Tap into Market Research with a Fractional CMO

When putting together a digital marketing campaign, it’s tempting to do so without doing a lot of research. Most of us know exactly which elements need to be present for a comprehensive digital marketing strategy. These include SEO, social media, content marketing, digital advertising, and others. Well, it isn’t a simple matter of just doing them. One has to do them thoughtfully, and there is a lot of exploration that determines what this really means.

The problem is, many marketing departments are already at their saturation point, or they simply don’t have an executive-level leader in order to dive in to the real data. In order to put together the best strategy possible, it is important not to gloss over the market research. This is something that a Fractional CMO can help with.

Understand the Real Hierarchy of a Marketing Department

Which roles should be present in a stacked marketing department? Well, ideally you’ll have the leaders and the people who will do the work. Many marketing departments have a director, but they don’t necessarily have an executive-level leader. There are many reasons for this, but we’ve observed that money could be a factor, as well as lack of knowledge about what an executive marketing professional really should be doing.

So, companies simply don’t hire a CMO. They assume the director can do it. The problem is, marketing directors have their own sets of tasks that they need to complete. They very rarely have time to complete market research.

Market Research is Vital to the Strategic Process

The strategic process is where a Fractional CMO really shines. As mentioned above, enough time needs to be spent analyzing all the data in order to ensure that the strategy that you’re implementing is a viable one. Without all this research, the strategy will be far too random. After several months, it will eventually become obvious that you need to change things up. However, this loses you time. You need to get it right sooner than later.

While most of the foundational aspects of digital marketing are fixed, how they’re implemented for a give business will vary. To have a chance of getting right from the beginning, you need to do this research. It will help you get even closer to the ideal strategy from the beginning.

Compete in a Saturated Business Environment

In order to really compete in your industry, you really need to see what your competitors are doing. What are you competitors doing? How are they marketing? Can you determine who their target demographic is? What can you leverage from this information in order to make this stronger?

The thing is, you can’t have junior marketing personnel take care of this task. They simply don’t have enough experience to know what you are looking at. This also isn’t something that a marketing director should be tasked with. They have different responsible. You really need your Fractional CMO to take care of this for you.

Don’t ignore market research when putting together your marketing strategy. It’s an important step and one that should be done by an executive leader, like a Fractional CMO.