Content doesn't always have to target buyers. A CTO writing about AI infrastructure might not attract customers, but it builds a powerful employer brand that attracts top engineering talent, a valid business goal.

When pitching new marketing initiatives, supplement ROI projections with research demonstrating a clear audience need for the content. Framing the project as a valuable service to the customer, rather than just another marketing tactic, is a more powerful way to gain internal support.

While investing in brand is crucial for long-term growth, it cannot come at the expense of hitting immediate pipeline and revenue targets. A key CMO competency is to treat these numbers as non-negotiable while effectively negotiating with partners like sales to secure and protect a dedicated budget for awareness activities.

To get C-suite buy-in for long-term brand investment, marketers should run small, ring-fenced test campaigns. By isolating a market segment and layering brand tactics on top of demand generation, you can demonstrably prove superior growth compared to a control group, de-risking a larger investment.

To get leadership buy-in for a social media initiative, frame it as a short, time-bound experiment like a single quarter. This is much easier for stakeholders to approve than a vague, indefinite commitment to 'do social media'.

Not all brand campaigns have direct, measurable ROI. Justify their cost by tracking "soft ROI," such as increased employee pride and retention (e.g., employees on billboards), positive candidate feedback during interviews, and using tools like Gong to track how often the campaign is mentioned in sales calls.

To sell leadership on brand initiatives with indirect ROI, translate organic performance into paid media equivalents. Calculate what the millions of impressions from a viral video would have cost via paid channels. Frame it as a cost-effective way to build brand and lower overall CAC.

LinkedIn's platform serves as a free testing ground. Identify your best-performing organic posts and then put ad budget behind them as 'Thought Leader Ads.' One team found this strategy was three times as effective as all other ad types combined.

Position marketing as the engine for future quarters' growth, while sales focuses on closing current-quarter deals. This reframes marketing's long-term investments (like brand building) as essential for sustainable revenue, justifying budgets that don't show immediate, direct ROI to a CFO.