In today’s rapidly changing business landscape, marketing must demonstrate its value and align closely with executive expectations. Especially during uncertain times, Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) must establish a clear connection between marketing efforts and business outcomes.
Numerous factors can complicate the process of developing and executing a marketing strategy. Gartner has identified some key challenges, including:
- Heightened and potentially conflicting demands for marketing’s role in driving growth
- Uncertainty in the business environment necessitating changes in enterprise strategy and identity
- High levels of cross-functional collaboration, often hampered by dysfunction and inefficiencies
- Shifting responsibilities for digital functions within the organization
- Increasing expectations for marketing productivity fueled by accelerating AI adoption.
Navigating these complexities is essential for CMOs to succeed, though the definition of “success” can vary between organizations. For instance, when surveyed, CMOs reported that their accountability to CEOs is evenly distributed among areas such as commercialization, strategic initiatives, and the company’s overall financial performance.
Charting the Course Ahead
Understanding what the CEO expects marketing to drive is fundamental for any executive’s success. However, it’s equally important to shape the perceptions of the C-suite and other key stakeholders. Ideally, CMOs should be seen as leaders of the go-to-market strategy, and recognized as credible partners that enable business growth. Yet, in many cases, marketing is still perceived as a service-oriented function that responds to demands rather than contributing strategically.
To shift this perception, CMOs must adopt a new approach. Instead of increasing workloads to prove productivity, marketers should rigorously prioritize their efforts to focus on the activities that generate the most significant business impact.
The most effective strategic approach is crafting a marketing plan that aligns with the company’s most important goals. This can be accomplished by using the “3 P’s” framework for marketing strategic planning.
Driving Business Value Using the 3 P’s of Marketing Strategic Planning
Much like the traditional “4 P’s” of marketing, the “3 P’s” help drive alignment with stakeholders, create measurable marketing plans, and ensure the strategy contributes to the organization’s objectives. These P’s are Priorities, Progress, and Pivots. Here’s a closer look at each.
- Establish Your Priorities
Marketing resources are usually limited, making it impossible to cater to everyone’s needs. Consequently, CMOs should proactively create a consensus on which enterprise-wide goals marketing will support and which will be deprioritized. Building this alignment early helps to manage expectations and prevents future conflicts.
There are five steps to developing and maintaining strategic alignment:
- Identify key stakeholders
- Conduct interviews with stakeholders
- Agree on the most critical priorities for marketing to support
- Validate that marketing’s involvement is essential
- Maintain ongoing stakeholder engagement
- Demonstrate Progress by Tying Marketing Activities to Business Outcomes
Many marketing plans fail to bridge the gap between long-term business goals and the short-term tactics required to achieve them. Each marketing tactic must be directly connected to the business outcomes prioritized by the organization.
To keep stakeholders engaged and aligned, regular updates are necessary to show how marketing activities are influencing the metrics that matter. Marketing efforts should be measured by their impact on business goals, not just the level of effort.
- Adapt When Necessary
Change is inevitable, and sometimes, strategic adjustments are required. Marketers must stay agile, addressing risks and issues proactively, which might include reallocating resources to new priorities.
Effective management of strategy execution demands robust processes and strong stakeholder involvement. Key actions include:
- Conducting weekly reviews to identify execution barriers
- Holding monthly meetings with stakeholders to reinforce cross-functional commitments
- Scheduling quarterly plan evaluations to identify competitive or environmental changes that could impact the strategy
- Depoliticizing reprioritization to allow for smoother pivots
By anticipating the need for changes and continuously evaluating execution alongside stakeholders, CMOs can depoliticize the reprioritization process and increase their influence.
In the current business climate, alignment between CMOs and the C-suite is more crucial than ever. Marketing must prove its value by focusing on the most strategic initiatives that drive significant business impact. To achieve this, marketing leaders should implement the “3 P’s” framework—Priorities, Progress, and Pivots—while maintaining strong stakeholder connections and delivering clear value to the organization.