Feature
The Gist
- Evolving role. Marketing leaders shifting from tactical execution to strategic market understanding.
- Collaboration is key. CMOs fostering partnerships across functions for enriched customer experiences.
- Ethics in focus. Prioritizing safety, inclusivity and unbiased tech in marketing strategies.
Jennifer Griffin Smith is not a fan of the “ing” in “chief marketing officer.” In fact, she doesn’t see the need for it in her official title — even though she’s the top marketing executive at Boston-based digital experience software provider Acquia.
Chief market officer works just fine, she says.
“It really gets down to customer need and market impact. So rather than focusing on the ‘ing’ the marketing, ... as we generally have gotten used to over the years, it's more focused on the market, and the customer impact,” Griffin Smith said in the latest CMO Circle interview with CMSWire. “All of the tactics that we have to run are very important, but those tactics are meaningless unless we're really focused on who are we serving? What value are we bringing to them? What's the rest of the market doing?”
CMSWire sat down with Griffin Smith for a wide-ranging interview on marketing leadership covering, among other things, the definition of the CMO role, fostering a collaborative community of marketing learning, customer-centric digital experiences and the ethical use and building of technology.
Creative Thinking Is Essential for Marketing Leadership
But first, a little bit about what’s on the mind of CMOs today — whether you call them chief market officers or chief marketing officers.
Which competencies CMOs think are essential is a good place to start. According to the 2023 CMSWire State of the CMO Report, creative thinking serves as the No. 1 desired competency, with 52% calling it essential. That’s far more than the next most common answers, including strategic management (30%), leadership skills (28%) and executive leadership (28%).
Those essential competencies are necessary to keep up with ever-evolving demands on marketing leadership. Marketing leaders told us they also have to contend with:
- Increased cross functional partnership with sales (38%)
- More pressure to improve the customer experience (35%)
- More robust data strategies (34%)
- Tasked with digital transformation (34%)
- Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) rising in importance (28%)
- More accountability for CX metrics (26%)
- Too much focus on tech rather than getting the marketing strategy/message right (23%)
Does that increased collaboration with the sales team mean marketing leaders are placing more emphasis on improving the customer experience? Possibly because they want to understand customer pain points and preferences, as the sales team has valuable firsthand knowledge of the customers, according to CMSWire researchers.
“This can help marketing leaders determine,” CMSWire researchers report, “which traditional marketing strategies are still effective and which new strategies are needed to appeal to changing customer behaviors and expectations.”
Related Article: Why the 'C' in CMO Stands for Change
Redefining the CMO Role: Changing Marketing Leadership Landscape
The transition from "chief marketing officer" to “chief market officer" is not just semantic, according to Griffin Smith. It underscores a strategic shift from a narrow focus on marketing activities to a holistic view of the entire market landscape.
Today's CMOs need to transcend traditional marketing tactics and adopt a vision that encompasses overall market dynamics, customer needs and competitive ecosystem. This redefinition encourages a mindset shift from isolated marketing initiatives to comprehensive, collaborative go-to-market strategies, necessitating CMOs to orchestrate efforts across multiple departments, not just the marketing team. This interdisciplinary approach is crucial in today's complex, inter-connected digital marketplace, Griffin Smith said.
“Go-to-market is a full team sport made up of many different teams,” Griffin Smith said. “Marketing is part of that, but, ultimately, it's about how we go to market together. I think it's just a broader approach and trying to get away from — even in the mindset of teams — that we have to keep executing activities. That's not the measure of how we can really serve our customers better.”
The marketing leader emphasizes the integrative and central role of marketing within an organization. Rather than being fixated on the hierarchical structure or specific tasks of the marketing department, Griffin Smith cherishes the act of bridging various teams together — from those responsible for innovation to those handling go-to-market strategies.
“It's connecting these different teams,” she said. “One of the reasons I love doing this role is that I don't really care where things report in to. A marketing leader and a marketing team needs to connect innovation with all the go-to-market teams. I always say to teams: marketing isn't a department, it's not about what we do. It's about how we facilitate bringing innovation to market through all of those different teams and serving customers. And so we're kind of that connection point, which is fun.”
Related Article: Is Your Brand Really Rolling out Thought Leadership?
Marketers Helping Marketers: A Community of Insights, Learning
Another cool part of Griffin Smith’s job at Acquia? She sells to marketers. She is a marketer. She works with marketers. And she gets to mingle and learn from other marketers like Acquia customers and attendees at DrupalCon and Acquia Engage. Acquia’s founder is Dries Buytaert, the creator of the Drupal open-source content management system that powers a decent chunk of the world’s top 1 million sites. Drupal also powers a good chunk of the Acquia digital customer experience software stack.
Griffin Smith has a sense of fulfillment in his role, particularly because her philosophy revolves around mutual assistance and collaboration. She highlights Acquia's position in the market, not due to an ability to provide all solutions independently, but because of its extensive ecosystem that thrives on integration and cooperation with various technology vendors, thereby amplifying the overall value delivered to customers.
Drawing from her own experiences as a customer, Griffin Smith has insights into customer motivations and objectives across diverse sectors. She notes that her deep understanding of customer expectations makes her the "toughest critic" for their product teams, as she assumes the position of "Customer No. 1."
There's a strong ethos of "drinking their own champagne," meaning Acquia marketing leaders and others use their own products to set the best example of what their capabilities are.
“It's truly rewarding, especially since my approach aligns with the notion that we're in this together to assist one another,” Griffin Smith said. “... Having been in the customer's position, I understand their motivations and goals across different sectors, even if I haven't experienced every industry firsthand.”
Customer-Centric Digital Experiences for Marketing Leaders
Digital transformation has fundamentally altered consumer behavior. Modern CMOs must recognize that the customer journey is no longer linear and is heavily influenced by digital touchpoints. Leveraging data to map out these journeys and predict customer needs is not just strategic; it's imperative, according to Griffin Smith.
Building a website or digital presence isn't sufficient. The focus should be on “why” — the purpose it serves for the customer. Advanced analytics, customer data platforms (CDPs) and AI-driven insights are tools CMOs must employ to understand and anticipate customer behavior, ensuring content and messaging are relevant, personalized and timely.
“It’s OK to say you're going to create a new website,” Griffin Smith said. “You could use any digital agency, you could use any CMS. But why are you building a website? Who are you hoping to get there? When you get them there, what do you do next? What do you want to know about them? Now we’re in the realm of we have so much martech. And we have so many great pieces of technology that can help us, but they've got to be connected, and the data has got to be able to flow through.”
It’s not just about getting somebody to land somewhere. You've got to have the right content for wherever they are in their journey, and you've got to understand their journey, according to Griffin Smith.
Webinar
Sep
25
CMS Briefing: A Live Look at What’s Next in AI-Driven Platforms
Learn how leading organizations are using AI‑driven tools to publish faster, personalize smarter and stay secure.
Register
Webinar
Sep
25
Call Spoofing Trends Financial Institutions Can't Afford to Ignore
Don't let robocalls sabotage your customer relationships. Learn how to secure your voice channel.
Register
Webinar
On demand
Ready or Not: How Data-First Organizations Are Unlocking Agentforce Potential
Learn how to cut through the noise, activate Agentforce and build a Salesforce AI strategy that actually delivers.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
CX Reality Check: What Your Customers Are Really Thinking
Register now and get the insights you need to not just meet rising expectations, but exceed them.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
Content Leaders Collective: What a Good CCMS Actually Looks Like
Discover how content leaders transform clunky systems into growth engines — and why your competitors are ahead.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
From Hype to High-Impact CX Strategies That Actually Scale
Turn buzzworthy AI and outsourcing trends into measurable CX wins with fresh 2025 data.
Watch Now
The biggest challenge that comes with large organizations toward getting there? Silos that happen between different departments.
“And even within marketing, you think about marketing, you have communications, and you have digital campaigns, and you have events campaigns,” she said. “There's all these different pieces. How do you even connect all the content across one team, let alone multiple divisions or IT and marketing and how they work together? That collaboration is really key.”
Ethical Technology: The Imperative for Inclusivity in Digital Marketing Strategies
In an era where technology shapes consumer perception and behavior, CMOs, especially at a technology company like Acquia, carry the ethical responsibility to ensure their strategies and tools do not perpetuate biases or inequalities. There's a pressing need to build digital experiences that are inclusive and accessible to all demographics, she said.
The commitment to ethical tech also involves creating a safe digital environment, particularly considering the younger generation. The products, platforms, and campaigns that companies launch must respect privacy, promote positive engagement and protect users from harmful content or interactions.
“That is near and dear to my heart as a mother of two young children: we’ve got to build a safe future for the web,” Griffin Smith said. “And as technologists, it is our responsibility to make sure we don't build in bias, and that we are creating safety for all users of our technology. Dries has this thing which I love, which is I have to feel it’s safe enough for my kids. … For us, it's our openness, it's accessibility and inclusivity and building a safe future.”
