Want a more strategic marketing team? Start by giving them these 5 things.

Too many marketing teams have to do their work in silos. But that's just not going to work. Not now....not ever.

Marketing isn't a department, and it's not the sole area responsible for customer acquisition. It's a piece of the whole customer journey.

However, if your marketing team is missing any of these 5 things, they may be spinning their wheels or producing lackluster results - all because they're not in sync with key pieces of information.

Here's how to remedy that this year:

1) Marketers Need P&L Information

Access to financials, specifically the profit and loss statement, is key. This allows marketers to see how their marketing and advertising investments and expenses impact the company’s growth.

Strategic marketers will review this information and look for solutions that address problems like flat sales in off-season months or offer pricing options that better affect cash flow issues.

2) Marketers Need to Know How Sales is Performing

Sales is the number one indicator of a marketing team’s effort. While knowing how many marketing qualified leads they pass on is helpful, everything that comes after tells a marketing team what is working and what isn’t. Access to sales data directly informs how the message should be tweaked, if different channels need to be utilized to reach a certain audience, if advertising promotions match up with the sales cycle, etc.

When marketers know how sales is performing, they can also address any issues of misalignment that commonly plague these two departments.

3) Marketers Need to Know What Questions or Objections Arise in the Sales Process

Oh my gosh is this one important!! Key insights such as objections or questions help clarify product messaging. This information helps determine hierarchy of features and benefits. It also gives insight on whether or not marketing needs to reevaluate the targeting or campaign for a specific product or service.

Plus, this is such a a GREAT source of content development - whether that is blogs, videos, podcasts, case studies, etc.

4) Marketers Need a Budget

Yes, the title of this article said they don't need more money - BUT - they do need to know how much money they have to work with.

Having a well-defined budget allows a marketer to make strategic decisions on how and what to use when it comes to promotion. It directly affects the marketing mix chosen, specifically the media/vehicles prioritized and reach/frequency projected.

It’s not fair to tell a marketing team something like, “Tell me what you could do and I’ll tell you the budget.”

Smart companies will look for public information related to their industry and for benchmarks for sales and marketing spend, such as 5%, 10%, or 15% of top line revenue. Numbers vary but you should be diligent about putting together a marketing budget for your team.

To close out this point, marketers will always take more money. But if they don't have the other 4 things noted in this article, it will probably be wasted on ill-informed strategies. Don't let that happen!

5) Marketers Need the Authority to Work with Other Departments

Marketing teams that work in a silo fail to gain the information necessary to best promote the product or service for sale. Each of the departments listed below holds valuable information that influences how the product is marketed.

• Marketers need to work with the leadership team to understand and conceptualize the vision and core business.
• Marketers need to work with the sales team to ensure true alignment with messaging and processes.
• Marketers need to work with the customer service team to ensure that what customers are saying is integrated into how the product/service is delivered, to learn more about the audience psychographics, etc.
• Marketers need to work with the production team to understand how the product/service works, its limitations, why it was built a certain way, etc.

Anything else?

Modern marketing is more like a busy air traffic control tower than it is an episode of Mad Men. We're strategizing, developing, executing, collaborating, and ultimately driving outcomes in coordination with other departments in order to claim our place as strategic marketers in an organization.

These 5 things mentioned in this article are essential, but I'd be interested in hearing what else you believe is critical for your marketing team's success.

Share your comments below!