by The culture of companies having a C-suite of leaders in managerial tiers of the organization rapidly shifting as more and more businesses realize the value and flexibility that outsourcing brings to the table.
Companies both big and small are finally realizing the wisdom in Peter Druker’s often repeated advice,
Do what you do best and outsource the rest.”
Outsourcing the role of a CMO: How to get it right
The conventional wisdom dictated the outsourcing of only those functions that posed the least risk for the business. The trend has now evolved and outsourcing of roles that require a high level of specialization or expertise is now becoming a norm. While tech and IT functions are a popular choice, the new trend within the precipice of change is an outsourced CMO.
Outsourcing the marketing to the experts gives you the flexibility of availing the expert-opinion without being bogged down by long term contracts or having to engage in extensive hiring spree to find the right talent who fits your budget. The outsourced CMO may be a single individual or a marketing agency like CurveBreak that can partner with you in your digital marketing efforts.
While traffic and engagement make every marketer happy, the biggest benefit of outsourced CMO comes with an overhaul in the business’ bottom line via marketing strategies that generate a stream of predictable revenue for your business.
The question here is how do you determine whether the candidate or agency that you are considering is an actual marketing pro or just a self-styled marketing expert who only throws around marketing jargon?
We got you covered on that. Here’s a checklist of attributes that you should be looking to tick off when hiring an outsourced CMO for your business.
Traits to look for in an outsourced CMO
1. Prior track record
Expert marketers just go on and get better with experience. An outsourced CMO is an important resource for your company and enquiring about the past success stories is the first thing you should do to narrow down your search.
Being a marketer by profession, every potential candidate or agency is likely going to be adept at marketing themselves. The secret here is to not let yourself be swayed by the marketing buzzwords and focus on concrete results.
Case studies of successful marketing campaigns they might have designed in the past and the results obtained as a result of them is a key differentiator when shortlisting an outsourced CMO to come onboard.
2. Focus on the right metrics
A marketing strategy that brings in a ton of traffic to your website works, but it doesn’t offer any quantifiable business returns. Traffic is just a vanity metric and if an outsourced partner is simply focusing on increasing the number of visitors, it should raise a red flag for you.
For example, when talking about content marketing strategy, if the CMO or agency you are talking to, focuses on top of the funnel content to raise awareness and bring in traffic, it does not translate directly into revenue. On the other hand, if they talk about focusing on the bottom or middle of the funnel keywords with a focus on how conversion-driven content marketing can impact your business and move customers through your marketing funnel, that is a green signal for you.
Revenue needs to be at the heart of all business operations and marketing is no exception to that. Any strategy suggestion that comes in needs to be business-focused. When hiring an outsourced CMO, enquire how do they expect the marketing strategies they help formulate to translate into actual revenue.
A CMO, whether in-house or outsourced, needs to have the vision to evaluate the marketing strategy in terms of its revenue generating potential and be able to steer the marketing efforts into a direction that yields the maximum returns.
3. Customer-centric approach
If revenue is the king, customer satisfaction and delight is certainly the queen when it comes to designing successful marketing campaigns. The best marketers realize the importance of prioritizing on the customers to authentically connect with them and launch better marketing campaigns.
The efforts the outsourced CMO puts in to understand the target audience that your brand is catering to can be judged by the questions they have about your brand before they come onboard. The best CMOs would always talk about building campaigns and utilizing the marketing channels to best reach your audience and bringing in the desired results.
4. Marketing integration capabilities
An agency that specializes in a single marketing function like an SEO agency or content marketing firm will only take a fragmented approach to marketing. An outsourced CMO, on the other hand, takes the individual marketing efforts out of their silos, integrates the different marketing functions, and optimizes the workflow to best capitalize on it.
Marketing is a multifocal activity with a number of different teams working in collaboration with each other. How adept a person is at bridging the gap between the different departments and cross-departmental liaison is an excellent indicator of how effective the outsourced CMO would be at integrating the different marketing functions and bringing forth the results.
5. Constant sharpening of existing skill sets
Marketing is truly a dynamic segment that is ever-evolving. Every few days a new marketing channel or platform may prop up. Successful marketers keep challenging themselves by experimenting across the different channels and constantly honing their existing skill sets.
While we are not debating the pros and cons of specialists vs generalists, a marketer who has been exposed to multiple marketing channels and has stacked up varied experience is always a favorable choice.
A CMO who views change as an opportunity rather than an obstacle is the one that can take your marketing efforts to the next level and be the harbinger of change within the organization.
6. Agility in making data-driven decisions
The value of data analytics in the field of marketing cannot be overemphasized. The most successful marketers attribute their success to the data driven decisions. Setting up the goals and utilizing the right data for tracking the progress being made is a valuable method for realizing your vision of success.
While the importance of data cannot be disputed, in the current market scenario, there is more data being generated than ever making the ability to sift through volumes of data and identifying the right metrics an indispensable quality when hiring an outsourced CMO.
Analytical mindset, inquisitiveness and the ability to experiment is just one side of the coin. To become excellent marketers, they need to be able to measure their results and refine the existing process by making data-driven decisions.
How do you quantify this ability you ask?
By asking leading questions on the previous projects they may have worked on, evaluating the process they followed when they talk about the case studies and understanding the mindset and approach they follow to reach the desired outcomes.
7. Communication and collaboration skills
Words are singularly the most powerful force and no one needs to understand the importance of harnessing this power than a marketer. A CMO has to work in collaboration with a multitude of people and good communication skills are possibly the most obvious yet underrated trait that you should be seeking when hiring an outsourced CMO.
A marketer who knows how to get his/her point across in the most effective and efficient manner, with utmost clarity, surely makes a desirable candidate.
Now that to know what to look for, how do you go about finding it?
The answer to that is just a single click away.
With a track record of helping companies like yours overhaul their business’ bottom line via marketing, here at CurveBreak, your goals are always our focus. Partner with us and let us help you grow!
Contact us today and we will set you up for a free consultation call with our team of expert marketers and SEO consultants.
