While marketing leaders acknowledge that strategies have always had less priority compared to sales, the pandemic has changed the rules
The pandemic has opened new doors for marketers. Organizations were always aware of the power of digital technology. They have tried to master it with improved tech, strategy, and tactics.
As prominent enterprises opt for digital transformation, other departments have also opted for the same. For marketers, the changing trends are just another day at the office.
Internal structures were disrupted during the pandemic, and digital evolution has become the go-to solution for most enterprises. Customer relationships were also impacted during this time, and as a result, marketers have become highly valuable to organizations.
The sudden shift within enterprises: increased importance to marketers
CMOs point out that the marketing department was conventionally considered as the team that creates PowerPoint decks and spruces up websites. While this is not the whole truth, previous organizational structures left marketing playing second fiddle to the Sales department, thus creating wrong perceptions.
The sudden global pandemic helped transform the marketing department and strategy’s relevance to an enterprise. The customer journey has been disrupted. Sales and marketing teams’ interaction has been restructured. Organizations have been forced to see the true value of marketing in the predominantly digital world.
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B2B organizations believe that the importance of digital interactions has increased by at least two times, when compared to conventional sales communications. This same number puts marketers at the top of the list for the factors that enable revenue generation, as they have mastered the digital environment.
In the new sales practice of “asynchronous selling”, interactions and digital touch points are not simultaneous. They occur at different times and happen when the interactions are best for the final prospect. This process is very similar to B2B marketing and that is precisely why an increased number of sales departments have turned to their marketing teams to navigate the new normal. It gives marketing better control of the sales funnel.
Now that clients are connecting digital, marketers are being connected directly to revenue. This trend was boosted by the sudden shift to online stores by enterprises to stay relevant during the pandemic disruption. Organizations have either increased or maintained the marketing budget compared to the budget cuts faced by other departments.
Restructuring lead qualification
Going forward, content consumption will no longer be the only metric for lead qualification measurement. CMOs point out that just visiting or downloading some segment of a website’s content gives very little insight into the client’s intent. The prospective client may not have wished to visit the website, or the whitepaper could have redirected them. The digital world requires analyzing customers who want to buy products, which necessitates the need to identify users who have consented to be contacted.
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Marketers have already modified their priorities to fulfill the expanded role; however, organizations are yet to change how the performance appraisal is done to consider the changing roles. New metrics have been set relevant to the complete sales funnel, but further expansion is required.
Customer lifetime value and retention need to be considered for interacting with current clients to potentially upsell and ensure that clients are ultimately using the benefits of the service or products. Marketers need to measure the digital marketing campaigns engagement from the top of the funnel and analyze how actions like resource downloading connect to the client are purchasing intent. They need to consider leads; analyze which CX activities are genuinely relevant to the bottom line and identify the areas that the enterprise should measure and invest in.
