Should the Chief Marketing Officer Be The Driver of All-Things-Mobile?

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When brands decide to “go mobile” – sometimes the wrong executives are at the table making the final decisions. In reality, the CMO should be the driver of all-things-mobile. Additionally, mobile is so much more than just text messaging on the vendor side and the buyer side. Mobile technology is used in many consumer applications. Typically its function is to drive new customer engagement initiatives, sales revenue or help communicate with and retain existing customers by keeping them connected and in the know. These should be purely marketing functions that should have the CMO’s attention. Additionally, CMOs need to speak into and invest in the mobile process from concept to deployment, and from conversion to repeat customer.

Is it possible in just a few short years the CMO may have 80-90% of the buying power for mobile consumer engagement channels?

Chief marketing officers are no longer just the creative minds in the business. They must manage a budget like the CFO, interact with technology like the CTO, deploy and manage widespread initiatives like the COO and understand the digital landscape like the CDO. This paradigm shift in thinking and action from years past requires a different breed of marketers that must think and act digital and mobile first. This also requires a robust technology budget to support business goals.

“By 2017, the CMO will spend more on IT than the CIO.” – Gartner Analyst Laura McLellan

Chief Marketing Officers Will Spend Big

In a 2015 CMO.com article, a study by Conductor indicates that chief marketing officers will spend big on technology in the coming years. Below are just a few of the indicators from the study that clearly inform us all that technology is critical for retail marketing teams. If your team isn’t thinking about how mobile technology should be integrated with your marketing strategy, maybe it’s time to start.

65% of marketing executives plan on spending more on marketing technology in the coming year.

61% of marketing executives say data is more important than it was a year ago.

28% of those same executives plan on spending significantly more (25% or more)

“By 2017, marketers will spend approximately $31.1 billion on mobile advertising -nearly 4x of that spent in 2013.” – Webbiquity

Mobile Strategy

It’s fair to say that nearly 100% of chief marketing officers want and need a mobile strategy that is highly efficient for both the company to deploy and for the consumer to engage with easily; this is not a simple task to accomplish. CMOs are spending more on mobile engagement initiatives because they understand this is how customers engage with products and services. This enables them to stay ahead of the curve all while they become more educated on the tools and tactics needed to help them accomplish their lofty sales goals. If you’re a marketing executive and you haven’t started thinking about your mobile marketing strategy yet… 2016 is definitely time to start.

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YourBrandExposed is designed to look at digital using a creative, analytical, innovative marketing perspective. We’re a team of digital gurus working with companies who want to leverage the power of digital, web, social, mobile and content marketing strategies. Contact us if you’re feeling the digital squeeze on how to best market and expose your company.

Scott MacFarland

Chief Content Marketer | Digital Strategist

YourBrandExposed.com

HuffingtonPost | Relevance | Natcom Global

LinkedIn | Twitter: @scmacfarland

Email: yourbrandexposed@yahoo.com

Photo Credit: Pexels.com CC0 License

Sources:

http://www.insidecxm.com/a-chief-marketing-officer-kicks-off-2015/

http://www.cmo.com/features/articles/2015/1/7/study_uncovers_cmo_s.html

http://www.conductor.com/learning-center/182-marketing-executives-reveal-their-2015-success-tactics/

http://webbiquity.com/marketing-research/21-vital-mobile-marketing-facts-and-statistics-for-2014/