Why CMOs Need to Close Campaign Gaps

Partner Content

close-campaign-gaps

CMOs are reliant on marketing operations and campaign teams to deliver solid campaign results. So, when you consider that only 12% CMOs are confident in the consistency of campaign execution and just 4% of CMOs satisfied with execution efficiency*, there’s a major gap between what is needed, and what is being delivered… which presents a real risk to the CMO.

But what are the reasons behind this low level of confidence and satisfaction?

Recent research* has pointed to a lack of in-house skill sets and low levels of satisfaction with agency support. However, given that good processes enable people and help to bridge skills gaps, understanding what marketing processes are in play for campaign management and execution will be crucial for closing the campaign gaps.

Understanding marketing processes

While 24% of CMOs believe ‘continuously monitoring marketing processes’ is extremely important, only 8% are extremely satisfied with the marketing process reviews taking place.

This starts to paint a picture of dissonance. It’s a priority for almost a quarter of CMOs to monitor processes, but the reality is that this is unlikely to be to their satisfaction. 

Where marketing processes are being constantly reviewed, 32% of CMOs said that this rarely resulted in the measurement of change or improvements. The most likely explanation for this is the lack of in-house skills to measure or manage the required changes within departments.

When asked about this in the context of campaign management, 52% believe that it is important that staff responsible for this are familiar with managing marketing process workflows and customer journeys. This is particularly pertinent when considering the rise in omni-channel marketing and the increasing complexity of customer journeys. However, only 16% are satisfied that their team possesses sufficient skills and understanding of marketing process workflows to achieve campaign management and execution requirements.

Given that just 8% of staff have received formal training in this area, it starts to become apparent why there is such a lack of confidence and satisfaction, often reaching board level… the marketing teams don’t have the process skills they need, and they are not being supported with training to bridge this gap.  

The same incongruence is observed for campaign workflows. 56% of CMOs reported that it is mandatory for documented campaign workflows in all marketing departments or large-scale campaigns. So why are just 12% satisfied that the teams possess the skills to accurately do this? And more importantly, how can they start to close this gap?

Having strategic campaign workflows and a review of marketing processes is important, yet this doesn’t seem to be happening at an operational level. This can be explained in part by the tools being used to manage campaign workflows, with the three most popular methods cited by CMOs as:

  •     54.5% slide deck
  •     50% spreadsheets
  •     31.8% process mapping software

Not only are these manual processes difficult to manage and time intensive to administer, but how do they contribute to effective campaign reporting?

This is where the role of technology comes to the fore. Using the right technology, you can automate campaign workflows and monitor campaign progress – helping to achieve the campaign consistency and efficiency that is currently lacking.

*Online survey of 25 CMOs, conducted in partnership with BluprintX and Financial Services Forum, July 2020