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8 ROI-Obsessed Marketers Share Their Favorite Metric

As a modern marketing professional, you know how your efforts contribute to the company’s bottom line. But, if you’re anything like others in the industry, you may not feel confident in your ability to demonstrably measure and analyze marketing performance.

According to this Demand Gen report from mid-2018, 87% of B2B marketers say effective marketing measurement is a top priority, yet only 7% rate their ability to measure and analyze marketing performance as “excellent.” Twice as many rate theirs as “poor/inadequate.” How can you be sure you’re measuring what matters when it comes time to prove the ROI of your efforts?

We turned to eight savvy sales and marketing leaders to find out which metrics they believe B2B marketers too often overlook, and why it matters. Read on to discover which metrics these ROI-obsessed marketers love and why you should start paying attention to them.

ROI-Obsessed Pros Weigh In on Their Favorite Marketing Metrics

1. Alexander Low — Social Selling & Account-Based Intelligence, Digital Leadership Associates

As the professional services lead at Digital Leadership Associates, Low has worked with a number of professionals in the marketing, human resources, and business development spaces. He helps businesses not only create and maintain an online presence, but helps enable them to drive more conversions. According to Low, the metric most overlooked by B2B marketers is intent data. Intent data tracks a consumer’s online behavior and activity, and anticipates what the user intends to do next.

“This is a rich source of information: website visits, follows, likes, subs, unsubs, etc.,” Low says. “Those that can get a handle on [intent data] will becomes sales’ new best friend.”

2. Iliyana Stareva — Global Partner Program Manager, HubSpot

Stareva is guided by two principles in everything she does: partner-first and global-first. She says the most overlooked metric by modern B2B marketers is retention.

“People still want to be educated and consume content to make purchase decisions, but the biggest drivers of growth today are your existing customers, who recommend your business to other prospects,” Stareva shares. “That’s how you generate leads today, so marketers need to start paying more attention to nurturing existing customers, making them even happier, and encouraging them to do more business.”

3. Katelyn Bourgoin — Growth Strategist, Katelyn Bourgoin

A self-proclaimed “growth geek,” Bourgoin says obtaining consistent growth has never been harder for marketers. She helps frustrated product teams use customer insight to guide innovation and identify opportunities for growth. When it comes to marketing metrics, she echoes Stareva’s sentiments.

“Historically, marketers have been responsible for acquiring new customers, but the future is all about retaining those customers,” Bourgoin says. “Churn is the number one metric teams need to watch, which means that more marketers need to focus on nurturing their current customers—not just getting new ones.”

4. Julia McCoy — CEO, Express Writers

McCoy says it all comes down to the conversations with prospects.

“I think most marketers overlook this simple metric of ‘conversations’ in favor of shinier metrics like traffic numbers, bounce rates, or email subscribers,” she says. “While those are important, nothing is more critical to earning trust and, subsequently, an investment from your lead, than having a real-life conversation with them.”

She goes on to assert that how we facilitate those conversations is key. “If agency bosses asked, ‘How many conversations did you have this week?’, and marketers began to quantify and prioritize those real-life convos [...] our content marketing efforts would see more increased ROI across the board.”

5. Jeff Sheehan — Integrated Marketing & Social Media Consultant, Sheehan Marketing Strategies

For nearly a decade, Sheehan has worked to provide companies, individuals, and non-profit organizations with strategic marketing strategies and tactics. He focuses on an integrated approach to help facilitate growth among his clients. And, he says the most overlooked marketing metric is market share.

“Having worked for a major global electronics manufacturer for over two decades, this was always one of the major metrics that we measured,” Sheehan says. “There is generally a very high correlation between a product’s market share and profitability, so I’m not sure why it’s not discussed more frequently.”

6. Mandy McEwen — Founder, Mod Girl Marketing

McEwen is committed to helping marketing entrepreneurs and small agencies transform their businesses and scale faster. She knows that in order for a company to generate more leads, or make their advertising budget work more efficiently, customer churn and retention can’t be ignored.

“Your paying customers are the heart and soul of your business and, therefore, more efforts should be placed towards keeping your current customers happy, so they stay with you,” McEwen says. “Strategies should be in place to decrease churn, but focusing first on keeping your existing customers happy should be goal No. 1.”

7. Shane Barker — CEO, Shane Barker Consulting

Barker specializes in influencer marketing, product launches, content marketing, sales funnels, targeted traffic, and website conversions. He believes that the sole purpose behind any marketing initiative is to generate qualified leads and increase conversions, directly or indirectly.

For this reason, Barker says lead generation and conversions are his favorite marketing metrics.

“Even when marketers aim to increase brand awareness, the motive is to attract and engage new customers who will generate more business,” he says. “All of my marketing campaigns are aligned to increase qualified leads and grow my business and the businesses of my clients.”

8. Lisa Marcyes — Director of Corporate Social Media, Oracle

“Conversion rate is one of the most important metrics I measure,” says Marcyes, who has nearly a decade’s worth of experience leading corporate social media strategy. She knows the role social media plays in nurturing leads, and the importance of measuring the right metrics to make that connection clear.

“It hasn’t always been easy to track conversion rates in social, but social integrations in marketing automation platforms now give social marketers the ability to target, track, and score leads that come in through social channels, as well as determine the revenue that’s driven as a result of social campaigns.”

Metrics That Matter

When it comes to proving and increasing marketing ROI, there’s no shortage of metrics to measure. But, knowing which metrics matter most can save you and your team a lot of time and headache. According to these eight savvy marketers, intent data, conversations, market share, and customer retention are commonly overlooked metrics you should be paying attention to in order to keep your strategy on track and moving forward.

After all, successful marketers not only understand who their customers are, but understand what those customers are searching for, how easy it is to find it, and how to keep them engaged for years to come. For more sales and marketing expertise delivered directly to your inbox, subscribe to our blog.

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