The ability to harness data and use it to drive sales is the key to success in the data-driven economy, which is why marketing has become increasingly technology-based.
Companies worldwide have made significant investments in marketing automation technology, and the number of marketing tech vendors has increased exponentially to meet rising demand.
But even with all the new tools at their disposal, marketers still struggle to answer basic questions like how much marketing will contribute to overall revenue, how to identify which campaigns drive the most revenue and where to invest marketing dollars for maximum ROI.
Another obstacle marketers face even with marketing tech solutions in place is an inability to reconcile their numbers with those presented by colleagues in sales. And that can undermine marketing leaders’ credibility.
In an environment with fragmented data, it’s tough for sales and marketing to work effectively together.
But by consolidating all marketing data into Salesforce — the de facto standard for revenue reporting and trusted CRM solution used by more than 150,000 companies to track, manage and report sales — marketers can use marketing technology to overcome these challenges.
In fact, recent developments in marketing technology have extended the capabilities of the platform, now making it not only a viable part of the marketing technology stack but a crucial component.
Marketers who are unfamiliar with Salesforce can tap into the expertise of sales or marketing operations teams for help with the technicalities.
Marketers who are well versed in Salesforce — a small but growing group — will recognize the four enhancements listed below and appreciate how new marketing technology provides reasons to consider consolidating marketing analytics and reporting within the platform.
- Reporting on both leads and contacts: When marketing and sales data exists in separate silos, leads and contacts aren’t aligned, making it impossible to track all campaign responses. Using marketing technology within Salesforce to consolidate automation data unifies the information and lets marketing and sales work together using the same trusted platform.
- Visibility into the outcomes of historical campaign responses: When marketers only see part of the picture, they can’t produce accurate trend reporting. This makes it difficult to identify patterns and shift strategies to meet rising demand and respond to evolving market trends. With technology that works within Salesforce, marketers can generate accurate reports and spot trends.
- Funnel visibility: Another issue marketers with incomplete and inaccurate data face is an inability to determine sales funnel velocity, volume and conversion rates. By using marketing technology that works within Salesforce, marketers can measure velocity and volume accurately and generate conversion rate reports that everyone in the organization can trust. Plus, sales and marketing see the same data because it’s all right inside Salesforce.
- Campaign attribution: It’s important to determine how each campaign interaction influences a sale, but marketers typically attribute sales to a single touchpoint because they lack the data necessary to more accurately weight interactions. By using data within Salesforce and marketing technology that enables attribution analysis and sophisticated modeling, marketers get an accurate view.
To succeed in a data-driven economy, marketers must automate key processes and gather and harness data. But implementing a marketing automation solution is just the beginning. Fully mastering the possibilities of data requires the ability to bring disparate sources of information together, spot trends, accurately analyze funnels and attribute revenue to the right campaigns and touch points.
When marketers can bring all their marketing automation data onto a trusted CRM platform like Salesforce and use technology within the platform to demonstrate exactly how marketing spend contributes to revenue and expands opportunities, they’ll earn executive trust and a seat at the strategy table.
About the Author: Bonnie Crater is the CEO of Full Circle Insights.