Justify spend with marketing automation
In today’s B2B world, chief marketing officers are constantly asked to justify their budgets to CEOs and CFOs. All Internet marketing methods need to have a definable return on investment. Marketing automation can help CMOs demonstrate return on investment as well as shift marketing from a cost center to a source of revenue.
When CMOs present their annual budgets, marketing needs to be displayed as an investment in branding. For years, CFOs have been frustrated by the lack of ability to demonstrate ROI for certain marketing efforts, such as social media, according to an article in Business 2 Community. However, many sources of online advertising have demonstrable ROI. In fact, the changing role of the CMO means marketing teams have a much more significant role in generating revenue in their organizations.
If a company is struggling, marketing may be one of the first departments to experience cuts. CMOs need to have an understanding of marketing ROI to display the effectiveness of their Internet lead generation campaigns.
Marketing automation helps demonstrate ROI
Marketing essentially has two sides. The first is the creative aspect of campaigns, which is what people typically associate with this team, ClickZ stated. However, the second side of marketing is the data, facts and figures gathered. With measurement and analysis, this data can be converted into insights that CEOs and CFOs will understand.
However, some marketers use the wrong metrics to show ROI. Formerly, teams used impressions – the number of people who were exposed to ads – as a measurement of the effectiveness of ad spend, but this wasn’t effective. Many organizations have switched to measuring ROI in terms of engagement, which is still not completely accurate. Marketers study links, page views and social media activity, such as likes and retweets.
CEOs want to see real math to justify marketing spend. CMOs need to focus on how impressions and engagement drove contacts, how contacts turned into leads, how leads became sales opportunities, and how these opportunities transformed into customers. Marketing automation can allow CMOs to define the stages of the sales funnel and monitor effectiveness, making it far easier to justify their budgets. Using data to drive marketing can improve lead generation efforts and increase sales and revenue. Marketing automation can also bring sales and marketing teams closer together, which boosts effectiveness further.
