Professional tasks marketers on need to align marketing strategy to ROI-related business outcomes
By Zion Rufus
As marketing professionals continue to find themselves under increased scrutiny to demonstrate tangible returns on their investments, Ikechukwu Ugwu, Group Head of Enterprise Growth Marketing at Africa’s Fintech Giant, Interswitch Group, urged marketers to be more intentional in crafting strategies that showcase a tangible link between their activities and business goals and be innovative in prioritizing their budgets to drive marketing efficiency during challenging times.
While delving into the evolving landscape where business leaders demand a clear connection between marketing activities and revenue objectives at the recently concluded ADMARP Day event, Ugwu shared a compelling example where he outlined a digital lead generation campaign for a newly launched product.
The emphasis was on creating educational materials tailored to the audience and deploying them strategically on channels relevant to potential customers. This approach, he argued, ensures value extraction across the entire growth funnel, leading to a seamless journey from engagement to revenue generation and ultimately loyalty.
He stated “So when people see your material, they get educated. They see clearly how it impacts their business. There’s a call to action on the campaign that when they click, it takes them to a landing page. You ask them a couple of questions, Is this product of value to you? Would you like to be engaged by the sales team? How soon would you like to be engaged? Would you like us to call you? Would you like us to mail you? You ask very specific questions that qualify that prospect as a marketing qualified lead.”
“When they answer those questions and they submit, It goes or flows into a CRM, routed to the Sales team, the sales team engages, and then at the end of that engagement, revenue is generated.
That’s one way to demonstrate to the business the link between a marketing initiative and its corresponding impact in supporting the achievement of critical business KPIs such as TOMA, Equity, Revenue and Profit.
This, in essence, Ugwu stated, lies in creating a narrative that resonates with the target audience and drives them toward a measurable action – a paradigm shift from traditional, less accountable methods.
The marketing professional also took the discourse beyond the digital landscape to question the efficacy of offline marketing initiatives, such as event sponsorships.
Noting that companies are now challenging the conventional practice of merely displaying banners and instead seeking ways to tie visibility to revenue, Ugwu highlighted how the integration of QR codes at sponsored events exemplifies this shift, where attendees are encouraged to engage and experience the brand through personalized landing pages.
This interaction, he explained, not only enhances brand awareness but also sets the stage for meaningful conversations that can lead to conversions.
“So these are the ways that we are now beginning to innovate as marketing leads to say that it’s no longer enough to show the business the art side of marketing. We need to show them that there is a link between what we do as marketers, versus the achievement of business goals and revenue is one of those key goals; so Marketers now need to be very intentional. If it’s a brand marketing activity and that argument comes up a lot, you know, you want to run a thematic campaign, and the business is saying how does your thematic campaign affect the bottom line. You need to be able to demonstrate to the business that my thematic campaign drives brand love, it drives brand affinity, it drives salience for the business at the point where they need to make a purchase decision,” he stated in his final submission.
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