News & Insights

Marketers today face a staggering number of options when it comes to selecting which marketing channels will comprise their marketing mix. There are an estimated 120+ content delivery and marketing channels right now. As exciting as that may be, it can also lead to marketing paralysis. How can I know which channels will work and which won’t? What will be most cost-effective, and how much budget do I need to allocate to each channel? Which ones will work best together to reach my target audiences?

As multi-channel marketing continues delivering unprecedented ROI to companies, more dollars are going into marketing than ever before. According to a recent CMO Survey, the average business now spends 11% of its total company budget on marketing. For some SaaS companies in rapid growth mode, sales and marketing spending is upwards of 50% of revenue (Source: Jeanne DeWitt, Head of North America, Revenue & Growth, Stripe).

CMOs aren’t just determining brand strategy and creative direction. They also must juggle a growing number of marketing technology systems and tools while developing unified programs across diverse marketing channels – often with limited internal resources. Mastering this complexity is essential as marketing+tech contributes around 50% of a business’s enterprise value according to Forbes. The myriad of choices available to marketers today can make it difficult to determine which go-to-market strategy, budget allocations and mix of channels and tactics will be most effective in meeting a company’s growth or revenue attainment goals.

The wealth of data marketers have access to is rapidly increasing in today’s digital-driven marketing environment. But rather than making it easier to set the key performance indicators (KPIs) that will drive growth and revenue-attainment goals, business leaders are having more trouble developing and achieving the right KPIs, according to an MIT Sloan/Google report. Executives are often torn between different approaches to goal setting. Should KPIs be strategic or tactical? Operational or financial? Broad or focused?