The chief marketing officer—or CMO—is a fairly new member of the C-suite. He or she is sometimes disguised as the vice president of marketing, but this one has become an important role in your organization's leadership line-up. A CMO can make a big difference in terms of customer acquisition and strategic growth of existing accounts, which directly impacts the strength of your bottom line.

But how do you know it's finally time to bring in C-level marketing talent? And is it necessary to hire a CMO, or can a founder assume that role?

Today and tomorrow, Promotional Consultant Today shares these insights compiled by author Scott Gerber after interviewing a group of entrepreneurs for his article, "12 Signs It's Time to Hire a CMO."

1. When You Need To Put Your Product First. Andy Karuza of Brandbuddee says it's important to get a CMO on board early so they play a critical role in market research, defining your customer and user needs and working with product development to ensure your product is aligned to those specific market needs. As he says, "A good CMO can't save a bad product, but he can take an OK product to the next level and make it better through proper market research and customer feedback."

2. When You Need to Grow. A CMO can be an important leader when you're not growing at the pace needed to be an industry leader or to meet shareholder or analyst expectations. As he points out, companies hit plateaus and reach levels of maturity. A CMO can be that vision to initiate growth.

3. When You Need Help Overseeing Marketing Efforts. Today's marketing is much more complex than ever before. Between content marketing, social media, lead scoring and more, a CMO can be an important leader in overseeing these new territories.

4. When Your Business Becomes Huge. One entrepreneur interviewed, Ryan Shank, suggests that at least one founder of a company should be a marketing expert. So, as a start-up, look for the person who has this experience and tap into it before you hire a CMO, then once the company becomes larger, you can hire from the outside.

5. When Your Brand Portrayal Needs Help. A CMO can provide vision, voice and consistency of message across your organization. This is especially true if you are a company with multiple product brands. A CMO can ensure your brand and messaging are standardized and elevated across all marketing channels.

6. When Your Branding Loses Focus. If you have inconsistent messaging, your brand loses its focus and you don't get the value or equity from your brand. This, in turn, can affect revenue. A CMO is a strategic role in ensuring consistency of brand strength which is important in driving revenue.

Ready for more reasons to hire a CMO? Read PCT again tomorrow.

Source: Scott Gerber is a serial entrepreneur, internationally syndicated columnist and TV host, and the founder of the Young Entrepreneur Council. He is also an active angel investor and author of the book Never Get a "Real" Job. He has been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, TIME, Inc., US News & World Report and Entrepreneur and on CNN, Mashable, Reuters, CBS Evening News, MSNBC and Fox News.