While each response to this question was unique, a few obvious themes came up. Marketers wish their CEOs knew:
- That marketing is an investment in the truest sense of the term. It takes effort, money, and time—more than CEOs recognize.
- That successful marketing is not achieved in a vacuum by the marketing team—it is reliant on sales, product, and executive leadership.
- More about the specific channels that are so key to the company’s growth.
Here are some specific quotes that fall into these categories.
Marketing is an Investment
- “A lean marketing team is only putting out fires and is unable to be strategic and proactive.” – Senior-Level B2C Marketer
- “That not all marketing/brand efforts have an immediate ROI.” – Senior-Level B2C Marketer
- “Time required to see results. Other teams’ efforts are required to accomplish tasks. Spend money to make money sometimes.” – Manager-Level B2B Marketer
- “Getting marketing projects rolling takes more time and money than you think. Make sure there is enough budget and resources allotted so that the investment that is made gives the ROI that we need.” – Entry-Level B2B Marketer
- “The need to build long term solutions that will lead to longer term success, rather than only focusing on short term gains. One example is the importance to continue with top of funnel marketing, even though you might not see results from those efforts for weeks or months.” – Manager-Level B2C Marketer
Successful Marketing is not Achieved in a Vacuum
- “All the demand generation in the world won’t make up for poor onboarding and tech support once prospects become customers.” – Senior-Level B2B Marketer
- “That Marketing can be more effective when we are well informed and part of the sales process at every touchpoint.” – Senior-Level B2C Marketer
- “There’s only so much I can do to drive sales.” – Senior-Level B2C Marketer
Specific Channels
- “Value of various marketing channels. Would be great if they had the knowledge behind which channels need to have certain levels of investments.” – Manager-Level B2B Marketer
- “Promoting too many messages to a single audience reduces efficiency.” – Specialist-Level B2B Marketer
- “The importance of organic social media to create demand and how our team structure impedes that. Also, the power that their organic social media presence can have on creating demand.” – Manager-Level B2B Marketer
- “I wish the CEO understood the value marketing brings outside of just lead-gen and sales.” – Senior-Level B2C Marketer
Other Noteworthy Quotes
- “The reasons we don’t just slap some words and graphics on a page and call it a finished piece – creative strategy is entirely lost. As is the impact of strategic branding as it relates to lead generation & deal conversions; there’s just very little awareness of much other than ‘get leads’.” – Senior-Level B2B Marketer
- “How hard it is to ‘Drop everything and make xyz your top priority.’ I can make things a priority, but there’s a lot of things going on that would fall and break if left unattended to.” – Manager-Level B2C Marketer
- “Everything is easier in theory and harder in practice. The emotional brain has a place in this role equal to the rational brain.” – Manager-Level B2B Marketer