Rethinking the Role of Marketing, reveals that top performing marketing teams are taking full control of the customer lifecycle – everything from customer acquisition, to the more lucrative customer retention and expansion.

1. Rethinking the Role of
Marketing
Atri Chatterjee
Act-On Software
Ian Michiels
Gleanster Research

2. Agenda
• About this Study
• Key Findings
• Summary & Recommendations

3. Key Objectives of Study
Understand marketers’ perception of the
customer relationship, customer lifecycle
and their role in it
Determine the major challenges faced by
marketers in supporting the customer lifecycle
Identify the key strategies and tactics used
by marketers today
Discover any differences between top
performers and the rest
?

4. Overarching Fundamental Question
Do marketers need to
RETHINK
THEIR ROLE
in the context of the
customer lifecycle?
?

5. Survey Audience & Methodology
Study conducted in
Q4 2014 &
Q1 2015
Focus on
Mid-Sized
B2B
Businesses
Survey conducted
Online

6. Agenda
• About this Study
• Key Findings
• Summary & Recommendations

7. Wide Perception of CRM
CRM means many things to many marketers –
strategy, process, technology, department

8. Most Marketers Do Value the Customer Lifecycle

9. Marketers NOT Empowered to Own Customer Lifecycle
8 out of 10 Marketers
believe that marketing currently
has a peripheral role in the
customer relationship
feel that sales and support
currently have responsibility for
the customer experience
85% of Marketers
Over 62% of Marketers
thought marketing should
own the end-to-end
customer experience

10. • Beat 2013 revenue plans
• Estimate that 90% of their customers are happy
• Consider themselves effective at managing
the end-to-end customer lifecycle
• Are 2% of the surveyed population
Top Performers Distinguish Themselves

11. Average Firms Focus on Acquisition;
Top Performers on Retention and Expansion
% OF TIME % OF BUDGET
Average
firms
Top
Performers
Average Companies spendEffort acquiring new customers:
Average firms spend 67%
Top Performers spend 52%
Average Companies spendBudget acquiring new customers:
Average firms spend 54%
Top Performers spend 46%

12. Top Performers Use Different Strategies
PLANNING
TACTICS
TECHNOLOGY
& METRICS
Are almost twice as likely to tie
objectives to the entire customer lifecycle
than Average firms
• Spend 41% more time on customer communication
• Use personalization over 75% more than Average firms
• Employ behavior and segmentation over 30% more than
Average firms
• 20% more likely to use marketing automation technology
• Emphasizes more significant metrics like response rates
and satisfaction scores over elementary metrics like
number of leads

13. Top Performers Focus on People & Accountability
Believe getting the right
talent is a challenge
Believe there is no accountability
for process improvements
Believe that leadership did not value
new B2B marketing tactics
Average firms 50%
Top Performers 92%:
Average firms 55%
Top Performers 28%:
Average firms 48%
Top Performers 36%:

14. Process Challenges Abound
All marketers struggle
with process
Top Performers doing better
50%
59%
45% 50% 55% 60%
Top Performers
Average firms
Legacy processes
are part of culture
39%
82%
25% 45% 65% 85%
Top Performers
Average firms
Decisions not metric based
30%
71%
20% 40% 60% 80%
Top Performers
Average firms
Lack of process improvement

15. Technology Challenges
Over 83%
consider the use of multiple systems to manage
multiple marketing channels a top challenge
Over 56%
of marketers say integration of marketing and
sales technology is a top challenge
Over 41%
find configuring campaigns a top challenge
…with 84% of Top Performers saying it takes too long

16. Agenda
• About this study
• Key Findings
• Summary & Recommendations

17. Summary of Findings
1
There is a massive misalignment of efforts and
objectives at Average B2B mid-sized firms.
2
The customer lifecycle needs a LEADER
3
Marketing technology is key to monitoring, measuring,
and engaging with customers across the entire lifecycle

18. Recommendations to Improve Performance
1
Create a customer journey map and take responsibility
• Marketing is in a unique position to interact with customers during this entire
process. Don’t lose the opportunity!
2
Focus on new customer acquisition AND engagement with
existing customers
• Top Performers spend half their marketing effort on this and it pays off
3
Partner with an agency to get specialized help & step up your game
• Top performance comes with top talent which is hard to find
• An agency can help execute as well as train existing marketers
4
Segment and personalize to improve engagement
• Whether it is interacting with prospects or customers, use behavior and
demographics to segment
• Personalize interactions for each segment at each stage in the journey

19. THANK YOU
More Information:
– Download full study:
https://www.act-on.com/rethinking-the-role-of-marketing/
Contact Act-On:
+1 (877) 530-1555
sales@act-on.com
Contact Gleanster:
www.gleanster.com
info@gleanster.com