Chief Marketing Officer job description

What does a Chief Marketing Officer do?

A Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) is the most senior marketing leader in a business. Operating at board level and reporting into the CEO, they set the marketing agenda inline with short-term and long-term company goals. They're responsible for building brand awareness and driving revenue growth through both digital and offline marketing campaigns.

Depending on the business size and team structure, the role can be both strategic and operational. In start-ups, the CMO will have full control over the marketing strategy and manage a growing team.

Key responsibilities

The CMO job description will vary based on business size, team structure and industry. However, the core responsibilities of the role include:

• Lead the marketing strategy: Develop and implement an effective marketing strategy. The strategy should deliver profitable growth through channels that maximise lead generation and retention.
• Set KPIs: Establish relevant KPIs for understanding awareness and sentiment of the brand among its audience.
• Build the marketing team: Build and grow the marketing department, ensuring there is deep channel expertise across performance, social media, CRM, SEO, content marketing, PR and brand. The CMO will provide clarity on roles, responsibilities and lines of communication.
• Manage external relationships: Build effective relationships with external agencies and hold them to account. Reduce reliance on agencies as the team expands and capabilities move in-house. Manage other strategic relationships e.g. with marketing channels, data providers and technology vendors.
• Represent the customers: Develop an analytical understanding of the customer base, needs, and targeted audience segments to support the evolution of brand positioning. CMOs should use their understanding of the customers to contribute to strategic decisions on the board.
• Work across areas of the business: Drive business partnership between the marketing function and other areas of the organisation. In particular, they will work collaboratively with the CFO and CEO. 

Skills and requirements

When hiring a Chief Marketing Officer, you should consider the following traits:

• Experience leading or operating within world-class marketing functions in high-growth businesses. Prior industry experience is often preferred but not a necessity.
• Broad marketing leadership experience across multiple channels. For example, social, video, email, websites / blogs, press, SEO, podcasts, influencers, word-of-mouth.
• Deep understanding of the overall digital marketing ecosystem, including channel-specific best practice, technology and data solutions.
• Ability to balance strategic and operational requirements. 
• Excellent leadership skills and a proven record of attracting, developing and working alongside high-quality, high-performance marketing teams. 
• Effective stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence and add value to all levels of the organisation.