CMOs: How to Stop Burning Marketing Spend and Our Teams at the Same Time
Ines Hubmann, Senior CX Marketing Consultant at Huble, discusses balancing short-term marketing wins with long-term brand strategies. She reveals how empathy, active listening, and a strong brand foundation save budgets and teams from burnout. Through personal anecdotes and real-world insights, she underscores the need for human-centric marketing in a tech-driven environment.
Balancing brand building with urgent performance targets can feel like navigating two opposing forces. Yet marketers who commit to understanding human psychology consistently outperform those fixated on quick gains. In this interview, Ines Hubmann, Senior CX Marketing Consultant at Huble, shares how to stop wasting resources on short-sighted tactics and avoid burning out our teams. Through her personal experience and insights, it’s clear that empathy plays a pivotal role in reducing budget waste, uniting teams, and creating powerful messaging. By the end of this piece, you’ll understand how to build a brand while achieving immediate wins that satisfy leadership demands.
“The more time we put aside for brand and truly listening to the customer, the more effective our marketing will be, and the higher the results we can show.” – Ines Hubmann
The interactive podbook below contains:
- Ines Hubmann’s introduction video
- Full Episode video, audio, transcript, and article
- 9 Summary Videos + 1 Summary Article
- YouTube Short Post
Article: “CMOs: How to Stop Burning Marketing Spend and Our Teams at the Same Time”
This article is based on an interview with Ines Hubmann, Senior CX Marketing Consultant at Huble
Creating a Human-Centric Mindset
As Ines emphasizes, marketing is built on understanding human behavior.“Marketing is all about psychology,” she explains in the transcript, underscoring how crucial it is to see beyond traditional metrics. As budgets shrink or shift, marketers can’t rely on data alone; they need to empathize with their audience. “The more time we put aside for brand and truly listening to the customer, the more effective our marketing will be, and the higher the results we can show,” she says. This mindset encourages teams to dig deeper into customer stories, uncover real pain points, and create resonate campaigns. By tackling the human dimension of marketing, businesses foster more powerful and genuine internal and external relationships. “It’s about going from ego to empathy,” Ines adds.
Eliminating Friction Through Alignment
Another primary concern Ines highlights is internal alignment. From her vantage point, CMOs must unify messaging, brand, and performance goals under one umbrella to stop wasting spend on disjointed initiatives. “If we can create a single, shared plan across sales and marketing that’s grounded in the voice of the ICP, we remove the biggest hurdles,” she shares. When teams have a common North Star, campaigns flow more seamlessly. Ines states, “We are measured on quick wins, but if we ignore brand strategy, we limit future returns.” Here, empathy also extends to stakeholders—understanding their pressures while educating them on the long-term benefits of brand-building. In such an environment, performance marketers and brand strategists collaborate to achieve immediate and lasting results.
Empathy as the Differentiator
One essential takeaway Ines shares is that technology alone can’t provide a competitive edge. “We’re often so absorbed by features and platforms that we forget customers want real connection,” she stresses. By understanding the human element—why customers buy or how they prefer to engage—marketers can create messages that cut through the noise. “That’s when we stand out,” Ines notes. Rather than being the loudest voice, she urges marketers to be more understanding. She refers to active listening sessions as a method for capturing evolving needs and ensuring marketing messages stay relevant and timely. These insights sharpen marketing strategies and help teams avoid burnout by focusing on purposeful, customer-led initiatives.
Conclusion
Shifting from short-term tactics to a balanced approach that values empathy can revolutionize results. When you align your strategy around a clear ICP, craft messaging from a human perspective, and unify internal teams with a shared plan, budgets stretch further, and morale improves. Instead of wasting energy on guesswork, you’ll have clarity from real customer insights. That clarity is where sustainable growth thrives. It’s not about working harder; it’s about working smarter—listening more intently, planning more collaboratively, and building resonating messages. The result? Far less wasted spend, a culture of authentic engagement, and a brand positioned for lasting impact.
ELEVATING CONTENT MARKETING STANDARDS RAISES A CRUCIAL QUESTION:
Why shouldn’t the very act of creating thought leadership content also spark new conversations with in-pipeline deals, top prospects, and high-priority customers for revenue expansion? Or serve as the cornerstone for learning and applying voice-of-customer strategies? That’s the power of ABM Podcasting—engaging B2B buyers and customers in meaningful conversations that uncover essential go-to-market insights, support long sales cycles, reinforce your market perspective, build peer-level trust, and dismantle objections that kill deals.
Steven MacDonald
Steven MacDonald is the founder of Content Strategies, CEO of a MarTech SaaS Company, fractional CMO consulting with leading B2B companies and former Director of Strategy and Client Service at top ten digital marketing agencies.
Steven MacDonald
Steven MacDonald is the founder of Content Strategies, CEO of a MarTech SaaS Company, fractional CMO consulting with leading B2B companies and former Director of Strategy and Client Service at top ten digital marketing agencies.
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