The term “doing more with less” can be sufficient to grill marketing specialists. Although budgets and resources are tightening but pipeline targets increase, it may seem contradictory to achieve marketing objectives. But what happens if the solution is not to “do more” but to fundamentally change our way of thinking about data and marketing in driving pipeline?
Tessa Barron, former vice-president of ON24 marketing, joined the Podcast of data -based decisions Share its framework to align objectives with specific actions and focus on measures that really matter.
In this blog post, we will explore why Tessa thinks that marketing specialists need a change of perspective in the growth of pipeline and how we can become more focused on targets instead of tactics.
The change of mentality that must occur
In particular from the pandemic, expectations for marketing specialists have changed. Consumers and the public you want to achieve have changed. Tessa therefore asks a simple question: do you always do the same things as before?
“As marketing specialists, we have to register with ourselves and say:” Have we changed? ” Do we still do what we were doing three years ago four years ago? And if the answer is yes, this is the first sign that we must stop expecting that if we execute the same way and that we are doing more and more, it means that we will get more in return. »»
Tessa explains: it’s so easy, especially for those who have been in marketing for years, to count on old tactics proven to reach the public. The content in the form of webinaries, depapists, blog articles, podcasts and videos is marketing methods, and there is nothing intrinsically bad with them. Tessa’s point is that it is a mistake to start with tactics first. Instead, we have to go back to our objectives and collect data that supports and leads us to achieve this goal.
She shared an example: instead of planning to execute four webinaries in the first quarter, you could say: “In Q1, we must reach X number of new accounts or an increase of 10% in the objective of the pipeline.”
The framing in this way now allows you to ask yourself the important questions. To drive the pipeline, you may also have to improve the conversion rate of the first 10%meetings. So how do you reach this conversion rate of 10%?
Look at the type of marketing tactics that most engage customers. With what type of content do they tend to convert?
To do this, we must understand the objectives of our audience. Perhaps they are looking for better education and detailed information on a subject-in this case, a webinar could be perfect and is likely to lead to a higher conversion rate.
“This is this objective, this objective of improving conversions which should then inform why you even perform a tactic in the first place.”
Discover the key signals
Marketing specialists have so much data at hand these days. But this data can easily become noise unless you have a way to cut directly to what matters. For this reason, Tessa prefers to use the term “signal”, which represents what makes a buyer more likely to convert.
Once you have discovered these signals, you can start defining “traps” and different interactions to discover more signals.
On24 has more than 20 different ways of interacting with a webinar that allows marketing specialists to find out more about their prospects. Surveys, investigations, calls for action and questions / answers help keep the webinar entertaining and engaging, but also say more about the behavior of prospects and what they prefer to get involved.
Tessa also shared some key examples of ON24 customers.
A technological company that was trying to regain market share knew that customers using a specific cloud supplier were 10 times more likely to convert to opportunity. The jobs of marketing specialists were clear – find as many prospects as possible this cloud supplier. In a webinar, they asked a simple question: “Which cloud supplier are you currently using?” To identify these perspectives most likely to convert.
Another example that Tessa shared came from the pharmaceutical industry. Their goal was to achieve doctors who needed patients. To do this, they hosted a webinar for the doctors who had to remain informed of the latest breakthroughs and drug therapies and asked: “How would you assess the risk of your patient base?” High, medium or low? Doctors who answered “high” gave the company a clear signal that they could benefit from more interactions with them.
These are two very different examples, but in large ways that illustrate the importance of the strategic data capture that is linked to the final objectives.
Align with your sales team on the pipeline
The trick here is to ask the right questions rather than hypotheses on prospects. This is where Tessa recommends aligning with your sales team.
Marketing specialists may tend to ask questions that will assess the quality of the content they provide, and although it may be useful, it may not give your overall strategy in terms of conversion rate.
Instead, Tessa suggests leaving marketing and chatting with your sales team. What types of questions do they ask if a track is qualified so that they can move them to the next step? Sellers are seated on the front line of the prospect’s communication with a company and will be able to tell you much more about their needs and desires, reasons of hesitation or doubt, and their expectations – ideas that you can use to inform your marketing.
On a similar note, Tessa also thinks that sales and marketing teams should work in tandem on the growth of pipelines. Although marketing specialists can be partially responsible for the pipeline, it is generally not they who create it. Marketing specialists create signals and “Develop a net to catch people who could turn into a pipeline. But it is the sellers, those on the front line who create a pipeline. »»
The role of marketing specialists is to deliver the clearest image of which sellers will speak before even getting the phone. So what can you do with the data you have and what strategies can you take to collect the data you need to advance your pipeline?
A frame to create a messy messaging
To move prospects further along the pipeline, marketing specialists can use data to create very relevant messages for different points of contact for prospects throughout the purchasing course. Tessa explained the general framework of the ON24 marketing team:
- Define the head You go after – with data to save your understanding of the question of whether this wire is of quality or not
- Identify what step of the lead life cycle in which each prospect is located, bringing them together together
- Decide the appropriate messaging For each stage of the lead life cycle. Define what sales, SDR, marketing specialists say to prospects (if applicable).
While Tessa says that the pipeline is something created by the sellers, and not on marketing, it is the work of a marketing specialist to look at the small steps between a track becoming a pipeline opportunity. These areas are often overlooked, such as tailor -made messaging of different departments or obsolete lead forms on a website. Sometimes there are small adjustments that can make a huge difference in conversion rates such as shortening of forms, targeted messaging and interaction opportunities with your content.
“It is a question of determining which key stages between a track becoming a pipeline opportunity. He concentrates there that you can really start to be able to control and understand how to turn the dials, add more success. »»
Paying attention to wider conversion and support for pipeline objectives is an excellent framework to allow marketing specialists to concentrate and intention with the way they use data to achieve these wider image goals.
Focus on what matters, present what matters
With a lot of “noisy” data, it can be difficult for marketing specialists to focus on good things. The same goes for stakeholders and broader business managers who are separated from sales and marketing and must understand the impact of their work.
Tessa recommends presenting data to stakeholders in the simplest and most visually visually possible way. Stakeholders should know if something is up or down and how each specific strategy (and the budget) has an impact on these measures.
By clearly questioning the objectives and focusing solely on the data that supports work on these objectives, you are one more to achieve them and understanding the behavior of your prospects. Communication with the wider company means that everyone can get on board with the same data strategy.
To learn more about ON24’s strategies and Tessa’s advice for marketing specialists working with data, log into the full episode of data data decisions.
Catchez the eight episodes here.
