Page 11 - Engage -- no.11 -- Winter 2018

Winter 2018
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analytics tools all fall under that category.
“How all these systems interact, what rules you
have in place to manage them, how to troubleshoot common problems, what is out there that can help me solve a problem that I might not know about— all of these are questions that routinely come up,” Stief says. “For example, I was at an MBA Marketing Officers’ Roundtable just last week in Washington, DC, and one of the topics we spent the most
time on was Salesforce (given that most of our companies use that CRM) and all of the various complexities associated with it, including user adoption, data fidelity management, and usage rules. Other popular topics on my short list are email marketing, video marketing, and social media marketing.”
Although there are no junior members in The CMO Club, Krainik recognized the need to connect his group to young marketing stars in junior roles at various organizations. After all, what better way to understand how to market to young people than to talk to young marketers? That’s why in 2016, The CMO Club rolled out the Future CMO Club, which has morphed into The CMO Club’s mentoring
program. The goal is for CMOs to share and mentor the next generation of marketing leaders.
More than 100 CMOs in the club now mentor other members’ marketing directors and VPs through The CMO Club’s mentoring summit via virtual roundtables and on a new CMO Club Mentoring podcast for more junior marketing stars. “In addition, at every summit we have a group of these future CMOs onstage sharing insights to help our members stay connected with this next generation,” Krainik says.
The sharing of knowledge, of course, goes both ways. Andy Stief is living proof that it doesn’t hurt a young marketer to mix with more established professionals.
For a professional in a junior marketing role, there is always the chance that a supervisor might not see the need for them to step outside the industry to learn a few new tricks of the trade and rub elbows with contemporaries. Or maybe the supervisor is a bit threatened by their thirst for knowledge or the chance to make new contacts. Krainik recommends that professionals in such
a position ask their CEO or boss to clarify their
top three objectives for the year, then identify hurdles or challenges to achieving those objectives. “Show how your involvement in the group will give you answers and more efficiently solve the big problems,” Krainik advises. “It’s a trade-off of money and time. What is the value of a cost or time commitment versus putting the money or time elsewhere? If the answer is that it’s not the best use of time or money, then don’t do it. Also, many CMO Club members leverage the continuing-education value for them personally. If their company is committed to their growth, it’s not an issue.” n
What Marketing
Execs Want
to Know
By Pete Krainik
Members of The CMO Club love pragmatic, CMO-worthy insights instead of long research reports that reinforce the obvious and don’t help them solve problems. The number of research reports, social media posts, and media reports on “The Role of the Future CMO,” “The Customer Is
in Charge of the Brand,” “The CMO as the New
CIO,” and other topics don’t help CMOs solve current problems or bene t their career. Those are interesting topics, but not a priority. Want to know what areas might occupy your time as you move up the ranks in the world of marketing? These are some topics that have resonated with our 850+ members.
1 Onboarding New Talent — We interviewed six CMOs in the club who have had success in this area, and we shared a seven-page report with tips and tricks. The members loved it.
2 Podcasts — CMOs can listen while traveling, during breaks from meetings, etc. We rolled out Brands Backstage, where I interview top artists who have their own personal brands and discuss successful fan engagement and other topics.
3 Leading Big Change When the Company Is Making Money with Business as Usual — CMOs want to be prepared for and leading industry changes, not reacting to them.
4 Storytelling, Content Development, and Distribution Alignment and How to Maximize Results and Engagement with In uencers, Employees, and Customers — CMOs want to understand their role in completing the stories.
5 Developing True Brand Purpose, Social Responsibility, and the Framework to Support That Brand Purpose
6 Building and Maintaining a High-Performing, Motivated Marketing Team
7 How to Decide on New Marketing Technologies, Platforms, and Tools for Your Organization as a CMO