Marketing Drives Growth—Make Your Case
Marketing teams often achieve big wins that directly support business goals—but the street cred is still lacking.
Why? Because marketing success is often framed in marketing language, not business language.
To get buy-in, you need to translate marketing insights into strategic impact. Impressions, clicks, and engagement rates in isolation does not equate to revenue, efficiency, and growth.
How to Make Marketing Metrics Matter to Leadership
Marketing is as essential to your organization’s mission as any other department. But getting leadership on board requires shifting how you present marketing’s impact. When marketing is seen as a strategic partner rather than just a task executor, it becomes a key driver of measurable business success.
Your job as a marketer is to bridge the gap. Instead of just reporting on marketing performance, frame your insights in a way that speaks to business objectives. The next time you present to leadership, try these approaches:
Using Content Strategy to Drive Efficiency
Instead of this: “Our audience research shows users prefer video over written content.”
Try this: “By repurposing existing blog content into short-form videos, we can increase lead conversion by 15%—with minimal additional production costs. Based on current traffic and conversion patterns, this could drive an estimated $X in additional annual revenue.”
Donor Engagement Linked to Fundraising Growth
Instead of this: “Our donor emails have a 40% open rate and a 12% click-through rate.”
Try this: “By refining donor segmentation, we’ve increased engagement by 25%, directly leading to a 10% increase in repeat donations this quarter—an additional $X in revenue. This growth came without the added cost and effort of acquiring new donors.”
Converting Engagement into Revenue
Instead of this: “Our Instagram engagement has doubled in the past six months.”
Try this: “We’ve seen a 2X increase in Instagram engagement, particularly among prospective families. By implementing targeted ads and refining our call-to-action, we anticipate a 15% increase in inquiries—putting us on track for X more enrollments next year based on last year’s yield.”
Key Takeaways for Getting Leadership Buy-In:
Tie marketing wins to business outcomes. Connect your data to organizational goals. Marketing isn’t just supporting these objectives; it’s a critical driver of success.
Speak their language. Ditch marketing jargon (CTR, impressions, engagement) in favor of business impact (revenue growth, cost savings, conversion rates). Visionaries need to see how marketing directly contributes to the bigger picture.
Be proactive in shaping strategy. Marketing isn’t just a support function—it’s a growth driver. Advocate for marketing’s role in strategic decision-making and demonstrate how it fuels the organization’s mission.
When marketing is positioned as a revenue driver rather than a cost center, everyone starts paying attention.
Make sure you’re in the room where it happens.
