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Over the past decade or so, corporate leaders have come to recognize the increasing importance of having a chief executive communicate directly with employees, customers, other stakeholders and the general public. Thus, many CEOs today are working more closely with their chief communications officer than in the past to better coordinate with comms teams and ensure that internal and external campaigns and messaging are effective, on point and driven by the organization’s overall strategy.
Of course, given the evolving expectations and ever-increasing responsibilities of C-suite leaders across the board, it can be challenging to get a CEO on board with and engaged in a comms initiative, but certain projects may inspire them to get involved, which can significantly boost the impact of those efforts. Below, 18 members of Forbes Communications Council share the best ways for a CEO to support marketing initiatives and outreach, and why this collaboration can be so beneficial to an organization.
1. Foster A Culture Of Experimentation And Risk-Taking
Having the CEO’s support in fostering a culture of experimentation and risk-taking within the marketing team would fuel creativity and drive breakthrough campaigns. Encouraging calculated risk, celebrating innovation and providing a safe environment for testing new ideas can unlock untapped potential and position the team for long-term success. - Esther Raphael, Intersection Co.
2. Drive The Visibility Of The Marketing Team’s Initiatives
Marketing campaigns, especially in B2B verticals, are often more effective when there’s cross-functional support. CEOs who drive visibility of the marketing team’s initiatives and encourage collaboration across teams are hugely impactful. This supports creation of great marketing content, such as case studies and testimonials, and can help align all teams around the company’s key objectives. - Mallory Griffin, York Public Relations
3. Authentically Show Up As Your Kind, Engaging Self
It will depend on the industry, but in most industries, the best thing a CEO can do is to take a step back from being the stereotypically serious “boss” and communicate in a genuine, authentic manner. CEOs are often the face of a marcom strategy, so showing up as their kind, engaging selves helps promote the company, its messages and its story to potential customers and partners. - Jonathan Kaufman, Sage Dental
4. Get Everyone In The C-Suite On The Same Page
In B2C marketing especially, it is essential to recognize that marketing and business goals are the same. So the most fundamental way a CEO can support marketing is to create an environment where they, their executive officer team and the CMO are all looking in the same direction. It requires a certain level of trust, but without it, there’s a danger of getting stuck pulling the cart in different directions. - Toma Sabaliauskiene, Nord Security
5. Encourage Cross-Functional Collaboration
The larger the organization is, the more internal silos arise. All of this leads to departments trying to gain an advantage, but better business outcomes are generated from collaboration than from isolated work on personal key performance indicators. The CEO’s support of knowledge sharing and expertise exchange across functions leads to prosperity for a business. - Iryna Manukovska, XME.digital
6. Be A Strong Public Leader And Face Of The Company
Enabling your CEO to be a strong public leader and the face of your company can truly support a marketing team’s efforts to build brand awareness, credibility and trust. From speaking at events to actively posting on social media, leveraging the CEO’s brand in the market can provide marketing with a lot of great content. - Roshni Wijayasinha, Prosh Marketing
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7. Promote Public Advocacy, Communication And Visibility
Whether it’s for external marketing, internal comms or recruitment, we want people in our organizations to contribute and publicly advocate for the company. If your subject matter experts are keen to share their knowledge and good working experiences with the world, then that’s a rising tide for the entire company. To get there, though, the CEO needs to be very pro-communication and promote visibility. - Scott Hitchins, Interact Software
8. Instill A Sense Of Marketing’s Importance
A CEO should help instill a sense of the importance of marketing as a department within the company. So often, marketing gets overlooked or is thought of as merely support for sales when they are so much more than that. Marketing has a huge hand in the growth and future success of the company. - Sarah Lero, A.L. Huber
9. Get Involved In The Communication Strategy Firsthand
My foolproof approach is to have the CEO involved in the communication strategy as an authority so that they can see the results firsthand. For example, they could do a series of authority leadership posts to kick off a campaign and a blog post or newsletter highlighting “what’s new” for the company and board members. Internal communication is just as important as external communication. - Donna Loughlin, LMGPR
10. Align Comms Strategies With The Company’s Vision
The CEO’s support can be an incredible value-add in aligning communications strategies and campaigns with the company’s vision and roadmap. The CEO has the best vantage point and widest view of the company and external stakeholder influences. By including the CEO in strategic planning, such as developing creative briefs, the team will bolster the impact of their initiatives—and cut down on time spent on revisions from management later! - Nicole Zheng, Pontera
11. Contribute To Thought Leadership Initiatives
Depending on the industry, the CEO is more often than not the most public-facing spokesperson for an organization. With this in mind, a CEO who’s willing to participate in and contribute to communications efforts to support thought leadership initiatives, whether through earned or paid media, is crucial to elevating the brand’s voice (and much appreciated by the marketing team). - Kristin Russel, symplr
12. Understand The Role Of Organic Social Media In The Marketing Funnel
A CEO needs to understand the role of organic social media within the overall marketing funnel. If the CEO knows that organic social media exists to foster community and build awareness versus drive sales, it will help the marketing team utilize and grow the platforms in the way they were intended instead of struggling to show sales-driven ROI. - Dixie Roberts, DKC/HangarFour
13. Be Willing To Approve Ad Hoc Campaigns That Aren’t In The Budget
Getting approval for an ad hoc campaign that wasn’t planned for in the budget is challenging. Many situations can’t be predicted, but you need to leverage the momentum when they happen, especially if there is an opportunity to go viral. Even though you can reallocate some of the budget on such occasions, there will come a time when you will need your CEO to trust your judgment, respond quickly and support such initiatives. - Dora Hrkac, Esyasoft Technologies
14. Let Go Of Control When It Comes To Ghostwritten Content
CEOs are often very particular about what gets said under their byline, but the simple fact is that a message resonates deeper with an audience when it comes from the CEO versus another representative of the company. If a CEO has the ability to allow ghostwritten content and material to be published under their name, the marketing team will be able to achieve its goals far more effectively. - Patrick Ward, Formula.Monks
15. Offer Insights Based On Your Experiences In Various Fields
Most CEOs weren’t born into this position, but rather climbed the ladder to reach it. Along the way, they might have gained invaluable experience in various fields, and one of the most important ones is marketing. So offering insights into their experiences could prove to be the best help that they can offer. - Omar El Bahr, nandbox
16. Understand The Importance Of Testing In Marketing
The best thing a CEO can do to support the marketing team is to understand that testing is an important part of any marketing initiative. Whether you’re testing a message, a graphic or an audience, you need to leave room for creativity and out-of-the-box thinking. Formalizing everything internally and expecting it to just work—well, it just won’t work. - Lyndsi Stevens, Celerium
17. Do Marketing Campaigns That Come Directly From You
A marketing campaign coming directly from the CEO, whether in the form of them answering customer questions, sending weekly emails or creating a video series, is always a good way to personalize a brand and allow customers to get to know the leadership and how they lead. While this kind of campaign can achieve quantifiable marketing goals, it can also serve to inspire, motivate, entertain and educate beyond measure. - Melissa Kandel, little word studio
18. Cultivate A Culture That Doesn’t View Marketing As ‘Just Another Department’
The single most impactful thing that CEOs can do for marketing is cultivate a culture throughout the organization where marketing isn’t viewed as “just another department.” Every touch point with a customer impacts their view of the organization, including chatbot responses, call center wait times, customer service transfers and so on. Once CEOs understand and execute against that knowledge, marketing, in its truest sense, flourishes. - Colin Jeffries, BrightView Health
