Author: Tim

Earlier in the year, Agent3 was invited to host a workshop at the B2B Marketing Exchange (B2BMX) event in Scottsdale, AZ, on  Measurement.  Entitled ‘Build Your ABM Measurement Blueprint,’ the workshop was led by me,  Alisa Groocock, and my colleague, Steve O’Neil, SVP of our Technology Unit, and shared some innovative new thinking surrounding ABM measurement that would help practitioners to improve, scale, and grow their accounts.

Suffice to say the session sold out quickly. Why?

Ask any ABM practitioner about the toughest nut that they have to crack when delivering programs, and they will inevitably say ‘measurement.’   Today, most clients struggle to tell a credible story about how they’ve driven the metrics that matter – especially engagement and pipeline.  Clients need a baseline for telling great stories about their ABM efforts – what’s working?  What can we do better?  How do we boost sales/marketing alignment?  And perhaps most importantly, what results have we driven?  This is especially true as we progress from measuring ABM to ABX, reflecting engagement across the entire customer lifecycle.

And yet, ABM measurement is notoriously complex. According to one report, only 54% of marketers are confident that they can measure full-funnel ROI within marketing.  There are many reasons for this, ranging from technology and infrastructure limitations to process and capability gaps.

So it is vital to address this challenge with a credible and effective solution.  With this in mind, it is with great pride that, today, we are announcing the launch of a new measurement approach, the Agent3 Measurement Blueprint.  It’s something we’ve been working on for some time, in collaboration with our clients; we believe the end result contains the latest thinking that clients can use to build a meaningful metrics roadmap.  Demand and ABM leaders now have a new tool for telling credible stories about performance, optimizing what they do and how they do it, ultimately growing their budgetary span of control and organizational influence.

The approach outlined in the Blueprint includes program planning, campaign activity and business results – a PAR model – incorporating the three key pillars of successful ABM measurement:  program readiness, campaign performance and business outcomes.  To learn more about how we approach measurement, and for our latest tips and tricks on how to succeed with ABM measurement, check out our new guide on turning your measurement into a path to value that delivers on business outcomes here.

Our hope and expectation is that this blueprint will help break down the chaos and confusion. We’re incredibly proud of the end result and can’t wait to hear your feedback. To learn more about our approach to ABM measurement, or have an exploratory chat, drop us an email at measurement@agent3.com.

If you need to build confidence, combining quick wins with long-term strategy is often the best way to ensure marketing success.

In a world changed by Covid we’ve noticed that one increasing challenge facing marketers is the growing expectation from their business to demonstrate more directly attributable value. With everything moving online, many marketers understandably feel the need to increase the volume and complexity – to be seen to be doing more – but this obsession with activity isn’t always helpful. It likely doesn’t add long-term value, often introduces confusion and asks too much of prospects. Moreover, it doesn’t mean that increased output will automatically equal increased value.

Here is what some of the people we asked – both practitioners of ABM and demand gen – had to say about the problems they faced when it came to their marketing efforts:

• “We’ve just started doing ABM. We can see how it’s working, but we’re still at the beginning. In future, we’ll need to align more closely with sales.”
• “I’m nervous about the fact that we haven’t been able to get a lot of numbers on the page this year from marketing.
• ‘We have a lot more demand than we know what to do with’
• “Sometimes we generate a lot of leads, but no opportunities come from them.”
• “Sales tend to like merchandise marketing, whereas I’m focussed on digital marketing. Our expectations are very different”.

With that in mind we took these concerns into consideration, and actioned them into 3 main solutions to follow when looking to improve your marketing efforts.

1.Talk to your stakeholders and reframe what success looks like

In this newly shifting landscape, marketers often are trying to run before they can walk. This is something only made worse when success in the eyes of stakeholders is based around volume metrics. Yet panic spending on initiatives that don’t work is not only a waste of time and money, but proves to be a scattershot, less focused approach which won’t help marketers gain traction or impact in the long-term.

Instead, to overcome this need to prove worth and show what you’re doing is successful, move the goalposts and reframe what you’re doing. Ask questions. Where does this ideal number of leads come from? Why do stakeholders expect it? Encourage your stakeholders to take stock, and consider why these numbers are used, and to think smarter about generating leads.

2. Value over volume

Since you’ve questioned ‘why’ you’re measuring your marketing activities, now is the time to scrutinise ‘what’ you’re doing. We’ve talked about quality over quantity before with lead generation strategy, and the same logic applies here. With many B2B marketers fighting to be heard in an increasingly crowded, noisy digital landscape, don’t add to the volume with activity that is simply pushed out for the sake of having something to show. New tactics may also need new KPIs.

Instead, look at the value of what you’re doing. Does it provide a solution to your audience’s challenges? Add a unique twist to a common topic? The number of leads might well be lower, but the pay-off with higher engagement rates is worth it in the long-term, and better for boosting brand awareness that will benefit your marketing efforts.

3. Best of both: quick wins and long term strategy

We all know that enacting sudden radical change with a snap of our fingers cannot happen when it comes to your marketing strategy and expectations. A blended, sensitive approach to reframing your success is best, one that brings in your sales and business stakeholders along for the journey.

Combine quick wins – such as ad impressions, clicks, email opens and form fills – with activities that move the needle, particularly engagement with influencers, and decision makers at accounts that matter to you. Doing this not only builds engagement with your audience, but also satisfies sales, and doesn’t prevent you from delivering on more long-term strategic outcomes over time.

Keep on reading…

Interested to see how else we can help B2B marketers improve their practices? Download the full Account-centric Demand Generation report to learn more about how this account-centric approach can help you find solutions to some more tough marketing challenges, such as:

• Matching the right ABM approach to suit your business
  Measuring your marketing programs correctly
  Maximizing the progression and conversion rates of your content

Late last year we published “Account-centric Demand Gen: the Cross Discipline Opportunity” The inspiration for researching and writing that report was the growing number of conversations with prospects and new customers about both Demand Generation and Account Based Marketing and more specifically, how we employ the tactics commonly associated with both disciplines in campaigns.

To understand why ABM and Demand Gen continue to be growth areas for B2B marketing, it’s useful to consider that being successful in modern B2B marketing starts with two simple points: 1. having something interesting to say and 2. identifying and having the permission to speak to an audience that will be interested. Simple, right?

Triggering interest in your target audience, delivering a value exchange and starting a conversation sets you on the path to a commercially successful engagement. True ABM offers the ultimate in audience identification, understanding and need mapping. Data-led identification of target accounts should always result in better ROI, while deep account and audience insights can be used to identify interest and need, and therefore content that will better meet audience expectations. Demand tactics can reach that audience, put the right content in front of it and gain consent to market.

While scaling up can impact the ultimate accuracy of your data, many of the benefits associated with ABM planning and Demand tactics remain. Consider for a moment the downsides of ignoring either of these tools. All too often we find prospects talking to us about the need to generate thousands of leads without a clear understanding of what will engage potential leads or a view of the value of that engagement. Even if you gain marketing opt-ins from a campaign, with poorly targeted content you miss the opportunity to add value to a lead’s journey and risk creating a negative brand impression. Similarly, we see well researched and planned ABM programs that are the executional equivalent of shouting in the street. Without a clearly identified (and ideally opted in) audience, the brand’s ability to engage, influence and, ultimately, convert will always be limited.

While there are very few truly new approaches to B2B marketing, the intelligent combining of ABM and Demand Generation is without doubt a winning one.

If you want to find out more, please get in contact at hello@agent3.com.