If you’re not sure that your marketing is working… it’s not.
65% of companies can’t quantitatively show the impact of their marketing spend in the long run, according to The CMO Survey in 2020.
On top of that, companies are spending more on digital marketing than traditional marketing. Most companies are terrible at measuring the success of their digital spend.
Which means most companies are wasting money.
In a 2021 Enterprise Performance Report by The CMO Council (C-Suite Scorecard of Marketing Effectiveness) the C-Suite rates the state of marketing as follows:
46% rate marketing team performance as very good or exceptional in 2020;
45% say it was moderate.
Collaboration and alignment between lines of business, functional areas and marketing is viewed as close, balanced, effective and well-integrated by 37% of respondents. That means 63% are not aligned. Look how surprised I am.
From the same survey this blog from Scott Brinker reports:
The #1 gap where the C-suite thinks marketing leadership has a hole: modernization of marketing organization, systems, and operations (42%).
The next gap, right behind that: proficient, technically savvy managers in key digital roles (40%).
The next two that follow indict the lack of good customer data (37%) and data-driven decision-making (34%).
Taken together, the C-suite doesn’t see marketing as the vanguard of digital technology, at least not anymore. In a lot of companies, they see marketing now trailing behind.
Further, a CMO Council study on “Scaling the Value of the CMO” found an overwhelming 86% of senior marketers believe lack of capabilities has resulted in missed revenue, growth and customer acquisition opportunities.
That is probably why 84% of business leaders are closely, regularly, or increasingly interacting with marketing teams.
What areas of marketing need improvement or strengthening in your company?
AGREED UPON LEAD DEFINITION
TOTAL ADDRESSABLE MARKET
MARKET SEGMENTATION
ACTIONABLE MARKET INTELLIGENCE
VALUE STATEMENTS
DEFENDABLE DIFFERENTIATORS
PLAYBOOK
MARKETING RESOURCE ASSESSMENT & PLAN
BENCH-MARKING, METRICS, & REPORTING
CADENCE MANAGEMENT
MULTI-CYCLE (MULTI-CHANNEL) NURTURE PROCESSES
TECHNOLOGY STACK
With the recently determined expectation that marketing should be a revenue-driver, it should not be surprising that the C-suite points to demand generation as the number one area they hope to strengthen in their marketing departments.
Sales and marketing teams won’t tell you what is not working - partially because they just don’t know. We know. Here is what’s keeping your prospect experience from delivering the customers your company needs:
Appointment setting mindsets reward reps for getting a date on the calendar, rather than engaging with prospects and fully qualifying them.
Rote scripts (instead of call flows) turn prospects off - and hinder your lead generation, qualification and nurturing process.
Email blasts bombard targets with generic company-focused messages that don’t speak to a prospect’s specific needs.
Vaporware that doesn’t deliver. AI, intent, referrals, personalization, and other automation promise a lot, but provide little return.
Starting a buyers’ journey with pushy appointment setters, junior telemarketers reading from a script or by barraging the prospect with useless emails is not going to result in the optimal prospect experience - and will cause you to lose revenue.
The overall buying journey must be improved to ensure a seamless, cohesive and personalized experience from beginning to end.
To start you don’t need to boil the ocean. Table stakes:
An agreed upon lead definition. Teams can be aligned around mutually agreed upon pillars, accountability and communication.
Market segmentation. To start, establish a success center and make small bets. Small bets that work can be scaled quickly. Small bets that don’t make the cut are replaced with new small bets. Small bets are key to managing your market. Most companies prospect too broadly causing them to spend all their budget on to broad an audience.
Value statements and defendable differentiators. The calls, voicemails and emails I get every day are atrocious. Positioning, messaging and content are not cohesive – all over the map.
Multi-cycle nurturing. Multi-cycle nurturing TRIPLES the return on marketing and sales efforts.
An industry friend of mine had an expression that fits the way CEOs are looking at their current situation regarding marketing. He used to say, “even a man lost in the woods knows where he wants to go.” C-level executives feel more closely linked to sales than marketing. Sales has quotas and marketing has plans and goals. As tedious as it is going to be, I commend CEOs for digging into marketing, identifying waste and steering the organization to more productive marketing spend.
If you don’t want to do all the work, reach out to me for help.