The world is very different these days. In an uncertain economy, the company last summer abandoned the “growth at all costs” mentality, in which 70% growth and 30% burn was optimal (and even preferred), 40% growth and 0% burning. Call it the transition to “sustainable growth”.
For B2B marketers, that means focusing on targeting and performance. Before the recession, there was increased pressure to demonstrate how marketing contributes to revenue goals. Today, with rising customer acquisition costs, increased channel competition and tight budgets, revenue-based marketing has become even more important.
Instead of just focusing on growth, B2B marketers should also be thinking about performance. By creating go-to-market mechanisms (GTMs) that generate high-impact growth, they can demonstrate how marketing programs increase profits, strengthen partnerships between marketing and sales, and turn marketing into a revenue generator instead. only in cost center.
Effective marketing and revenue generation starts with answering these three questions.
1. Who is our ideal client?
Defining a consistent customer profile (CPI) in sales and marketing is a key step in adopting a revenue-driven marketing approach. While the lead-based marketing model emphasizes activity-based metrics such as event attendees, conference leads, or emails in order to reach as many potential customers as possible, the models KPI-focused marketers point out that they are more likely to convert to customers. . Create long-term business value. KPI is good when the business changes (and it should be!), but all functions need to agree on the factors that define their KPI, creating a common language and lens through which each point of view can be seen.
Topics best suited to ICP for business are ones that marketers will have to work hard to reach, engage, and close. From messaging and advertising campaigns to their website, marketers need to deliver a personalized experience to potential ICP customers, especially if they have already shown interest in purchasing. At Clearbit, we call this KPI Enabler, and it's key to aligning marketing more closely with revenue.2. How to better communicate with the sales team and management?
As B2B marketers, we often use our own language, which makes it difficult to convey the value of what we do for a business. For non-marketers, all those acronyms and jargons can make marketing look like a black box, and the lack of a common language between marketing and sales can create silos that get in the way of revenue generation.
Creating a common definition of KPI is a start, and it's important that marketers use the same business metrics that define and care for revenue leaders. This includes customer acquisition costs (CAC), lifetime value (LTV), and annual and monthly revenue (ARR and MRR). These metrics are well known and understood by CEOs and executives and how companies should track and measure their marketing activities.
This shows that in addition to supporting marketing expenses, marketing is associated with customer acquisition and increased revenue. Results? Strong alignment between marketing and sales as they work together to achieve common revenue goals.
3. How can we best use our information?
"Gather as much data as you can and we'll figure out what to do" is a simple trap. While B2B marketers have access to more data than ever before, they struggle to use it due to a lack of opportunity or technology. Modern marketers need automated, up-to-date, accurate, and consistent data access across all tools and features to support measurable revenue growth.
This data, from topography to technology, allows organizations to manage their KPI and optimize targeting, messaging, placement, content, scoring, targeting and all other processes. With additional interest signals, marketers can target campaigns and content to shoppers in priority markets for more effective marketing.
Despite the limited outlook in the current economic climate, marketers still have reason to be optimistic about growth and staying one step ahead. With access to more data and demand signals than ever before, and more ways to use that information, B2B marketers can not only survive in today's environment, but thrive in it. Businesses can grow sustainably in a downturn, but they often need to put in place mechanisms for long-term revenue growth.
Kevin Tate is the CMO of Clearbit, a B2B data enablement platform. Clearbit helps reach B2B companies trying to better understand their customers and optimize their digital funnels. He has over 20 years of leadership experience in sales, marketing and manufacturing, with extensive experience in enterprise SAS, e-commerce, digital marketing, social media and Internet of Things. Prior to joining Clearbit, Kevin held leadership roles at SurveyMonkey, Chirpify, and ShopIgniter.