Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) and Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) are generally seated on opposite sides of the boardroom — one focused on the business’s finances, the other overseeing its marketing initiatives.
But have you ever stopped to consider how thinking like a marketer can help CFOs make the most of their role and enhance the company’s bottom line?
By taking a page out of a marketer’s handbook, CFOs can improve client relationships and even outpace their competitors. Here’s how:
Leverage technology. Marketers have been quick to embrace new technologies — from AI to automation to data analytics. By leveraging technology, marketers can more accurately target their audience and measure the effectiveness of their campaigns.
CFOs, on the other hand, can embrace technology to streamline processes and improve financial outcomes. Technology can help track operational costs in real-time, revealing how to best allocate resources, optimize budgets and eliminate areas that are a drain on resources.
Make data-driven decisions. Marketers have always been focused on data-driven decision-making, using metrics and analytics to measure the effectiveness of their campaigns. CFOs can learn from this and leverage data to predict trends and identify areas of opportunity more accurately.
Focus on ROI. Marketers measure the return on investment (ROI) of all of their campaigns. By tracking expenses and measuring the ROI of organizational initiatives, CFOs can ensure they’re getting the most out of their budgets and identify areas of unnecessary spend.
Master the art of storytelling. Storytelling is a vital part of marketing as it helps establish a deeper connection between an audience and a brand. “Stories” generally focus on the challenges that a brand solves for its customers.
These storytelling skills are increasingly important for CFOs to adopt, especially when it comes to communicating facts, figures and data — to clients, to stakeholders, or to lenders when your organization is looking to grow and needs funding.
The bottom line
The modern CFO’s skillset is expanding all the time. And there’s a lot they can learn from marketers — and vice versa. Imagine the possibilities when these forces combine to drive business success in the years to come.