You may be wondering how to ensure your digital marketing is effective. Your business has a profit goal and your marketing strategy should, of course, contribute to this. To what extent is this currently the case? What can be improved? Maybe you have heard of the term Revenue Marketing or read about us in our e-book or other blogs. Revenue Marketing is the ultimate marketing policy, a set of strategies, processes, people, technology, content, and results.
Four phases
Four different phases of marketing can be identified in an organisation:
- Traditional Marketing
- Lead Generation
- Question generation
- Revenue Marketing
You have most likely realised that all phases are ascending: from traditional basis-marketing to the peak: Revenue Marketing. In this blog, we will describe what the different phases involve, so that you can see which phase your company recognises most, and what it should aim for next.
1. Traditional Marketing
You know the four P’s: Product, price, promotion, and place. These are the basic principles of marketing that everyone still learns at school; that many marketeers still use daily. The marketing department in this phase (number 1), is viewed as a cost item by the financial department. The marketeers do what they can with the budget that remains. However, they cannot make up for their actual activities. The numbers that they deliver (a number of likes on Facebook, opened links, delivered newsletters) mean very little. It is time for marketeers to sit around the table with the sales department to prove that their actions are profitable and effective. Time for the next step.
2. Leads generation
The second step towards revenue marketing is the responsibility of the marketing team to deliver leads to the sales department. I do not refer purely to leads, I mean ‘sales-ready leads’. Leads that have completed a form, downloaded a whitepaper, who have at least considered a proposal (see buyer journey). Often the registration and measuring of leads still happens manually. There is an email system present, but the numbers that result from this are mainly the number of emails sent, opened emails, clicks, filled out forms and leads forwarded to sales. The marketing task focuses on this and the sales department records whether the lead is a customer, or not. It is still not clear what the marketing activities have delivered, however; what makes the campaign unique?
3. Question generation
The step towards this phase is maybe rather large for many organisations but important in the process towards Revenue Marketing. In this phase, it is vital that the sales and marketing teams work together. Through shared activities, ‘sales-ready’ leads are delivered to the top of the funnel and chances for the sales team to reach them are generated. The marketeers in this phase understand that the focus cannot be on quantity but instead on the provision of high-quality, cost-effective leads. Therefore, marketing automation is often used and the system is integrated with the CRM. The main difference to the previous phases is that the figures reported now are no longer based on the activities of the marketing department but on the results. What is now shown is the number of qualitative, ready-to-buy leads sent to sales, the percentage that really leads to opportunities, the percentage that becomes a customer, the actual contribution of marketing to the entire sales funnel and the average number of days that this process takes. You are already very close to the ultimate goal: the marketing department reports what they have achieved in the past, ensuring clarity for the organisation. This allows the executives to realise what the marketing department can deliver.
4. Revenue Marketing
Phase four is the phase that you want to achieve with your marketing strategy, as a profit-making organisation. The main difference to the phase three is that you can not only report past results but also develop a plan to maintain this. You can make predictions for the future contribution of marketing to profit. Leading beneficial leads directs your sales funnel, speeds up sales opportunities, measures your marketing based on repeatable, predictable and measurable contributions to the pipeline and profits, and ultimately improves the ROI of sales and marketing.
Time for the next phase
Do you recognise your marketing policies in one of these phases and realise that there is still a lot to do to make it repeatable, predictable and measurable? Do you also want to get the most out of all digital marketing opportunities and show what it contributes to the profit? Contact Revenue Creative or read our e-book for more inspiration!
Revenue Creative delivers business value by focusing on the entrepreneurial, sales, and marketing goal. We advise B2B customers about their (digital) sales and marketing strategy and the impact of this on their business. Our hybrid team provides support in implementing digital enhancements and achieving their marketing and sales goals. Discover more at Revenue Creative!