Change Marketing from a
Cost Center to a Growth Driver

Across industries, marketing leaders can follow the same proven process to drive pipeline and business growth. Executing all of these steps consistently well is often challenging, but the impact of doing so can be transformative.

Step 1: Target the Right Prospects (Ideal Customer Profile)

The sad truth is that most marketing is wasted. No matter how compelling your message or inspired your campaign, it does you no good if it reaches the wrong people.

At best, your impact may be inefficient, requiring higher volume (and spend) to get to the occasional promising prospect. More often, this results in bogging down Sales with bad leads, driving up acquisition costs, and missing the real opportunities.

The first step to effective growth marketing is clearly defining the audience(s) you want to reach. Working with Sales, identify your most typical, profitable, or otherwise preferred customers. Look at what they have in common—a shared industry, the same company size or model, a specific region, etc. Then drill down a level and look at the contact level. Who are the decision-makers in these organizations? Who else influencers the purchasing decision?

Based on these details you can define an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), build a segmented database with many relevant companies, and direct your efforts towards your preferred prospects. Your ICP should also strongly influence your lead scoring model, determining when to designate Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) for referral to Sales.

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Step 2: Focus on the Problem (Customer Pain Points)

To state it bluntly, your prospects are not interested in your product. Touting features, specs, and capabilities will make your outreach fall flat every time.

What matters to prospects are the pain points they’re battling every day. Tell them which business problems you can solve (and how), and you’ll have their attention. Granted, your product or service may be needed to make it happen, but don’t lead with it—and don’t make them connect the dots.

It pays to remember that prospects always have other options, including purchasing from a competitor or simply doing nothing. You need to give them a compelling reason to buy from you. Focusing on real, significant challenges is a powerful way to establish credibility and encourage affinity, as well as making current pain seem worse than the fear of change. 

In short, focus on what prospects really care about. It doesn't matter if you have better specs if what they crave is ease of use.  Sales can be an excellent partner to help you better understand customers' reality and mentality, and articulate a strong value proposition for your ideal targets.

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