Efficient growth is now “in” not just for CFOs. Nearly every company, regardless of size or industry, is still facing headcount and budget cuts. No matter what part of the organization you operate in, you probably need to achieve the same results with fewer resources.
But how do you achieve the same ROI and profitability with fewer employees and less capital? The answer is by integrating a modern go-to-market (GTM) strategy based on rigorous audience research, robust and high-quality data, a solid understanding of emerging technologies like AI, and sales and marketing alignment. In this way, you will not only increase your business value and sales, but also maintain your brand and optimize your customer experience.
For marketers to become strategic revenue partners, there are some absolute requirements that are necessary to implement this modern GTM strategy. Here are the five principles that you should prioritize now:
Understand your audience better
With so much information flying around us, the human mental capacity to remember companies and what they do, let alone their logos, is limited. That’s why it’s even more important to find ways to make your brand more visible and considered at the point of purchase. That’s why we worked hard for almost a year and conducted extensive market research before ZoomInfo launched its first brand campaign last year.
They worked with market research firm Kwantum Analytics to survey nearly 500 B2B sales and marketing leaders to get direct consumer feedback and build a more complete picture of our prospects and customers. We asked them about how our brand is perceived in the market, what issues or pain points they have, and what would trigger them to look for a new GTM solution.
This was a necessary part of our campaign, as he led our entire messaging. Whether you launch a brand campaign or not, having a deep understanding of your customer base and who you are marketing to is crucial and should inform all your marketing efforts.
Align your marketing and sales goals
Marketing and sales are often two of the largest cost centers for companies. This leads leadership teams and boards of directors across industries to look for efficiencies not just within their respective departments, but across both departments. One of the most important levers to increase sales is improving sales and marketing alignment. Both teams have a stake in the entire funnel, so it’s important that they work in lockstep.
Achieving alignment requires open communication, the right technology in place, and high-quality, democratized data that helps identify and target your next best customer — all with executive buy-in, of course. In fact, 87% of executives say that marketing and sales collaboration enables significant business growth. The evidence is clear: Forrester research shows that companies that align with these goals experience 2.4x higher revenue growth and 2x higher profit growth.
To maximize the success and growth of your company overall, your marketing and sales teams need to share the same metrics and goals, have a consistent, data-driven view of your target market, and align their go-to-market efforts. Through alignment, you can optimize your messaging, improve lead quality, identify issues and discrepancies, and gain valuable insights that can help you further improve your ROI.
It is also important to evaluate the cost of your marketing efforts and the cost of your sales team’s efforts to drive sales based on channels, customer segments, and associated campaigns. Analyzing these metrics can help you determine how efficiently your sales and marketing processes are working together. For example, it is a great advantage to be able to consolidate your data into a single data foundation and bidirectionally integrate it into your technology stack.
Make data-driven decision making the norm
Data should be at the heart of every decision. There was a time when “move fast and break things” was a catchy, inspiring phrase. But innovation, especially in a time of intense spending, doesn’t mean taking action without the research and data to drive it.
Data should inform when and how often to post on your blog and social media, and which channels to focus your outreach efforts on (based on where your ideal customers are, conducting competitive analysis, etc.). If you don’t have this type of data, consider investing in quality technology that can track and analyze it. The technology you choose should also generate data that is useful to both your marketing and sales teams so it becomes a single source of truth.
Learn about AI
Many of today’s most forward-thinking companies are integrating generative AI technology into their products and services to more effectively modernize their go-to-market strategies. Generative AI can help with many forms of content creation, including blog posts, social media copy, landing pages, video scripts, and more. And generative AI learns from your feedback. So if something isn’t right, you can add more information and regenerate the answer until it better matches your brand’s voice and tone. Proofreading and editing are essential here. There is still a significant gap in creating long-form content that sounds human. So remember, this is a tool, not a replacement.
You can also use AI for A/B testing and content optimization by letting programs like ChatGPT and Jasper.AI create variations of your ads, landing pages, and email subject lines. You can then determine which version works better and optimize your campaigns based on the results. Using AI to automate your campaigns is a game changer as it increases efficiency, optimizes results, and delivers a more personalized experience to your audience.
However, it’s critical that AI algorithms are based on high-quality data to ensure accurate and effective results and avoid productions that could be damaging to a brand. Additionally, marketers should regularly monitor AI-driven processes to identify potential issues and ensure automation is aligned with a brand’s overall marketing strategy.
Reduce Budget Waste
When it comes to reducing overall budget wastage, marketing managers shouldn’t cut spending across the board – perhaps sacrificing long-term growth for short-term gains. Instead, consider the value of each expense category, such as media, events, contractor labor and programming costs. Identify what works and what doesn’t. Focus on the programs that work and consistently eliminate those that don’t, even if it’s an inconvenience.
You can probably imagine the shows that should be cut by now. If you’ve been waiting for the right time to end it, now is the time.
As the business environment continues to evolve, it’s clear that data-driven decision-making will remain the foundation of a successful marketing strategy, enabling companies to stay agile, customer-focused and competitive in an ever-changing marketplace. Following these principles allows marketers to maintain flexibility while optimizing performance and achieving higher ROI – all while becoming a great internal revenue partner.