How can CMOs defend their marketing budgets in 2023?

For CMOs and wider marketing departments, their budgets are often one of the first to get cut, despite reports arguing against this.

The challenge here is often the difficulty in persuading CFOs that their work is generating enough return on investment. And, in conjunction with this, CFOs are using multiple other metrics to measure success across a business, which may not always align with those that marketers are familiar with.

In short, marketers need to ensure that they are completely aligned with the CFOs objectives, keeping a focus on transparency and delivering ROI all the way through to the lead being closed. They must develop a strong enough case that is concise, data-driven and speaks the language of the C-Suite.

In this blog, we’ll explore five ways that CMOs can protect their budgets and become the hero for not just their Sales teams, but the wider business.

Improving the quality of leads

Lead conversions are one of the biggest challenges for both CMOs and Sales departments. More often than not, businesses struggle with conversions due to poor quality data. However, in order to generate high quality leads, CMOs must first start with the basics – defining what constitutes a valuable lead, depending on the campaign, as well as nailing your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). Once these considerations have been implemented, businesses can then shift their attention onto investing in a lead management platform that will help ensure that leads will convert into sales.

By collecting data on individual leads, a lead management platform like Convertr acts as a filter that can take the lead rules and apply them to all leads that enter your tech stack. This ensures that only leads that match your criteria are paid for, which protects marketing budgets from being wasted, given the average CPL is $100. This benefit alone can be transformative for CMOs who are under pressure to deliver more with less.

Increasing the speed of lead flow

The average B2B buyer consumes 13 pieces of content before they’re ready to convert. This means that when a lead engages with your business, they are ready to talk to someone straight away. Therefore, to meet expectations, sales representatives must be able to reach out within a certain time frame, if they want to avoid missing an opportunity.

Convertr works with many enterprise brands that prior to using the platform, saw lead delivery flows taking up to 7.5 days to reach a salesperson. Given this delay, it is not surprising that the quality of these leads would be impacted. Since using the platform, these customers have been able to deliver leads in near real-time, automate the entire lead management process and reallocate talented resources to focus on higher-value tasks.

Through automation, CMOs can increase the speed of lead flow and streamline processes such as lead capture, scoring and nurturing. When considering speed of lead flow, supplier management is also a key consideration. Convertr enables brands to not only track campaigns, but also which suppliers are generating their leads and how quickly they are being delivered. This allows marketing departments to shift their focus away from manual data entry, towards supporting their Sales teams with selling and closing deals.

Prioritising data security and compliance

In today’s complex regulatory landscape, with a rise in data breaches, and huge fines being issued, CMOs must prioritise security and data protection if they want to remain compliant. For marketers who typically handle and process huge volumes of personal data, it is imperative that they have the mechanisms in place to manage consent and communicate with leads in a transparent manner.

When looking at improving operational efficiency and delivering better ROI, the last thing CMOs want to worry about is a potential breach or fine. To mitigate this, CMOs need to ensure complete transparency and a clear breadcrumb trail of their lead sources, all the way to the point of ingestion. And this can be challenging when businesses are relying on marketplaces for the purchasing of leads. In some instances, it can create ambiguity around the true source of a lead. It also raises questions around margins, as lead generators may only get a percentage of the lead rate that brands are paying – the rest being absorbed by the marketplace.

We encourage CMOs to be proactive when it comes to tracking lead sources, Convertr customers have been able to save an average of 40% of their lead rates by making this simple change. Prioritising transparency all the way to lead origination will not only help ease any compliance concerns, but it will also help reduce costs by ensuring that money is going to the true lead generator.

Harnessing the power of automation

Marketers who rely solely on their CRM platform, MAPs, or Excel spreadsheets, are limiting how successfully they can house, validate and extract lead data. Benefiting from best-in-class SaaS technology, members can utilise Convertr’s powerful pre-defined rules engine and API integrations that simplify the ingestion and delivery of leads to remove and automate manual processes.

Automating repetitive tasks such as email campaigns and lead nurturing, can save time and free up resources for more important tasks. Automation also provides valuable insights into lead behaviour and campaign performance, helping CMOs to optimise their efforts and increase conversions.

Focusing on lead attribution

In times of economic instability, it is even more crucial that marketers can track which of their marketing sources have the most significant impact on the bottom line. Without lead attribution, marketers will struggle to extract key insights into what is working, and what is generating the most revenue. This can then lead to wasted time and money on campaigns that don’t deliver the desired results. And for CMOs, effectively deployed lead attribution helps to secure budgets and provides Sales teams with data on expected results.

With Convertr, users can access detailed reporting on lead behaviour and conversion paths. They can also track which suppliers their leads are coming from, and manage the whole supply chain through the platform. It is this level of detail that will enable CMOs to make more informed decisions regarding future strategies, as well as the ability to reallocate resources.

Influencing budget decisions

CMOs looking to protect their marketing spend and showcase the value they are bringing to the business, must use data to frame their rationale. Research has shown that companies that increased spending during a recession enjoyed a 4.3% increase in profits compared to those that cut spending. However, businesses are still often apprehensive about maintaining or increasing marketing budgets during a downturn. If CMOs can use data to support their business case, they will be in a better position to secure budgets.

This is why investing in a lead management platform like Convertr, can help both CMOs and the wider business, optimise their spend and execute campaigns that generate real ROI. By improving the quality of leads, increasing the speed of lead flow, harnessing the power of automation and prioritising data security and governance, CMOs can protect their budgets and continue to contribute to the growth of their business.

It’s time to become a convert.