Insights: Strategic priorities in modern B2B marketing
06.
Measuring marketing's contribution to overall business growth
Marketers are increasingly focused on demonstrating their impact on revenue and business growth. John Hills from Crowdcube emphasises this shift: "From a CEO's point of view, the key is to directly connect marketing efforts with tangible business results. I would focus on metrics like the number of leads generated by marketing and how many of those leads turn into actual sales." This approach helps marketing teams prove their value and secure buy-in for their strategies.
The dual focus on efficacy and efficiency is highlighted by Joao Felix from V-Nova: "I would focus on measuring both efficacy and efficiency. First, I would evaluate the marketing team on whether they are reaching the right people, assessing the value we deliver to our target accounts and the value they represent for our business."
I would focus on measuring both efficacy and efficiency. First, I would evaluate the marketing team on whether they are reaching the right people, assessing the value we deliver to our target accounts and the value they represent for our business.
Speed and quality emerge as crucial factors in optimising sales efforts. Alex Venus from Cloud Direct emphasises: "We're working to make this process faster and more efficient, ensuring only the best opportunities go to sales. This focus on speed and quality helps us optimise our overall sales efforts."
The importance of long-term value is underscored by Emily Evans from Moneypenny: "While we still measure lead quantity, it's part of a much wider conversation that includes multi-touch attribution, engagement rates, and lifetime value. The ROI timeline has also expanded from a 12-month view to considering the entire client lifecycle, including cross-selling opportunities and account management."
Pipeline metrics play a crucial role in measuring marketing's impact, as Henrik Leerberg, a global marketing leader points out: "Our primary measure is return on investment, especially for big efforts like events. Whether we're hosting our own or joining industry conferences, we analyse the returns closely. If outcomes don't meet expectations, we dig into why and adjust our strategies accordingly."
Our primary measure is return on investment, especially for big efforts like events. Whether we're hosting our own or joining industry conferences, we analyse the returns closely. If outcomes don't meet expectations, we dig into why and adjust our strategies accordingly.
Henrik Leerberg
Global Marketing Leader
The evolution towards more sophisticated attribution models is highlighted by Carey Rooks from SPT Labtech: "A key KPI for us revolves around attributing the value of opportunities to specific marketing sources. While this metric provides valuable insights, we're cognizant of its limitations in capturing the full journey of a lead from initial engagement to opportunity creation. Hence, we're actively collaborating with our sales counterparts to refine our attribution models and ensure a more holistic understanding of the factors influencing opportunity creation."
A shift towards account-level metrics is noted by Joey Lai from Beamery: "We're now focusing more on measuring influence and engagement at both the account and individual contact levels. Previously, we mainly looked at lead generation, nurturing, and conversion for individuals. Now, we aggregate that data to see the bigger picture at the account level."
The measurement of marketing's contribution to business growth is evolving towards a more holistic, long-term view that encompasses not just lead generation, but also engagement, lifetime value, and account-level impact. This shift reflects a growing recognition of marketing's strategic role in driving overall business success and the need for more sophisticated, multifaceted measurement approaches.
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