Your marketing leaders are incredibly important figures in your organization, as they’re responsible for generating new revenue, improving your business reputation, and ultimately setting a sustainable course of business development. If they’re going to perform their best, they’re going to need additional support.
So what are the best ways to support your marketing leaders?
Why Marketing Leaders Need Support
Being a leader in the marketing industry comes with a lot of stress and pressure. This is a highly competitive environment, especially for businesses in fiercely competitive industries, and most business leaders expect a lot from their marketing officers.
On top of that, marketing is often one of the first areas to receive cuts and modifications when things aren’t going particularly well. This makes your marketing leaders feel like their heads are perpetually on a chopping block – on top of the normal stress they feel.
In many ways, marketing itself is also a challenging environment because of its constant evolution. The marketing tactics that worked a decade ago have mostly fallen by the wayside, as new tools, technologies, and consumer expectations have taken over.
If you want your marketing leaders to perform their best, reasonably manage their stress, and stick with your organization for the long term, you need to find ways to support them.
How to Support Your Best Marketing Leaders
These are some of the best strategies you can use to support your best marketing leaders.
- Ensure adequate human resource support. Marketing leaders can perform much better if they have competent people surrounding them. Not only does this make them feel more empowered to delegate and handle heavy workloads, but it also allows for more collaboration and creative brainstorming when it comes to solving complex problems. A fractional CMO can serve this role well. Hiring a fractional CMO is like hiring a flexible marketing consultant who can assist your CMO in a wide variety of matters, from high-level concepting to ground-level execution. If your marketing leaders are stuck on a hard problem, or if they’re just burning out from being overwhelmed, a fractional CMO can step in, help, and make sustainable long-term changes for the better.
- Provide adequate access to tools and technologies. You should also make sure your marketing department has access to the best tools and technologies you can afford. These days, marketing is largely driven by technological advancements, such as AI-powered automation. If you’re not actively taking advantage of these powerful new technologies, it’s going to be much easier for your business to be swallowed by your rivals.
- Set clear goals and expectations. Setting clear goals and expectations is fundamental if you want your leaders to succeed. In most environments, a marketing leader is responsible for setting specific goals for the department, so that everyone beneath them knows what they’re working for. However, they still need some sort of high-level direction to make sure they’re operating in complete unison with the vision of the CEO.
- Provide meaningful feedback. Try to give as much meaningful feedback as possible, including positive reinforcement for what you appreciate most and constructive criticism for things that you think could be improved. If you have marketing expertise, this shouldn’t be difficult. If you’re largely trusting your marketing leaders to handle the marketing side of things on their own, this may be more challenging, but you can at least ask open-ended questions to guide constructive conversations.
- Offer opportunities for learning and growth. Marketers, like most employees, want to continue learning and growing. Make sure your leaders have opportunities to continue their education, gain new experiences, and keep up with the latest trends. For example, you might pay for them to go to classes or seminars, or support them in attending upcoming conferences.
- Actively listen. Active listening is a powerful tool that can help almost anyone feel better about almost anything. If your marketing leaders are stressed, struggling with a specific problem, or dealing with general burnout, sometimes just listening patiently is all it takes to help them feel better.
- Remain flexible. Finally, try to remain flexible as you build a better environment for your marketing leaders and their teams. It’s unlikely that you’ll find the perfect balance for your marketing department right away, and you’ll constantly have access to new information that should make you update your expectations and perspectives. Only the most adaptable teams will be successful in the long run.
Keep in mind that every individual is unique. What works for one marketing officer isn’t necessarily going to work for another, and specific issues can cause complications beyond what reasonable levels of support can solve.
Keep an open mind and stay flexible if you want to create the best possible working environment for your marketing leaders and the rest of your executive suite.