Marketing Operations Analytics
I have listened to more than 13,000 podcasts, mostly focused on digital marketing. I recently came across a podcast called DemandGen Radio. Dave Lewis is the host and was reading a chapter from his Manufacturing Demand book. Interesting that I have had this book in my want to read list in Goodreads since 2013. If this is really the #1 book on lead management as is stated on the cover, a gross error on my part for not getting to it sooner.
So far, I have only listened to two episodes, #260 and #261, that was a two-parter called Marketing Analytics: Keeping Score of Your Success. Rarely do I take notes listening to a podcast, but this was brilliant and so much value was shared. I am sharing my notes and thoughts in hopes it’s beneficial to others.
It seems like marketing is too often trying to prove they deserve a seat at the adults table instead of being at the kid’s table making arts and crafts. Perhaps that leads to oversharing when we finally get the opportunity, or sharing vanity metrics, or just not speaking the language of the boardroom. Instead of sharing marketing activities including impressions, likes, or our recent ribbon win for the prettiest booth, let’s share metrics that lead to financial outcomes. There are three major types of marketing analytics or key performance indicators (KPIs).
The first set of analytics metrics are Executive KPIs and they need to measure the entire demand generation spectrum.
Executive KPIs
- Marketing sourced leads and opportunities
- Marketing contribution to revenue
- Marketing’s influence on opportunities and revenue
The second set of analytics metrics are Demand Funnel KPIs and they measure the velocity and efficiency of our demand funnel.
Demand Funnel KPIs
- How many prospects at each stage of the funnel
- Conversion rate between each of these stages
- Average time in each stage – this tells us the velocity of the demand funnel
- Lead scoring distribution – how many A, B, C, D, and E leads and does this look anything like a bell curve
- Campaign performance – number of leads, what channel or lead source, opportunities, revenue
The third set of analytics metrics are Campaign and Asset Performance KPIs and they measure the success of our assets driving leads to a closed stage.
Campaign and Asset Performance KPIs
- Use of our assets – tracking downloads for PDFs or how much of the video was watched like 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%
- Closed/won asset utilization – what assets get read by prospects who eventually buy
The three most important things to track with any form submission are the channel, lead source, and offer. Probably the most common way to implement this tracking is to capture the UTM tracking parameters in the URL query string and make sure they are passed as hidden fields in the form submissions. That form submission is tied to the Salesforce campaign object or whatever makes sense using another CRM. It’s important to make sure you can track every stage and really everything from that first click to the close of the sale. Until you know you are accurately measuring from click to close, you have a leaky funnel and nothing should be shared until you have confidence in your data and know you won’t lost trust.
The closing part of the podcast shared the four Cs.
1. What you can count – This reminds me of two quotes. First by W. Edwards Deming who said “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it”. Second by Lord Kelvin who said “If you can not measure it, you can not improve it”. The last thought is one I hear often, just because you can count/measure/track it doesn’t mean you should.
2. What counts – Although the Executive KPIs clearly cover what counts, there are other metrics that we want to track within our marketing group like micro conversions. Not everything tracked needs to be shared.
3. What you can count on – how important it is to trust your data so others trust you. When trust is lost, just about all is lost.
4. How you communicate it – often marketing needs to do a better job at marketing marketing. We could learn something from our sales colleagues in sharing what is working and that we are critical to the company’s success.
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