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The Next CMO: A Guide to Operational Marketing Excellence
The world is changing and so is the marketing profession. CMOs and the next generation of marketing leaders need to read this book to develop a strategy for ensuring operational excellence to achieve their goals. This book will provide a best practices approach for forming your marketing goals, creating a strategy, building a plan, crafting impactful campaigns, optimizing budgetary spending, and measuring true ROI. This book provides models, practical approaches, and templates to help the reader structure their own marketing strategy.
242 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 9, 2021
64 people are currently reading
141 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
April 20, 2021
One of the only books I’ve come across that covers the budget management and financial aspect of marketing in good detail. I’m not talking about ROI but the actually management of a budget - planning, tracking and reconciliation- that I learned on the fly as part of my job not through formal training.
That being said this book’s title is really for a future CMO - someone aspiring to the position later in their career - not someone about to become a CMO or just becoming one. There are pieces of the book, like the marketing plan section, that an experienced marketer should be well versed in already. It is well written and is a great example of marketing plan building, but not comprehensive, revolutionary, or talked about from the perspective of a CMO or head marketer.
As a VP of marketing with 20 years of experience leading the marketing function of a mid market company, I enjoyed it and it primarily reinforced what I already knew. But I think I will share copies with my team because I like the budgeting, ROI and measurement pieces to be very good and great for younger marketers looking to meet the needs of senior management.
That being said this book’s title is really for a future CMO - someone aspiring to the position later in their career - not someone about to become a CMO or just becoming one. There are pieces of the book, like the marketing plan section, that an experienced marketer should be well versed in already. It is well written and is a great example of marketing plan building, but not comprehensive, revolutionary, or talked about from the perspective of a CMO or head marketer.
As a VP of marketing with 20 years of experience leading the marketing function of a mid market company, I enjoyed it and it primarily reinforced what I already knew. But I think I will share copies with my team because I like the budgeting, ROI and measurement pieces to be very good and great for younger marketers looking to meet the needs of senior management.
November 5, 2020
First, I want to thank Peter Mahoney for being gracious to ship a complimentary copy of this book to me! I've been following conversations around the Next CMO for awhile now and was excited to dive into this.
The authors did not disappoint. A well written, clear outline of "the state of marketing" these days and the mix of elements a CMO must lead. Not only were there great recommendations, but often balanced with the right amount of example to bring concepts to life- something authors often struggle with, but not here!
The only "miss" top of mind for me, is I would have loved to hear the authors insights on how ROI is explicitly attributed to marketing alone.. Marketing is a team sport: corp comm, sales, marketing, word of mouth... any one activity or touch point along the buyer journey can positively or negatively influence the next step. Marketing does not exist in a vacuum and therefore is highly dependent on the whole working harmoniously to bring customers along.
The authors did not disappoint. A well written, clear outline of "the state of marketing" these days and the mix of elements a CMO must lead. Not only were there great recommendations, but often balanced with the right amount of example to bring concepts to life- something authors often struggle with, but not here!
The only "miss" top of mind for me, is I would have loved to hear the authors insights on how ROI is explicitly attributed to marketing alone.. Marketing is a team sport: corp comm, sales, marketing, word of mouth... any one activity or touch point along the buyer journey can positively or negatively influence the next step. Marketing does not exist in a vacuum and therefore is highly dependent on the whole working harmoniously to bring customers along.
March 7, 2024
I’m a template fan. This book focused not just on the drivel of marketing vanity metrics but templates and line of thoughts for successfully building good marketing. Yes, some of it was a refresh of what I already knew, but I always appreciate another take on knowledge. It was easy to follow and action. Solid marketing playbook.
February 10, 2025
A really solid book. Easy to read and digest, and contained some excellent advice. I think it was slightly lacking the more detailed, granular information/ recommendations (such as software recommendations, or more detail about tracking specific metrics, rather than just a general overview of what you can track). But overall a good book for those in marketing looking to be organised.
June 8, 2024
A bit of a mixed bag. Lots of great information and templates, but some areas of the book drag on. I think you would get most out of this book if you have it next to you while planning, and preparing to present your results.
February 12, 2023
definitely details love it!
So many CMO books talk in the ethereal world with no real context to execute. Not this book!!! Real world experience and application.
So many CMO books talk in the ethereal world with no real context to execute. Not this book!!! Real world experience and application.
July 10, 2023
This would have been a good book to read in undergrad. Not much that wouldn’t be known by casually participating in the industry, but decent reminders of operational best practices.
May 30, 2024
3.5 ⭐️
Great overview of core operational practices in marketing campaigns, goal based plannjng and attribution
Used to read fiction and self help, now I read boring marketing books
Great overview of core operational practices in marketing campaigns, goal based plannjng and attribution
Used to read fiction and self help, now I read boring marketing books
October 12, 2021
I saw one of the authors, Scott Todaro, speak at a marketing conference recently. I was intrigued by the idea of Marketing ROI (MROI) and wanted to learn more from his book.
The book is true to its title—The Next CMO. It really is for CMOs (higher level marketing positions). As a marketing director of a small company, I found this book helpful, particularly the last three chapters. However, a lot of what he talks about is for much larger companies.
The Next CMO is short, just 174 pages, so I was able to read it in about 2-3 hours. But I will need to spend some time processing MROI and how to calculate that for my company.
I definitely think this book is worth reading if you’re in marketing, but only if you’re in a high level role.
The book is true to its title—The Next CMO. It really is for CMOs (higher level marketing positions). As a marketing director of a small company, I found this book helpful, particularly the last three chapters. However, a lot of what he talks about is for much larger companies.
The Next CMO is short, just 174 pages, so I was able to read it in about 2-3 hours. But I will need to spend some time processing MROI and how to calculate that for my company.
I definitely think this book is worth reading if you’re in marketing, but only if you’re in a high level role.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews