The following article discusses the career path of Chief Marketing Officer. Learn about how to become one, education requirements, job duties, traits and qualities, national salary outlook as well as top national employers of Chief Marketing Officers.
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Job Duties
Chief marketing officers (CMO) hold responsibility for the creation of a vision of the marketing and sales group within the company. They must also make sure that this vision is properly executed. To do so, they must be forward thinking and innovative in their approach, and they must have the necessary leadership skills to properly direct the sales and marketing teams.
They also have to be able to strategically communicate the organization’s direction, while developing action plans for moving towards that. They are inspirational leaders who encourage marketing and sales employees to work at top efficiency. Furthermore, they are ambassadors for their business, excitedly communicating with clients and the media through various available channels.
A CMO is a truly exceptional leader, therefore, but they also have strong business responsibilities. They review and develop quantitative analysis methods and report on these to other senior managers. They statistically measure progress and determine whether goals have been met or not. They also hold HR responsibilities, hiring, training, and retaining members of staff within the marketing and sales team, and providing supervision for those as well.
Other job duties chief marketing officers of are:
- To lead all efforts in relation to the branding of all organizational products and services
- To understand and work with all different types of media
- To network with new and existing contacts and relationships, while resolving conflicts and problems at the same time
- To gather, analyze, and interpret customer and competition data and using this to develop more efficient buying practices
Where We Work
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 31,300 advertising, promotions, and marketing managers in 2016. The largest employers of these professionals were:
- Advertising, public relations, and related services: 34%
- Information: 12%
- Management of companies and enterprises: 7%
- Wholesale trade: 6%
- Retail trade: 6%
How to Become
To become a CMO, the most important thing is to have significant proven experience in the fields of sales and marketing. In fact, experience is generally more important than education. Most CMOs have at least eight years of relevant, professional experience before they can take on this position.
Education Requirements
While experience is more important than education, it is now also common for CMOs to have a graduate degree. Usually, this degree is in a field related to marketing. Some hold a master in business administration (MBA) with a marketing concentration. See 10 best Online MBA in Marketing degree programs.
Traits & Qualities
The most effective CMOs have the following traits to some degree or other:
- Excellent management skills
- Strong communication skills, both oral and written
- Motivational leadership skills
- Forward thinking skills
- Innovation skills
Minimum Education
Master’s Degree
The national average salary estimate for Chief Marketing Officer was $136,769. This number is estimated from over 84,524 employees, users past and present job advertisements from Indeed.com. This equates to an hourly salary of $71.23 and monthly of $11,397.
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$27,000
$333,000
The following section lists Chief Marketing Officer salaries in each state around the country. The figures are based on the total number of job postings through Indeed.com. For example, Washington had the largest quoted salary of $168,747 while California had the smallest quoted salary of $130,197.
| California | Illinois | New York | Washington |
| Florida | New Jersey | Texas |
According to Indeed.com, the following states had employers looking to hire a Chief Marketing Officer. The quoted salary figure represents the average salary from all job postings by this employer.
| Employer Name | Location | Average Salary |
|---|---|---|
| Liberty Mutual | New York | $206,291 |
| ClosedOpp – Salesforce Focused Paid Search | Washington | $205,000 |
| Ascendo Resources | Florida | $200,000 |
| Chief Talent Officer LLC (Talent Acquisition Solutions Search | California | $190,767 |
| CyberCoders | California | $178,416 |
| Confidant Recruiting, Inc | California | $160,000 |
| Senior Care Search Group | New York | $153,098 |
| Lonski and Associates LLC | Florida | $150,000 |
| Post jobs | New Jersey | $150,000 |
| Health Staff USA | New York | $150,000 |
| AmyColeConnect | New York | $150,000 |
| Live2times Inc. | California | $110,000 |
| Weloop | California | $97,276 |
| Comivo | California | $75,000 |
| Integr8staff | California | $60,000 |
| Ambassadors of Style Program | Illinois | $50,000 |
| Tuleburg | California | $50,000 |
Learn More
- Best Marketing Management Programs
- Home – CMO Council™
- Best Advertising MBA Degree
- Best Careers in Marketing
- MBA Degree Salary by Concentration
- Salary Outlook with a Marketing Degree
- Sports Management & Marketing Careers
| Career Name | Average Salary |
|---|---|
| Chief Medical Officer | $185,835 |
| Medical Director | $184,548 |
| Chief Technology Officer | $147,424 |
| Director of Engineering | $138,182 |
| Director of Pharmacy | $136,890 |
| Data Scientist | $130,297 |
| Chief Financial Officer | $130,123 |
| Quantitative Analyst | $127,870 |
| Investment Banker | $125,041 |
| Network Architect | $123,709 |
