There comes a point in every startup's growth when the founding team has to shift from MVP mode to growth mode quickly. A chief marketing officer (CMO) can make a big difference in terms of customer acquisition and strategic marketing.
But how do you know it's finally time to bring in C-level marketing talent? And is it necessary to hire a CMO, or can a founder assume that role?
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To find out, we asked a panel of successful entrepreneurs to share their insights. Here's what they had to say:
If you can get a CMO early on with equity, then do it. He or she should be able to help you with market research and identifying customer and user needs as the product is developed so you can build a product that better aligns with a specific market's needs. If you're not able to get one on board early, bring one in as soon as the product is good enough to generate interest from your target market. A good CMO can't save a bad product, but he can take an OK product to the next level and make it better through proper market research and customer feedback. A good CMO should be a good communicator who finds a way to communicate the market needs to your product team and a way to position your product's benefits in the market.
- Andy Karuza, Brandbuddee
When you’re not growing at a pace you need in order to be an industry leader or provide the returns your investors are looking for, it's time to think about hiring a CMO. Companies hit plateaus and reach levels of maturity. A CMO is a transformable leader who can help pivot an organization in a direction where you can grow.
- Brett Farmiloe, Digital Marketing Agency
It is easy to lose the ability to effectively oversee your marketing efforts when you are aggressively expanding social media. Regardless, you should hire a CMO if you can afford it; they’re great additions to any company.
- Andrew Schrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance
At least one founder should be a marketing expert. There is no reason to have a dedicated CMO. When starting and growing an Internet company, the assumption is that at least one founder should know enough about marketing to fulfill this role. Once you're at $10 million in revenue, it's time to hire a CMO.
- Ryan Shank, Mhelpdesk
I realized we needed a CMO after 18 months when our marketing channels were obviously inconsistent. I was able to maintain a consistent voice on emails and Facebook, but our brand was portrayed completely different on Twitter, in print and at live events. A CMO should help you standardize and elevate all of your brand touchpoints. Hire one as soon as you find that customers are having an inconsistent experience.
- Aaron Schwartz, Modify Watches
When your branding loses focus, it can confuse the market about your entire story, and that may cut into revenue. Bring a CMO on board as soon as your product starts to take off and well before your branding is muddled. A CMO can ensure that your message is crisp and in line with your strategy and that all branding elements stay consistent across every channel and platform. Fulfilling the role of a CEO takes a lot of time from your schedule, and so does branding. Once you start to grow, you will have to focus on many things, and if you can no longer focus on personally reviewing all the marketing that goes out and represents your brand, you need to find a CMO. He can spend his entire day focusing on that task so you can focus on continuing that growth.
- Jay Wu, A Forever Recovery
A CMO is required when an organization has multiple marketing functions that need to coexist and cooperate fluently with one another. If there is a need for multi-level sales, advertising, revenue maximization and affiliate programs to coexist, then you need a CMO. Otherwise, a marketing director should be sufficient.
- Yuriy Boykiv, Gravity Media
Marketing is one of the most important and neglected elements in startups. You need to master communication through several digital channels early on if you want to spark discussion and build a community around your brand. Cultivating these relationships to turn prospects into a community of enthusiastic clients and users takes time and effort. Your CMO needs to look beyond traditional advertising, focus on emerging technologies and be someone who feels comfortable iterating off of data and making split-second content-related decisions. Marketing and metrics is a marriage that can't be broken thanks to technologies that make both easier than ever to measure.
- Sarah Ware, Markerly
It is time to hire a CMO when your marketing budget becomes substantial enough to run campaigns across numerous channels. A CMO should be experienced in effectively allocating a larger budget, optimizing campaigns and driving ROI. At this stage, marketing is extremely important and time-consuming. It is wise to put the budget in the hands of someone who has the experience, focus and foresight to drive results.
- Kevin Tighe II, WeBRAND
A CMO can understand the brand and find creative ways to express it. However, the CEO and CMO have to be in complete alignment about what the company stands for because operations and hiring need to support the brand. These things ensure that the company lives up to the promise it makes to the consumer through new products, the way they are priced, new distribution channels and promotions. Until the company is in a mature state and clear on who they are, the CEO is the CMO.
- Reid Carr, Red Door Interactive
Hiring a CMO is as important as hiring a CEO or CTO. From surveying users to scaling the company, a CMO is critical for not just the later stages, but also the early stages of your company. To some degree, a CMO is more important at the earlier stages of your development than the later ones because having the right groundwork early can mean the difference between a company that accelerates at 20 percent a month and a company that accelerates at 5 percent.
- Liam Martin, Staff.com
If you have a great product and no one knows about it, it's usually an issue related to bad branding or marketing. Hire a CMO who knows what he is doing to fix this, and then spend your time focusing on additional ways to improve your product and grow your business.
- Andrew Saladino, Just Bath Vanities
Image: iStock, kevinruss
Scott Gerber is the founder of Young Entrepreneur Council, an invite-only organization comprised of the world's most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recenty launched ...More