THE SIZE & SCALE (& SHEER HORROR) OF THE PROBLEM

Think of the revenue gap like The Kraken. Menacing. Enormous. Tentacles that stretch far and wide. And if you don’t take action, fast, your boat (/business) could be in mortal danger.

Sounds overly dramatic? You'd be surprised.

While the mythical monster is, at best, the work of weary sailors (who gave their sightings of squid a little extra zip), the revenue gap really can ravage
vast parts of your organization.

Scarier still, it does this damage in the shadows—undetected and invisible. Unless, that is, you know where to look.

BUYER JOURNEY ROADBLOCKS

At every stage of your buyer journey, the revenue gap is a big, bad roadblock.

Seriously, just think about the sheer number of marketing assets you might create throughout this process.

With each step, your buyer gets to know your business better (good!). Yet you learn so little about them (baaaad!).

This can only grow the revenue gap, not your revenue. And though there might be an infinity of opportunities—to serve your would-be customer exactly what they want and need—you’ll never know.

Also melting away, alongside these wasted chances: lots of untapped revenue.

Don’t be fooled into thinking this dough doesn’t exist. It does. Loads, in fact. A 2019 McKinsey report put a price on what they called ‘Personalization at scale’: $1.7 to $3 trillion in extra value.

Getting it isn’t easy, of course. The price of admission is high—in 2022, spending on customer experience tech reached $641 billion. As are the stakes, as the Forrester research we mentioned earlier made clear.

Until they find the right answer, marketing teams will keep shelling out what amounts to a bad-tech tax: 21% of their budget.

One of the most pernicious challenges in the buyer's journey is the hidden impact of poor data. When you lack insight into which content truly resonates, which campaigns, themes, and topics drive engagement from your audience, and where to strategically allocate resources to maximise revenue, you’re essentially navigating in the dark with no clear direction or purpose.

Patricia Serrano, Content Marketing & Creative Manager at Kantar Worldpanel

A BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED METRICS

Now think about the possibility of something different. Something better.

Like the power of real-time behavioral data. That tells you what your would-be buyer loves, what turns them off, the things they engage with deeply, and what bits they’ll barely glance at.

Crucially, consider how this might shape each next step. Helping you hone your strategy, for instance, so you can craft high-quality content you know they’re much more likely to love.

Forget those measly metrics already on offer, data like this would mean you could finally build a proper (and precious) bridge between your marketing content and revenue.

BOTTLED-UP DEMAND FOR BETTER

It's timely, as frazzled marketing teams everywhere are crying out for a solution. We know this, as we asked them.

In our survey, the majority of execs admit the lack of a link between content and revenue negatively affects sales, budget allocation, job prospects, leads and overall revenue.

Almost all say reliable data—i.e. that bridge, that link—would give them a competitive edge (96%), speed up production (95%) and boost performance and productivity (96%). It’s a compelling kick in the pants for current tech.

Far from a selfish pursuit, marketing leaders believe connecting content to revenue would raise all organizational boats. Granted, they think marketing would be the biggest winner (53% say so, vs. 15% for sales), but when allowed to pick more options, marketing, sales and investors all score decent majorities.

Looking long-term, a majority of execs (56%) feel that understanding how content impacts revenue would help shape their marketing strategy.

Clearly, any platform that could do this—and close the revenue gap, for good—would be a big f’ing deal.

So now, at last, let’s sail away from the many, alarming problems posed by the revenue gap.

Full steam towards a solution.