Think back to your last board meeting; who was sitting around the table (or Zoom screen)? There was probably someone from legal, a representative for HR; accounting would definitely have been there; how about marketing? Was there someone sitting representing your marketing efforts (and if there was, were they a marketing professional)? Given that marketers have held only 1% of board seats in the Fortune 1000 and that only 26% of Chief Marketing Officers regularly attend board meetings, we’re going to assume that the answer to all our questions will be a resounding “no”.
Yet, we’d argue that marketing deserves a permanent seat in the boardroom, so we’re going to explain why.
How competitive are you?
We mean it, how competitive are you? Because if you’re serious about growing your business and remaining competitive in an ever-changing market, you surely need someone whose job is to monitor and understand customer demands helping steer your business. Marketing strategies aren’t plucked from thin air; they’re designed and tailored to meet the needs of your current and target markets. So, if you plan to guide your company forwards, it makes sense to have the person that knows where the company is heading alongside you at the helm.
If someone doesn’t understand marketing, how can they represent it?
As you gaze around the boardroom, looking at your head of accounts sitting next to your head of HR, there must be a moment when you feel a sense of reassurance that they have the qualifications and experience needed to understand what they’re talking about.
So, why would marketing be any different? How can you successfully understand the data sources, statistics, strategies, and customer personas being presented to you if the person submitting them doesn’t properly understand them themselves? You wouldn’t expect someone with limited accounting and bookkeeping experience to head up your accounts department, would you?
Marketing is critical to your business
Marketing is critical to every business because it helps to power strategy. At the most basic level, every company has a strategy, and that strategy will be about either maintaining a customer base or growing a customer base. Marketing is about finding those customers, and along the way, it advises and gives feedback on areas for development and how to position services.
So, if you understand the direction that marketing is taking your company, you can begin to consider development, organisation, and staffing. In some ways giving valuable space and time to your marketing team gives you a glimpse into the future (or at least your goal for the future).
You want to know how and where your money is being spent
So, you’re in a meeting and the accounts department reports on the marketing budget; for reference, the recommended budget for B2B companies is 2-5%, and for B2C companies, 5-10% of their revenue. Surely you want to know exactly where a significant proportion of income is being spent and if that outlay is working, don’t you? Wouldn’t it be fantastic to have someone who can explain the results of your marketing investment? Someone who actually knows what they’re talking about? It makes sense to us, but then again, we’re in marketing.
Marketing touches every part of your business
An excellent marketing strategy will start with an audit, which focuses on every aspect of your business. Given that your marketing department is effectively trying to sell your services or products to potential customers, they have to understand how your business ticks. They are the people who pick up on pain points and can provide a wealth of information about how the company is operating. Surely the board needs to hear what’s going well and what needs to improve if the company is to remain competitive?
As a marketing professional and a Fellow of the Institute of the Data & Marketing, Tabitha Fox is ideally suited to provide you with the marketing overview that your company and board deserve. To discover how she can provide you with effective marketing insights, get in touch.
