CEOs: Set Realistic Expectations of Your Marketing Teams
This article was published on August 29, 2025
Categorized in: Fractional Marketing, B2B Marketing
It’s pretty common for CEOs to place demands and expectations on their marketing departments, expecting them to deliver results, and often as quickly as possible. While it is common for marketing and leadership to align on objectives, sometimes the speed at which leadership would like to see results is unrealistic. CEOs need to set realistic expectations, but they also need to have a realistic understanding of what is possible for marketing. Effective, long-term strategies take time to implement, and it’s important for CEOs to understand this when setting expectations.
Understand that Marketing is a Long-Term Investment
The first is that both company leadership and the marketing department need to understand that marketing is a long-term pursuit. When leadership feels as if marketing should expand and do more, they often expect immediate results. They also expect that, in general, their expectations are possible. Sure, there are some tactics that yield short term results, like paid advertising, but these only work well and to their potential if they are part of a longer strategy. It’s much better for marketing if they are allowed to take a step back and approach things from a strategic perspective.
Pursuits like content marketing, brand development, and SEO take much longer to develop, and these are all foundational activities. CEOs need to view marketing as a long term investment that builds or compounds over time. This gives the marketing team space to do what they need to do.
Slow Down Before You Surge Ahead
Sometimes, it’s needed to take a step back to run data, analyze the existing strategy, and create a new strategy. This may look, on the surface, as a period of waiting and inactivity. As mentioned above, CEOs need to give marketing space to do what they need to do, and thus means they need to slow down a bit before they implement the strategy that will achieve the business goals.
For marketers, this is a multi-step process that takes time. In order to truly propel the business into the future, it’s important to occasionally take a step back and let this process unfold. If CEOs get in the way of this step in the name of speed, this impedes progress and the results won’t be as good as they could be.
Be Sure to Align on Metrics
This is an important detail, but one that often gets overlooked. Marketing and company leadership, such as CEOs, need to align on metrics. Both parties need to agree on this because the metrics are directly tied to the overall company goals. Everyone needs to be on the same page concerning what they are. That way, there are no surprises at the end when marketing puts together reports. The metrics the CEO wants to see will be there. Sure, marketing can choose to measure other things, as well, as long as the metrics the CEO wants to see are present.
CEOs, it’s so important to make sure that you and marketing are aligned and on the same page. This starts with you having realistic expectations and it continues by you both aligning on goals and metrics. Finally, be aware that long lasting results take a while to build.
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About the Author: B2B Fractional CMO Nick Stamoulis
Nick Stamoulis is a digital marketing expert with over 25 years experience, serving as President of Brick Marketing and a B2B Fractional CMO. He specializes in solving complex marketing challenges through strategic SEO, content marketing, social media, PPC, email marketing, AI search and conversion optimization. Nick Stamoulis also embraces AI-driven marketing solutions to improve efficiency, personalize campaigns, and drive measurable results. His forward-thinking approach and commitment to growth make him a trusted leader in helping businesses solve marketing related challenges and achieve marketing and business goals.
