Teradata Applications Chief Marketing Officer Lisa Arthur is an industry thought-leader and 30-year technology industry marketing veteran. She's also the author of Big Data Marketing: Engage Your Customers More Effectively and Drive Value.

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I invited Lisa to Marketing Smarts to discuss her evolution from journalist to CMO, the advent of data-driven marketing, and the importance of customer experience to marketing success.

Here are just a few highlights from our conversation:

Want to be a CMO? Develop a collaborative leadership style. (02:48): "My advice for tomorrow's chief marketing officers is to hone your collaboration leadership skills. I've long been an advocate of the CMO being a change agent—really driving the brand, the company to new heights focused on the customer, and then driving internal change as needed to achieve growth and drive value. To drive change, too often, I've seen CMOs (including myself) break a little glass or too much glass, and it ends up hurting the credibility of the programs and initiatives that they're driving. So, tomorrow's CMOs coming to the table with strong collaboration skills to drive alignment in the C-suite on those critical strategies and initiatives, and then also collaborating with their teams to lead that change is critical. That's really going to make a determination between great CMOs and those that are just treading water."

When making a difficult decision, cite the data, then hold yourself accountable (04:13): "The key is letting the data from the market, from the consumers or the buyers, be the voice of the decision, and then using that to explain your decision, and then hold yourself accountable. Once you've got the data and communicate the decision, holding yourself accountable and... saying 'OK, this worked and the data proved itself,' or if it falls a little short, 'it fell a little short, but here's what we learned.' Too often, we try to be perfect and we also try to justify things when sometimes it's just being accountable and driving that next level of change."

To gain a competitive advantage, conduct primary research (06:39): "[Conducting our own research] really enables us to center key initiatives, campaigns, messaging—whatever that might be—on the voice of the market, and what's important to them.... Marketers are still not taking that step.... We get caught up in the way it used to be, that it would be months and months. [But] with social networks and innovation from research firms, you can get [data] in a matter of weeks now, so we've shortened that time to learn and hear and understand. Additionally, it allows for that internal alignment, which gives a competitive advantage because you're executing better, so it's a win/win."

To learn more, visit Teradata.com or follow Lisa on Twitter: @LisaArthur. And get your copy of Big Data Marketing: Engage Your Customers More Effectively and Drive Value. All proceeds go to benefit the American Red Cross!

Lisa and I talked about much more, so be sure to listen to the entire show, which you can do above, or download the mp3 and listen at your convenience. Of course, you can also subscribe to the Marketing Smarts podcast in iTunes or via RSS and never miss an episode!

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Special thanks to production company Candidio, an efficient, affordable video production platform allowing marketers and communicators to collaborate and curate video content, with help from a team of professional, on-demand video editors for the finishing touches. Check them out!

Show opener music credit: Noam Weinstein.

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Published on May 20, 2015