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Lisa ArthurCMOAprimo |
For years, corporate marketing was largely walled off from the rest of the enterprise. But today collaboration is critical to success, from the CMO level on down to marketing’s front lines. Indeed, strategic partnering within the enterprise is required if CMOs are to overcome the challenges of resource constraints and channel proliferation to truly innovate, says Lisa Arthur, CMO at Aprimo, a provider of on-demand marketing automation software. A 25-year marketing veteran who has worked in corporate marketing roles at technology companies, including Oracle and Akamai, and in the agency world, Arthur argues that CMOs must repair broken relationships with their C-level cousins, particularly in information technology and sales, to create effective and meaningful marketing and business strategies.
CMO.com contributing writer Stephanie Overby spoke with Arthur about the challenges of the modern CMO, her insider tips on how to move from arm wrestling to embracing with technology and sales, and the real meaning of meaningful marketing.
CMO.com: You’re a big advocate for CMOs collaborating across the enterprise. Why are strategic partnerships critical to corporate marketing success today?
Lisa Arthur: Through our polling, we have found that more than 50 percent of CMOs across the world are focused on innovating the customer experience. That is their No. 1 strategy, regardless of industry and across business-to-business and business-to-consumer enterprises.
You take that and add to it the post-economic crisis that we’re in. CMOs’ budgets and their teams have been cut to the bone, and it’s not going to get any better.
Take the need to innovate within these resources and budget constraints, and add to that the proliferation of marketing channels. Social is continuing to grow, and the sophistication of digital marketing is growing. There are channels emerging that we don’t even know about yet.
You take all of those dynamics, and that’s why collaboration within the enterprise is critical. CMOs can’t innovate the customer experience without the help of the CIO and without the help of sales and HR and all the other functions across the company.
CMO.com: It sounds like a tough time to be a CMO.
LA: While the landscape has changed--and it is going to continue to change at amazing rates—there has never been a better time to be a marketer. You have the opportunity to redefine and elevate and be a driver of the business rather than just being the brand advocate or the demand-generation engine.
CMO.com: Let’s talk about alignment with the IT organization. Why is that crucial for marketers?
LA: The first truth is that most global companies express their fundamental business strategy through IT, and customer experience falls into that. At the same time, business success today is more about marketing than ever before. And marketing is executed through IT more than ever before.
One provocative idea is that we’re all CMOs and CIOs today. IT needs to work with marketers, and marketers need to be in touch with technology. CMOs must understand how to use technology to innovate, to do more with less, to be more accountable, and to get the investment they need.
CMO.com: Why has it taken so long for CMOs and CIOs to join forces--and why do some still resist working together?
LA: From my purview over the past 30 years, there has been a clear distinction between the CIO and CMO. And in many regards it has been an arm wrestle of a relationship. I’m in my fourth gig as a CMO; in the past, the requests and requirements that marketing has for technology have fallen very far down the list from the requests of sales and finance and other functions seen as revenue-critical. At the same time, marketing was very stove-piped, and collaboration with IT was nonexistent.
What’s interesting is that I have met several CMOs today who also function as CIOs. We’re seeing the emergence of bringing marketing and IT together from that title perspective, or through marketers having IT expertise within their teams. Cloud computing is another example. Many marketers are turning to cloud and software-as-a-service options because there’s less dependency on IT to get things done.
The companies that we see leading this marketing revolution--letting go of the brand, driving greater value, and seeing increased return on marketing investment--are finding a way to bring marketing and IT together. The lynchpin is that the business doesn’t have a choice.
CMO.com: What’s your relationship like with IT?
LA: It’s exceptional. We use our own software. It’s cloud-based and ready to go, so we’re able to add new capabilities within my team even though they’re not IT people.
When we do work with IT, we collaborate about data strategies and improving the customer experience. IT understands the value of marketing because we have a closed loop view of it. That makes it easy for me to get resources when I need it. I may not be first, but I have the right business metrics to make the value clear. Our relationships with CIOs continue to improve now that Aprimo has been acquired by Teradata, as Teradata has long been a strategic technology partner to CIOs globally.
Next: The critical opportunity CMOs miss when they delegate IT.
