When your revenue is swelling, and company pipelines are almost about to burst, executives always do not see the point of investing more money in marketing as well lead generation. But intentionally neglecting your marketing efforts is similar to willingly retrofitting your business with a glass ceiling. Marketing is not just about lead generation for sales. So, before you dismiss the request of your CMO for more funds in 2019, or take no for an answer. There are a lot of reasons why strong sales should not dictate marketing budgets.
The first reason is that marketing has actually leveled the playing field. Lots of cash used to be enough to keep industry leaders on top but today, that is not the case. Even companies that have a monopoly on their space could fall victim to unlikely competitors. An example is Invisalign. They monopolized the clear aligners space in orthodontics for almost 20 years, until recently.
Smaller companies such as Smile Direct Club and Candid Co. are fast earning their share of Invisalign’s $1.5 billion market with the use of telemedicine and e-commerce to offer a similar product with half the price. These companies dedicate lots of amounts of brainpower to marketing and by doing so, have established a very strong presence on Facebook, Instagram and podcast stations. Invisalign now competes with seven other companies.
Marketing is hugely responsible for making the customer experience. Customer satisfaction increases by 73 percent if customers are pleased with the whole customer journey, not just certain touch points like sales outreach. As a matter of fact, buyers prioritize their entire experience above your products as well as price-point. Based on a study by Forbes, 89 percent of companies compete mainly on the basis of customer experience. Eighty percent of the companies believe that they are doing a great job but only 8 percent of customers agree.
B2B eCommerce is blooming, and marketing strategy is what drives sales. A common misconception is that digital marketing is mainly suited for B2C and this could not be further from the truth. Global B2B eCommerce revenue already broke $7.66 trillion in 2017. Consumers in the B2B vertical discover product and service providers online, enjoy a whole checkout experience online, and appreciate the liberty of serving themselves for the majority of the buyer’s journey, just the same as B2C customers.
The most successful brands in history did not dominate the market because they sold the most product but because they defined their industry. When Google hit $25 million in venture capital, they did not stop striving. When they virtually gobbled up Yahoo, they did not settle into their ranks. Today, they are the single most successful and influential organizer of the world’s information and the source all of the world looks for universal access to information. Google did not necessarily beat Yahoo because they were better, they won because they clearly defined what they wanted to be and used concise and clear messaging to position themselves in the market.
As technology goes on to disrupt consumerism, people are desperate for guidance and looking to industry leaders for perspective. As a society, we are overwhelmed with new information, it is almost blinding. Technology opens up new industries and markets every day while they revive others. The market is flooding with new services and products. We produce more data in one year than in the past 5,000 years combined. All of this change influences fast and unpredictable changes in consumer trends, mainly the kind of madness that could just make you as legendary as Google and Nike. But only if you position yourself in the same way.
Change is always happening, which means that your effort to lead the conversation on change should also be without pause. When new concepts or solutions go to market, it is your marketing team which builds an audience and positions the company as a thought leader. Without enough focus on marketing, you are going to lose your voice. Great empires have a history of falling, especially when they believe that they are invincible. You should consider marketing as your foothold and understand how this department’s role in business is changing. Generating leads and awareness are important functions of marketing.