Marketers, Stop Talking Marketing AT the C Suite.

May 16, 2024

A conversation that comes up time and time (and time and time) again in marketing circles is how do we sell in marketing as a revenue generator rather than a cost centre.

More often than not this ambles lazily into how do we justify long term brand spend when we can't show immediate ROI as we can with performance.

It's a more nuanced take on how can we been seen as something other than the oft cited "colouring in department"?

Or, if you are American, the "colouring in department".

Now, some of you might not like what I'm about to say.

But we have brought it all on ourselves.

You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!

God damn us all to hell!

Here's the thing, marketing is the only core business function that routinely talks in obscure jargon, citing luminaries nobody outside our profession knows, making arguments that nobody outside of our world cares about, obsessing over things which make no sense to rational people.

And in doing so we've earned our place on the table with the smaller kids. With their grubby little hands and their open mouthed spit-eating.

Seriously, when was the last time you heard a CFO refer to an inspirational book when asked a direct question? Or a CPO preface every single fucking response by seeking to validate the concept of agile?

You don't.

So, my call to arms is this:

Marketers, please stop talking marketing AT the C suite.

What do I mean? Well here's some pointers to start with:

• STOP seeing the CFO as the enemy who only wants to reduce budgets
• STOP talking about top of funnel brand awareness as a marketing goal
• STOP trying to sell in the creative for brand platforms or advertising campaigns
• STOP allowing for subjectivity, including your own, what any one person likes is irrelevant
• STOP saying yes or no to suggestions based on current workload or even your expertise
• STOP obsessing over the inputs, trying (and failing) to explain marketing theory and practice

And instead:

• START seeing the CFO as the most powerful ally you can have in any boardroom
• START talking about future sales and projected bottom of funnel incremental growth
• START talking about creativity being the single biggest ROI multiplier within our control (see the work of Paul Dyson)
• START championing objectivity, only what research has identified will work is relevant
• START putting suggestions on a priority list to be discussed at the next quarterly planning meet as product teams do
• START obsessing over the outcomes, framing what marketing will deliver to the business in business terms

That way we might just have a chance, as we used to say at my last agency, of regaining marketing's seat in the boardroom.

Right. The Obvious Questions Answered

Why does marketing always end up being seen as a cost centre?

Largely because marketers have allowed it, by speaking in terms that nobody outside the function cares about.

When marketing presents itself in impressions, reach and engagement rate, and the CFO is thinking in revenue, margin and growth, there's a translation failure. In that failure, marketing looks like a creative department justifying its existence rather than a commercial function driving the business forward.

The function isn't the problem. The language is. And changing the language requires marketers to actually understand the commercial mechanics of the business they're in, not just the marketing mechanics of their own team.

How should marketers talk to the C-suite and board?

In the language of outcomes, not activity.

Rather than "we launched a brand platform with strong engagement metrics", say "we increased branded share of search by 40% in Q3, which projects to a meaningful reduction in cost per acquisition over the next two quarters." Rather than "we're running a top-of-funnel awareness campaign", say "we're building mental availability with the 95% of our market not currently in buying mode, so that when they are, we're the first name they think of."

The CFO doesn't need to understand marketing theory. They need to understand what the business will get back for what marketing costs. That's a commercial argument. Make it in commercial terms.

Why do CFOs always want to cut the brand budget first?

Because nobody has made the case for why they shouldn't.

If the only marketing spend that comes with clear revenue attribution is performance marketing, then logically everything else looks discretionary. Brand spend without a commercial narrative attached to it looks like creativity with no accountability. From where the CFO sits, that's a reasonable conclusion to reach.

The fix is to build the commercial case before the budget conversation happens. Show the relationship between share of voice and share of market. Show how branded search has moved in response to investment. Show what cost per acquisition looks like with and without brand awareness behind it. Make brand spend look like a forecast, not a fucking bet.

What's the single most important shift marketers can make to get more influence in their business?

Start caring about the commercial outcomes, not just the marketing outcomes.

That means understanding how the business makes money, what the pipeline looks like, where deals are stalling, and what the board is actually worried about. Then connecting marketing activity, directly and credibly, to those things.

When a marketer can walk into a board meeting and say "here's what I expect our marketing to contribute to revenue this quarter, and here's how I'm going to track it", the conversation changes. When they walk in with slides about awareness and creative work, it doesn't. The function earns its seat at the table by thinking like a business function, not a creative one.

Is the problem marketing as a discipline, or how marketers have chosen to present it?

The latter, almost entirely.

Marketing, done properly, is one of the most powerful growth functions a business has. The evidence base is substantial. The commercial logic is sound. The problem is that the profession has developed a habit of speaking in its own language, citing its own luminaries, and arguing its own case in ways that make complete sense internally and land nowhere externally.

Other functions don't do this. The CFO doesn't explain discounted cash flow methodology when asked whether an investment is worth it. They say yes or no and what the return looks like. Marketers should do the same. Say what the business will get. Say when. Then deliver it.