Tackle Growing CMO Pressure With the Right Agency Partner

In an era of rapid change, the CMO’s role is quickly evolving. With new responsibilities come new pressures. In addition to overseeing branding, advertising, and digital marketing initiatives, CMOs are now expected to drive revenue and growth. They’re also expected to power data-driven decisions using new technology including AI. The focus is on making strategic business impact — and being able to prove it.

It’s no surprise that in this climate of heightened pressure and shifting priorities, businesses are expecting more from their agency partners, too. Smart CMOs can lean into this and use the relationship to their advantage. Partnering with a seasoned, successful agency can help you keep up with ever-changing demands and deliver quantifiable business results. Let’s dig into the new ROI-driven demands CMOs are facing and what kind of agency partner can help you meet them by bringing more than digital marketing materials to the table.

What’s expected of CMOs today

In today’s dynamic digital landscape, change is constant. Even to fulfill their traditional roles, CMOs have to keep up with customer expectations, emerging tech, and business needs, which are all changing — rapidly and endlessly. Add to that the adoption of omnichannel strategies, the explosion of AI use in recent years, and the added pressure of linking marketing efforts to revenue, and CMOs have a lot more on their plates than they used to.

According to a recent Deloitte article for the Wall Street Journal, CMO is now “the most complex role in the organization.” CMOs have to be thinking ten steps ahead, anticipating what’s coming next and being ready to tackle it. That requires agility, critical thinking, and cross-functional collaboration. While the specifics may vary from company to company, CMOs need to be able to work closely with sales, tech, and finance teams to move the dial on strategic business goals through successful marketing plays.
With this added pressure and the speed of change, it’s no wonder that CMO turnover has been on the rise for the past three to four years. When a new CMO takes the helm, agency partnerships are one of the things they often inherit from their predecessors. Rather than taking an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach, CMOs would be well served to consider finding an agency partner that can help them align brand and marketing initiatives with long-term organizational goals — and provide the ability to link those initiatives to actual revenue and growth.

Tapping into technological advantage

Today’s CMOs have to be adaptable and adept at more than strategy. They must also know how to use advanced data analytics and digital tools to predict market trends and craft marketing strategies with precision. And they have to know how to measure marketing performance and prove ROI.

One advantage of a strategic agency partnership is technology integration to help streamline and automate key performance-focused processes. At Clear Digital, we partner with multiple technology vendors whose solutions make life easier for our clients. For example, we can integrate customer relationship management (CRM) systems, marketing automation tools, and digital advertising technologies into your tech stack to optimize customer engagement and campaign performance.

We’ll also work closely with you to help you master the skills you need to deliver personalized customer experiences at scale and accurately measure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. We keep our finger on the pulse of digital marketing innovation, so we can help our clients stay ahead of the curve. It’s something we pride ourselves on that we also love to do.

More than a marketing partnership

Business expectations for agencies are changing, too — another reason to consider re-evaluating partnerships that may have run their course. Look for an agency that’s not only creatively inclined but also deeply embedded in data-driven decision making. A partner that will become an extension of your team, has deep knowledge of your organization or industry, and works hard to create more efficiencies, is one worth investing in.  You also want a team that will ask the right questions and challenge your assumptions. In other words, one that will tell you what you need to hear—not just what you want to hear.

In addition to being able to deliver on your project goals, an established and successful agency will propose strategies that align to your long-term business objectives. It’s all about what the agency team can bring to the table, and how they can add value. Successful agencies act as brand stewards, balancing innovative ideas with the needs and concerns the CMO initially brings to the table.

Partnering for shared success

In order to lead and innovate in this new landscape, you have to adapt. Driving brand awareness and generating leads is still important, but it’s no longer the end goal. CMOs can set their teams up for success by incorporating comprehensive data analytics, automation, and tech integration into your strategies. This positions you to better meet customer expectations while also driving measurable business outcomes. By aligning marketing strategies with corporate goals, CMOs can affect broader business decisions and growth trajectories. The right agency partner will help you understand what’s coming next and adapt at speed.

Clear Digital has been partnering with leading B2B brands to drive real digital performance for over 20 years. Our reputation, client recommendations, and high NPS scores attest to the quality of our work — and to the strength of our partnerships. Let’s talk about what we can build together.