By Bob Van Rossum

Now is a great time to give your company a Talent Advantage.  At a time when most companies are scared to make permanent headcount additions, you can hire an interim CMO on a full-time or part-time basis for less than you can imagine.  Need someone to set online marketing strategy, no problem.    Top companies are not running scared but using the opportunities available in the marketplace to strategically improve their marketing programs for years to come.

Outside experts bring valuable experience to your company.  Now is the time to move your company forward not sit idly and wait out the tough times.  It is time to utilize contractors / consultants to evolve your business. 

Top reasons to move your company forward with outside talent:
Many companies are finding that they get more bang for their buck by consulting with outside experts instead of hiring new staff people. Here’s the logic:

·    Executive Level Talent without a long-term commitment. Most companies avoid hiring the senior level talent they need due to the long-term overhead commitment.  Bring in an executive to set a new course and when they hand over the new plan you existing staff can execute.  If you are expecting your existing staff to get you any farther than they already have, you are likely expecting too much.

·    Ability to insert an entire team.  Many organizations have an area of their business that is behind the competition.  People on your team are already too busy to fix this, but you can easily insert an outside to completely revamp an area of your organization.  We have found many companies have failed to keep pace with web / online marketing.  Good news is help can be on the inside of your organization in about a week.   

·    Ability to scale up or down at will.  Having contractors on staff is much more like dating, as opposed to marrying a full-time employee.  If your needs change, so can the people you have working for you.   

·    Fresh Ideas.  The new team comes from a variety of experience and backgrounds. All companies suffer from group think and limitations based on what they see.  Outsiders avail you to an entirely new set of thoughts and ideas.  They will provide a unique perspective that will increase the productivity of your existing workforce.   

·    Peace of mind.  Would you like a chance to try before you buy? The risk of hiring someone into your organization is significant.  The reality is you can try before you buy at most any level of the organization.  Hiring an employee into your organization means you have made at least a short-term commitment.  If you hired your CMO or web designer on a contract / consulting basis and they are not a culture fit, making a change is fast and easy.   

The concept of outsourcing your CMO is new, while outsourcing your CFO or CIO is more common.  Ultimately outsourcing the CMO function makes more sense.  Companies with more than $ 1B in revenue must have a CMO, about half of smaller companies are better off with a strong VP and they bring in an interim CMO for 3 months a year to set strategy.  The quality of your marketing will increase and the cost saving is tremendous.  

By Bob Van Rossum 

www.marketproinc.com

By Bob Van Rossum  

The average CMO tenure is 18 months and the responsibility of this is shared by company and candidate.  Ultimately neither side knows how to properly run the interview process.  Both sides end up making a decision from far too little data.  If you are interviewing for a CMO job and want to make sure you can succeed when you get there you need to prepare properly for the interview.  From the interview, the candidate needs to glean the corporation’s vision of marketing.  Does this vision actually match the expectations of the job you will do? 

Too often, corporations have lofty marketing goals, but are unwilling to give the CMO the latitude to create marketing programs that will make those goals possible.  Bottom line is to achieve success in today’s marketplace you must successfully differentiate your brand and products.  However most corporations take a risk adverse approach to marketing that leaves them with a lot of me too advertising, you can throw away remarkable amounts of money when your advertising looks like all your competitors.  You always have to protect your brand, but you can do that and still have great marketing.  Unfortunately it is rare a CEO knows enough about marketing to understand what differentiation is, let alone why it is important.  That is not to take anything away from a person who is probably extremely qualified to be the CEO, most CEO’s simply have not spent any significant time during their careers in a marketing role.  So they manage the CMO the same way they manage the CFO and it quickly becomes a disaster. 

As a candidate for a CMO gig, you need to ask some vital questions?  Some of which will seem very basic, but are overlooked most of the time:

1.       How do you plan to define success for the new CMO in the first 12 months and the first 3 years? 

2.       Does [COMPANY NAME] have a marketing strategy to differentiate itself from the competition or are you looking for the CMO to create such a strategy?

3.       How does the company’s culture impact its marketing?

4.       How would you grade the company’s marketing over the past year?

5.       How has marketing impacted the company’s bottom line over the past couple of years?

Properly hiring a CMO is the most important and challenging task any organization has.  Unfortunately the CMO candidate often fails before they ever started because they did not find out enough about the opportunity before accepting.  CMO will have big deliverables, which can be obtained if they hire the best possible candidate and give him/her the enough latitude to truly differentiate.  Too often new CMO’s are expected to do great things while only painting inside the lines.    

Recommended CMO Reading:

1. Eating the Big Fish
2. The Speed of Trust
3. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

www.marketproinc.com

Simply having a professional looking and up-to-date resume is no longer enough to help you secure a new marketing position. Web 2.0 exposure is quickly becoming a real-time living, breathing demonstration of your expertise. Social networking sites can tell colleagues and potential employers what you know, who you know, and what you’ve done. But in order to leverage that tool for your next marketing job search, you need to know which sites to concentrate on. Then, highlight your skills and expertise for the whole world to see. You never know who may be “following” you—possibly your next employer!

Whether you’re looking for a job now, or anticipate making a change at some point in your career, now is the time to put your best foot forward in the social marketing arena. Recruiters and prospective employers will be googling your name and seeing what pops up. Years ago, resumes and CVs were the main tool for showcasing your past positions and skills, and while they are still important, interested parties can find so much more information online. They can see how involved you are in your industry, get a sense of your personality, and see if you play (interact) well with others. No matter how far off your next job search is (and do you ever really know?), you need to utilize Web 2.0 to stand out above the crowd.

The best social networking sites allow you to interact with others and make your statement on the marketing world by building your name recognition, highlighting your accomplishments, and building valuable connections.

LinkedIn is one of the top social networking sites in the business world. There you can fill out your profile (don’t forget to upload your professional headshot!), connect with other people you know and trust, and post questions (and answers!) to your group.

Article marketing can help develop your expert platform. Pick a topic you know and write an article about it. Send it to professional associations you belong to, post them on your website or blog, and submit them to article submission services. Don’t forget to include your author box, which is like free advertising for your business. A word of caution though—make sure your articles contain useful information and aren’t overly self promotional or they might get rejected.

Blogging is an effective tool for easily demonstrating your expertise.  Remember to keep your blogs relevant and that quality is more important than quantity. Schedule “write blog post” assignments in your calendar so you don’t forget to update it. A couple times a week is ideal, but no less than a few times a month. And don’t forget that blogging is a two-way street. Comment on other blogs too! Readers of popular blogs may just click back through the comment you left and become new fans of yours. Look into guest blogging opportunities, comment on local news blogs, industry blogs, and on blogs of colleagues with similar interests to yours.

Twitter, a site for microblogging, is a rapidly growing, low-time investment way to keep active in your profession. Short, 140 character updates go out to those subscribed to you. Just like blogs, don’t forget to comment on other people’s posts to build relationships.  The real value of Twitter is in who you chose to follow, if you chose wisely you might just learn something yourself.  Try TweetDeck to keep it all sorted.  

Of course, there are many more social networking opportunities out there and new ones crop up all the time. Look for those that allow you to showcase your expertise, connect with others you respect, and grow your fan base. Don’t forget to update your status and posts regularly, just as you regularly check and respond to emails and keep appointments. Networking with fellow marketing colleagues today may just land you a great new marketing position tomorrow.

www.marketproinc.com