You’ve got 18 months to double revenue, the board wants to see measurable ROI on every marketing dollar, and somehow, you’re still discussing email open rates and LinkedIn engagement. Perhaps there’s frustration within your organisation that marketing is failing because Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) from a single piece of downloaded content aren’t resulting in closed-won deals. And while there’s plenty of new Martech tools to invest in, it’s believed the costs are far too high and implementation would take far too long to drive revenue, given the time frames. The marketing lead generation activities are ‘ok’, so the team will have to do more of the same and ‘work harder’; just carry on with tactics as there’s no time to flesh out an entire marketing strategy. It’s a scenario that most information, media and events businesses know all too well.

In the competitive landscape of B2B, a dangerous misconception persists: marketing is ‘nice-to-have rather than business-critical. Recent research from Propolis, the global B2B marketing community, reveals that this mindset represents one of the most significant barriers to sustainable growth and scalability.¹

Compounding this challenge, Forrester research shows that traditional marketing measurement approaches are fundamentally misaligned with how modern B2B buyers actually purchase, with reliance on marketing sourcing metrics reinforcing efforts disconnected from today’s complex buying realities.²

For companies at this pivotal growth stage, marketing isn’t just about brand awareness or lead generation — it’s the commercial engine that determines whether a business will successfully scale or plateau indefinitely.

The Commercial Marketing Advantage: proven by valuations

The commercial value of sophisticated marketing becomes clear when examining acquisition multiples. The Collingwood Market Report shows that subscription-based businesses — many of whom have mastered commercial marketing principles — now achieve multiples ranging from low double digits to high teens, with premium assets commanding 20x+ EBITDA multiples.³ This represents an increase from previous years, reflecting investor recognition that businesses with predictable, scalable revenue models driven by strategic marketing capabilities command higher valuations.

The report emphasises that buyers are moving towards high teen multiples even for smaller-scale businesses, provided they demonstrate quality KPIs, including Gross Revenue Retention (GRR) exceeding 90% and Net Revenue Retention (NRR) exceeding 110%. Meanwhile, traditional media business valuations have remained flat or fallen year over year, with marketing services models commanding approximately a 15% premium (one to two turns on EBITDA multiple) over digital media advertising models.³

This premium reflects a clear ‘flight to quality’, with one trade buyer noting: “pricing for quality is still there; we’ve paid more than we would have last year for standout assets.”

The complex reality of modern B2B buying

Propolis research defines a commercial marketer as “a marketer whose primary skillset and value is in their ability to think strategically and drive measurable business growth through marketing.”⁴ This distinction becomes crucial when examining how businesses actually buy today.

Forrester’s global Buyers’ Journey Survey reveals that 83% of business purchases are made by complex buying groups spanning multiple departments, with three or more people involved.⁵ These buying journeys encompass an average of 18 meaningful interaction types throughout the process, split evenly between self-guided research and person-to-person interactions.⁶

For media companies selling advertising solutions, event businesses proposing corporate partnerships, and data companies offering enterprise analytics, this complexity means that traditional ‘sourcing’ approaches capture less than 1% of the actual influence marketing has on purchase decisions. This delivers a strong message that identifying buying signals is essential for growth.

From traditional metrics to commercial excellence

Forrester research demonstrates that conversion rates from initial engagement to closed deals average less than 1% for most B2B organisations.⁷ Traditional MQL approaches fail 99% of the time, yet marketing sourcing metrics appear on 41% of marketing leadership dashboards.⁸

Commercial marketing requires different success metrics aligned with business outcomes. The most successful scaling companies focus on customer relationships and measuring true commercial impact of marketing through revenue gain and retention. It is these metrics that measure marketing’s actual impact on customer lifecycle value rather than top-of-funnel vanity metrics.

Collingwood’s Deep Niche Mindset for AI-resilient growth

As AI technology increasingly processes and synthesises information, Collingwood’s Deep Niche Mindset framework underscores that first-party, proprietary data has become crucial for Information business models. As one PE buyer noted: “High-quality, proprietary content will help businesses create a moat, protecting their value proposition from AI disruption.”³

Using the definition of commercial marketing as laid out by Propolis, Collingwood has a proven four-stage framework that contributes to supporting this approach:

  • Claim Your Niche: Focus on well-defined market segments (typically no more than 500 target accounts) where your expertise creates meaningful competitive advantage and enables deep customer understanding.
  • Build Essential, Proprietary Content: In an AI-saturated market, competitive advantage comes from first-party data and content that’s difficult to find elsewhere. The 2025 Collingwood Market Report confirms that buyers pay a premium for proprietary, unique, hard-to-replicate datasets that underpin subscription revenues. Publicly available information or easily scraped datasets will be commoditised as generative AI accelerates the synthesis of open-source content.³
  • Layer High-Value Solutions: Extend across adjacent content layers—news, insights, and data—creating commercial opportunities through value-based pricing. If your product costs £1000 but helps clients generate £100,000 annually, you have clear justification for premium pricing. The 2025 Collingwood Market Report shows growing buyer interest in mixed model businesses, with 58% of respondents agreeing that mixed models are becoming more attractive.³
  • Embed Deep Commercial Relationships: Transition from volume-based acquisition to enterprise account management, understanding customer workflows before, during, and after they interact with your product.

The Product–Portfolio integration opportunity

Most marketers have minimal input into product development, pricing strategies, or portfolio decisions. Yet, as Propolis research notes: “It’s only when the buyer consumes the product that the value proposition made by marketing is actually delivered.”⁹ Commercial marketers earn their way into product conversations by proving measurable sales results and demonstrating customer insights that inform development decisions. This creates systematic capabilities that compound over time rather than tactical wins.

The efficiency-ROI balance

Recent research from Frontify reveals marketing leaders are evenly split between creating unified brand experiences (39%) and demonstrating ROI (39%).¹⁰ However, this isn’t an either / or proposition. The most successful scaling companies recognise that marketing efficiency—achieving high output-to-input ratios—enables both unified experiences and demonstrable ROI.

The scalability imperative

The ultimate test of marketing effectiveness at the £5-20m revenue stage is scalability. Can current approaches support 2x, 3x, or 5x revenue growth without proportional cost increases? Do marketing systems create competitive advantages that strengthen as the business grows?

Companies that treat marketing as essential rather than optional consistently outperform those viewing it as discretionary spending. They build capabilities that drive growth, while maintaining unit economics and developing increasingly defensible market positions — providing the competitive advantage needed to scale. Indeed, with 70% of buyers experiencing greater competitive tension in 2025³, investment in commercial marketing can only be a good thing.

The Commercial Marketing Transformation

For B2B businesses in media, events, data and information sectors looking to break through growth plateaus, the transformation to commercial marketing requires both mindset shifts and skill development. It means thinking about business objectives first and marketing tactics second, building systematic capabilities that compound over time.

The companies that will dominate their markets are those that recognise marketing’s essential role in commercial success and invest accordingly. Those that continue treating it as optional will find themselves increasingly unable to compete with better-positioned rivals who understand marketing’s true commercial value.

The market data makes this clear: as one PE investor stated: “We’re positive in outlook but cautious in execution – political and macro uncertainty means we will only pay premium multiples for those assets that tick all the boxes.”³ Commercial marketing excellence is one of those critical boxes.

Taking the first step: professional marketing assessment

For businesses ready to transition from traditional marketing approaches to commercial marketing excellence, the journey begins with a comprehensive assessment. Understanding where your organisation stands across the five pillars of commercial marketing — business strategy, product portfolio, customer engagement, market positioning, and brand execution — provides the foundation for systematic improvement.

A professional commercial marketing assessment provides the foundation for this strategic investment by identifying specific opportunities, gaps, and priorities that align with revenue objectives. It transforms marketing from a cost centre into a predictable revenue driver, creating the systematic growth capabilities necessary for sustainable scaling.

The question isn’t whether to invest in marketing — it’s whether to invest strategically in commercial marketing capabilities that drive measurable business growth or continue with ad hoc approaches that limit scalability and competitive advantage.

 

Michelle McCann, Virtual CMO at Collingwood and Revenue Attribution and Commercial Marketing expert for B2BMarketing, specialises in commercial marketing transformation for B2B information, media and events businesses. With over 25 years scaling subscription and enterprise revenues, Michelle helps companies transition from traditional marketing to commercial marketing excellence.
(michelle.mccann@collingwood.group)

References

¹ Propolis. Stop talking marketing. Start talking business. July 2024

² Forrester. Capture The True Value Of Marketing. 2024

³ Collingwood Market Report, 2025

⁴ Propolis, July 2024

⁵⁶ Forrester. Buyers’ Journey Survey. 2024

⁷⁸ Forrester. Capture The True Value Of Marketing. 2024

⁹ Propolis. July 2024

¹⁰ Frontify. State of Marketing Efficiency Report. 2024