With the right marketing tools, you can figure out which half, and that’s one step toward achieving an efficient marketing operation and thriving in an uncertain economy. But to succeed over the long haul, you have to understand exactly what drives marketing efficiency.
Two Keys to Marketing Efficiency — And Success
There are two ways to drive greater efficiency in marketing. The first is to efficiently allocate campaign spending by accurately attributing revenue to campaigns — answering Wanamaker’s question. We’ve discussed campaign attribution extensively in this space, reviewing attribution models and providing an overview on how you can use them to invest in the campaigns that are most likely to drive ROI.
Process efficiency is the other key to marketing success. In an earlier post, we talked about some of the preconditions for achieving that, such as finding a way to monitor funnel metrics using a single source of data truth inside the CRM and closer alignment between the sales and marketing organizations.
With attribution metrics to ensure smart investment of marketing spend, closer coordination between sales and marketing, and the use of funnel metrics inside the CRM to achieve process efficiencies, we’ve seen organizations double their productivity. A 30% increase in marketing efficiency is more typical, but in either case, it’s a huge improvement.
One Marketing Team’s Efficiency Success Story
We recently worked with a software company’s marketing team that demonstrated how an ultra-efficient approach can drive success. The company’s CEO needed to scale up marketing as part of an effort to raise $25 million in Series C funds. To achieve the revenue targets needed for that goal, the marketing team systematically improved efficiency on the investment side as well as on the process side.
The marketing team had data from the martech stack, but it didn’t give them a complete picture. They needed insights into how leads progressed through the marketing and sales funnel so they could figure out what they needed to do to create enough leads to meet their goals and move the leads through the funnel. They used Full Circle solutions to consolidate siloed data in the CRM for a single source of truth.
This gave them full visibility into the marketing and sales funnel. With essential funnel metrics, the marketing team reverse-engineered the funnel to identify what was required from marketing and sales to meet the CEO’s objectives. Using Full Circle, the marketing team could also accurately attribute revenue to campaigns to efficiently invest marketing spend.
Access to funnel data allowed the team to monitor volume, velocity, and conversion rates to track progress toward revenue objectives overall. It also allowed them to work more closely with sales, drilling down into individual sales rep performance to identify bottlenecks and continuously improve processes. With Full Circle, the team improved the process and investment sides of the efficiency equation.
An Efficient Marketing Team Is a Successful Marketing Team
The software company’s results were remarkable — they achieved a 100% increase in the inquiry-to-win rate, boosted accepted leads by 10%, and improved SLA by more than 20%. The company’s CEO successfully closed the Series C round, and the marketing team leaders were rewarded for their efforts with significant promotions.
Every company and marketplace is different, but this software company’s experience is an excellent illustration of how improving marketing efficiency can yield amazing results. With the right tools, you can make more efficient marketing investments and create more efficient processes too.
Datasheet: The Cost of Not Implementing Marketing Performance Management
As marketing budgets are often scrutinized, this can make it difficult to justify allocating budget towards technology and infrastructure needs. Learn what you need to accomplish your marketing goals.
