Head of Marketing is not the same role as CMO. Where a CMO is often strategy-oriented and externally visible, a Head of Marketing is typically in execution mode — managing campaigns, managing agencies, managing a content calendar, and trying to hit MQL targets with a team that is always slightly too small for the workload.
This operational reality changes your outreach entirely. A Head of Marketing has immediate, specific problems they are trying to solve this quarter. Your cold email should speak to those problems directly, not to the long-term brand strategy a CMO might prioritise.
What Heads of Marketing Actually Need
- Campaign execution capacity. They need more done with the same team. Solutions that multiply marketing output without adding headcount are immediately interesting.
- Lead quality over lead volume. Most Heads of Marketing have been burned by volume-over-quality approaches. Frame your solution in terms of ICP fit and conversion quality.
- Agency management pain. Many Heads of Marketing manage external agencies and struggle with visibility, briefing, and output quality. If you solve this workflow problem, it is an operational win.
- Reporting and attribution. Explaining marketing's contribution to revenue in a language the CFO believes is a universal pain point. Anything that makes this easier is valuable.
How to Open Head of Marketing Outreach
Reference a specific campaign, a content piece, or a channel they are visibly active in. LinkedIn, their company blog, or their job postings all contain signals about their current priorities. Start there, connect it to a problem, offer a solution. Keep it under 120 words. Heads of Marketing are busy operators, not strategy consultants. Talk to their to-do list, not their long-term vision.