How Outcome-Based Marketing Grows Businesses

How Outcome-Based Marketing Grows Businesses

Whether or not an ad campaign “worked” is a question sales and marketing teams have wrestled with since print was the only mass media. In a digital age with more channels, more targeting and customer behavior tracking, this question is somehow just as difficult—if not more—to answer.

“A lot of other agencies are focused on great creative or the newest technology but not focused on what the client’s actual end goals are,” says Leadline Chief Operating Officer Sarah Jordan. “You might get a lot of click-throughs, a wide reach or a higher number of impressions, but are they converting? Are these things moving the needle for your company?”

Outcome-based marketing zeroes in on business efficacy by starting with a client’s desired end state—usually a big-picture, revenue-focused goal—and problem-solving backward to build a strategy and success metrics around achieving that goal.

A question that we often ask clients to help identify outcomes is, “If you could wave a magic wand to help you achieve your business objective, what would you change?” While this doesn’t always lead right to the answer, it frames the conversation.

Marketing, Sales + Customer Journeys

Before we define outcomes, we must first clarify some sales and marketing basics.  

To be truly effective, sales and marketing must work in tandem throughout the entire customer journey, not “handing off” leads or working separately from (or even in competition with) each other.

In addition to collaborating throughout the entire customer journey, sales and marketing teams must have access to accurate data. 

To track and evaluate customer touchpoints—and subsequently identify revenue-building outcomes—a business must have: 

• An online presence through their website and social media
• A customer relationship management system
• A decent picture of their current customer journey

These three pillars are essential because the strongest outcomes often stem from addressing sticking points in the customer journey or the post-conversion nurturing cycle. 

Businesses struggling with any of the above three can consider implementing them as their most urgent outcomes and should engage a partner like Leadline to get them there.

Defining Marketing Outcomes, Tactics and Business Objectives

Assuming a business has the above three pillars in place (or in progress), what IS a marketing outcome, and how does it relate to a business objective?

A marketing outcome is a short-term development that helps increase revenue or lower costs—i.e., improves the business’s bottom line. For example: more quality leads for the same or less investment, a longer customer lifecycle, a cost-effective recruitment campaign, or a monthly increase in specific product or service sales. A marketing tactic is the action or medium deployed to achieve the outcome—i.e., an advertising campaign, web redesign, blog series, etc.

A business objective is a specific, measurable target designed to achieve a long-term goal. For example, increasing revenue by X% over the next 18 months, expanding market dominance in a specific region, or outpacing a particular competitor for a product or service.

Business objectives dictate marketing outcomes and, together with return on investment, define the success of a marketing strategy or tactic.

How They All Work Together

Defining “marketing outcome” in very general terms is difficult—an outcome should be highly specific to each business. This is why Leadline presents its work with clients as business problem-solving.

“We’re selling our clients solutions for their unique business challenges, not just a good-looking website,” Jordan says. “We are not selling a service. We are offering a business solution.”

For context, here’s a high-level overview of how some generic objectives, tactics and outcomes work together:

Assign Value to Your Outcomes

To better determine your marketing return on investment (ROI), try to attach a dollar value to each outcome. How much is a lead worth to your company? What is the average subscription value to your business? Answering these questions not only paints a clearer picture of operational costs vs. revenue, it answers the question, “Was this [campaign, conference, website update, etc.] worth it?”

Leadline’s outcome-based marketing approach guarantees that we never recommend solutions without setting clear, realistic key performance indicators that will generate ROI within a given timeframe.

Conclusion

Outcome-based marketing is an exciting approach for its flexibility and paradigm shift—it puts marketing and sales together as business problem solvers, tackling what moves the needle for a client’s business.

However, optimizing an outcome-based approach takes time and expertise—a business needs knowledgeable people tracking their efforts consistently to gather the right data. 

An agency like Leadline is indispensable for launching outcome-based solutions without wasting your time and resources to keep your business going. Need help with this step? It’s what we do for our clients every day. Contact us, and we can get started on ROI-focused marketing plans and campaigns.