Editorial
The Gist
- Marketing meets patience. Success today means resisting short-term thinking and investing in long-term brand equity.
- CROs are changing the game. With revenue pressure rising, CROs are shifting how marketing teams define their role and value.
- AI isn’t always the answer. Generative tools may speed things up — but without strategic oversight, they risk sacrificing quality for volume.
Three themes have been on my mind in the past couple of months. I believe these themes are converging and will encourage marketers (and savvy business owners) to think differently about what they expect from marketing. Disclaimer: none of these themes are new but are gaining momentum in such a way as to force a re-think.
The three themes are:
- The emergence of the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO)
- The unrelenting march of AI
- Increased noise in marketing circles around the importance of investing in long-term brand (witness endless posts about ‘the long and short of it’).
I think what these themes are going in their own unique way is making us think about marketing as a "get rich slow" scheme, which to this author is a good thing.
Related Article: Customer Retention Strategies for Driving Loyalty in Uncertain Times
Table of Contents
- Why the CRO Is Gaining Ground
- Marketing’s Short-Term Trap
- AI Makes it Easier — But Not Always Better
- The Brand-Building Renaissance
- A Dual Approach to Growth
Why the CRO Is Gaining Ground
CROs are a response, I believe, to businesses understanding that generating revenue is a team sport. It’s not sales vs. marketing. It doesn’t stop when a customer signs up and it reflects the fact that, in B2B marketing at least, buying decisions can be complex, prolonged, non-linear journeys. To effectively ensure nothing is left on the table, all business functions need to understand their role is creating and capturing demand.
Many marketers may be threatened by the emergence of the CRO — typically an executive with a sales background, no formal (or even informal) training in marketing and a focus on driving revenue as quickly as possible to meet quotas. A fear that is takes the CMO away from the executive committee, reporting one-level away from the CEO.
To this author, this represents an opportunity to relieve some of the short-termism that businesses have driven into marketing over the past decade or so. I can’t remember the last time I walked into a new marketing leadership role and wasn’t greeted by "thanks for being here, we need pipeline now as we’re struggling to meet quota, what can you do to generate demand today."
Marketing’s Short-Term Trap
Marketing has never been particularly well equipped to resolve this. It throws the function into a "forget the plan, do stuff now" mode that is hard to break out of. It encourages short-term fixes that favor performance-marketing approaches (PPC, digital ads, cold outreach) which provide an immediate sugar rush of results, but at the expense of any longer-term brand building.
It means next month, or next quarter, or next year, you need to rely on more of the same, overpaying for results in the long-term and foregoing sustainability.
Related Article: 4 Ways That AI Is Improving the Customer Experience
Comparing Short-Term and Long-Term Marketing Mindsets
This breakdown shows how goals, tactics and risks differ between reactive and strategic approaches.
| Focus Area | Short-Term Marketing | Long-Term Marketing |
|---|---|---|
| Primary Goal | Immediate pipeline generation | Sustainable brand and demand creation |
| Common Tactics | Paid ads, cold outreach, gated content | Thought leadership, SEO, brand storytelling |
| Measurement | Leads, MQLs, short-term ROI | Brand lift, NPS, customer lifetime value |
| Risk | High spend with diminishing returns | Slower results, harder executive buy-in |
| Success Horizon | 1–3 months | 12–24 months |
AI Makes it Easier — But Not Always Better
The undoubtedly impressive capabilities of AI tools like ChatGPT have, since 2022, encouraged more business to chase the easy quick fixes. An AI agent that can pump out (mediocre) content for a blog in quantities and times unmatched by humans? Great, let’s do it!
AI, both in current generative and future general AI forms, will certainly transform the way we work and live. We may even see the first AI-only business that creates products, markets, sells and supports them, while managing its own purchasing, accounting, tax and legal responsibilities.
Why we would celebrate that I’m not sure, but it would be technologically impressive even if it leads to the business equivalent of algorithmic trading: computers fighting it out amongst themselves at breakneck speed to gain marginal competitive advantages.
The point is the application of this technology is likely leading us down a path of faster, cheaper, easier. Not necessarily better or more lasting.
Related Article: Tactics to Build Customer Trust With Personalized Experiences
The Brand-Building Renaissance
The Danger of Speed Over Substance
The third theme is gathering momentum: a mini renaissance amongst enlightened marketing professionals that long-term brand building is a valuable endeavor. My social feeds are awash with studies and research into the long-term sustainable growth achieved by companies that focus on brand.
Obviously, successful companies have, over the long-term, always invested in brand with creative and distinctive marketing campaigns that run and run. It’s no secret or surprise to those of us with experience and formal training in marketing. Yet somehow along the way, we’ve succumbed to the immediate need to help businesses and sales colleagues fill a pipeline in short order.
A Dual Approach to Growth
Why CMOs Need to Think Longer Term
So where is the convergence of these themes leading us? My own conclusion is that we will start to see a rise of more enlightened companies that stop dividing the growth mission between sales and marketing. Instead, we will see teams of revenue-focused growth professionals split between time horizons. CROs leading teams concerned with this month, this quarter, this year. Running performance marketing initiatives, demand capture, highly targeted account-based marketing (ABM), sales and sales enablement.
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
And a resurgence of the CMO at the executive table focused on long-term revenue. Defining, protecting and building the brand. Positioning the products and company for sustainable growth. Focused on turning NPS and retention into a defensible strategic position in the market. Owning the slow-burning channels like SEO (even "AEO" for AI search rankings), content, press and analyst relations and partnerships for long-term demand creation. Imaging joining a team as CMO and being asked, "What are you doing to drive demand two years from now?"
Marketing has an opportunity to cement itself as the "get rich slow" scheme it was always designed to be. Working side-by-side with CROs that can benefit from their experience. Providing businesses with a dual funnel that doesn’t lead to panic at the end of each quarter as pipeline falls off a cliff.
That, in my view, is the long and short of it.
Learn how you can join our contributor community.
