For too long, marketing has been dismissed as a second-class function – an unavoidable cost center that companies simply have to tolerate and fund. It’s the broke stand-up comedian paying to entertain people who don’t appreciate the true value of the performance, while the Ad agencies got all the kudos.
But savvy business leaders know better. They understand that strategic marketing investments aren’t just costs, they’re the engine that powers revenue generation. When done right, marketing is the star salesperson who works tirelessly to attract customers and keep that income engine humming.
Today, let’s break down marketing’s underrated revenue-generating superpowers.
Building Brand Equity and Fueling the Funnel
You can have the greatest product in the universe, but if no one knows about it or why they should care, you’re basically a tree falling unheard in the forest. That’s marketing’s first crucial role – creating widespread awareness and familiarity.
Just think about Procter & Gamble‘s ability to make billion-dollar brands like Tide, Pampers and Crest ubiquitous household names. Or GEICO spending hundreds of millions making their name stick in our brains through their maddeningly mnemonic ad campaigns (you’re welcome for that earworm).
But pumping the branding machine is just the warm-up act. Marketing is also the master at grabbing attention at the top of the funnel through ads, publicity stunts, viral videos, you name it. Inbound marketing savants like Hubspot have shown how intelligent content seeding and “moneyball blogging” tactics stuff that funnel full of promising leads.
Of course, it doesn’t end there. We’ve already discussed how smart marketers use sophisticated nurturing campaigns – retargeted ads, segmented email drips and more – to nurture those prospects towards consideration and purchase intent. This new approach to a multi-stream funnel is absolutely vital in the age where it’s buyers who are calling the shots.
Customer Acquisition and Conversion Mastery
Think of the marketing team as the skilled chef, carefully selecting ingredients and preparing them into a delicious dish, similar to how marketers curate content, tailor messages, and create engaging experiences for their audience. If marketing’s awareness efforts provide the sauce, the sales team is the engine that actually turns those leads into revenue-generating customers, in what should be a collaborative effort.
But marketing plays the pivotal role of crafting the compelling reasons to buy at the point of consideration and conversion. The most creative, insightful campaigns tap into real buyer motivations and insights to speak the customer’s language in a way that truly resonates.
Who can forget Hotmail’s genius pioneering move of appending “get your free email at hotmail.com” to every outgoing message, driving insane viral adoption? How about Burger King’s irreverent take on the billion-dollar question “OK Google, what is the Whopper burger” which set off Google home devices?
Beyond just clever hooks, marketing’s A/B testing and UX optimizations are proven to boost conversion rates through iterative improvements. It’s these kinds of focused tactics, driven by data and behavioral insights, that make marketing a closer’s best friend.
We’re in the age of conversion rate optimization and omnichannel analytics are telling us where and how customers are experiencing their interactions with our brands. But there’s more to it than just tactics!
Retention and Loyalty for Recurring Revenues
Too many businesses still operate with the mindset of closing one-and-done transactional sales. Good luck with that. Marketing’s impact doesn’t end once a sale is made – in fact, that’s just the starting line.
Leading marketers know it costs far more to acquire a new customer than retain an existing one. Their loyalty programs, educational content, and relationship nurturing helps cement their company as a trusted partner over the long haul. This recurring revenue mindset is what sustains businesses well beyond a short-term bump.
From content marketing that deepens brand affinity, to cross-selling to expand share of wallet, to innovative retention programs that combat churn – customer relationship management is core to marketing’s role. And brand evangelism efforts to cultivate vocal advocates are the ultimate force multiplier, with dedicated fans gleefully becoming revenue amplifiers.
Leading the charge into the new frontier of subscription business models built for recurring revenues? You bet marketing is driving that train. There’s a reason companies like Netflix and Salesforce are laser-focused on their marketing capabilities.
We’ll dive into this more in future posts, but the key words here are “customer relationship management”.
Measuring Marketing’s Money-Making Mastery
Of course, savvy marketers don’t simply pump out a bunch of funnel-filling activity and hope for the best. There’s a clear, measurable line drawn between campaigns and revenue. The tools and systems marketers employ – from advanced attribution modeling and pipeline analytics to unified measurement frameworks – create an airtight vehicle for understanding return on marketing investments.
That kind of transparency, diligence and accountability for financial impact is how marketing graduates from a siloed support role to respected revenue driver. When leadership clearly understands marketing’s contributions to the P&L, they earn a prioritized seat at the planning table. Bigger budgets and greater executive support follow to fuel data-driven, performance-oriented marketing strategies.
The watchword here is “strategy”, and strategic marketing is all about having a well researched plan, with data to back it up. The proof is in the metrics, as they say,
The Path Forward – a very bright Future for Revenue Marketers
The bottom line is this: any company undervaluing marketing as a non-essential expense simply doesn’t “get it” when it comes to driving business growth. From building mission-critical brand equity to fueling demand from end-to-end, marketing’s multifaceted contributions are the catalyst for revenue.
Tactical stuff like running some social campaigns or updating the website alone won’t cut it. To truly maximize revenue impact, marketing needs to infuse a strategic, accountable and digitally-transformative mindset into absolutely everything. An earned seat alongside other revenue stakeholders and C-suite leaders is non-negotiable.
Forward-thinking marketers who can directly tie their activities to top and bottom line growth will be the rainmakers in highest demand. By rightfully claiming ownership over building the brand, acquiring and retaining customers, and powering the recurring revenue engine, marketing is positioned to become the indispensable moneymaker. So it’s time to wake up and smell the revenue opportunities right under our noses, marketing pros.
The future is very, very bright for those up to the challenge.
The views expressed herein are personal and do not reflect the views of any of my clients, partners or employers.
Photo credit: Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash
Original article: https://www.activelinkmedia.co.za/wake-up-and-smell-the-revenue-why-marketing-is-the-moneymaker/