of advertising, brand, marketing communication, marketing strategy, public relations, demand generation, digital marketing, marketing research, print and social media agencies, all of whom provide specialized skills that few but the largest of marketing organizations can afford to keep on staff.
How you manage these firms can make or break your success.
First, determine exactly the type of help you need. For this, you need to be very, very clear on what needs to be done. There are subtle but important differences in the types of firms and the types of personnel they hire. Many of them, like your organization, look to expand their offerings to meet the needs of their clients. Some of these expansions make sense, but only if they deliver real results and, importantly, provide real experts. I, for example, am immediately skeptical of the branding firm that launches a PR or social media offering, which require different skill sets than their core business.
Therein lies the key. You’re not hiring an agency; you’re hiring people and a culture.
Says Maureen McGuire, CMO of Bloomberg, “there may not be a major difference between what the different agencies do, but the team that is working on your business will be different. The chemistry that you build with that team and their ability to get fired up about what they’re trying to do and bring in new ideas is what counts.”*
*“What Do You Want From Me? How High-Performing CMOs Exceed Expectations,” SpencerStuart, 2010
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