There are moments when something vividly reminds us of a time or experience in life. One of those things for me is the CMO study from SimpsonScarborough.
Let me explain. I used the 2019 study as part of my dissertation and had numerous conversations with some of their team about the data. Then, the week after I defended the 2021 data came out. So, now seeing the 2023 data has me a bit reflective about the last couple of years.
It’s because of that memory, that I get really excited about the study and the insights. This year, the study is being released in waves to allow for deeper analysis and insights, so there will be much more coming out on the role of the CMO and the current expectations CMOs face.
That said, I finally had a few moments to dig into the findings from the first release and wanted to share a few things that jumped out at me as things that our profession should keep in mind when doing our work.
Key Takeaways
New Leadership in the MarComm Role – Of the 268 participants, more than 50% of respondents were new to the CMO role within a year. In thinking about this, it’s exciting but also concerning. One of my passions is helping train the next generation of MarComm leaders to take on these roles. However, the number of new people coming to the role is happening much sooner than I expected.
I can’t help but wonder if we’re seeing this as a result of broader higher education challenges. Are challenges in public perception, budgets, and other things resulting in more senior leaders stepping aside? The other cause could be more institutions are adding a CMO role. This is good news but can also be concerning if these leaders are coming into the role without a strong understanding of expectations and work that is needed.
Either option, I think, speaks to the importance of community. It is critical that our community of higher education marketing leaders support these individuals and provide them the network they need to best equip them for success.
Increases in Budget and Staffing – Across the board in institution size, there were overall gains in both marketing budgets and staffing. This is really promising news to help support the broad work that MarComm teams do for our institutions. The thing that still came through in the data, from my analysis, is there is still work to be done as it relates to expectation setting.
As can be the case, sometimes additional resources (both fiscal and human) come with additional expectations, and this appears to be the case. While many institutions received additional support, there is also a strong sense of increased expectations around the role and what should be the scope of CMOs.
This is definitely a case of managing expectations, and I think as a profession we must continue to have those tough conversations about setting priorities, acquiring additional resources, and thinking about scope. I also think we can continue educating our campus and our leaders about the work we do and the importance it plays in setting our institutions up for success to ensure we’re able to focus on things that have the largest return on investment.
Focus on MarTech – Another key finding for me is the importance in investing in the MarTech side of the work. In the study, large schools were significantly outspending small schools in this area, and I think that is something that small schools can’t ignore. The incoming generations of students expect personal experiences, and custom approaches, so having the tools in place to support this will, I believe at some point, become mission critical.
Where to begin in this work can sometimes feel overwhelming. In thinking about the counsel I would share, it would be to start small but begin slowly investing in this space. I also think the higher education community could be a valuable tool to help in determining where is the best place to begin spending limited dollars on MarTech expenditures.
I also think investing in MarTech comes with an educational component. This work isn’t always seen by leadership. It isn’t nearly as sexy as a print ad, a digital ad, a billboard, etc. That means that the onus is on us as MarComm leaders to articulate to leadership how these tools will support our efforts and ensure that our institutions don’t ignore the infrastructure pieces in favor of flashier investments.
New Institutional Leaders – In the survey, 23% of participants noted they had a new president or chancellor. Additionally, with the latest research saying the average tenure of a presidency is about six years, I think all of us need to be thinking about how we onboard new leadership to our institutions and ensure they have an understanding of the marketing role.
That can look a lot of different ways, but I think we as MarComm leaders need to make sure we can clearly articulate our strategy, how we’re viewing success, what are opportunities for growth, and what is our plan to address those. While those conversations may not be critical today, I think we will all face new leadership at some point and already knowing how to tell the story of our team, our division, and our work, will pay dividends in engaging leadership for continued support of our efforts.
Other Takeaways
There were so many great takeaways, and I really had a hard time narrowing the list to these four. What were your key takeaways from the study? Also, in other good news, this study is just the first release.
SimpsonScarborough will also be releasing additional data on March 21, so be sure to put that on your calendar.
And Carrie On 