As technology evolves and customer demands increase, the role of marketing continuously takes on a new meaning. Questions arise: what role should a marketer take on in the organization? What areas should they focus on when working on their business processes? These questions and more spark important discussions about the changing role of the modern day marketer.

A recent report by Deliotte found that over half of marketing execs indicated that there was a significant increase in responsibility for growing revenue. The research also found that in today’s digital landscape, CMOs own more of the customer journey. Why? Because the average digital buyer spends more time reading marketing material in preparation for making a purchase decision.

This is a significant departure from being the department that held no accountability for their efforts. Sales had always had their neck on the line having to show results and hard metrics in the boardroom. But marketing? Marketing took care of the pretty, artistic things.

As marketers cement their role as revenue drivers, it’s become essential that their intelligence is optimized. What does this mean? This means that marketing now has to show results
using data to uncover insights, and then use these insights to drive revenue.

The goal of top performers is twofold: become an intelligence hub for marketing insights and use these data-driven insights to help sales drive revenue.

Target the Right Audiences
By becoming a source of data and insights on customer behavior, both marketing and sales teams are better equipped at understanding the needs and wants of buyers. When this is accomplished, marketers can better understand what kind of customers to look for (and knowing where to find potential buyers is a key insight.) It means crafting targeted campaigns to zero-in on the right audiences and dropping processes that don’t yield results.

Better Decision-Making
Marketing intelligence also enables C-level executives to make decisions that go beyond marketing and sales. Driving data-driven marketing insights enables companies to set the tone and direction of the company like where it is going and how long it will take to get there. Marketing intelligence is a source for forecasting and achieving company-wide goals.

Enable Sales
Marketing intelligence enables sales reps to be better prepared when communicating with prospects and customers in the boardroom. The more information we have on the buyer’s journey, their needs and wants, their behaviors and motivations, the better equipped do they become at closing the deal. Leading marketers gather as much information as possible on prospects, and all this data works to enable sales reps in the boardroom.

Key Takeaway
At the end of the day, it is the customer-facing sales reps that close business. That’s why it is essential for marketing to help them in any way they can. And the more data they collect, the better they are at achieving this. How robust is your marketing intelligence? Are you enabling your sales force through your processes and marketing activities?