What are the key challenges marketing leaders are facing in 2017?

In today’s data-driven, customer-centric world, marketing leaders have never been better positioned to truly set the agenda at the C-suite table and shape the future path for their businesses. However, against an uncertain political and economic backdrop and with significant new legislation such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) coming in, marketing leaders are also facing a variety of hurdles when it comes to truly grasping these opportunities.

With this in mind, here at Page Executive we’ve partnered with the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) to investigate the challenges facing senior marketers and how they’re being tackled. As part of the partnership we ran a breakfast seminar in Manchester in April 2017, where we heard from both the CEO of the CIM, Chris Daly, and local marketing professionals on how they’re tackling these hurdles across a range of issues - from skills gaps and recruitment, to data protection and ethics.

Click above to see a video from the event and hear from Chris and Mark Lawson-Jones, Business Director at Page Executive, on the challenges being faced and the way marketing leaders can truly shine in uncertain times.

The event centred on the CIM’s recent report, The Challenges and Opportunities Facing Marketers in 2017, comprised of insights from two recent CIM research campaigns. The study highlights a number of key considerations for organisations this year – but argues that marketers are best placed to steer companies around a number of potentially tricky obstacles. “These are very exciting times for marketing leaders because the opportunity to really make their impact at Board level has never being stronger,” Daly says. “Marketers are, by their nature, agile and innovative – and they’ll need to have those skills to really have an impact.”

Key challenges highlighted from the event and report include: 

More stringent controls for data protection are on the horizon, requiring every organisation which collects data to develop clear policies and procedures around its protection. The deadline for the GDPR to come into effect is May 2018, and could result in big fines – potentially up to €20m or 4% of global annual turnover, whichever is the greater – for organisations found to be in breach. “This is far broader and far-reaching than any other piece of legislation [around data] and if you're not conforming to this piece of legislation you are facing a big fine,” Daly explains. “This is why it's vitally important that organizations and businesses start now in preparing their measures.” Daly suggests that marketing leaders are best placed to lead the implementation of GDPR across the business, so their organisation stays customer-centric as well as compliant.

According to Daly, what marketers are looking for is “greater investment” in their social and digital channels. However, with the landscape shifting in this space so quickly, agility and a test and learn approach are often essential. “This presents a challenge to marketers because there's always going to be limitations around budget,” Daly continues. “So as opposed to chasing the latest shiniest object [in digital], it’s about focusing on those channels which they know work.”

Some 93% of respondents claimed there is a skills gap at the strategic level in marketing, specifically around core marketing competencies. “At the event in Manchester we heard from practicing marketing leaders on the challenges they’re facing with promoting members of their teams who have specialisms but not broader business knowledge,” Daly states. “The impact of a need for digital expertise has seen specialisms and skillsets created that are fine for short-term tactical implementation, but aren't that effective in the broader business sense.”

Summing up the findings of the report and the comments from delegates at the Manchester breakfast seminar, Lawson-Jones underlines that when it comes to adapting to the changes and challenges of the marketplace, there is no substitute for having the best senior talent to deliver on the key objectives highlighted in the report. “We heard Chris talking about the need for marketing leaders to act as role models for the entire business, and that is very evident in the current marketplace from the briefings and feedback we are receiving from CEOs and other board members” he concludes. “Appointing high calibre marketing professionals at board and leadership level, who have the breadth of experience across all marketing functions, channels and are highly commercial to help direct the future of an organisation is going to be ever more important in this changing world.”

When it comes to tackling key business challenges, recruiting the right senior talent to provide strategy and leadership is absolutely essentially. To discuss how Page Executive can do this for your business – or if you are interested in attending one of our upcoming Executive events - please get in touch with Mark Lawson-Jones. 

Mark Lawson-Jones
Tel: 0161 829 0452
Email: MarkLawsonJones@pageexecutive.com