Most marketing teams are on a tight budget – but how to gain more traction with limited resources? A lot of top companies are shifting their focus from headcount to precision. Discover how on-demand revenue marketing taskforces drive massive growth in this blog from our Simon-Kucher Elevate experts.
CMOs, Heads of Marketing, and Chief Revenue Officers, let’s confront a painful truth: marketing teams are stretched thinner than ever. Budgets are tighter, expectations for tangible revenue generation are higher, and the digital marketing ecosystem is evolving so fast that yesterday’s strategies already feel outdated. Yet despite the pressure, many organizations respond by hiring more staff or onboarding generic agencies – without measurable gains in revenue or customer engagement.
But what if the answer isn’t headcount?
What if the answer is a shift in strategic focus?
At Simon-Kucher Elevate, we’ve seen it many times: companies stuck in strategic limbo, unable to act decisively on their marketing priorities. The root cause isn’t laziness or lack of vision – it’s operational paralysis. This inability to execute a modern revenue marketing strategy is costing millions in lost growth.
But how do you fix this problem? Let's dive deeper.
The on-demand imperative: a new angle on revenue growth
In today’s attention economy, agility is a competitive advantage. Research shows that over 70% of companies struggle to keep pace with the newest digital marketing trends. One way of solving these challenges is to rethink the approach for marketing execution.
Instead of making organizational changes, top-performing companies are leaning into a precise and impactful model. They utilize specialized, on-demand taskforces that act fast, work inside their ecosystem, and leave the internal team stronger than before. At Simon-Kucher Elevate, our experts are there to help clients gain impressive results with a sprint-based approach, which is designed to solve specific bottlenecks in your sales and marketing efforts.
Let’s move beyond hypotheticals and look at tangible outcomes.
From bottleneck to breakthrough: unlock real-world results
Our experts have been on many projects and know exactly how to solve your most pressing marketing and sales challenges. Here are some results of precise, focused, and revenue-driven marketing campaigns that directly impact the bottom line:
- +114% increase in lead conversion: A SaaS platform was generating traffic but struggling to create a pipeline of viable leads. Their marketing channel performance was inconsistent. We analyzed the current website qualitatively and quantitatively to identify recommendations to improve user experience and increase lead generation. By developing and A/B testing new interactive prototypes in real time, we clarified their value proposition and streamlined the customer journey – more than doubling the conversion of raw traffic into sales qualified leads!
- +50% growth in revenue YoY: A D2C ecommerce company faced stagnating growth and low customer retention rates. We implemented a customer segmentation model based on RFM scoring and designed a strategic roadmap of approximately 50 initiatives targeting different stages of the customer journey. This alignment of the marketing and sales teams on key touchpoints led to a significant and sustainable revenue uplift.
- +€40-50M revenue uplift per year: A machine producer needed to scale its customer activation. Our team defined a global playbook after analyzing internal and external needs. By introducing new, optimized touchpoints in prioritized markets, we created a scalable model for substantial recurring revenue generation.
- + 16–31% uplift in recurring revenues per year: For a controlling software provider, a comprehensive audit of their sales and marketing performance revealed key gaps. By benchmarking them against competitors and developing a clear roadmap, we drove major efficiency gains, proving that a focused revenue marketing strategy can dramatically improve financial outcomes.
The magic behind these outcomes isn't a big secret. It’s a disciplined, three-step approach centered on the most impactful levers of a modern growth model: the marketing flywheel.
The core of revenue marketing: attract, engage, and delight
Traditional funnels are broken. They treat customers as an afterthought. Many leading, revenue-driven marketers have shifted to the flywheel: a self-sustaining system where every customer interaction builds momentum. It’s a customer-centric model where the goal is to reduce friction and accelerate growth by creating exceptional customer experiences at every phase of the journey.
The marketing flywheel
Attract with purpose
The goal of the “attract” phase is to earn the attention of potential customers and remove barriers as they learn about your brand and products. In a world where Google increasingly provides answers directly on results pages, this requires a sophisticated strategy beyond simple keywords. It means creating user-centric content hubs and SEO-optimized pillar content to draw in prospects.
For instance, Shopify's content hub effectively generates high-quality leads by providing extensive resources on starting a business, with categories like "How to Start" and "Business Ideas" optimized for high-volume, long-tail keywords. This approach directly addresses any user needs, establishing the brand as a trusted authority.
Furthermore, an optimal SEO strategy must adapt to the future search demands. This involves:
- Shifting from keyword to user focus: Create content that addresses the specific needs and challenges of your audience, providing valuable solutions to their problems.
- Driving originality with E-E-A-T: Establish experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness by creating original content that showcases real-world qualifications and meets customer needs.
- Mastering technical SEO: Ensure search engines can effectively crawl, index, and understand your website by implementing structured data, maintaining clean code, and enhancing page speed. A smart page structure not only serves customer needs better but also provides clear paths that strengthen your most important pages from a technical SEO perspective.
Shape of an optimal page structure
Engage with personalization
This is where the modern revenue marketing team truly shines. The objective is to develop a relationship by providing solutions that offer higher value than the competition. This goes far beyond generic outreach. It involves using marketing automation to deliver hyper-personalized customer journeys.
For example, a successful project for a cosmetics producer involved creating an automated email marketing campaign based on specific customer journey events. When a 26-year-old woman interested in natural cosmetics visits the store, a triggered email can follow up with a personalized message and a 10% discount on a relevant product – such as a purifying cleansing gel. This approach can increase sales via automated customer journeys by 3-5%.
Email campaigns based on the customer journey ensure an effective follow-up
Engagement also thrives on authenticity, especially on social media. Ryanair’s TikTok strategy is a masterclass in this, demonstrating how humor and relatable content can generate massive engagement. By transforming common traveler frustrations – like baggage fees – into shared jokes, they make followers feel understood and invite interaction. Their willingness to respond to user comments with customized, funny video replies makes followers feel acknowledged and valued, fostering a strong community with over 2.6 million followers and an engagement rate of 9.6%. This shows that a brand with a strong personality can turn potential complaints into a powerful engagement tool.
Delight with value
The final phase aims to empower customers to reach their goals – turning them into advocates who fuel your growth and boost customer retention rates. This is achieved through exceptional service and value-added experiences. For B2B clients, loyalty programs can be powerful tools to increase switching costs, secure market share, and introduce new product ranges.
To make these programs truly effective, we know from our project work that incorporating gamification elements is key, making them more interactive and rewarding. Leading loyalty programs use this to great effect:
- Miles & More uses "My Challenge," where app users can participate in specific challenges to earn additional reward miles, encouraging repeated engagement
- PAYBACK created a "gaming world" that allows participants to earn points by playing games within the app, further connecting users to the ecosystem through playful interactions
- FREE NOW has incorporated a wheel of fortune into its loyalty program, where participants can use points to play for exclusive benefits and rewards, adding an element of fun and chance
This isn’t theory. It’s a working model that has driven significant recurring revenue increases for global brands.
Define clear, measurable objectives for your loyalty programs
How Simon-Kucher Elevate uplifts your revenue marketing
Perhaps the most underrated benefit of an on-demand team isn’t just immediate results – it’s the possibility for long-term enablement. The role of result-driven marketing teams today is to build systems, not just run marketing campaigns.
Simon-Kucher Elevate’s on-demand taskforces are not just “doing the work”; they are building the infrastructure for sustainable growth. Our approach is collaborative and transparent:
- Select and setup: We begin by analyzing your organization's needs and strategic goals to establish the necessary tools, automations, and KPIs to optimize your marketing operations.
- Boost operations: Using the flywheel concept, our embedded team of specialists works seamlessly within your organization to reduce friction and accelerate growth. We integrate key personnel to enhance the effectiveness of your operational marketing.
- Enable your team: Our ultimate goal is to make ourselves obsolete. We deliver a comprehensive playbook and provide collaborative, hands-on training that empowers your team to sustain and refine these new marketing strategies independently, ensuring your long-term success.
We establish the necessary tools, KPIs, and configurations to optimize your marketing operations and empower your team to sustain and enhance these strategies for long-term success.
So, ask yourself, CMO or Chief Revenue Officer: Is your team under-resourced – or just under-leveraged?
Now is the time to move from your first action to impact. And you don’t have to do it alone.
Let’s build momentum together.
Find out how to optimize your marketing revenue – with our Simon-Kucher Elevate experts.
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