When marketing budgets tighten or teams are stretched thin, CMOs are often faced with tough decisions: what to scale back, what to double down on, and what to stop altogether. Smart marketing optimization isn’t about slashing efforts randomly. It’s about evaluating performance by channel and choosing where to reinvest for maximum impact.
Here’s a breakdown of what to cut and what to keep, and how you can optimize your marketing activities in a smart way.
The only way to optimize something is if you know WHAT to optimize.
You probably use Google Analytics or alternatives like Piwik or Matomo. We’d be surprised if you weren’t. But are you actually looking at the data regularly? Are you using that data to make decisions about your website, content you might want to publish, or campaigns you are thinking of running?
If you’re active on social media, sending newsletters or use a CRM, you have even more data. Don’t just keep the data stored inside these platforms’ analytics. Take some time regularly to check open rates, what content works best or how many people convert to leads on any given page. Data is only useful once you start using it.
Most of the marketing tools and platforms you are using have A/B testing capabilities. That’s when you create 2 different versions of the same thing and test which one performs the best.
You can create 2 variations of a landing page to test which CTA works best. You can test email subject lines to see which version gets opened the most. Or you can test 2 different ads and continue using the version that performs the best.
You can test many different things with A/B testing. Our recommendation is to have a plan for this and to start with what you expect to have the biggest impact.
Whether it’s analytics or the results from your A/B testing: use the data you get. You can optimize marketing strategies and campaigns based on this. For example: you could focus your ad spend on a specific channel or target audience to optimize conversions while staying within budget.
Landing pages are important because that’s where conversions happen. Speed and clarity are key. So make sure they load fast, are well structured and offer a clear call-to-action. Friction in the buyer journey can hurt your conversion rates.
Generic content doesn’t cut it anymore. Use firmographic and behavioral data to tailor messaging for different audience segments. A personalized experience is far more likely to convert.
Email marketing isn’t dead, on the contrary. It’s a highly personal way of communicating with people. And statistically, it delivers an ROI of 32 € for every Euro spent (this is based on statistics you can easily find online).
A segmented list is a high-performing list. So segment based on behavior (e.g., downloads, page views), demographics, industry, or sales funnel stage. This allows for targeted, relevant messaging. The more relevant your message is for a contact person, the more likely it is they will take the desired action.
Personalization improves engagement and conversion rates significantly. You can personalize emails using dynamic content and behavioral triggers to deliver tailored messages that align with where prospects are in their journey. Go beyond just first names: use company names and other data you have in your CRM.
Like we mentioned already: user experience is important. So your website must have fast loading times. If it takes too long, your visitors will go to your competitor’s website instead. And for search engines, the rule is mobile first. By now, you website should really be mobile friendly. If it isn’t, you need to urgently fix that.
Too many companies treat their websites like it’s a building: they build it once and then never touch it again, except for some minor updates. At the same time, the world is changing at the speed of light. Technology evolves at great speed, your competition is making moves and market conditions are shifting for many different reasons. If you want your website to yield a decent ROI, it needs to evolve along with the company. so adapt a growth driven design approach.
If resources are limited, creating new content on a regular basis is hard. But you can also improve the content you have. Start by auditing your content. There are plenty of tools out there to help you do that. This should give you a clear view of content you can improve upon, for example by including relevant keywords. After an audit, you also know what new content you should focus your energy on.
Again it’s really important to start from your analytics. Check your ads account to see how your different campaigns are doing. The keep the campaigns with a measurable ROI, and cut ads that don’t offer a clear path forward. For example, you want to cut awareness campaigns that don’t have a nurture sequence behind it. On the other hand, you want to keep campaigns like retargeting or branded search that convert and keep your CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) in check.
With advertising, you can’t just set it and forget it. You need to check regularly to see how your campaigns are performing. Not only does the marketing evolve: the ads platform offers new features that you may want to include. So make time to check in regularly. You can set up dashboards in Looker Studio or your Hubspot account and send reports automatically to stakeholders to facilitate this.
A large percentage of your website visitors will not convert on their first visit. They are simply not in the decision stage, and that’s ok. Retargeting these visitors through display ads or social platforms allows you to re-engage warm leads and bring them back into the funnel.
Humans can only handle so many emails or repetitive tasks in a day. And they tend to make mistakes here and there.
Marketing automation platforms like HubSpot, Marketo, and ActiveCampaign help streamline workflows, nurture leads, and scale campaigns. Automation frees up time for your team to focus on strategic planning and creative development. It makes your marketing much more efficient and affordable at the same time. And it enables your team to do more rewarding work. Calculate your Hubspot ROI if you want to know the impact of the platform.
Having your data siloed in different platforms doesn’t contribute to alignment, ont he contrary. It’s one of the main reasons why marketing and sales teams operate in silos. Andsiloed teams miss opportunities. By integrating CRM and marketing automation tools, you ensure seamless data flow and consistent messaging across the buyer journey.
Not all leads are the same when they become a lead. Some are a perfect fit with your organization, other leads might be too different, or just not sales ready yet. Use lead scoring models to prioritize outreach to prospects most likely to convert. This helps sales teams focus on high-value opportunities and increases overall conversion efficiency.
Smart marketing optimization is about continuous improvement, not one-time fixes. For B2B marketers, combining data-driven insights with tactical execution across every touchpoint — from website UX to automation and retargeting — can lead to measurable improvements in engagement, conversion, and ROI.
By embedding these optimization tactics into your operations, your marketing team will be better equipped to attract, nurture, and convert the right leads more efficiently and effectively.
