Esther Flammer, CMO, Wrike.
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As we settle into 2023, the term “do more with less” may seem as worn out as “unprecedented,” but for marketers, embracing this adage presents an opportunity to accelerate efficiency and deliver impact for their organization. The catch: Marketing teams don’t have time to stop and rebuild everything or slow down and adjust to having fewer resources; they must maintain growth.
Fortunately, most organizations have moved away from the “growth at all costs” mentality spurred by the pandemic. Now, they are still centered on growth, but with a laser focus on efficiency. As a result, many teams have seen cuts to both budget and resources—some warranted, some to help prepare the business for what could be a difficult road ahead. For marketers to be successful in what some industry giants are calling “the year of efficiency,” they must prioritize two things: continually demonstrating return on investment (ROI) and maximizing the efficiency of resources.
Impact Over Action
The need to demonstrate ROI is nothing new for marketers. This is always top of mind, but now, there is an even greater focus on results as companies attempt to recession-proof their businesses and marketers seek new ways to show value. When making decisions about where to focus time and resources, it’s critical that marketers prioritize impact over action. More specifically, they should be looking at immediate impact opportunities—ones that can show value in one to three months—that will give them the data they need to inform their investment in campaigns and programs, or when to lean into a specific part of the funnel.
Speaking of value, I’d be remiss not to call out that marketing is often the first department to take a hit when budgets get tight. Many high-growth companies increased funding over the past couple of years while the economy was more stable, resulting in a need to cut back. And now, as they look through a more conservative lens, marketing can be seen as a large cost center where not all initiatives directly correlate to revenue. Instead of having a knee-jerk reaction that leads to cutting back on areas that don’t fall under bottom-of-funnel (BoFu) activities, marketing teams should double down on measurement to clearly illustrate how all pieces of the pie deliver results and improve customer experience and retention.
I mention customers because while it’s easy to focus on our own business, the pressure we are feeling is happening on the buyer side, too, with many customers adopting the same pull-back mentality and requiring that purchasing decisions go higher up the ladder. And as many marketers have shifted focus to prioritize existing customer health, it’s essential to have a deep understanding of where our customers are at in their spending journey and what they are willing to spend on. Having the right data allows us to react quickly and efficiently to changes in that demand to capitalize on cross-sell and upsell opportunities, and—when we do convert—the ability to show why.
Efficiency Of Resources
This is another area that marketers should really home in on this year. Marketing teams are used to moving quickly, but a new wave of communication challenges stemming from hybrid work has left 46% of leaders without visibility into how their teams are performing, according to research by my company. Many organizations invested in numerous tools to improve alignment, but the continued low levels of productivity we’ve seen quarter over quarter prove that this investment in resources has not exactly come to fruition. It’s easy to get bogged down by the pressure to increase output and lose sight of what’s important—prioritizing work that moves the needle.
As marketing leaders, we must think critically about maximizing our existing resources, especially if there have been cuts to outsourcing or internal teams. And all of this must happen while still accelerating time to market to get campaigns and launches out the door. This may feel like an insurmountable problem, but the solution is largely aligned with the same ROI-first thinking.
Not only should marketers rely on data to validate their go-to-market initiatives, but they can also use it to maximize efficiency across teams. This means reducing the distractions of a likely overwhelming tech stack—our research shows most marketers use 13 apps per day—and identifying opportunities to integrate solutions and streamline workflows. Consolidating tools often provides greater visibility, which leads to increased alignment, which ultimately saves time and frees marketers up to focus on their most impactful work.
When it comes to implementing best practices and making decisions for your organization, a simple recipe for success has always been this: Build it out, then test, iterate and optimize. With no time to rebuild and slow down under the pressure of fewer resources, finding quick optimizations in what you report on and how your team’s apps work together can help your team move fast and scale faster. And in this economic climate, being able to identify areas where you can secure immediate wins—both externally with prospects and customers and internally with processes—is imperative for adding value and delivering measurable business impact.
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