• Table of Contents

  • Marketing’s Real Job? Fueling the Business Engine
  • Marketing Is Not a Vibe—It’s a Vehicle
  • From Vanity Metrics to Value Metrics
  • Strategy First, Tactics Second
  • CMOs: Stop Playing Defense
  • Case in Point: The CMOs Who Get It
  • So, What Now?
  • Final Thought: Marketing Is a Growth Function, Not a Support Function

Marketing’s Real Job? Fueling the Business Engine

Let’s get one thing straight: marketing isn’t here to “build awareness” or “go viral.” It’s not a department of arts and crafts, and it sure as hell isn’t the company’s in-house social media cheerleader. Marketing’s real job? Fueling the business engine. That means driving revenue, accelerating pipeline, and making sure the business doesn’t stall out while everyone else is busy polishing their brand guidelines. If your marketing team isn’t directly tied to business outcomes, you don’t have a marketing team—you have a very expensive decoration committee.

Marketing Is Not a Vibe—It’s a Vehicle

Somewhere along the way, marketing got hijacked by the “brand police” and the “content calendar crowd.” The result? A lot of noise, not a lot of impact. The real job of marketing is to move the business forward. That means:

• Creating demand that sales can actually close
• Building positioning that makes competitors irrelevant
• Driving strategic growth, not just tactical output

Marketing’s real job is to be the engine, not the paint job. If your campaigns look great but don’t convert, you’re not marketing—you’re decorating.

From Vanity Metrics to Value Metrics

Let’s talk about the scoreboard. Too many marketing teams are still celebrating impressions like it’s 2012. Here’s a reality check: your CEO doesn’t care how many likes your post got. They care about pipeline, revenue, and market share.

To fuel the business engine, marketing must align with metrics that matter:

• Revenue Influence: How much pipeline did marketing generate or accelerate?
• Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): Are we spending smart or just spending?
• Sales Velocity: Is marketing shortening the sales cycle or slowing it down?

Marketing’s real job is to make the business faster, smarter, and more profitable. If your dashboard doesn’t reflect that, it’s time to upgrade your KPIs—or your team.

Strategy First, Tactics Second

Too many marketers are stuck in execution mode—churning out content, launching campaigns, and optimizing ads without ever asking: “Why are we doing this?”

Here’s a radical idea: start with strategy. Not a 90-slide deck full of buzzwords, but a clear, ruthless plan to win in your market. That means:

• Understanding your ideal customer better than they understand themselves
• Positioning your product as the only logical choice
• Building a go-to-market engine that scales with precision

Marketing’s real job is to be the architect of growth, not the intern with a Canva account.

CMOs: Stop Playing Defense

If you’re a CMO still fighting for a seat at the table, you’re already losing. The best CMOs don’t ask for permission—they bring the numbers, the strategy, and the swagger that make them indispensable.

Want to fuel the business engine? Then act like a business leader, not a brand babysitter. That means:

• Owning revenue targets alongside sales
• Driving cross-functional alignment with product and finance
• Making bold bets—and knowing when to kill them fast

Marketing’s real job is to lead, not follow. If you’re waiting for someone to hand you the keys, you’re in the wrong role.

Truth Bomb:

“If marketing isn’t driving revenue, it’s just overhead with a better wardrobe.”

Case in Point: The CMOs Who Get It

Let’s look at a few examples of marketing leaders who understand their real job:

• Dave Gerhardt (Drift): Turned B2B marketing into a revenue machine by aligning brand with pipeline.
• Meagen Eisenberg (Lacework, MongoDB): Built scalable demand gen engines that fueled hypergrowth.
• Chris Walker (Refine Labs): Preached revenue-focused marketing before it was cool—and proved it with data.

These CMOs didn’t wait for permission. They redefined marketing’s role and made it the engine of growth. That’s the bar now. Anything less is just noise.

So, What Now?

If you’re a CMO, VP, or founder reading this, here’s your challenge: audit your marketing team. Are they fueling the business engine—or just polishing the hood?

Ask yourself:

• Are we aligned with revenue goals?
• Do we have a clear, differentiated strategy?
• Are we measuring what matters—or what’s easy?

If the answer to any of those is “no,” it’s time to rewire your marketing function. Not with more tools or templates—but with a new mindset.

Final Thought: Marketing Is a Growth Function, Not a Support Function

Let’s stop pretending marketing is some soft, squishy discipline that lives in the corner. It’s not. It’s the engine that drives growth, scale, and competitive advantage. And if it’s not doing that in your company, it’s time to change the driver—or rebuild the engine entirely.

Because at the end of the day, marketing’s real job isn’t to make things look good. It’s to make the business go faster.

Mark Gabrielli
Founder, MarkCMO
[email protected]
www.linkedin.com/in/marklgabrielli