Congratulations! You’ve landed your dream job as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at Awesomeco. In addition to getting your paperwork filled out and electronic footprint established, here are 5 things that should be on your “to do” list on your first day on the job as the new CMO:
1. Budget & Resources
If this didn’t come up in the interview, time to find out how much budget is available for various marketing activities and hiring needs.
How much has already been spent? What remains? What does the team look like? Do you have proper skills on board for customer acquisition, content creation, customer retention, etc? If not, do you know where to get them fast?
It is also important to know the expected timing and cadence of these marketing expenditures. Marketing budgets vary in size so make sure you know both total amount and expected spend rate. Does it need to be spread out monthly or quarterly or is the bias towards a big bang approach immediately (more on this red flag next)?
2. Expectations
Marketing is a process and if nothing is underway the amount of time required from starting to seeing some result can be longer than desired (think 3-6 months from a standstill). If you are replacing someone, why did they depart? Again, should have come up in the interview but if not, cover it now. You don’t want to repeat previous mistakes and/or need to directly address misconceptions about what is and isn’t possible.
Shared expectations are important in any relationship so make sure you have them with the CEO, CFO, and VP of Sales out of the gate in terms of what is possible, what needs to be done, what it will cost, and when results can be measured. Speaking of measurement, come out of the gate with your key performance metrics, how often they will be shared, and what goes into them.
Marketing is still a great deal of art over science so always test with a pilot, measure success, then pour it on if it meets cost per lead/cost of customer acquisition targets.
3. Lead Generation
Who is the target customer? How has Awesomeco historically acquired them – direct or partners or both? Your most visible contribution to the company (and most meaningful) comes in the form of sales ready leads. To know if it is a “sales ready lead” have an agreed upon set of qualification criteria with the VP of Sales so that subjective discussions on lead quality are avoided – it either matches the criteria or not. If it does, then close ‘em!
Dig into the quarterly/annual plan for the company. Does current lead flow support the target revenue numbers? Dig into historical performance around leads generated, opportunities forecasted and close rates. Your job is to show your awesome through the sale pipeline so know your number and create a plan to meet (or exceed it).
4. Market Perception
Do the right people know about you and think favorably of you? Include analysts, influencers, and your target decision makers in this group. This is beyond public relations and more about being known among those who either influence a buying decision or actually make it.
If you have no voice projecting your point of view on the market you are in then creating it should be at the top of the list. What is your perspective on the problem your company solves and the outcome your customer seeks? Create content around those two items vs. being tempted to build a better demo or refine that feature/benefit matrix. Both are important sales tools but are tactical items vs. strategic ones.
5. Tools and Tactics
What is currently in place and what do you need to do your job effectively? This is where the tools that provide reports, analytics, marketing automation, content management, social media, etc. come into play. The landscape here is vast and noisy so start with your objectives and map the technology to them.
The tactics required to reach your target audience will vary company to company and industry to industry. You wouldn’t be in this job if you didn’t understand how both online and offline marketing work so put your expertise to work and blow them away!
We would love you to try out LoopFuse here.
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You can try Nearstream for social lead generation here.
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Tags: cmo, first day, to do list
