Your role as a CMO isn't just running the marketing department. It's a three-part job: 1) execute marketing, 2) help the CEO run the entire company, and 3) continuously market the value and impact of your team internally. Neglecting the second and third jobs is a path to failure.

A CMO's primary job is not just external promotion but also internal marketing. This involves consistently communicating marketing's vision, progress, and wins to other departments to secure buy-in, resources, and cross-functional collaboration.

Instead of a traditional structure, Gymshark has a CCO and CBO with complementary marketing skills. This unique org design ensures the customer's voice is dominant in strategic decisions, preventing short-term commercial goals from overriding long-term brand equity and customer focus.

To modernize her team, Ally's CMO designed a new structure based on core capabilities (Insights, Execution, Creative, Measurement) rather than traditional functional silos. This model, benchmarked against other high-performing organizations, creates clearer ownership and a more effective workflow.

To ensure accountability and prevent requests from getting lost, Recorded Future's marketing team assigned a specific point of contact for every other department (sales, CS, product). This organizational structure clarified ownership but was flexible enough to be broken when a major, unstaffed opportunity emerged.

Instead of a scattered approach, Sprout Social's CMO created a dedicated "AI and Automation Marketing Manager" role. This person, with both marketing and technical savvy, acts as a central catalyst to identify and implement AI-enabled workflows across the entire team, accelerating adoption and impact.

Instead of having channel owners operate in silos, a dedicated campaigns team can own the overarching strategy. They translate revenue goals into integrated campaigns, coordinating with channel experts (digital, field, events) to ensure cohesive execution and alignment with business priorities.

Varonis's CMO structures his team to be "lean and elite" by eliminating career middle managers. Every manager is a hands-on expert in their function, actively contributing to the work. This player-coach model prevents bureaucratic bloat and ensures deep expertise at every level of leadership.

Break down silos by establishing a monthly leadership meeting between sales and marketing. This ensures marketing creates content that sales can use as valuable 'insights' for outreach, creating a unified revenue engine instead of two competing departments.