In part 1 of “Marketing Ops New Full Funnel Support Mandate” Video Series we address how and why marketing has full funnel sales responsibilities.
(Watch Time – 2:15)
Summary
Why marketing has full funnel sales responsibilities – The pandemic fundamentally transformed marketing’s role, with 80% of enterprise companies shifting to digital-first content marketing as their primary go-to-market strategy due to remote work and canceled in-person events. This shift drove content marketing spending to double over four years, with another doubling expected. Marketing automation investment followed the same trajectory, with companies discovering that automated digital approaches are more effective for customer acquisition. By 2024, marketing became responsible for top and middle funnel activities, with 85% of companies embracing automation. The results are compelling: proper implementation generates 4x more quality leads, increases sales productivity by 14%, and improves targeting efficiency by 30%. This ROI has made marketing automation essential for 91% of marketers across all company sizes and industries.
Transcript
The Pandemic Shift: Marketing’s Move to Full Funnel
Marketing’s journey towards full funnel responsibilities was initiated by enterprise companies, reallocating both focus and budgets during the pandemic. With buyers working remotely, face to face meetings and events canceled, and direct dial phone connects plummeting, 80% of enterprise companies quickly shifted their focus to digital first content marketing as their primary go to market sales process.
Rising Investment: Content Marketing and Automation
As a result, over the next 4 years, content marketing spend doubled, and it’s expected to double again over the next 4 years as marketing continues to move deeper into the funnel. In parallel, marketing automation investment also doubled and is expected to double again over the next 5 years with the adoption of marketing automation software across all sized companies and the predicted extension of these tools across all stages of the customer life cycle.
Marketing Takes Ownership of the Funnel
So by the end of 2024, marketing became primarily responsible for the top and middle of the funnel, as 85% of companies now believed that an automated digital first approach is a more effective process to acquire new customers. They discovered that fully leveraging these tools for both sales and marketing alignment and automated connected buyer relationships drives growth.
The ROI Case: What Automation Delivers
Because when executed correctly for nurturing and lead scoring, it generates more than 4x the volume of higher quality leads. When leveraged for both lead scoring and sales enablement, it increases sales productivity by over 14%. And when the data is organized and leveraged effectively for attribution and insights, it improves targeting, content budgets, and top of the funnel ad spend by 30%.
The Verdict: Automation Is Now Essential
With this type of ROI, 91% of all marketers across all size companies and industries now consider marketing automation essential for their go to market success.
