With the U.S. economic outlook on the upswing, many Chief Marketing Officers are looking to expand their marketing teams this year. Based on our ongoing conversations with marketing leaders, here are three marketing positions we expect to be in high demand this year.
Customer Marketing
We saw the addition of Customer Marketing positions to our clients’ org charts begin in 2021 in response to the impact that Covid had on demand-gen predictability. With new logos becoming harder to acquire, marketing leaders recognized an opportunity to focus on their existing customer base, looking for ways to drive more revenue from those accounts – and to retain them.
Customer Marketing positions tend to come in two flavors. The first is more focused on demand generation, using the same tactics typically used to attract new prospects to drive additional business from existing customers, whether it be from a different buyer persona, a new use case for your product/service, or another division of the company. The other type of Customer Marketing role focuses more on customer retention through customer engagement and advocacy tactics, often through the use of customer newsletters, success stories, user groups, and customer advisory boards.
Account Based Marketing (ABM)
The rise in dedicated ABM marketing positions can be closely linked to the rise in Customer Marketing roles. While Account-Based Marketing initially started as a demand-gen tactic targeting new prospects, the methodology is particularly well-suited to supporting Customer Marketing efforts, given ABM’s focus on driving engagement within a small set of strategic accounts.
Whether a company’s ABM efforts are focused on landing new logos or driving additional revenue from existing customers, the strategy requires a highly targeted approach – and critical alignment between Marketing and Sales. ABM campaigns create personalized 1:1 and 1: few campaigns to target prospects who work at your strategic accounts.
Growth Marketing
This is not a new role per se – we see it as the reframing of what has typically been called Demand Generation on the B2B side or Customer Acquisition in the consumer sector. The idea behind this new title is to better link the position to the company’s customer growth strategy, more effectively showcasing Marketing’s contributions to revenue.
Growth Marketers look at the entire customer experience – from top-of-the-funnel awareness to conversion to retention, using data analytics and testing strategies to identify revenue opportunities and optimize campaign effectiveness.
How will organizations hire these marketing superstars in a competitive market?
As these positions are relatively new, it can be challenging to find marketers with extensive experience in these areas. Many of our clients are turning to interim contractors who bring their expertise and also an outsider’s perspective to the business. Using a recruiting firm like ours that specializes in marketing roles and has experience with filing these positions can accelerate the hiring process.