5 Ways to Prove Marketing’s Value to the C-Suite

Why is Marketing always first on the chopping block when it comes to budget cuts? 

Because of soft metrics that are harder to track and “fluffy” language, Marketing can be overlooked by executives who don’t understand its value and overall contribution to success. 

Marketers are advocating for themselves more easily using analytics, but what other methods could CMOs, VPMs, Marketing Managers, and any Marketer in an organization use to get the C-Suite on the same page?

We pulled insights from over 70 CMO Spotlight interviews with heads of Marketing for companies such as Heineken, Invesco, Papa Johns, Bayer Consumer Health, Citrix, Danone, NCR, Prudential Financial, Harry’s, United Healthcare, and more to segment the different areas Marketers can focus on to advocate for themselves.

5 Ways to Prove Marketing’s Value to the C-Suite 

#1 - Attribution: How do you track marketing efforts in your organization? What has been the most effective/impactful?

Host regular company meetings. Danone hosts Quarterly media pulse reports to talk about gains and progress with every department. Having every department there helps people recognize how everyone plays a part in the win. Preferred Hotels + Resorts emphasizes that, when presenting the results, make sure they are benefit-led, highlighting success. 

Dashboards for every department should be displayed during these meetings, as well as on an everyday basis to track progress. Flexshares Exchange Traded Funds suggests doing this because not everyone needs a detailed report, but a dashboard can display information on a need-to-know basis, and keep everyone informed and motivated. To keep everyone on the same page, the dashboard could highlight not only results, but where money is being invested. Coldwell Banker breaks down the money going into the work and the money being made. It makes it a lot easier to figure out what is working and what could be cut. 

National Spine & Pain Centers is able to track every dollar spent and know who it is targeted to at the household level, tracking all the way to electronic medical records. Not everything will be trackable, but data makes it easier to track than ever before! So track everything you can, and make it public to the team. In order to know what you’re tracking, align on specific goals. The marketing representative at NBCUniversal Marketing Council encourages having projections and estimations to target. These can be set by asking questions and giving estimates of cost based on prior data.

#2 - Collaboration: How do we make partnerships and collaborate with our non-marketing colleagues in Finance, Sales, Legal, etc., particularly our C-suite colleagues?

Multiple marketing leaders, including the CMO and EVP at Affinipay, recommend speaking the same language as other departments in order to get on the same page, advocating for Marketing, and moving forward. When you’re in Marketing, you’re working with everyone. So it is important to understand the Sales portion, learn financial talk to befriend the CFO, get together to create a unified goal. Investing in relationships with leadership will help them see you.

A part of investing in the relationship is making others feel like a part of your process. Involve them so they understand the steps of the journey instead of a giant reveal of results at the end. SweetWater Brewing Company’s representative suggested making stakeholders at every level love what you do. Bringing them in early means shared success and shared ownership. Creating communication benchmarks to update them alongside your campaign efforts is a great strategy to make sure they stay invested. 

#3 - Education: How do we do a better job of getting the non-marketing parts of our organizations to understand and become advocates for marketing activities?

Help other teams understand where marketing is in the pipeline, how there are different approaches that will lead to different results, and how Marketing impacts revenue and all ties into the company’s overarching goals. It’s important to emphasize that the funnel is not linear. Multiple marketing leaders emphasized that if marketing is taken away, then there are repercussions. The Chief Marketing & Communications Officer & Chief Customer Experience Officer at Trinity Health said a scorecard showcasing Marketing’s success may help get this point across. 

Education efforts are ongoing, and things won’t click overnight. You can educate the team about Marketing through bite-sized chunks, seminars, and luncheons. Explain the strategy and use of each dollar. The end goal of these educational efforts is that the C-Suite sees Marketing as a value driver instead of a cost center.

#4 - Communication (Storytelling): How do we frame marketing efforts and results to better highlight successes beyond ROI numbers? 

Marketing needs marketing to prove that it is an asset to the organization, and rise above an “us vs them” mentality. 

The best way to position Marketing as the solution is telling a compelling story that ties the numbers and goals together. Not every action is going to be trackable, but it is possible to see behavioral changes after certain campaigns. The Atlanta Hawks and Square marketers harped on being compelling storytellers. People will remember anecdotes more than numbers, but use both to make an impact. It is how the story is packaged that will make the difference about whether or not someone wants to invest in you. How can you tell a compelling story?

1. Package everything that comes through the door in the lens of “consumer, our mission, our vision, and our purpose” - this makes it relevant and ties to the company goals. 

2. Speaking of company goals, know the WHY behind the organization and be clear about KPIs. 

3. When telling the story to the team, lead with quantitative to get their attention, and then socialize the impact with qualitative storytelling to keep the attention. 

4. Be transparent about the numbers as well. Celebrate the success, but be accountable by breaking down the losses to understand what went wrong so that it can be fixed next time around. 

5. Lastly, have empathy for how others see Marketing’s role in the organization. That’s why it’s important to speak the same language. 

#5 - Alignment: How do we build company alignment towards a common mission or purpose?

Ask the leaders what is most important to them, focus on one thing, and make specific goals towards that one thing. For the marketing budget, ask the team how they would like to grow business/what is the revenue goal for this year, and tie activity to revenue. To make everything more of a cut-and-dry process, create three black and white objectives across the company. If actions don’t move the needle towards them, then they are not worth the time. This could help everyone stay focused and in their own lane. Sometimes organizations get excited about the newest technology or even social media platforms that seem engaging, but have nothing to do with their company or audience. Being overly clear about goals and what everyone should be focused on will make tracking easier and follow-ups more seamless. 

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We are continually talking to Marketers about what they can do to advocate for themselves in organizations, and how they can optimize their efforts. Our latest #MarketersBreakfast also covered this topic, and led to an interesting discussion that you can read here. Basically, speak the same language, know your why, and tell a story backed by numbers and empathy. 

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