Part 1: The Follow-Through Problem
I remember sitting in a campaign debrief when the marketing director said something that stopped our team cold:
"We had 347 leads from that campaign. I have no idea what happened to them."
The campaign was solid. The creative was strong. The targeting was right.
But there was no follow-up cadence. No nurture sequence. Sales didn't know what messaging marketing had used. And three months later, when budget reviews came around, no one could prove whether the campaign was worth it.
We've seen this same scene play out dozens of times. Across industries. Across company sizes. With some of the most talented marketing leaders we know.
And here's what the data confirms: When you can't prove what's working, the consequences are real.
63% of CMOs face increased pressure from the CEO and CFO* to prove marketing's value
Average CMO tenure has dropped to just 3.9 years* -- you don't have much time to prove impact
One in five Fortune 500 companies changed their marketing leadership* in the past year
Marketing budgets are stuck at 7.7% of revenue*, and when you can't prove value, they stay stuck (or shrink)
The pattern is clear: Marketing teams that can't connect their work to business outcomes lose credibility, lose budget, and often lose their seats at the table.
If this feels familiar -- if you're launching campaigns, running webinars, hosting events, producing podcasts, managing digital marketing, but struggling to prove their impact because there are no processes in place to maximize each investment, we want you to know two things:
First: This isn't a campaign problem. It's a process problem.
Second: These problems are solvable. We've been there. And we've helped teams just like yours solve them.
The Pressure You're Under (We've Felt It Too)
Let's be honest about what's happening. You're being asked to:
...run events, webinars, digital campaigns, podcasts, content programs
...with the same or smaller budget
...while proving they all drive revenue to a C-suite
...that still largely views marketing as a cost center.
And you're doing it. Your team is executing. Events are happening. Webinars are running. Campaigns are live. Podcast episodes are shipping.
But when the CEO asks "What's working?" or the CFO says "We need to justify this spend", you struggle to tell a story that sticks.
Not because the work isn't good. But because:
There's no system to track which activities actually lead to revenue
Webinar attendees register, but there's no follow-up to move them forward
Event leads sit in a spreadsheet somewhere
You're launching the next campaign before optimizing what's already working
Sales and marketing aren't aligned on messaging, on what "qualified" means, on priorities
There's no nurture strategy across channels
Everyone is too busy executing to build the processes that would make everything work better
We've been in that room. We've felt that pressure.
And here's what we've learned from working with marketing teams across dozens of industries and companies of all sizes: The teams that are thriving don't have better campaigns. They have better processes.
Why Doing More Isn't The Answer
When the pressure increases, the instinct is to do more:
Launch another webinar
Try a new digital channel
Plan another event
Start a podcast
Generate more leads
But we keep seeing the same pattern: Marketing teams are producing more than ever, and they're still struggling to show impact.
More activity doesn't equal more trust.
The marketing leaders we work with...the ones who are earning budget increases, shortening sales cycles, and being recognized as growth drivers...they're not necessarily doing more.
They're maximizing what they're already doing.
This is where the name Clarus comes from, by the way. It means "clarity" in Latin. Because we've seen, time and again, that clarity is what transforms everything. Clarity on what's working. Clarity on messaging. Clarity on priorities. And processes that make that clarity repeatable.
In the next email, we'll share three real stories from teams who solved this, and what happened when they built processes to maximize their investments.
Until then, ask yourself: If a lead came in today from your best program, what exactly happens next?
If you're not sure, you're not alone. And it's fixable.
Sources:
The CMO Survey, Spring 2025 report - https://www.marketingcharts.com/industries/business-to-business-235446
Forrester Research, "CMO Fortunes Falter Amid Economic And Role Uncertainty," August 2025 - https://www.forrester.com/blogs/cmo-fortunes-falter-amid-economic-and-role-uncertainty/
Forrester Research, "CMO Fortunes Falter Amid Economic And Role Uncertainty," August 2025 - https://www.forrester.com/blogs/cmo-fortunes-falter-amid-economic-and-role-uncertainty/
Gartner CMO Spend Survey, 2024 & 2025 - https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2025-05-12-gartner-2025-cmo-spend-survey-reveals-marketing-budgets-have-flatlined-at-seven-percent-of-overall-company-revenue