February 2, 2025

25 Ways for CMOs Cut Thru in 2025

by Drew Neisser

Mining hundreds of conversations with CMOs for insights and deploying my ever-reliable crystal ball, I compiled this list of accelerants for B2B marketing leaders. Let me know your favorites and what I missed.

Leadership & Strategy

  1. Align C-Suite on North Star: A shared strategic vision ensures marketing priorities align with overarching business goals and positions the CMO as a business leader first! (see post)
  2. Solidify Peer Alliances: Strong relationships with peers in Sales, HR, Finance, and Product (pick 1 per quarter) will ensure the success of at least 1 new initiative (see post)
  3. Simplify Your Story: A clear, compelling narrative resonates with both internal stakeholders and external audiences, making your brand more memorable, distinctive, and buyable. (see post)
  4. Broaden Your Reach: Expanding your marketing mix and exploring new channels allows you to reach untapped segments and increase visibility. (see post)
  5. Lighten Up: A culture of positivity and levity fosters resilience, boosts team morale, and encourages creative problem-solving. The same applies to your company’s brand voice. 

Technology & Innovation

  1. Audit Your Tech Stack: Sunset underperforming tech and the ones that are insufficiently staffed to achieve the desired outcome. 
  2. Train Your Team: Upskilling your team in AI technologies prepares them for evolving marketing production and workflows. (see post)
  3. Test Synthetic Research: AI-driven research tools can quickly generate insights, enabling data-informed decisions without lengthy traditional studies. (see post)
  1. Test GenAI Chat Bot: Smart chatbots improve customer interactions, reduce response times, and gather valuable user data. (see post)
  2. GenAI Sales Enablement Tools: Thanks to GenAI, Sales enablement can evolve from word-heavy content to problem-solving tools, generalizations to personalized comms. (see post)

Customer-Centric Growth

  1. Create Self-Serve Experiences: Empowering customers with intuitive self-serve tools reduces friction and increases the likelihood of getting on the shortlist. (see post)
  2. Create/Grow Your CAB: Customer Advisory Boards deepen customer relationships and provide valuable strategic insights. If you have one, expand it to new segments. (see post)
  3. Produce a Customer-Centric Podcast: A podcast creates an intimate, scalable channel to share insights, highlight customers, and build distinctive thought leadership (see interview).
  4. Test New Partnerships: Strategic partnerships unlock new audiences, technologies, and growth opportunities beyond traditional channels. (see post)
  5. Invest in Community-Led Growth: Thriving communities drive organic advocacy, deepen loyalty, and provide valuable insights for brand growth.(see interview with Latane Conant)

Operational Excellence

  1. Delegate 20% More: Strategic delegation frees CMOs to focus on vision and high-impact priorities while empowering their teams to grow and be more productive.  
  2. No Agenda, No Attendah: Meetings without a clear agenda waste time and dilute focus; every meeting should have defined objectives and outcomes or CMOs shouldn’t attend. (see post)
  3. Track Your Time: Regularly auditing how your time is spent ensures you’re focused on strategic priorities not the urgently unimportant. (see post)
  4. Block Out Thinking Time: Protecting at least 5 hours a week for strategic thinking helps CMOs stay focused on long-term goals instead of getting lost in daily firefighting.
  5. Conduct a Meeting Audit: Eliminating unnecessary meetings frees time, boosts productivity, and ensures every conversation serves a clear purpose. (see post)

Emerging Trends

  1. Embed Sustainability into Marketing Strategy: Aligning marketing efforts with sustainable practices meets growing consumer and corporate expectations for responsible business behavior.
  2. Optimize First-Party Data Collection: Building strong first-party data strategies ensures compliance, enhances targeting, and protects customer privacy. (see post)
  3. Influence the Influencers: Building relationships with industry influencers amplifies your brand message and extends your reach authentically.
  4. Adopt a Change Management Framework: Proactively managing change helps marketing teams navigate disruption and adopt new processes with minimal friction. (see post)
  5. Begin testing Superhuman AI Bots for Customer Success: See 1Mind’s Mindy for an active demo of this emerging technology.

What’s on your list?