CMOs Need Agencies More Than Ever-Prove It To Them

An article in Ad Age titled Why More CMOs Are Wanted as Board Directors started with this paragraph:

Boards of directors at the country’s largest companies are in dire need of digital and mobile expertise, consumer insights and diversity — and they’re looking to top marketers to fill those gaps.

So these Boards are looking for talented top marketers, but where are those top marketers looking to sustain and increase their talents?

To you-the agency.  Or at least, they should be.

What a prime opportunity for agencies to step up and become the go-to for these marketers.

A couple of roadblocks here for agencies though-per our latest survey report:

Marketers say the two single biggest agency deficiencies are a lack of foundation in analytics and focus on meaningful KPI’s.

 

So there’s road block #1: your agency doesn’t have the expertise, and our survey, this article and others like it reaffirm the need for agencies to stay ahead of the curve in digital, mobile and consumer insights.

Another quote from the Ad Age article:

“In particular, boards that are committed to embracing digital, from not only the philosophical perspective but also in terms of the very real financial investment that is required, need CMOs capable of asking the right questions. . .”

 I would contend a great many CMOs aren’t aware of what questions to ask, not without the help of an agency with that expertise, and what an opportunity for agencies.

There’s a double-edged sword here however-average CMO tenure is about 45 months, so you become that go-to agency and then your CMO leaves (as all of you reading nod your head knowingly) but the good news-they’re typically going somewhere else.

But about that second roadblock:

All your expertise gets you nowhere if those CMOs don’t know about you.

Referrals are huge and still one of the foremost ways agencies get new business per our report, but that network only gets you so far.

While you’re cultivating those referrals, you’ve got to invest time and money in some form of outbound and inbound new business strategy.

After referrals, marketers find out about agencies most often via email (57% of marketers in our survey reported) and remember-if you’re creating and pushing out content, Marketers are looking at it: