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3 ways clever marketing drives revenue growth

Posted by Perceptive Team - 24 January, 2024

Today’s marketers are operating in a volatile market. Consumer expectations are changing, markets evolving, customer channels continue to fragment, and now in 2024, budgets are being scaled back. To add to this scenario, there’s a constant need for innovation to unlock untapped value in the longer term.

Biggest marketing challenge: revenue growth

Arguably, the biggest challenge for today’s marketers is tapping into opportunities to drive revenue growth, especially as marketing budgets have tightened in the wake of the economic downturn. 

A 2023 Deloitte study found that 41.4 per cent of chief marketing officers (CMOs) said marketing was primarily responsible for revenue growth, up from 32.7 pre cent in reported in 2020. CMOs also reported feeling greater pressure from their chief financial officers to prove the value of their marketing. As a result, we're also seeing the role of the CMO expanding and becoming more complex as they look to the likes of AI and eCommerce to unlock said growth. 

 

Read more: Master Your Marketing ROI

 

Why is it so hard to prove ROI?

Proving ROI of marketing activity has long been a major challenge for marketers. As one of the last business functions to integrate its data, processes and systems, marketing data is often extremely fragmented. This often makes proving ROI a complex activity, so much so that 61% of marketing leaders do not use ROI when making strategy decisions because they aren’t confident in their own data.

This lack of cohesiveness and credible data is likely part of the reason why historically most CEOs thought their CMOs lacked business credibility and the ability to demonstrate ROI. However, recent research suggests that this view is shifting, with nearly half of CEOs rating their CMO as "best in class". 

 

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4 ways to drive business growth 

1. Own the customer experience

Businesses today need to own and leverage the customer experience to be able to champion top-line revenue growth.

New advancements in up-to-date customer feedback and monitoring tools means that today’s clued-up marketers can truly understand customer behaviours and listen to customer feedback on their products and services. This is hugely beneficial as it gives you valuable insights into where you can make improvements and drive additional growth.

Technologies such as AI, social multi-channel marketing, mobile and predictive analytics can work to build holistic experiences for customers. This experience is what builds real customer loyalty and, in the long term, profitable growth, which means increased value for stakeholders.

 

2. Personas to help you understand your target audience

Personas not only help you understand your customers better but subsequently generate more leads and create more relevant offers for your target audiences. They also allow you to facilitate authentic conversations for your brand.

It’s important to embrace the new buyers of today and understand how you can adapt to their needs. They know more about what they’re looking for than ever before, they’ve researched it all beforehand, and completely changed the way they decide what to buy and how to buy it.

The biggest opportunity today is personalisation. By being able to leverage available technologies, marketers can treat every prospect and customer as an individual. Best of all, this can be done using anonymous profiles that protect consumer privacy.

 

Related content: 3 common mistakes to avoid when creating buyer personas

 

3. Measure and track marketing ROI

Reliable data-based insights have become evermore important since data acquisition has become a key priority for businesses.

Success in this arena relies on bringing various data streams together to create a clear picture of what influences your customer journey and buyer decisions. Tools such as brand tracking can aggregate and analyse your brand health data to understand the impact your marketing campaigns are having on your bottom line, on your sales funnel, and on the more traditionally nebulous brand metrics, such as brand awareness and consideration. 

 

Related content: 3 ways to prove ROI for customer experience management

 

4. Think revenue cycle—not sales cycle

The new reality marketers need to face is that the buying cycle has fundamentally changed; replace "sales cycle" thinking with that of a greater revenue cycle where marketing and sales activity are viewed as equal parts of said cycle.

The internet and online shopping has changed the traditional sales funnel model where marketing generated leads and then handed them off to the sales team to "close". Now, the cycle begins with the first interaction a potential buyer has with your company and, in an ideal world, ends when they become a happy customer—even a repeat customer who refers you to their friends and family. 

To this end, marketers need to establish an infrastructure within their organisation that fully integrates sales and marketing data, and in turn, brings better insight into the impact each department's activities are having on the rest of the business. 

 

Related content: How to make a big impact with a small marketing budget

  

Want to learn more about how marketing can deliver growth, and how to prove ROI for your marketing campaigns? Download our free ebook to master your marketing ROI.

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Topics: Brand Health


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