Marketing isn’t a thing. It’s everything.

Seth Godin recently wrote, “Marketing used to be what you say. Now, marketing is what you do. What you make. How you act. The choices you make when you are sure no one is looking.” This idea that marketing is everything is why, according to a recent study published by IBM Institute for Business Value, CMOs have become increasingly influential in the boardroom. In fact, the CMO is now second only to the CFO in terms of the influence he or she exerts on the CEO.

CMOs know that we now live in the age of the customer, yet most CMOs — concerned with the need to validate the value of marketing — focus more on metrics and technology than creating a compelling customer experience across all touchpoints. And to create a compelling experience you must change the way your organization engages and communicates with customers. That means the customer experience begins and ends with your corporate message.

CMOs must focus on developing a clear, consistent and compelling message and infuse that message throughout the organization. This requires adopting a new mindset. It requires CMOs become organizational change agents who empower employees to bring the corporate story to life with every connection they make. For this to happen, corporate messaging must be woven into the fabric of the organization through sustained internal change management programs that consist of formal/informal training, education and internal marketing campaigns. Implementing an organizational change management initiative is the only way to ensure employees fully understand your story and have the ability to bring it to life.

The ability to develop and deliver a clear, compelling and consistent corporate message is the one thing that has the most significant impact on lead generation, sales conversion rates, customer retention, and ultimately, it creates a differentiated customer experience.

The time is now for CMOs to move corporate messaging up their priority lists and change the way they leverage their stories to generate sustained improvements in the customer experience that truly can be measured and create value for the company over time.

Learn more about creating cohesive and compelling customer experiences here.