How Can Marketing Impact Sales?
A common statement we hear from business owners is “Marketing is so expensive – is it even worth it?” Or maybe they aren’t seeing growth from their current marketing approach and just assume marketing isn’t working to bring in sales. But that’s where they go wrong; when marketing is done right, it can be a revenue generator and help any business attract and convert the right clients. In this article we explore in more detail how marketing can directly impact sales.
Can marketing really increase sales?
Yes, especially when you have the right marketing strategy! Marketing isn’t just about getting your business noticed - it needs to actively contribute to your business goals; generate more enquiries, capture interest and ultimately lead to more sales. Also, marketing can help you gather insight into your potential, as well as existing clients, meaning you can better cater to the customer journey and build a stronger sales strategy.
In short, contrary to popular belief, marketing shouldn’t just be about getting people excited and raising awareness; that is only good if it encourages conversions.
So if your marketing isn’t aligning with your sales goals, it is time to rethink the strategy.
How does marketing actually increase sales?
By using marketing data, research and analysis, you can really understand what your potential customers need, which massively helps when tailoring your sales. Plus, having more insight from your clients allows you to communicate in a way that resonates with them, which in turn can contribute to more easily turning a lead into a sale.
As well as really getting to know your customers, another benefit of measurable marketing data is that it shows you which campaigns are working, and which aren’t. This then allows you to invest money on targeted activities, which can become your high-converting one, rather than wasting money on marketing efforts elsewhere.
What happens when your marketing doesn’t align with your customers?
Effective marketing starts with understanding your audience; it should answer their questions, reflect their challenges and show how your product or service can help them.
When you don’t know what your customer is looking for, you end up speaking to the wrong audience; an audience who are much less likely to engage with your product or service. They may visit your website, but it won’t lead to enquiries or sales. Without customer insight, your message may not be clear or address their needs, so they may end up choosing a competitor that they feel speaks to them more directly.
There is also the risk of investing time and money into marketing that doesn’t actually impact sales.
Think about it: you’ve spent days or even months working on a campaign on the assumption you know what the customer wants and it ends up not performing well. If you used evidence-based data for your campaign, you would have targeted the people who would have taken the next step to become a new or repeat customer.
This is how marketing starts to feel like an expense, rather than an investment.
How does marketing work with sales when it comes to customer insight?
Having established there’s a direct connection between marketing and sales, then the question is “how do you make marketing work with sales to improve revenue?”
Look at it this way; the sales team speak to the customers every day, so they hear what your clients are actually going through, what they want or what they need to achieve or overcome. A great marketing team will then use all these insights to further review their strategy and shape their approach. And that’s because marketing isn’t just about analysing a dashboard, as this only tells half the story — it’s about going in more depth and having a full real-world understanding of who’s buying (or turning down) your services and products.
Of course, for the marketing team to be able to do all of this, they need the sales team to ask the right questions and have the right conversations with your leads.
In turn, when the marketing team is able to identify and attract the most relevant potential clients, the sales team can be more efficient and targeted during the sales process.
This is how the two teams end up working closely together, feeding each other insights that allow for continuous improvement and refinement based on evidence - not guesswork. And the bonus? By operating this way it means that your marketing budget is used more effectively and with a clear ROI.
Now you know all of this…What should you do?
Now is the time to stop and think:
Do you really know if your marketing is driving revenue?
Have you ever analysed how your marketing and sales are connected and whether they operate together?
How can you get your marketing and sales activities to be more efficient and what resources or skills or even knowledge would you need on your team to do so?
These are only some of the questions you might want to reflect on to help you improve the impact of marketing on your revenue.
Of course, we understand that small businesses without a dedicated marketing team can struggle to find the time or resources to analyse all of this and to close the gap between marketing and sales - but that’s where the Saia Creative team can help!
We can help you review your marketing, as well as its connection with and impact on your revenue and help you build a marketing strategy that’s solid, tactical and aimed at ROI.
