Plan Ahead: The New Marketing Metrics For 2018
How did you measure the success of your last campaign? If you answered clicks, downloads, or form fills, you’re not alone. These metrics have long been the go-to benchmarks of success for marketing campaigns. Unfortunately, it’s become exceedingly clear these marketing metrics just won’t cut it – especially when you consider that less than one percent of leads make it all the way from the top to the bottom of the funnel as closed-won revenue. Pretty dark, amirite?!
The good news: There IS a better way.
When it comes to your marketing strategy, if you make goal this year, let it be this: Say goodbye to counting clicks. As marketers, we’ve been card-carrying members of the “click cult” for far too long. Clicks and form fills just aren’t good enough anymore. According to Demand Gen Report’s 2017 Marketing Measurement and Attribution Survey Report, 91% of B2B marketers agree that marketing measurement and reporting is a top priority for their organization, but only 13% would consider their current ability to measure and analyze performance and impact as “excellent”. It’s time to close this gap.
So, what truly matters when it comes to measuring the quality of your leads?
Not all clicks are created equal. What really matters is what happens after the click – how a prospect actually engages with the content.
Let’s look at an example: Both Steve and Sally clicked on 5 assets. Wow, 5 assets is a lot, Steve and Sally must be hot leads and ready to talk to sales, right? WRONG! A closer look at what happened after each of them clicked through the content tells a whole different story.
It’s clear that only one of these prospects spent meaningful time consuming the content. Only one of them is more educated now than they were before they clicked. And it’s certainly clear that only one of them is interested and ready to have a meaningful conversation with sales. It’s the difference between these two types of conversations:
So, even though Steve and Sally both clicked on the same number of assets, comparing them is not apples to apples. More like apples to lemons.
Buh-bye Sally. Hellooooo Steve!
As mentioned, today we live in a world where a mere 0.75% of leads make it all the way through the funnel. But imagine a world where you could identify and send only Steves to your sales team. The ability to zero in on the Steves and filter out the Sallys is infinitely more beneficial than worrying about the number of clicks and form fills, not only to you as a marketer, but to your organization as a whole. This world does not have to exist only in your B2B dreams – make it your reality in 2018 by prioritizing content engagement as the gold standard for marketing metrics.
Hope we’ve whetted your appetite. If you’re you hungry for more, sink your teeth into this brand new eBook: Why You Can’t Afford To Continue Measuring Marketing The Same Way. Read on to learn:
- Why it’s time to quit the “click cult”
- What “qualification” truly means when it comes to your prospects
- The key metric that will transform the outcome of your next marketing campaigns
- What other marketers are saying about their path to marketing success
- How you can get started right away!
