You must be able to identify your most important goals in order to lead a team of marketers effectively. If you want to improve customer understanding or increase sales, a clearly defined objective will help you develop a solid marketing strategy that can be implemented in 2023.
But sometimes, you may struggle to identify the most important goals for your organization. For this reason, we surveyed 500+ marketing executives to point you in the right direction. About half of marketing leaders say they will change their marketing goals in 2023.
Increase Revenue and Sales
According to 22% of marketing leaders, “increasing sales and revenue” is their top priority in 2023. It’s not surprising that this is the case. The core responsibility of a marketer is to influence a company’s bottom line by attracting the correct audiences and driving sales leads through the pipeline.
Gaurav Agarwal is ClickUp’s chief growth officer. He told me that increasing revenue and driving sales are top priorities for his team.
He said, “As an industry leader with a NDR of over 80%, adding new revenue in a sustainable way is our number one priority.” To achieve this goal, we are focused on developing different sales and growth capabilities.
Agarwal continued, “As our 2023 plans are underway, we will be focusing on efficiency, and setting clear goals for our self-serve, and sales-assisted, motions.”
He continues, “We also double down on organic growth and efforts to better monetise our user base.” Our priority is to use a full-funnel approach to create compounding revenue machines.
Marketing leaders who want to increase revenue must optimize certain areas of the customer journey. Marketing leaders like Agarwal or ClickUp will also want to focus their efforts on lead generation.
Lead generation is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Lead generation can be improved by testing new landing page CTAs or creating stronger offers. You could also refocus your efforts on more powerful lead-nurturing campaigns.
To reach new audiences, it’s important to test out new platforms like TikTok and podcasts.
Michelle Keene and, Dropbox’s senior manager of global marketing document workflows and Dropbox’s director of global sales, told me she had set a goal to increase revenue by 2023.
She says, “In 2023, an expected year of economic uncertainty, [the shift towards profitable growth, rather than growth at any cost] will be only accelerated — going from a nice thought to a necessity.”
Understand your audience and their needs in order to deliver the correct messages at the appropriate time.
Encourage the deployment of ongoing hypothesis-driven tests and optimizations.
“As the marketing leader of 2023, I will embrace this challenge and make efficient growth my top priority.” Although a shift in mindset is difficult, the benefits outweigh any change management costs.
It can change the way senior executives see marketing – not as a cost, but as an investment – which is really empowering for me.
Improve Sales and Marketing Alignment
It is important to ensure that your marketing team and sales teams are closely aligned in order to achieve or even exceed revenue goals. Organizations with closely aligned marketing and sales teams are indeed 6 percent more likely than others to surpass revenue goals.
It is for this reason that 19% of marketing executives have set their top goal as improving sales alignment by 2023.
Consider asking your marketing and sales teams to create buyer personas jointly. This will help you achieve better alignment. Sales teams are uniquely positioned to understand prospects as they interact with them every day.
Partnering with sales teams will help you create a comprehensive image of your persona, including any challenges or pains you may have overlooked in your research.
Consider working with your sales team to gain their insight on any gaps in content that may exist during the buyer’s experience. A sales rep may point out, for example, that there aren’t enough blog posts or e-books that address the specific needs of your clients.
Working together, both teams can create a better buyer experience. Customers will get content that addresses their issues, while sales will be able to close more deals.
Building Relationships with Customers and Brand Loyalty
Marketing executives are changing their goals for 2023. 19% say that they will be focusing on “building relationships with customers” and “increasing brand loyalty.”
Customer Experience is more important than ever because your most satisfied customers are the best marketers for your brand. A happy customer will tell their friends and family about the positive experience they had.
A RRD survey of 1,000 consumers found that 40% of the consumers made purchases based on recommendations from friends and family.
It’s important to build stronger relationships with your customers, as their perception of your brand is crucial to your bottom line.
Jennifer Chou is Dropbox’s senior manager of integrated marketing. She believes that having a good understanding of your customer base is the first step to building brand loyalty.
She said, “Marketing involves storytelling and helping people visualize how your solutions will help them achieve their goal.” Understanding your customers’ needs and creating a connection with them is key to building affinity, consideration, and loyalty.
She continued, “Customers are looking for new ways to connect with companies and want to feel like this company knows what they’re dealing with and builds products just for them. We must consider this as we plan for 2023.
Dropbox offers so much more with its newest features and products. We’re enabling better workflows for our users. We need to understand their goals and challenges as well, or even more than them. This allows our users to focus on what matters.
If you want to cultivate a strong connection between your brand and the community, make sure your marketing materials reflect your brand values. If you’re going to make your customers feel connected to your brand, they need to believe that your business cares about the issues that are important to them.
Daniel Godoy is Microsoft’s Global Director of Programmatic Evangelist. He says, “The best ways to gain trust are by being transparent about the values that your brand stands for and by having a communication strategy that emphasizes your commitments.”
Microsoft Advertising Research shows that 85% of consumers will only buy brands they know and trust. And 72% of consumers only trust brands that are authentic in their marketing.
Create opportunities for your clients to interact. You could create a Facebook group or Slack channel so that your customers can interact with each other and share best practices in the industry. They can also get ideas and suggestions to help solve their business problems.
HubSpot’s Social team has created a Facebook Group. Since then, they have used the group to develop a greater sense of community for its members.
Last but not least, you should create an online customer service experience.
Consider investing in a customer relationship management (CRM) system, offering omnichannel support through email, phone, chat online, or social media, and training your customer service representatives to use interactions with customers as an opportunity to build brand loyalty.
Advertisement Products and Services
Marketing executives want to concentrate on marketing their products and services in a more effective way by 2023.
Advertising has changed. It’s not the same as when Don Draper from Mad Men created clever slogans for billboards. Many brands are now relying almost exclusively on digital channels rather than the classic media like TV, radio, and direct mail.
Digital advertising can reach a large audience at a low cost compared to traditional methods like TV. Many digital advertising platforms provide useful tools to empower marketers to create engaging advertisements and iterate rapidly if something doesn’t work.
Google’s responsive ads feature tests headlines and descriptions and displays the final combination that works best for an intended audience.