Business Growth Strategies For CEOs: Top CMOs On Marketing Strategy Implementations

Part 3: How Does Employee Engagement Win the Growth Game?

Thu, Feb 20, 2020 | Posted by Marc Umscheid

Assessing the Health of Your Culture

Co-Authored by Marc Umscheid, CMO, Chief Outsiders and Kristin Anderson, Partner, LeadQuest Consulting

In our first two blogs (Part one and Part two) on the subject of corporate culture, we have been making the case for the importance of a serious, top-down effort to ensure your company is united around a single vision -- and that your corporate culture is working for you, not against you. We’ve seen how such a CEO-led commitment can lead to riches beyond your wildest dreams (or, at least, measurably better performance), and we’ve heard directly from one CEO who grappled with the effects of a toxic culture before his personal involvement – and a committed effort -- restored balance across his organization.

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Making Marketing Accountable – Welcome to the New Strategic Reality

Sun, Feb 16, 2014 — 6 Actions CEOs Should Take to Win in 2014. I read with interest the recent HBR blog article How CMOs Can Get CFOs on Their Side with great interest. The authors contend that “marketing is in the midst of an ROI revolution,” something that I whole-heartedly agree with. The precision with which marketing activities can now be measured is unprecedented, which has several impacts on our businesses.

5 Steps to Making the Right CRM Decision for Your Business

Wed, Oct 24, 2012 — Today's Guest Blog is by Barret Blank, President and CEO of BB2e

How Do Successful CEOs Make SEO Expenses Pay Off?

Tue, Aug 14, 2012 — Are you asking the right questions? I would love to go back to the good old days when I picked up the phone to make a cold call or I got into my car and drove to a business that I just knew would benefit from what I can do for them. But in today’s fast moving society that demands instant gratification, your web site has quickly evolved into the preferred and most convenient method of fulfilling your customer’s needs. So what are you doing to make sure you are helping your customers find you, buy from you, and recommend you to their colleagues? Now that your SEO is working, can you scale back the expense? Just because your web site investment is starting to achieve desired results doesn’t mean you can dial back the effort. It’s not okay to scale back once you’re there at the top of page 1 on a Google search; instead you need to keep it going to maintain it. It is clear that search engine optimization results can diminish very quickly, especially if the SEO effort is scaled back. Your SEO strategy needs to be reviewed constantly to make certain it incorporates the latest techniques (which are constantly evolving). SEO is a moving target and CEOs that are excited today about their investment in SEO will be disappointed tomorrow if SEO investment is cut back. Ad Age Digital's Yaron Galai published (August 9, 2012) an article on the impact of Google Panda vs Google Peguin. Galal writes that with the new Google Penguin quality content is again king. CEOs need someone on their team that understands the importance of quality content on SEO. "Quality Content is King." Who is in charge of your content and are they staying current?" See link to article To maintain your SEO position you will have to create and evaluate metrics associated with your SEO campaign to ensure that you are on the right track. The most important metrics to measure are the things that impact revenue. CEOs need to force this thought process in their organization. When your team spends a buck on SEO or web site improvements they need to make at least a buck in profit just to break even. Force the team to create metrics that are meaningful.

9 Disciplines to Activate Collins’ 20-Mile March

Wed, Jul 25, 2012 — Discipline is Good, Right? In Jim Collins’ “Great By Choice” this pyramid model provides a framework for his trilogy-logical discussion. I’ve read this book wearing two lenses – one, as a principal in our firm, and two as a marketing executive. As a business leader, I aspire to a higher level of discipline in my leadership as well within my personal work ethic. As a marketer, I recognize – primarily from the past 10 years of expanding digitally-dominated marketing and dynamic market ecosystems – that discipline is indeed the capstone of success. Goes Against My Instincts The 20 Mile March is “Jim Collins code” for consistent, methodical and metered execution. He correctly calls it out as a choice or decision, even a strategy, for securing sustained growth. The argument goes against several mantras ingrained within me – “strike while the iron’s hot” “leverage your opportunities” “capture the moment”. No, instead, his research observed that companies win (and south pole explorers survive) when they meter their progress. How might this apply to our business at Chief Outsiders? Perhaps we should add one new major market a year to our firm, regardless of the market conditions. If it’s a tough year, we add one new market. If the economy is rocking and highly favorable, we still add only one new market. Collins’ research tells us the benefits of steady pace outweigh the opportunistic instinct to lunge ahead in good times or hunker down in tough times.

Growth Insights for CEOs

Part 3: How Does Employee Engagement Win the Growth Game?

Assessing the Health of Your Culture

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Making Marketing Accountable – Welcome to the New Strategic Reality

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How Do Successful CEOs Make SEO Expenses Pay Off?

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9 Disciplines to Activate Collins’ 20-Mile March

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