Asked and answered
In the ever-evolving landscape of marketing, aspiring Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) face unique challenges and opportunities. This article presents essential advice for those aiming to position themselves for success in the CMO role. Drawing from the wisdom of industry experts, these insights cover a range of crucial skills and mindsets, from mastering both brand and performance marketing to embracing data analytics and balancing AI capabilities with human insight.
At the desk
Josiah RocheFractional CMO, JRR MarketingThe best advice I'd give someone aiming to become a CMO is to learn both brand and performance marketing. The individuals who advance in their careers can link authority building with measurable revenue impact. If you can explain how a campaign improves Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) or pipeline while also shaping brand presence, you'll earn trust at the executive level.
What shaped my approach was getting close to data early on. Running Google Ads and SEO campaigns showed me how spend tracked directly to sales. When you know which actions lower CAC by 20 percent or boost conversion rates through Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) experiments, you stop caring about vanity metrics and start tying everything back to outcomes that matter.
I'd also suggest building skills across channels instead of going too deep in one. I started with ads and SEO, then added CRO. That broader foundation let me see how each part fits together. And that's more important than being a specialist in just one area. CMOs are valued for being connectors who know how channels and teams align, not for being the sharpest technical expert.
Another thing that matters is communication. A strong leader can take complex campaign results and explain them in a few sentences that a boardroom understands. So you need to move smoothly between detail and vision without losing people. That's one of the most underrated skills.
Name: Josiah Roche
Title: Fractional CMO
Company: JRR Marketing
Website: https://josiahroche.co/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josiahroche
Peter LewisChief Marketing Officer, Strategic PeteFocus less on being a marketer and more on being a translator. The best CMOs don't just run campaigns—they bridge the gap between CEOs, agencies, and data. Your role is to simplify complexity and help non-marketers understand how strategy connects to revenue.
A concrete step: practice managing agencies like a coach, not a client. Most CEOs fail here. Learn how to set a strategy, hold teams accountable, and align every tactic to that bigger plan.
Another step: master storytelling through video. Today's CMO needs to create trust at scale, and video is the fastest way to do it. Build a repeatable system for content—batch filming, repurposing, and aligning videos with the funnel stages.
If you can simplify data, coach agencies, and tell stories that connect, you'll not only become a CMO—you'll be the kind of CMO companies fight to keep.
ANJOLAOLORUN ALABIMarketing Leader, Byte and Bloom DigitalAs a marketing leader who cut my teeth in scrappy startups, my biggest advice is to step beyond the marketing silo and develop a holistic business mindset. In practice, that means taking true ownership of revenue outcomes (not just leads or MQLs) and becoming the glue between teams by collaborating closely with sales, product, and finance on shared goals - after all, success is stitched from cross-functional alignment.
In my early startup days, I learned the hard way that a brilliant campaign means nothing if it doesn't translate into pipeline and if the sales team isn't on board. Since then, I've made sure every marketing move aligns with our company's growth targets. A common mistake new marketing leaders make is staying in their comfort zone or chasing vanity metrics, when they should be building cross-functional credibility and focusing on tangible business impact. So volunteer for cross-functional projects, soak up knowledge from other departments, and prove you can drive growth beyond just marketing KPIs.
If you treat marketing as a core part of the business (not a side silo) and hold yourself accountable for driving real revenue results, you'll position yourself not just to become a CMO, but to thrive as a trusted, strategic leader.
Illustrious EspirituMarketing Director, Autostar Heavy DutyYou know, a lot of aspiring marketing leaders think that to become a CMO, they have to be a master of a single channel. They focus on being the best at social media or the best at content. But that's a huge mistake. A CMO's job isn't to be a master of a single channel. Their job is to be a master of the entire business.
The single most important piece of advice I can give an aspiring marketing leader is to learn the language of operations. Stop thinking like a marketer and start thinking like a business leader. A CMO's job isn't just to bring in new customers. It's to make sure that the company can actually fulfill those orders profitably.
The steps they can take to position themselves for success are to get out of their marketing silo. They need to spend time in the warehouse. They need to talk to the operations team. They need to understand the cost of a part, the time it takes to ship it, and the challenges of the supply chain.
The impact this had on my career was profound. I went from being a good marketing person to a person who could lead an entire business. I learned that the best marketing campaign in the world is a failure if the operations team can't deliver on the promise. The best way to be a leader is to understand every part of the business.
My advice is to stop thinking of marketing as a separate department. You have to see it as a part of a larger, more complex system. The best marketing leaders are the ones who can speak the language of operations and who can understand the entire business. That's a leader who is positioned for success.
Ryan BurchFounder & Managing Partner, Tobie GroupGet comfortable with data. Many of us come up through sales or creative roles and aren't pushed to do deeper analysis in spreadsheets. The CMO of the future will look much more like a finance and technology role than the one we see today. Also, it's not enough to trust AI to do your analysis for you. Learn to work with numbers directly. Take Excel or data analytics classes on YouTube, LinkedIn Learning, or other free or paid platforms. Building that muscle will separate future CMOs from those who only know how to delegate it.
Vick AntonyanCEO, humble helpMaster the balance between AI capability and human insight. Too many marketers either fear AI or rely on it completely. Future CMOs need to become "AI translators" - understanding what AI can do, what it cannot, and how to blend both for optimal results.
Start by implementing one AI tool in your current role and document the process, challenges, and results. Then teach others what you learned. This combination of technical competence and knowledge transfer will set you apart as someone who can lead teams through technological transformation while maintaining strategic thinking.
For anyone aspiring to be a CMO, my advice is simple: treat marketing as the bridge between people and possibility. Marketing isn't about running campaigns; it's about deeply understanding human needs, translating those into actionable insights, and then using technology, creativity, and storytelling to meet them at scale. To position yourself for success, build fluency in three areas: data, because you'll need to prove impact in business terms; technology, because AI and automation are already reshaping how we connect with people; and empathy, because no matter how advanced the tools, marketing will always be about serving real human beings. Spend time outside your silo; learn from sales, product, and customer experience.
Taylor HumphriesCEO, RankedThe best advice I give to aspiring marketing leaders is this: do not chase titles, chase understanding. A CMO isn't just the head of marketing; they're the cultural translator between consumers, creators, and the boardroom. To get there, you need more than campaign wins; you need depth.
The steps I recommend are simple but powerful:
1. Learn every layer from data analytics to creative storytelling to sales. Marketing leaders who understand both numbers and narrative make the most impact.
2. Listen to communities, not just customers. Culture is where the next market shifts come from. That's why at Ranked, we work directly with micro and nano creators, because they show us what audiences actually care about before the data lags.
3. Get comfortable being uncomfortable. The best CMOs push boundaries. When the industry shifts, they don't cling to old playbooks; they write new ones.
When we scaled Ranked from launch with 500 creators to winning global brand partnerships, it wasn't just strategy that got us there. It was the ability to see culture clearly and translate that into business impact. Future CMOs who can do that won't just keep up with the market; they'll lead it.
