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There’s a strategy shift in MarTech and AI, as MarTech procurement intentions have made a massive swing to embracing new GenAI tools, applications and analytics. Almost 60% of marketers surveyed view this area of investment as offering the most value and ROI.

CMOs appear clear, confident and intentional in where AI will deliver the best results in marketing process improvement. Our latest study, CMO Intentions 2024, conducted in partnership with Zeta Global to gain insights and predictions about MarTech, shows AI in the vanguard of a paradigm shift in MarTech adoption and use in 2024.

Many CMOs will enter this new era of MarTech in good shape. They reported they’ve met revenue and customer attainment goals last year despite market turbulence. The majority also gave their teams solid marks for marketing campaign execution and performance.

The CMO Council believes dedicated MarTech management and digital transformation expertise appears to be maturing and more widely accepted, supported and represented in global organizations. CMOs have also made great progress closing the digital marketing skills gap.

Taking Aim At Cross-Functional Alignment

CMO alignment with the C-suite is key to powering performance and will play an integral role in the MarTech and AI paradigm shift. Teams of cross-functional leaders will need to be deployed with clear strategies for selection, deployment, adoption and scaling of new or existing platforms, solutions and tools.

The rapid uptake and pervasive potential of GenAI will help savvy marketers increase performance, productivity, ingenuity, quality and compliance. The end game is hyper-personalized engagement to convert intention-based buyers into loyal, high-value customers.

On an operational level, functional marketing silos still need to be imploded and tightly connected for improved collaboration, integration, workflow and use of essential data using advanced and more affordable cloud-based marketing platforms.

Marketing execution has been hit or miss. Far too many CMOs cannot identify the right mix of strategies to positively impact ROI. In our survey, 1 in 3 say their marketing campaign performance needs improvement or has under-performed.

On the upside, a number of CMOs say they’ve made progress on multiple fronts, from meeting revenue goals to overcoming skills gaps. Consider these “success” findings in the CMO Council study:

• 56% of CMOs say they met revenue and customer attainment goals last year, with B2C marketers performing considerably better than B2B marketers
• 82% no longer struggle with cultural, organizational and operational resistance to change
• 83% say they have the requisite digital skills, talents and proficiency in their marketing teams

Much Work Still To Be Done

Nevertheless, this year will test even the most successful CMOs. Nearly 60% of CMOs are under increased pressure to prove the impact of marketing, according to a Harvard Business Review article. Here are the top three business expectations for marketers this year:

• 54% of CMOs cite top-line revenue growth
• 51% seek improved operational efficiency and reduced costs
• 41% anticipate AI-driven operational improvement

With technology, nearly half of CMOs see customer data as essential for AI to help marketing personalize customer engagement. Yet, data sourcing continues to be a source of frustration. More than 80% of marketing leaders who admitted their lead gen and engagement strategy was only slightly or not effective are not satisfied with their performance specifically in data-driven, intention-based marketing. This according to another CMO Council report Fire Up Your B2B Revenue Generation Engine.

With relationships, CMOs who met or exceeded their revenue goals last year report stronger collaboration across the C-suite than their marketing peers who fell short. This, of course, speaks to the need for marketing to have executive buy-in and cross-functional support when sourcing data and harvesting its value.

With outcomes, 56% of CMOs say they met their revenue and customer attainment goals despite market turbulence. Yet, 37% say their marketing campaign execution needs improvement.

DOWNLOAD REPORT: CMO Intentions 2024

* RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: CMO Council research findings are based on a Q1 survey of nearly 200 chief marketing executives at both B2B and B2C/hybrid companies in a cross-section of industry sectors throughout North America and Europe. Over 90% of respondents held CMO/CRO/CGO/CXO/SVP/ VP titles and 70% represented large corporations with annual revenues of more than $1billion. Nearly 30% spend over $5 million annually on MarTech.