How to adjust B2B marketing KPIs in 2022
As a new analyst at Forrester, I was fortunate enough to attend the B2B APAC and B2B EMEA Summits, both in a new virtual format, and enjoyed attending the diverse and diverse sessions, keynotes and customer case studies. , which allowed me to discover a lot of valuable ideas. I just want to pick a topic because it was of great interest as a former Marketing Director and is important to many marketers: proper metric and marketing ROI.
The role of leadership in marketing performance
One of the main responsibilities of B2B marketing leadership is to ensure transparent measurement of marketing performance for the team and its critical stakeholders, but also to show the holistic value of marketing to the organization. A relevant set of KPIs is essential for navigating against goals, allocating and managing budget and investments, measuring business performance, and managing tactical execution. The need for a new set of demand KPIs is driven by changed and more complex buying behavior, customers demanding transparency of information, and a smooth, integrated overall process experience in the business. whole business. A scalable (technical) infrastructure supports this by putting information at the fingertips of employees, thus improving ease of use for data management. At the same time, the senior B2B marketing manager may be faced with various challenges, such as covering different stakeholder requirements, inconsistent or unreliable data and furthermore the need to reflect relevant KPIs in a changing environment.
At Summit, I got some exciting new ideas and recommendations through a presentation titled Beyond Sourcing: The Case for New Marketing KPIs. Based on in-depth conversations with Marketing Directors and Marketing Managers, it is clear that there is insufficient emphasis on Common Sourcing KPIs as they are one-dimensional and do not increase efficiency and return. on investment of the complexity of marketing activities. To drive successful (measurement) change, marketers need to take three simple but effective steps: assess the current status quo, perform stakeholder analysis, and finally develop targeted action plans based on the results. of the two previous steps.
Redesign of KPIs
There are great opportunities to redesign established KPIs, improve their alignment with new requirements and make them even better! The measurement of KPIs will be the engine of effective marketing management. Therefore:
- Leave the comfort zone of existing, “beloved” and perpetual sourcing KPIs.
- Initiate change to more effective measurement by including relevant leadership needs and involving stakeholders to develop a valid instrument that feeds into decisions. Forrester identified a new vision for demand KPIs, helping customers answer four key questions:
- Are the marketing efforts helping the organization to be present in more good deals?
- Does marketing create meaningful interactions / engagement that positively impact shopping experiences?
- Does Marketing Involvement Produce Better Results?
- Is marketing involvement cost-effective with effective ROI?
- Establish a scalable learning system to cope with future changes and stand the test of time.
- Access a new vision of marketing performance and optimized ROI!
Blog courtesy of Forrester Research and written by Christina Schmitt, Senior Analyst. To learn more about Forrester blogs, click here.