6 Steps to Turn Marketing into a Revenue Centre
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
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Step 1: Define Revenue-Driven Metrics
One of the biggest blockers to marketing being seen as a revenue centre is the reliance on vanity metrics like impressions, clicks, or follower counts. These indicators have their place, but they don’t tell leadership teams how marketing is truly influencing pipeline and growth.
Instead, focus on metrics that show commercial impact. Multi-touch attribution (first-touch, last-touch, or weighted models) can reveal how marketing activities influence opportunities at every stage of the funnel. Done well, this can lift marketing-sourced income by 20–30 %.
In practice, that means tracking marketing-sourced pipeline, opportunity-to-close conversion rates, and long-term value compared to acquisition cost (LTV/CAC). These are the figures your board cares about, and they are what prove marketing’s role in driving commercial outcomes.
For a practical breakdown of how to measure this effectively, see the Salesforce ROI guide.
Step 2: Connect Sales and Marketing for Shared Success
Revenue is a team effort. Sales and marketing should work as two parts of the same growth engine, sharing information, systems, and accountability.
The first step is to create a shared definition of what a “qualified lead” looks like. Without this, sales may dismiss leads as unworkable while marketing continues to deliver volume over value. Agreeing on lead quality and follow-up timeframes helps ensure everyone is working toward the same standards.
Practical tools also play a role. Shared dashboards between sales, marketing, and finance provide clarity on where pipeline is strong and where gaps exist. Weekly check-ins between functions help maintain accountability, while joint reviews of closed-won and closed-lost deals provide valuable feedback loops.
When sales and marketing combine resources in this way, the conversation shifts from “lead handoffs” to building one consistent revenue engine.
Step 3: Optimise for Answer Engines (AEO) and Intent
The way buyers search is changing. Traffic from traditional SEO is under pressure, competition is increasing, and featured snippets are now 2,215 % more common than before. By late 2025, up to 10 % of site traffic could be influenced directly by AI tools.
This shift means optimising for answer engines, not just search engines. Your content should provide concise, direct answers to common questions your target audience is asking. Structuring articles with clear H2s and H3s, FAQs, and short definitions helps search engines and AI tools pull the right insights.
Intent also matters more than ever. Someone searching “how to measure marketing ROI” may not want a full eBook — they want a quick, credible explanation. By layering both short-form and long-form content, you make your site useful to both buyers and AI-driven interfaces.
Finally, explore conversational AI on your website to qualify leads in real time. This reduces wasted time on low-quality leads and allows your sales team to focus where it counts.
Step 4: Harness the Power of Referrals
Referrals are one of the most powerful levers for growth, yet they’re often under-utilised. In B2B, 91 % of buyers say they are influenced by word of mouth, and referred leads close 69 % faster with 71 % higher conversion rates.
A structured referral programme can turn customer satisfaction into a predictable source of pipeline. Incentivise existing clients to share success stories, make it easy for them to introduce peers, and ensure you close the loop by keeping them updated on the outcome of their referral.
But referrals aren’t just about incentives. They’re about building communities. Webinars, customer councils, and peer-to-peer forums help create spaces where clients share their experience and become advocates. The more value they get from being part of your ecosystem, the more naturally they will spread the word.
Step 5: Reward Marketing for Commercial Results
Marketing teams must be measured in the same way as sales – by their ability to influence and generate revenue. Rewarding based on impressions or engagement alone risks disconnecting the function from its real impact.
A stronger approach is to tie compensation directly to commercial outcomes. Campaign-specific bonuses, outcome-driven incentives, and shared targets across sales and marketing help to build one joint success model.
For example:
- ABM and demand generation teams could be incentivised by pipeline contribution.
- Content marketers might be rewarded for deals influenced or accelerated through assets.
- Event marketers could be measured on post-event conversions.
By rewarding based on impact rather than activity, marketing earns its place at the revenue table.
Step 6: Build Beyond Acquisition – Retention and Expansion
Turning marketing into a revenue centre isn’t just about bringing in new customers. It’s also about maximising the value of the customers you already have. Retaining clients is five times cheaper than acquiring new ones, while effective cross-sell and upsell campaigns can grow revenue per account by 20–30 %.
Post-sale marketing strategies matter here. Content tailored to existing customers – such as webinars, playbooks, and success case studies – keeps them engaged and deepens their relationship with your brand. This approach supports Customer Value Management (CVM) and creates opportunities for expansion.
Think of marketers as “account CMOs” – working alongside account managers to nurture relationships, drive advocacy, and uncover new growth opportunities within existing accounts. This mindset helps shift marketing’s role from one-time acquisition to lifetime value creation.
Final thoughts…
By applying these six steps – from redefining metrics to investing in retention – you can rewire marketing into a true revenue centre. It’s about focusing on meaningful data, building strong partnerships between teams, adapting to changing search behaviour, and ensuring customer relationships grow over time.
If you’re ready to see how SDRs can transform your sales outcomes, let’s talk.