By: Published under: Business Processes, CMO
The role of the CMO has changed dramatically in recent years. What was once a corporate-sanctioned creative 
role is now a driver of everything from product design to budget decisions. An effective CMO has her finger on the pulse of the company, the industry and the customer.
Here are six traits that distinguish the best from the rest:
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Eat Data for Breakfast
Data-driven marketing initiatives are fueling risk averse, high-return marketing investments. Today’s marketing executives must understand how to analyze and apply the reams of data available from all forms of media collection to create a comprehensive and effective strategy.
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Work for the Customer
Consumers are not looking at your company from a single angle. Instead, they are reviewing your site, mobile app, mobile site, social media feeds and reviews to get a full picture of how you operate. You should be approaching your customer the same way. When you have a fully developed definition of your customer you can begin to create solutions that serve their needs.
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Be Second Date Material
If you want to hold the attention of your audience you have to be both funny and smart. We are all conditioned to ignore ads; screaming announcers and dancing animals simply are not cutting it anymore. As CMO you are in charge of the entire brand presence; which includes ensuring that you are feeding your community so that they can feed you.
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Your Website Isn’t the Only Thing That Needs to be Responsive
Adjusting your plan of attack based on the real-time feedback you receive is critical to being an industry leader. Many CMO’s are still sitting back, waiting for the end of year results to judge success or failure and to make strategy adjustments; in the meantime, valuable market share is going to the companies that are responsive and agile.
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Cross Train
If your marketing efforts are divided into silos it’s time to break down the walls and get everyone playing together. When customer data is separated from email campaigns and distinct from social media efforts the resulting message is disjointed. Remember, we said earlier that customers are looking you up everywhere; make sure they see a unified message.
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Lead with Purpose
When you mine for data and distill it into meaningful actions that entertain and educate your base by including data from all aspects of the business you are setting a leadership example that is tough to beat. Stakeholders within the marketing department and from within other areas of the business will recognize your efforts and willingness to take action.
The role of the CMO can no longer be categorized as a “creative-type” that develops a few initiatives and then waits to see what happens. The modern CMO is a proactive, cross-functional and technical wizard that brings the best of what the business gathers and creates to potential clients precisely when, where and how they need it.