Why is 2023 the Year to Shift to Revenue-Focused Marketing?

In their journey to revenue-focused marketing, CMOs face many challenges—marketing data that resides in silos, incomplete campaign tracking, no single system for assembling touchpoint insights, a complex martech and sales stack, and more. Per Gartner’s Chief Marketing Officer Q4 report, an average of 64% of martech leaders agree that their team lacks technical skills to integrate and operate their martech stack and receives insufficient support to increase usage of their martech stack.

In the aftermath of Covid-19, marketing’s influence on enterprise-wide digital transformation has increased exponentially. CMOs now, more than ever, are under pressure from C-suites to address these gaps, do more with less, and shift to revenue-focused marketing. So it’s no surprise that on average, CMOs are the shortest-tenured members of the C-suite.

The Case for Shifting to Revenue-Focused Marketing

With marketing budgets coming under intense scrutiny, marketing’s goal has been shifting from lead-focused to revenue-focused. One of the key benefits of revenue-focused marketing is that it allows businesses to measure the ROI of their marketing efforts and identify areas for improvement. By focusing on revenue, businesses can make informed decisions about where to allocate their marketing resources and ensure that they are maximizing their return on investment.

Revenue-focused marketing can be particularly effective for businesses that have a clear understanding of their target audience and are able to effectively segment and target their marketing efforts. It can also be useful for businesses that are looking to drive growth and increase their revenue over time.

All of this requires the ability to stitch together disparate marketing channels to derive actionable insights that help take informed decisions.

As expectations from CMOs increase, their reliance on data and analytics to quantify growth and ROI has become top priority. Gartner’s latest CMO spend survey outlines that data and analytics, and marketing technology are the top strategic areas for CMOs.

So where does the road begin for CMOs?

How Should CMOs Approach Revenue-Focused Marketing?

The post-Covid world has thrown its share of complexities. Today’s CMOs face far bigger challenges than their predecessors due to the fragmentation of customer segments and the growing number of touchpoints. In such a scenario, CMOs must embrace an industrious approach to adopt revenue-focused marketing.

Knowing Customers Is Vital:

– For any marketing campaign to succeed, knowledge about customers is vital. Every marketer knows it, but the buck always stops with the CMO when understanding customers’ needs, tastes, preferences, and aspirations. The thrust should be on data and analytics to gather a 360-degree perspective on the customers. CMOs need to use historical business data and data from third-party sources and put them through the latest market research tools to extract deep insights into customers and their buying habits. This knowledge arms CMOs with the information to leverage revenue-focused marketing.

Communicating With C-Suites In Their Language

– C-Suites don’t necessarily understand the jargon of CMOs. It is a universal truth that boardrooms love numbers, which is the best way to explain complex marketing concepts. For revenue-focused marketing to work, CMOs must communicate their marketing concepts and insights in a language that other C-Suites understand. They need to dive deep into data and show engagement, conversion, and growth opportunities in stats and figures.

Adopting a Center-Brain Mentality

– In the past, marketing was seen only from a creative perspective and perceived as a right-brain function. However, CMOs need to quantify the creative process with data and return on investments which involves the left-brain. Thus in 2023, CMOs will need to strike the right balance between creativity and data-driven intelligence, which calls for embracing a center-brain mentality.

Focusing on Customer Lifecycle

– Marketing isn’t a one-time exercise but a continuous process. CMOs thus need to focus on customers throughout the lifecycle of the relationship. In revenue-focused marketing, CMOs must follow their customers, from activation and nurturing to reactivation. Data and analytics play a key role in understanding their engagement with the brand across different touchpoints.

Choosing The Right Channels

– Since CMOs need to do more with less, choosing marketing channels becomes crucial. Identifying the best marketing channels and allocating a higher share of the budget toward them is essential. It helps businesses grab the low-hanging fruits and improve ROI.

Final Thoughts

2023 will be a crucial year for brands as the world comes out of the clutches of the Covid-19 pandemic. It will offer more room for businesses to price their products competitively and increase their market share. Increased business activity will result in increased competition, and CMOs will need to switch to revenue-focused marketing.