The Pedowitz Group talk about marketing evolution in a few different stages. While I agree with the first three stages I have a different take on the last stage of the evolution. While we are all looking for a predictable, scalable and repeatable systematic approach to marketing, being marketing centric is more  important to achieve the revenue and growth.

Traditional marketing the Pedowitz group  describes as characterised by the 4 P's Product, Promotion, Placement and Price. It is still how marketing is taught at the undergraduate and graduate levels and is a key element of all marketing groups.

Lead Generation marketing is characterised by marketing that providing leads to sales through outbound email campaigns powered by an email system (an ESP). The leads are raw, not fully developed, but do have a pulse. Metrics tracked include # of emails sent, open rate, click-through rate, # of form submits, # of leads to sales, etc.

They define Demand Generation as the joint activities of both sales and marketing to do two things:
1. Put high quality leads into the top of the funnel
2. Pull opportunities through the funnel faster.

 

The last stage Revenue Marketing stage as the previous two stage and the revenue generated and attributed to marketing is now REPEATABLE, PREDICTABLE AND SUSTAINABLE.
My take is Customer Centric Marketing is the final stage and that will give rise to marketing revenue. That is it is centred around your ideal customers and creating marketing that is useful, helpful and engaging so that customer and your employees want to engage with you. Making your marketing too automated doesn't allow for that spontaneous interaction with customers. That opportunity to innovate and create the sort of experience that is based on understanding your customers intimately. Obviously this is harder the larger the organisations but small companies can achieve this especially if they narrow their focus on their ideal customers and prospects and follow the 80/20 rule.

How marketing centric is your business?  Take our test.