Marketing leaders have never been asked to do more.
What was once primarily a function responsible for brand, advertising and communications has evolved into a role increasingly accountable for customer experience, technology, AI adoption and revenue growth.
Yet as expectations expand, an uncomfortable question is emerging: Are organizations giving marketing leaders the authority and resources needed to deliver against those expectations?
A recent Marketing Brew survey of more than 450 newsletter readers highlights the tension. Sixty-five percent reported taking on AI strategy and governance responsibilities. Nearly half have added PR and external communications. And while 60% believe the CMO role is more important than it was five years ago, just 17% believe every company needs a full-time CMO.
Perhaps that’s not the contradiction it first appears to be.
We believe the challenge facing modern marketing leadership isn’t a lack of relevance. It’s a growing disconnect between what CMOs are expected to accomplish and their ability to influence the business decisions that determine success.
And adding more responsibilities to the job description isn’t going to solve it.
Accountability without authority isn’t a growth strategy
Today’s CMO is increasingly expected to contribute directly to revenue growth, market expansion, customer acquisition and retention.
Those are appropriate expectations. Marketing should be accountable for business outcomes, not simply campaign performance.
But delivering those outcomes requires influence over decisions that often extend well beyond the marketing department.
Consider a B2B company struggling to accelerate growth.
Marketing can improve targeting, strengthen messaging and generate more qualified demand. But what if the company’s differentiation isn’t compelling? What if its pricing undermines the value proposition? What if the sales process creates friction or the customer experience fails to deliver on the brand promise?
Those aren’t problems marketing can solve through better campaigns alone.
Yet marketing leaders may still be held accountable when growth falls short.
The Marketing Brew survey underscores the pressure: 79% of respondents believe marketing leaders face shorter timelines to demonstrate results than other executives, while 69% feel pressure to prioritize short-term performance over long-term brand building.
We believe organizations may make a fundamental mistake when they hold marketing accountable for growth while treating it primarily as the function responsible for generating demand and communicating decisions made elsewhere.
That approach limits marketing’s ability to influence the very outcomes it is expected to deliver.
More responsibilities aren’t the same as greater strategic influence
The expansion of the CMO’s role reflects how dramatically the business environment has changed.
AI is transforming how companies understand and engage customers. Buying journeys are becoming more complex. Expectations for personalized experiences continue to rise. And marketing leaders are expected to connect an increasingly fragmented set of activities to measurable business performance.
But an expanding remit can easily become a distraction from the decisions that matter most.
A CMO responsible for more channels, technologies and functions isn’t necessarily better positioned to accelerate growth.
In fact, without clear priorities, additional responsibilities can dilute focus and resources.
We believe the more important question isn’t what else marketing should own.
It’s which decisions marketing must influence to help the business grow.
That includes identifying the audiences with the greatest commercial potential, understanding what drives their decisions, defining a compelling competitive position and aligning investments around the opportunities most likely to deliver results.
Those responsibilities demand more than marketing expertise. They require meaningful participation in business strategy and alignment with sales, product, finance and executive leadership.
Three changes we’d advise leadership teams to make
For organizations reconsidering the CMO role or evaluating marketing’s contribution to growth, we believe three changes deserve priority.
1. Define marketing’s accountability around business outcomes, not activity.
Campaign execution, lead generation, content production and channel performance all matter. But they’re demonstrations of activity, not the ultimate measure of marketing’s contribution.
Leadership should establish clear expectations for how marketing influences the outcomes that create business value. That might include improving consideration among high-priority accounts, increasing penetration in a strategic market, strengthening customer retention or helping accelerate qualified opportunities.
The distinction matters because different growth challenges require different strategies. A company that lacks awareness among a critical audience needs a different approach than one generating plenty of interest but losing opportunities to competitors. Accountability should begin with diagnosing the business problem, not assigning another performance target to the marketing department.
2. Give marketing a meaningful role in the decisions that drive growth.
If marketing is accountable for market position, customer acquisition and revenue contribution, it needs the ability to influence the decisions that shape those outcomes.
That doesn’t mean the CMO should control product development, sales or pricing. It means marketing’s understanding of customers, competitors and market opportunities should inform those decisions from the beginning.
Bring marketing into strategic planning, portfolio decisions, market expansion discussions and commercial prioritization. Give the function access to the business intelligence needed to identify growth opportunities and challenge assumptions. Most importantly, establish shared accountability across the functions responsible for delivering the customer experience.
A growth objective owned by marketing but dependent on decisions made elsewhere is an organizational alignment problem waiting to happen.
3. Prioritize the decisions that matter most instead of expanding the mandate indefinitely.
The modern CMO doesn’t need to personally own every technology, customer touchpoint or emerging discipline. The role needs clarity about where leadership attention and marketing investment will produce the greatest impact.
Which markets offer the strongest growth opportunities? Which audiences are most valuable? What perceptions are preventing consideration? Where is the customer experience falling short? Which investments should be expanded, changed or eliminated?
These are the decisions that connect market intelligence to business performance. And increasingly, AI and advanced analytics can help leaders make those decisions with greater speed and precision. But technology should support better strategic judgment, not simply increase the volume of marketing activity.
The goal isn’t to make the CMO responsible for everything. It’s to make the role more influential where it matters most.
The future of the CMO isn’t about the title
Not every business needs the same executive structure. A growing organization may benefit from a fractional CMO. Another may combine marketing and growth leadership. A larger enterprise may require distinct executives overseeing marketing, customer experience and commercial operations.
Those structures can all work.
What cannot be optional is clear accountability for understanding the market, identifying opportunities for growth and ensuring the organization delivers a compelling reason for customers to choose it.
And that accountability must be supported by the authority, intelligence and cross-functional alignment necessary to act.
Marketing earns its place in business leadership not by expanding its responsibilities, but by improving the quality of decisions that drive growth.
The question for CEOs isn’t whether their organization needs a CMO. It’s whether they’ve empowered marketing leadership to meaningfully influence the growth they expect it to deliver.
Because asking marketing to own the outcome without a voice in the decisions is not accountability.
It’s a recipe for disappointment.
