Do you actually want to be a CMO? 3 questions to ask yourself

Hello and welcome to the Exit Five weekly newsletter - read by 20,000 B2B marketing professionals around the world. Exit Five is a membership site designed to help you build a successful career in B2B marketing. Join 3,500 other members at exitfive.com.

💻Four Signs It’s Time to Redo Your Website

It’s every marketer's most feared project… the B2B Website redesign.

Usually brought on because:

• Your CEO saw Stripe’s website for the first time and wants to copy it
• It’s your first week in a new marketing leadership role
• Your competitor just changed theirs
• You just hired a new designer

None of which are actual reasons to do a refresh. Our friends at Tiller, experts in B2B websites, know when it’s really time for a refresh when you want to:

1. Improve credibility and be perceived as bigger, better, or more believable
2. Differentiate your brand and leave competitors in the dust
3. Boost lead conversion by generating more MQLs through your website
4. Reach a new audience by moving upmarket, or targeting new industries or personas

Study their recent work here to see what “good” looks like… and if it’s time for you to do a refresh of your own.

Do you actually want to be a CMO?

If you subscribe to this newsletter, it’s a safe bet that you’re probably ambitious.

In marketing, ambition traditionally means aiming for the top job: Chief Marketing Officer. But what if, despite being highly driven and good at your job, you feel like it’s not for you?

I don’t need to introduce Amanda Natividad. She’s one of the most followed and successful people in the B2B Marketing world (for good reason).

And she has no desire to be a CMO – at least, not anymore.

A few months ago, she sat down with Dave to share how she made that decision, and I think it’s a question all ambitious marketers should ask themselves: Do I really want to be a CMO?

Here are the key realizations that led Amanda to realize that being CMO wasn’t for her:

Making > Managing

The biggest part of the job of CMO is managing people – full stop. It’s an entirely different skill set (and why many of us have had not-so-great managers). I took a whole training course when I led my first team.

Your days consist of one-on-ones, tough conversations, and managing internal relationships more than it will the actual work of marketing.

This was a key realization for Amanda – she enjoys doing the actual work, like writing a blog post or the newsletter, more than managing an ever-growing team.

Demand Gen? No thanks.

Being a CMO requires a certain level of expertise in nearly every area of marketing. Amanda was honest with herself and realized that she just didn’t love certain facets of it enough to get there – performance marketing and demand generation.

Instead, she doubled down on getting better at what she did love: creating content.

Knowing what you value

This is the hardest part of all – and takes a bit of digging to know for yourself. There are different stages of your life and your career where you will want different things, have different priorities.

Amanda realized that what she values most at this stage is not a bigger salary or title, but the flexibility to control her schedule and spend time with her family. If you follow Dave, you know this is a big priority for him, too.

Being a CMO inevitably means a less-flexible work life balance – and that’s something you need to weigh for yourself.

Of course, there’s a lot more that goes into such a big decision than I can fit in a Monday newsletter. No matter where you are in your career though, I think it’s worth answering these questions for yourself:

1. What parts of your workday light you up? What do you love doing? What do 
   you dislike doing?
2. Am I excited by all aspects of marketing, or do I prefer to focus on specific areas?
3. How important is flexibility and work-life balance to me in my career?

P.S. Do you have no doubts you want to be a CMO? Or maybe you’re like Amanda and unsure? I’d love to hear your thought process around it.

If you want the link to the full interview, let me know. Just reply to this email – I read (and cherish) every one :)

Episode #167: Email Marketing Teardown & Best Practices in 2024 with Jay Schewedelson and Pierce Uijainwalla

Dave sits down with Knak Co-Founder & CEO Pierce Ujjainwalla, and SubjectLine.com Founder Jay Schwedelson, two experts in B2B Email Marketing, for a one hour deep dive into what’s working in 2024.

They cover:

• Subject line strategies
• Design do’s and don’ts
• What makes a truly great email in 2024

Listen to the Episode Now on Spotify

Or find it everywhere you listen by searching "exitfive" podcast.

Episode #168: How to Make Instagram Work for B2B with Jenn Herman

Dave sits down with Jenn Herman, an expert in Instagram marketing, who shares the untapped potential of Instagram for B2B marketers. With over a decade of experience, Jenn has become a go-to resource for brands looking to leverage Instagram's vast user base to build brand awareness and foster long-term customer relationships.

Jenn and Dave cover:

• Why Instagram is a goldmine for B2B marketers and how to capitalize on its 2 billion monthly active users
• How to create educational content for Instagram to build trust
• Why you need to tailor your content for Instagram and your audience specifically

Listen to the Episode Now on Spotify

Or find it everywhere you listen by searching "exitfive" podcast.

Upcoming Events

See You at Exit Five Live Tomorrow?

Once a month we host these “Exit Five Live” sessions. They are DEFINITELY not webinars. Nope. They are live sessions. It’s absolutely not the same thing as a webinar (cough, Dave, if you’re reading this somewhere).

Each time we go deep on a B2B marketing topic to help you learn more about what matters today (and hopefully help you do better marketing at your company).

Our next one is this week - tomorrow - with Tara Robertson, Head of Demand Gen at Chili Piper. She’s going to cover funnel optimization - and share five common points of friction in the B2B funnel and help you fix them.

If you need help converting interest into revenue - you don’t want to miss this session. The sessions are free and available to anyone who works in b2B marketing. Just register. And even if you can't come live …

Make sure you register so you can get the recording straight to your inbox.

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Open Roles

Who's Hiring Right Now?

HOT JOB OF THE WEEK: UserEvidence is hiring a Senior Content Marketing Manager to level up our content engine and turn it into a content brand. This is the kind of role every marketer dreams of.

Interested? Apply here.

Other open roles on the Exit Five job board this week:

• Brainlabs is hiring a Global CMO/EVP of Social
• Drivepoint is hiring a Demand Generation Manager.
• CLARA is hiring a Head of Product Marketing. Remote Role.
• OhMD is hiring a Demand Generation Marketer. $70-100k salary.
• Backbase B.V is hiring a Senior Director Demand Generation. Remote Role.
• HighByte is hiring a Demand Generation Manager.

See All Open Roles

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