Leadership Social Media and Updates

Hire a CMO Only After Reaching $50M Revenue

One of the most common questions I get asked is "Do I need a CMO?" My answer is always that you don't need a CMO until you’re pushing $50M/year minimum. They’re the most fired role out of any C-level suite (search this up on Forbes, avg tenure of a CMO is only 3.9 years too for Fortune 500 companies). It's because the role is so multifaceted that it's almost impossible to get right. Compare it to a COO or CFO. Accounting standards aren't changing, the processes to pull P&Ls aren't changing, and the spreadsheets and best practices for inventory forecasting and rate negotiations, that's not changing. But Facebook algorithms and AI are changing marketing. A lot. It's such a rapidly accelerating field that one person can't keep up with all of it. Technical, media buying, creative, retention, multiple channels, it's too broad. And even if you are technical enough to keep up, technical people often aren't good leaders. So you end up with either a strategist who can't execute or an executor who can't lead. So instead of one CMO, have: Heads of growth. Heads of retention Heads of ecommerce. All reporting directly to you.