CMO Perspectives: Where to Assign Your Marketing Budget and Why

This article was originally published in Authority Magazine.

In an age where marketing landscapes are rapidly evolving and consumer behaviors are constantly shifting, Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) play a pivotal role in steering their organizations’ marketing strategies towards success. With a plethora of channels, platforms, and techniques at their disposal, the decision on where to allocate the marketing budget is more critical than ever. We’re seeking to explore questions like: What factors influence their decisions? How do they balance between digital and traditional marketing channels? What role does data play in their decision-making process? And importantly, why they choose to invest in certain areas over others? As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Don F. McLean.

Don F. McLean is the founder of McLean Media (www.mcleanmedia.co), an award-winning PR and content marketing agency in the Detroit area that supports some of the world’s smartest entrepreneurs and organizations with public relations, content marketing, fractional CMO services, LinkedIn optimization, and communications strategy. His works spans automotive, B2B, healthcare, insurance, manufacturing, mobility, pharmaceuticals, professional services, tech, and more. An invited speaker, Don is writing a book on strategies to elevate leaders on LinkedIn. Recently, one tech CEO and hip-hop artist said, “Don is a master in public relations and is an absolute pleasure to know! His network is vast and he is always thinking a few steps ahead. I will definitely continue to work with McLean Media.” Connect with him: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donaldfmclean/

Thank you so much for your time! I know that you are a very busy person. Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

Since graduating college from Madonna University (www.madonna.edu) in 2007, I have had the unique opportunity to work with the highest levels of management from director-level through and including the c-suite. This has afforded me the opportunity to spend the majority of my career observing and understanding how and why business decisions are made. In college, I was a business major with a marketing focus. Since then, I have worked at public relations agencies and in house at corporations to help grow and expand businesses in pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, technology, professional services, automotive, insurance, and many other industries.

It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I rarely like to think of things in terms of mistakes or wrong versus right. In marketing and communications, choices that may not be the best approach often come down to personal preferences and past knowledge. One specific mistake that I can think of is on the media relations side. When pitching for a large event, like CES, the stakes are high and clients expect to see results that outperform expectations. Earlier in my career, I sent multiple emails with the wrong person’s name in them. At some point in their career, it happens to nearly every PR person, but for me it was devastating. I actually lost sleep over it. I care so much about what people think and have an immense respect for journalists. My lesson learned was not to be too hard on myself, that everyone makes mistakes a long the way, and to do a second or third proofread before sending anything.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

Since I founded McLean Media (www.mcleanmedia.co), I get to work on exciting projects every day. Recently, I worked with one organization to launch Trusano (www.trusano.ai), an AI-powered data and document anonymization, redaction, and masking software. This is exciting to be part of because its going to help governments and businesses in all industries responsibly share sensitive data and documents with confidence. Some users are gaining up to 80 percent efficiency using Trusano’s AI functionality over manual efforts.

I’ve also been working with a new company and app called BluXinga (www.bluxinga.com), an employee empowerment tool designed to provide immediate assessment and support for companies with limited time and resources. Immediate feedback loops in BluXinga help leaders to create a positive work culture, empower and retain employees, and build a more productive workplace.

In both instances, these company’s are using technology to change the way the world does business, and we are about to help quite a large number of people and businesses.

Thank you for that. Let’s now shift to the central focus of our discussion. Can you share an experience where a unique or unconventional budget allocation led to unexpected success in your marketing campaign?

For this, I have to go back to the first days of the COVID-19 pandemic. I was working in the pharmaceutical industry and the top of the house knew that we could do something to help the world. Our marketing budget was set for the year, but with changing demands came new opportunity. From there, we strategized and built a campaign to offer a USD1M award toward the development of a vaccine for the coronavirus. The award was offered in the form of data and related services to qualified pharmaceutical and clinical research companies supporting the commercial development of a vaccine for approval in the United States and/or other global health authorities. The goal was to help smaller organizations eliminate financial roadblocks and it was a resounding success, far surpassing other programs that we created.

How do you balance investing in emerging marketing trends versus traditional, proven strategies in your budget decisions? Can you give us an example?

Any investments in emerging markets should be reviewed carefully before jumping in. Oftentimes, it is helpful to start a pilot project, which I have done many times to test the legitimacy of something new. However, starting with a trend can be detrimental. I prefer to start with what the company wants to achieve and then work to find the ways that they can specifically stand out and provide the largest return for their investment. I have been involved in a lot of niche industries themselves that are beginning and as head of marketing and communications I would often be asked to sponsor new events. To get more out of any event, I was looking for ways to expand our presence and I found geo-fencing. This was shortly after smartphones became a necessity for most people. Geofencing, for those who may not be aware, allows you to draw a virtual fence around a location and target ads towards people that enter the area. I tested the use of this for multiple events and saw strong returns over the course of our projects. I hadn’t heard of it much before, but taking the time to focus on my goal allowed me to find the right tools and opportunities to grow the business. In the end, I think the best way to balance is to stay curious and keep an open mind.

In what ways has data-driven decision-making influenced your approach to allocating marketing budgets, and can you provide an example of this in action?

Data is everything because it can’t be argued with. With anything new, I like to test, track, and refine to allow me to find what works best and make it even better. This is not to say that I put all my eggs in one basket. I have found that it is better to devote a larger percentage of a marketing budget to what is tried and true, with a smaller percentage towards something out-of-the-box. This helps create more stability, while still allowing me to find the room to grow in new ways.

How do you evaluate the ROI of different marketing channels and decide where to invest more or cut back?

Testing is the key here too. Some of the right channels have ROI that is a bit more different to navigate however. For instance, I have a client that is in a very niche, technical industry among the scientific community. If they don’t show up with a booth at the few conferences that occur each year for that niche, people wonder if the company is still viable. This means that there is a negative ROI of not showing up at the conference. With events being a large part of marketing budgets, this needs to be heavily considered.

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Based on your experience and success, what are the “5 Things to Keep in Mind When Deciding Where to Assign Your Marketing Budget, and Why?”

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1. Does this align to my business goals? This should always be the first question and will keep us thinking strategically. In my career, I have often seen people jump straight to a tactical execution without considering if its right for the company itself. A great example of this is joining a new social media platform because it’s the hot new thing. There are reasons for and against why companies should look favorably on something new like this, but doing social media on Tik Tok and LinkedIn are two very different things that need a separate strategy to execute properly.
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2. Where does your audience go (online and in person)? Some audiences are spread out across the world and only get together a few things per year. Other audiences are in one local town or community and get together more often. Marketing budgets are different for every type of organization and even vary greatly with those in the same niche. Taking the time understand where your audience shows up allows marketers and communicators to get closer to assigning marketing budget to the right places.
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3. Where is the white space to stand out more? I have worked with many organizations that are only focused on doing exactly what their competitors are doing, and this is the wrong way to think. It is good to know what they are doing, but its better to understand what they are not doing. This may mean doing things like creating an industry working group, pushing to have the most informative free resources, or creating an unstoppable PR event in front of the New York Stock Exchange. The progression here is noticeable. Align the budget to your business goals, know where your audience is, and find what nobody else is saying.
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4. Would I spend my own money doing this? This is one of my person secret’s. I don’t recommend anything to an entrepreneur or executive team that I would not choose to execute if I were in their same position. I ask myself this question with every program or path that I go down for my clients and the company’s that I have worked with. It is a great lens to have, and it has helped me become more creative and more responsible with every marketing budget.
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5. Does it get results? Nothing else matters if the right results are not present. I have been involved with a number of programs that were forced and, in the end, the execution and expected results fell short. What I have realized is that it is not any one person’s fault. The client should trust the marketer and the marketer should realize that they need to be a better consultant and share the reasons for changing course. Results are everything. They matter for the company, its investors and other stakeholders, and the future career path of the marketers or communicators in charge. If a “Begin with the end in mind” approach is used, like the Franklin Covey leadership training teaches us, we can make things happen quicker, better, and stronger.

Could you discuss a challenging budget decision you faced, how you navigated it, and the impact it had on your overall marketing strategy?

I have been in the situation where a marketing budget is expected to be at one level and it comes in lower than expected. This can be difficult and I have personally witnessed many people either lose trust in the company or convince themselves that they cannot be as effective. I try to refrain from this defeatist-type attitude. When faced with this previously, I have worked with vendors to inquire about discounts, promotions, or coupons.

This includes events, awards programs, subscriptions, digital advertising, and numerous others. Starting there helps because I have often found that you can get closer to the budget just by having conversations and making it known that you may not be able to work together if the price is not more favorable.

From there, I like to think about what grassroots programs may fit into the marketing plan to help keep the budget tighter. From my perspective, as long as a marketing budget exists, there are strong possibilities to move forward.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

I would love if more people embracing a “help-first” mindset. By this, I mean offering to help other entrepreneurs, startups, friends, or industry acquaintances and stopping there. We don’t always need something in return. Help for the sake of helping. There is room in this world for all of us to grow if we support each other.

More at: https://medium.com/authority-magazine/cmo-perspectives-don-f-mclean-of-mclean-media-on-where-to-assign-your-marketing-budget-and-why-3843c5537594

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