Forrester Research, well known for developing some of the most insightful content on the B2B buyer journey, recently released a study asking leaders which metrics are measured on their top-level analytics dashboards.
Why Measurement in B2B Marketing Is so Important
Measurement in B2B marketing enables continuous improvement that creates compounding competitive advantages over time. By monitoring data and making targeted improvements across the buyer journey, a B2B firm can secure 1%-3% increases in key metrics on a regular basis. Eventually, it becomes much more difficult for rivals to reproduce these results, especially when inbound digital marketing methods are used.
What Do B2B Marketing Leaders Traditionally Measure?
The norms of B2B marketing measurement vary a great deal according to the size of a company and the industry it serves. However, many B2B marketing teams have traditionally focused on campaign performance, including website output, in the form of lead generation and conversion rates. The Forrester Research data suggests that, though this may be appropriate early on, the most successful organizations shift their focus.
Background of the Survey
Forrester bills itself as one of the most influential research and advisory firms in the world. The cornerstone of its work is an annual survey of more than 690,000 consumers and business leaders worldwide. Rather than the traditional route of asking B2B marketing leaders which metrics they felt were important, this survey takes the approach of inferring information based on business performance and analytics dashboard layout.
The 5 Key Takeaways
High-performing B2B marketing leaders had some clear patterns in their use of dashboard space:
- On average, B2B leaders curated a set of only eight marketing metrics for consistent review
- Marketing-sourced revenue (35%) and marketing-sourced pipeline (32%) were the most common
- Less than a quarter of surveyed CMOs were focused on lead volumes and lead conversion rates
- High-growth companies used more varied metrics reflecting the health of the customer lifecycle
- Top performers were much more likely than low performers to utilize cost efficiency metrics
The study calls into question received B2B marketing wisdom on many points. Marketing campaigns that deliver high ROI depend on fluency with your data and how to use it. Industrial marketing strategy from AIMG saves time and money by fast-tracking your results. To learn more, contact us.