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Apr 04, 2025

The list of things fellow executives have to say about the performance of the CMO is often long and unpleasant. And it’s not new, either.

They lack business acumen. They struggle to communicate the role of marketing in achieving goals. Heck, they often struggle to meet their own growth goals.

As Chris Ross, vice president and analyst at Gartner, told me, “Some of these are evergreen challenges.”

I talked to Ross and other experts about the challenges facing CMOs and how marketers can help their CMOs weather these storms.

Also, as we continue to integrate AI functionality into our content today, we’ve added the ability to get insights from certain MarTech articles customized for your role.

You can see this in today’s article on tariffs, retail spending and advertising and our Reddit marketing guide. We think it’s neat.

Mike Pastore
Editorial Director

Semrush: Want your competitor's advertising strategy? Get it free.

Marketing management

What else we're reading

Good reads and conversations to help good marketers get better.

Garbage data is the biggest hidden tariff in marketing.
AI agents can (and will) be scammed
What marketing activity wastes more time/money than it saves?
Pass this along to any upper management type trying to become an influencer.
Why do consumers hate it when brands try to connect with them?
SEO isn’t dead, but it’s dangerously outdated. Or is it?

MarTech research

Surveys and research reports to make you a more-informed marketer

NEW! Get profiles of 14 email marketing platforms and more in the 2025 MarTech Intelligence Report, Email Marketing Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide.
NEW! MarTech’s new buyers guide for identity resolution includes profiles of 11 identity resolution platform vendors, pricing information, capabilities comparisons and recommended steps for evaluating and purchasing.
NEW! Get in-depth profiles of the top players in the marketing project and work management space. Download the MarTech Intelligence Report on Marketing Work Management platforms.
The 2025 MarTech Intelligence Report on Marketing Automation Platforms is here. Get an overview of the MAP market and profiles of 14 vendors.
Improve your understanding of the CDP market and get profiles of 21 vendors in the space. It’s the 2025 MarTech Intelligence Report on customer data platforms.
Check out our MarTech Intelligence Report on Call Analytics & Conversation Intelligence Platforms, featuring profiles of 11 vendors.

What they're saying

“Really good CMOs are really good at contextualizing marketing in terms of the business. They can apply a marketing orientation to enterprise thinking.” – Gartner’s Chris Ross in This is what your CMO is facing. How can you help?
“When brand and performance teams operate in silos, with separate KPIs, goals and even creative approaches, they often end up competing for resources. Disparate, disconnected measurement reinforces that divide.” – Laurie Miller in How smarter measurement can fix marketing’s performance trap.