Marketing Investments to Drive Revenue in 2024

There are a lot of opportunities to improve your company’s marketing, like accessing new information, improving your processes, or implementing powerful technology, just to name a few. Marketing improvements for higher profits means generating more leads and systematically working those leads into sales-qualified prospects.

When looking at your marketing budget and plan for 2024, don’t let the latest marketing trends or fads sway your decision-making. Consider your existing processes, your gaps, and your opportunities to craft a sound marketing plan and budget. Here are some important steps and considerations in the process.

Audit Your Marketing Process

This might be your first step before 2024 hits. If you’re looking to grow revenue next year, you want to start early. A plan needs a starting point, and the better you understand the impact of your marketing efforts right now, and where the gaps are, the more impactful your plan will be.

Understanding how well your sales and marketing is performing requires an evaluation of your website, its performance, your competitors, lead management, conversion rates, and lead and client acquisition costs. We think of this as a Discovery, which should result in a thoughtful strategic marketing plan.

Establish a CRM or Better CRM Management

We’re willing to bet that most CRM (customer relationship management) systems could be the centerpiece of a New Year’s Resolution. Building out a lead management map and strategy could contribute to establishing a clean CRM architecture, where every sales and marketing person knows their role at every step of your customers’ buyer’s journey.

If everyone in your department has their own individual method for staying on top of customer and lead management using spreadsheets, inconsistent email outreach, and calendar reminders, then investing in a CRM will help you get to the next level.

Technology Investment

Maybe you have a well-organized CRM and lead management system, and you’re even set up for closed-loop reporting. How do you improve your processes? There are always opportunities to make your efforts more efficient.

Here are some possible improvements to consider:

1. The rollout of new software platforms and technology is hard to keep up with. Take time to investigate technology platforms that could propel your operations and your ROI.
2. Look what the introduction of ChatGPT did this year (including a premium version that might be worth investing in). Investing in ChatGPT 4.0 could help hone your content development, research, and prospecting efforts.
3. Online advertising platforms like Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads, and Meta Business Suite are frequently adding new capabilities. If you have explored pay-per-click (PPC) in the past but didn’t find it fruitful, it could be worth revisiting. We still advise you to leverage support from a partner who can ensure you’re not wasting ad dollars on irrelevant yet competitive audiences or keywords.
4. Maybe you’re ready to pay for more in-depth competitor information. You could invest in a premium SEO tool like ahrefs, Moz, or Semrush to get digital marketing insights for planning and review performance.

New Cross-Marketing Collaborations with Other Companies

Invest in new relationships in 2024. Who can you co-market with? Can you grow a referral network with other companies? Can you pitch content to other websites or offer other companies to contribute to your blog and create backlinking opportunities? Can you co-host an event, distribute an industry survey, or create a marketing asset with an industry partner?

You can follow a favorite site of ours, Partner Hacker, to get the collaboration ideas flowing.

Finding an Agency or Strategic Partner

If you aren’t short on ideas but you’re short on a team that can execute your ideas, it might be time for outside help. An outsidea partner can offer fresh perspective, then create and execute a strategic marketing plan. This can be an alternative to investing in one tactic or technology. The right agency provides the insights of a consultant but goes a step further by implementing the recommendations. An agency also provides staff who are experts in multiple areas as opposed to hiring a new marketing staffer in-house, who might be an expert in one area.

An agency isn’t for everyone, but it’s worth considering if you have needs in multiple areas and you need bandwidth to create and implement a marketing plan.

Looking ahead to 2024

The more advanced sales and marketing technology becomes, the more important it is for companies to get their systems and processes in order. Without coherent sales and marketing operations, it becomes harder to keep up with the new industry standards and customer expectations.

Companies that re-evaluate their operations, their needs, and their gaps on an annual basis to establish their marketing plan and budget will adapt well. Companies that simply allocate next year’s budget based on the previous year’s spend could get left behind.