Teams embracing a revenue-driven marketing strategy will contribute to revenue targets in a more predictable, measurable, and repeatable way. Since marketing is focused on the same ideal customers as sales, both teams are working together to reach, engage, and convert their most valued consumers throughout their purchasing journey.
It’s clear by this point that the economy has entered uncharted territory. But even before that, B2B marketers were under pressure to demonstrate quantifiable results that support revenue targets. The days of growth at any cost are long gone because channels are becoming more competitive, customer acquisition costs are skyrocketing, and budgets are being squeezed.
What should marketers do differently as a result?
It’s time to start planning how to create a sustainable go-to-market engine that promotes growth and does so effectively. This entails adopting a revenue-driven marketing approach.
It involves speaking the same language and closely coordinating efforts with sales teams up and down the revenue chain to achieve shared goals. Additionally, it means transforming marketing from a cost center to a profit generator.
This strategy differs from traditional marketing practices. Here are a few strategies for implementing revenue-driven marketing:
Make Ideal Customers a Priority
Things like the number of conference leads, event participants, email opens, and other activity-based metrics have usually been used to gauge the success of traditional marketing campaigns. In this model, marketers hand off leads to sales and then proceed to generate more leads via demand-generation activities. But the reality is that not all leads are created equal, and marketing won’t effectively increase revenue by putting leads into the pipeline that aren’t good fits.
Also Read: Integrated Marketing Approach to Shape the Future of B2B Sales
A clearly defined Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) serves as the foundation of a revenue-driven marketing strategy. These are the customers that sales and marketing believe have the most potential to produce long-term value for the company. Then, marketers focus their efforts on engaging and closing consumers who closely fit that ICP. Across all platforms, from messaging to advertising campaigns and websites, brands want to offer tailored experiences for their ICP prospects, especially if they are displaying purchase intent.
These factors work together to draw a clearer connection between marketing and revenue.
Speak the Same Language as the C-Suite and Sales Teams
Traditional marketing can often create silos between marketing and sales that, at best, operate separately and, at worst, are out of sync. It’s challenging for marketers to show their value to the company without a clear link between marketing activity and sales results, and revenue.
Adopting the metrics that revenue leaders are familiar with is part of revenue-driven marketing. Business-level indicators like Lifetime Value (LTV), Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR), and Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) should be tracked and measured by marketing teams.
As a result, it is easier for them to gain support for their marketing budget and demonstrate success in ways that are meaningful to the C-Suite and the Board. Putting these metrics in the spotlight demonstrates the responsibility and dedication of marketing to driving revenue. Stronger alignment occurs when marketing and sales are aiming for the same revenue targets.
Also Read: Adopting a Value-Based Marketing Approach to Attract and Retain B2B Buyers
Data is Crucial for the GTM Tech Stack
Although data is now pervasive, it is not always effectively used due to omission or because marketing teams lack the tools to make the data useful. For marketers who want to make measurable contributions to revenue growth, being able to access fresh, automatic, consistent, and correct data across tools and functions is essential.
Data is incorporated into everything that revenue-driven marketers do. They define their ICP using technographic and firmographic data, after which they center their strategy and operations—including processes for messaging, targeting, positioning, scoring, content, and routing—around it. They prioritize in-market customers in their campaigns and content by using intent signals to improve marketing efficiencies.
Even if things may seem less predictable right now, it’s important to keep in mind that growth in the current environment is still possible, and revenue-driven marketers that keep their sights on the revenue goal have excellent cause to be optimistic.
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