63% of Marketing Execs Feel Pressured to Grow Revenue

BY Tim Londergan
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Your clients have learned well the lessons of pandemic-​driven online behavior while becoming even more resourceful using the wealth of information at their fingertips. At the same time, 63% of marketing execs feel pressured to grow revenue as these shifts may reveal shortcomings of their advertising strategy. How do they get their message directly in the line of sight of the self-​reliant buyer?

If your clients have yet to realize that marketing has become closer to revenue than ever before, you are not alone. Take a look at what other marketers say in the CMO Council study, Rising Above the Fray: 

  • 63% of marketers say they feel pressured to grow revenue 
  • 53% say they’re only moderately confident or worse that they’ll meet their revenue targets
  • 57% think their CEO is only moderately satisfied or worse with marketing’s performance

When marketers are at risk of missing their goals for revenue, they may feel the frustration of being powerless in a corporate structure. According to the study, the problem is that revenue growth is largely out of the scope of marketing’s control.

Marketing Messages Must Speak to Self-​Reliant Buyers 

However, the reality may be that the new self-​reliant buyer and digital-​first environment has actually increased marketing’s value in the organization. Unfortunately, the importance of marketing has risen but the budget and respect for the craft in organizations has not. Astute practitioners know that marketing takes on much more than revenue and now includes brand-​building, digital experience and personalized content. These elements are essential in courting the self-​reliant buyer. The CMO Council study shows that one out of three marketers admits that the lack of resources, capabilities and effective leadership impair their performance.

Marketing is generally held to short-​term value instead of playing an integral role in the long-​term strategy of winning customers and driving the business. This may explain why marketing execs feel pressured. The upshot is that the average tenure of a CMO is incredibly short, slipping to 41 months in 2019 from 43 months a year prior. Compare this to a CEO’s tenure of more than 70 months.

You may be able to help your client extend the length of their employment as a marketing specialist by encouraging them to take the following actions now:

  1. Take risks. Don’t play it safe by focusing on customer loyalty and repeat buys.
  2. Raise your profile. Go beyond marketing by exploring potential partnerships, acquisitions and other strategic pathways to exponential revenue growth.
  3. Hit revenue targets. Prioritize the digital experience to engage the self-​reliant buyer at the top of the funnel where most of the buying decision is being made.
  4. Energize content strategy. Marketers need to focus on crafting more engaging, personalized content that works in concert over omnichannel.
  5. Close the data literacy gap. Incentivize their teams to become data literate by showing how data insights can empower their creative side.
  6. Leverage Martech and AI.  AI can bring speed and scale to the data-​insights-​action process.

Better Content and Digital Interaction Help Marketers Get Ahead

The actions suggested above can help today. The longer-​term strategy your clients need to employ comes from additional suggestions made by the respondents to the CMO Council Study. They recommend a focus on these three areas:

  1. Create a great digital experience: The digital experience should be aimed at customer acquisition. Suggestion: Leverage digital interactivity or gamification to make content even more engaging.
  2. Crafting better content. Personalize content by understanding the target audience at a deeper level through data.
  3. Modernize the marketing organization by using market data and data enhancement, as well as business and customer intelligence and data science.

Solutions for When Marketing Execs Feel Pressured to Grow Revenue 

Still feel at a loss for actionable data? AdMall’s Digital Audit and AudienceSCAN, from SalesFuel, can help you. 

  • AdMall’s Digital Audit illustrates the strength and weakness of your client’s website and that of their competitors. Understand the digital influence that self-​reliant buyers are subjected to. Know the effectiveness of your client’s offering and where they can improve.
  • AudienceSCAN assists businesses in identifying new markets, new opportunities and new channel partners. Marketers can use AudienceSCAN data to reach the people who count and understand their motivations, all while crafting a message with impact to those who are most likely to buy at the top of the funnel.
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