How FARO Transformed Its Marketing Operating Model with 2X, Reducing Spend and Increasing ROI

When Lisa Cole first stepped into the role as vice president of corporate marketing at FARO Technologies in late 2019, she immediately needed to navigate a pivot.

Her mandate: help the global leader in 3D measurement, imaging, and realization solutions shift its marketing strategy from relying heavily on physical events to driving tangible, predictable ROI from digital channels—all while cutting marketing spend by 35%.

The Challenge

Cole’s biggest challenge was ultimately finding a way to expand FARO’s digital marketing efforts—without expanding headcount. FARO’s personnel-to-non-personnel ratio stood at 65/35.

Cole needed to rebalance the ratio, reducing in-house personnel costs to free up dollars for digital marketing programs.

But shifting gears to a digital-first approach requires deep, specialized expertise. How can she run effective digital initiatives that deliver impactful ROI without hiring more headcount? Additionally, Cole only had five months to carry out her mandate.

The Solution

To establish a strong digital marketing initiative without increasing headcount, Cole turned to 2X to redesign its marketing operating model by reimagining how work gets done. Here’s how FARO leveraged 2X, the pioneer of a unique subscription-based resourcing model: 

1. Outsource Execution Work, Enabling Its In-House Team to Focus on Strategy, Positioning and Messaging: 2X took over execution-focused roles, allowing its internal team to focus on strategic work such as product positioning, messaging, and so forth.
   
2. Establish a Robust Account-Based Marketing (ABM) Program: Scaling back on events and trade shows meant FARO had to lean heavily on digital tactics such as ABM. FARO invested in revenue intelligence platform 6sense to identify high-intent prospects, and deployed 2X’s team of 6sense-certified marketers to launch highly-targeted ABM campaigns, orchestrating the entire process from setup to reporting and optimization. 
   
3. Mobilize End-to-End Expertise to Deliver Greater Impact A successful ABM initiative is made up of many moving parts. 2X’s marketing operations and analytics team ensured seamless integration between 6sense, Marketing Cloud, Salesforce, and the rest of its tech stack to enable a 360° view of its customers and improve lead-to-revenue conversion. 2X’s writers and designers also created high-quality content to support FARO’s sales team, facilitating conversations with marketing collaterals that accelerated deal velocity.
   
4. Maximize Subscription-Based Resourcing Model for Cost Savings and Scalability:  2X’s highly flexible resourcing model means Cole needs to only subscribe to the expertise she needs when she needs it, eliminating the overhead costs associated with permanent in-house hires. Additionally, as Cole didn’t have the luxury of time to recruit, train, and get her team of digital marketing specialists up and running, 2X’s model allowed her to quickly staff even highly technical roles that were typically difficult to fill in-house. For instance, a position that would have taken months to fill internally—certified Sitecore developer—was staffed in just two weeks through 2X.

The Results

The transformed marketing operating model resulted in the following:

1. Marketing Spend Reduction: FARO scaled back its marketing budget, surpassing the anticipated 35% cost reduction goal.
   
2. Dramatic Improvements in Demand Metrics:
   • Conversion Rate: FARO achieved a sevenfold increase in demand conversion.
   • Velocity: The time to convert leads into sales decreased by more than 50%.
     
3. Revenue Growth: Marketing-contributed revenue doubled, despite the reduced budget.
   
4. Return on Marketing Investment: FARO increased its return on marketing investment by nearly fivefold.
   
5. Increase in Employee Engagement: Employee engagement rose from 54% to 75%, as the lean in-house team felt more motivated, being able to focus on high-value strategic work while 2X handled execution.
   
6. Recognized by Forrester: FARO was awarded the Forrester’s Return on Integration (ROI) Honors in 2022, recognizing its transformational efforts in driving cross-functional marketing & sales alignment to achieve business goals.

Conclusion

FARO’s success story demonstrates that for organizations faced with similar challenges—budget cuts, resource constraints, the sudden need to pivot, and so forth—there is a clear path forward: transforming the marketing operating model.

By leveraging 2X’s subscription-based resourcing model, FARO transformed its marketing organization into a team of lean and agile marketers, comprising an internal team that’s focused on strategy while execution is outsourced to 2X’s team of end-to-end specialists that can be easily scaled up or down as needed.

The transformation not only resulted in reduced marketing spend but also saw significant improvement in ROI, demand metrics, and revenue growth, enabling FARO to actually achieve more with less.

We’ve launched a webisode series to help marketing leaders transform the marketing operating model to deliver greater impact—as discussed by real-life B2B CMOs and marketing veterans.

Get a closer look at how FARO redesigned its marketing operating model here.