CMOx® Principles
Solve Bigger Problems™
The values that we instill in our CMOs are the foundations of success we offer
Solve Bigger Problems™
The strategies we create prioritize the most important business outcomes needed for long-term success. All unnecessary efforts are cut.
Excellence, Always
Our commitment is to set the standard of excellence with every interaction. We lead by example and keep everyone accountable.
Integrity & Stewardship
We lead with integrity and create the most value with the least harm. Our work creates a world in which the wellbeing of all people is valued.
Enthusiasm & Positivity
We balance high performance with enjoyment, and jump to overcome obstacles. Fun and positivity create a great culture and a motivated team.
Though there are hundreds of ways to market your business, you don’t have to know how to find the right one.
No more wasting time figuring out how to market your company. With a Fractional CMO, you can share your vision and goals and watch the marketing come to life.
Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two–and only two–basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs. Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business.
Peter Drucker
Father of business consulting
CMOx® Principles of Marketing
Start with the end goal in mind
It is typically fruitless to start any marketing discussion without first defining what the end result must be. When you drive your car, do you aimlessly hope you arrive at a destination, or do you choose the destination and set your GPS to get you there?
If you’re considering running a promotion on Google Ads, how many sales, inquiries or demos do you need to generate in order for the campaign to be successful? Further, is that success likely?
It is better to be conservative with marketing campaign success criteria. Perhaps you say “If we can get three demos booked from this promotion in the next 2 weeks, then we can spend more time and money on expanding the reach and customer experience.” That’s starting with the end in mind.
The opposite is the marketer who launches a campaign because they feel like they should be running Facebook ads, or they should have an active Twitter feed. This leads into the next principle…
Do fewer things, but do them well
A company that has successful, accountable, profitable marketing isn’t doing everything. They’re doing a few things, but they’ve doubled down on them to the point of mastery. You’re better off running a single direct mail campaign that predictably brings in new customers and profit than you are to ensure you’re checking all the boxes of potential marketing campaigns.
Should you be prospecting on LinkedIn, running an SEO campaign or spending tens of thousands of dollars a month on paid ads? I wager to bet that you’ll have more success if you pick one of those tactics and master it. Then, when the time is right, move onto the next tactic.
Focusing the finite marketing dollars and human hours on fewer projects means standing a chance to outpace your competition.
Track everything
In order to know how to replicate positive results, you need to have breadcrumbs to tell you where leads, accounts, closed-won opportunities and sales come from.
By tagging all your traffic sources uniquely, you’ll be able to record how your suspects, prospects and customers interact on your website, with your emails, ads and offers. Then, through reporting, you can close the loop and understand the entire customer journey.
What you’ll find is that your best customers tend to have something in common. Did they read an article you published, then quickly request a demo? Did they see your Instagram ad, then go to your blog, finally to reach out through the webform?
Knowing which ad creative, individual email, keynote, workshop or podcast they consumed before becoming a customer means you can focus your efforts on the campaigns that actually drive results.
Long-term relationships over short-term profits
When running promotions, it’s easy to double-down on scarcity and overly emotional language, which tends to get a few extra people to purchase while leaving a bad taste in nearly everyone else’s mouth. Yes, scarcity and great copy works, but maximizing short-term profits is a sure-fire way to burn your audience and create an uphill battle for years to come.
To demonstrate that you value long-term relationships, you need to share important information, including opportunities to purchase your goods and services, at regular intervals. But to stand out today, you need to micro-target those messages. Be helpful and clear. Solve a real problem people have and they’ll either buy immediatley, or they’ll think about you when their problem becomes so painful that they have to make a decision.
Remember: Your end-of-month sales quota isn’t your prospects problem.
If your sales are low, there are things you can do today to drive more revenue. But the best predictor of your sales today is the marketing you ran 90 days ago.
Take intelligent risks
The salesperson’s adage is “Always Be Closing.” The marketer says “Always Be Testing.”
In today’s digital marketing landscape, your company can test a dozen email subject lines a week with ease, finding the best performing line. A savvy team can also run multi-variate split tests on webpages to increase the conversion rate.
Take this mentality of Always Be Testing into your campaign ideation as well. In order to outpace your competition, you may need to innovate your marketing and reach an audience that you aren’t currently serving. As new tech and social channels open, you may find it advantageous to test new ways to get your message in front of prospects.
But do this intelligently and minimize your risk.
It’s not necessary to spend tens of thousands of dollars to test a new platform, ad type, or mailing list. Simply start with a small audience, limited resources and test. Every company should be running at least two split tests at a time, be it on email subject lines, body copy, images on ads, price, bonuses, scarcity, etc.
Maximize value from your assets
Instead of writing another book, instead of abandoning your current marketing campaigns and funnels, first you should assess if you’ve maximized the value you can get out of what you have.
To all the authors who have a stack of books they wrote but no fan base, it would be wiser to increase your audience reach before you launch your next book into the void. Similarly, you likely don’t need a new website for your business.
Instead of thinking a new thing will solve the problem, look back at what you have with a creative lens and see how it can be repurposed. The development cost is already sunk, so you’ll have a higher ROI on a campaign if you use pre-existing assets.
Our Pledge to Close the Gender Gap in the Workplace
Parity.org is a 501c3 not-for-profit organization that is dedicated to closing the gender gap at the highest levels of business—the executive team (C-Suite) and the Board of Directors. CMOx® believes that closing the gender gap is paramount to a more equitable world.
For every CMOx® that we hire, we commit to interviewing at least one qualified female candidate. Through this commitment, your organization will help us in closing the gender gap.
