Editorial
The Gist
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The CMO role goes beyond messaging. Marketing leaders are increasingly involved in backend decisions that affect performance, visibility and customer experience.
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AI is reshaping how content gets found. Tools like ChatGPT prioritize structured, readable content over traditional SEO signals.
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CMOs don’t need to code, but they do need context. A basic understanding of infrastructure and site performance is now part of the job.
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Strong marketing teams are cross-functional. Content, data and tech roles need to work closely to deliver results.
Today, chief marketing officers are doing more than managing brand campaigns. They also oversee tools, teams, data flows and the systems that keep everything running. The job now includes content performance, martech decisions and CX delivery across platforms.
This, however, doesn’t mean that CMOs need to become technical experts. What it does mean is that they need a working grasp of how things like site speed, hosting and AI-driven search impact the way their message gets out. These are no longer back-office issues; they’re part of the strategy.
Understanding the basics of backend infrastructure and how it shapes visibility and performance is quickly becoming a must-have skill for long-term success in a digital-first, AI-aware world.
Table of Contents
- The Evolving Role of the Chief Marketing Officer
- Visibility in the Age of AI and LLMs
- Key Elements of AI-Compatible Content
- Bridging the Knowledge Gap
- Building the Right Teams and Infrastructure
- Examples from CMOs Adapting to Change
- The Shift Toward Tech-Savvy Marketing
The Evolving Role of the Chief Marketing Officer
The line between marketing and tech has been blurring for a while. Chief marketing officers now work on things that once sat exclusively in IT, like tools, platforms, data flow and even infrastructure. They think about how the message is delivered and how fast it gets there.
This includes being involved in martech stacks, tracking how customer data moves between systems and making sure content loads quickly and performs well. Site speed, SEO structure and even hosting choices can all shape how a brand shows up online. If a customer has to wait too long for a page to load or can’t find what they’re looking for, that’s a marketing issue, too.
This shift has made technical SEO and AI-driven content optimization critical parts of the modern marketing stack. That’s where infrastructure comes in. Using dedicated servers, for example, gives brands more control over speed and reliability, two things that directly affect customer experience.
Visibility in the Age of AI and LLMs
Search is changing. Tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity and other large language models (LLMs) are becoming part of how people find information, and that includes brands. Instead of clicking through a list of links, users are getting direct answers. For brands, this changes the rules around visibility.
Content now needs to be structured in a way that makes sense to large language models. These tools scan pages, analyze how information is presented and decide what to include in a summary or response. If content is hard to parse or buried behind clunky layouts, it’s more likely to be ignored.
Related Article: Is Your AI Content Management Strategy Ready for the New Era?
Key Elements of AI-Compatible Content
This is where LLM optimization strategies become part of the CMO’s toolkit. It’s important to think about formatting, metadata and page structure. Clean, well-organized content stands a better chance of being picked up and used.
Even strong brand messaging can go unseen if the technical side is overlooked. Understanding how these models surface content helps marketers make sure their work actually reaches people.
Bridging the Knowledge Gap
Most chief marketing officers aren’t technical by background, and that’s completely fine. They don’t need to know how to code; they just need a working understanding of how things like metadata, page speed and AI-driven search actually affect their marketing. The real skill is knowing what to ask, making informed decisions and involving the right people.
Building the Right Teams and Infrastructure
Marketing has gotten more connected to tech, which means chief marketing officers need to work closely with the people who keep those systems running. That includes IT, content teams, data-driven people and anyone else involved in how things are built, tracked or published.
You don’t necessarily need a big team, but it helps to have a mix of key skill sets. It’s valuable to have someone who understands content and messaging, as well as a team member with a good grasp of performance data. You’ll also benefit from someone who knows how backend systems work. Finally, having a project lead or CMO who can connect the dots across these roles will make the team even more effective.
Factors like platform choice, how your site handles traffic or how customer data is stored affects marketing, even if it doesn’t seem like it at first. When teams talk more, those choices get easier, and you spend less time fixing mistakes.
Related Article: CMO Circle: Inside the 2025 State of the CMO
Examples from CMOs Adapting to Change
Some marketing leaders are already adjusting how their teams operate. For example, one retail CMO recently restructured their team to include a technical content strategist who works across SEO, metadata and AI-readiness.
According to Gartner, 65% of marketing organizations have centralized some or all of the function to enhance operational efficiency. This trend reflects a broader move toward closer collaboration between marketing and IT teams.
The Shift Toward Tech-Savvy Marketing
It’s important for chief marketing officers to understand how the systems behind their marketing actually work. Things like site structure, content delivery and AI-driven search all shape how messages reach people.
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This kind of backend fluency isn’t a niche skill anymore. It’s part of what makes marketing effective. The more CMOs lean into that awareness, the easier it becomes to make smarter decisions, work better with technical teams and keep their brands visible in a changing digital landscape.
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