I have some exciting news for marketing leaders seeking to innovate on their marketing strategies. Forrester’s B2B Frontline Marketing Survey, 2024, found that frontline marketing teams with advanced lifecycle revenue marketing strategies are more likely to meet or exceed their revenue goals than frontline marketing teams with less mature strategies. Read on for the summary.
Lifecycle Revenue Marketing Is Hitting More Revenue Plans
I generally work with two types of clients: The first type of client wants Forrester to help them adopt marketing strategies that are already proven standards so that they don’t have to reinvent the wheel or take too many risks. The second type wants Forrester to help them innovate and test new marketing strategies that other organizations haven’t tried or proven yet so they can gain a competitive advantage if it works.
I’ve been researching emerging B2B growth strategies for many years now, even before my time at Forrester began. And just a little over three years ago, I started working with progressive B2B marketing leaders who wanted me to help them think differently about their frontline growth strategies. The results led to the concept of frontline marketing and a new strategy called lifecycle revenue marketing (LRM). Both are relatively new B2B constructs: I coined these terms with my colleagues Lori Wizdo and Steve Casey in 2022.
And now, using Forrester’s Lifecycle Revenue Marketing Maturity Assessment, we discovered that 22% of frontline B2B marketing leaders in the US (14% in Europe and 10% in Asia Pacific) already have advanced LRM strategies by Forrester’s definition. Those strategies are proving effective, as well. Eighty-seven percent of advanced B2B frontline marketing leaders reported that their team met or exceeded their revenue plans, compared to 77% of frontline marketing teams with beginner or intermediate strategies.
Frontline Marketing Leaders Are Still Facing Challenges
Despite the apparent extra boost in revenue plan attainment from lifecycle revenue marketing, my research uncovered more potential for frontline marketing to impact revenue. Our research found that frontline marketing leaders still say they need improvements in several areas to significantly boost their impact on revenue growth, including:
- Improving their relationship with sales.
- Participating more frequently in strategy formation and revenue planning.
- Increasing accountability for campaign planning and design.
- Leveraging revenue development reps to identify buying groups.
- Removing cross-functional dependencies, which are significant.
Read The Report On The Global State Of Frontline Marketing
As the B2B buying landscape continues to evolve, frontline marketing and lifecycle revenue marketing are becoming even more important strategic growth drivers for B2B organizations. Forrester clients can read all about the global state of frontline marketing in my new report: Frontline Marketing And Lifecycle Revenue Marketing Are B2B Game Changers.
The report is full of data profiling and comparing frontline marketing teams from beginner to advanced. And if you’re a B2B CMO or frontline marketing leader looking to advance your frontline marketing maturity, schedule a guidance session and get started on the path to more achievable growth.
