You can't manage what you can't measure

To understand what contributes to the overall result, you need to know how the campaigns are performing and also identify where and with what they are performing best. Creating these analyses in a repeatable and scalable way is no easy task, but it is essential to show how important certain aspects are.

Which KPIs are of interest to decision-makers?

For marketers, "soft factors" are the benchmark for all kinds of analyses. Soft factors are, for example, rankings, clicks, impressions or organic search results. These are, of course, extremely important and fundamental, but management is generally not interested in them. CEOs are usually interested in turnover, revenue and profit, and possibly also in CapEx and OpExas soft factors measure activities rather than results. But with the right metrics you can change that. Questions like:

• How much profit have we made compared to the last quarter and how much of this is due to marketing?
• How much profit can we expect in the next quarter and what resources do we need for this?
• How many leads have we gained compared to the previous year?

need:

• Knowing how quickly leads complete the funnel
• Campaign analyses and forecasts
• Knowing what return each campaign brings

Too much data is often measured and marketers get lost in the shuffle. With the right tools and the right strategy, you can prevent this from happening and at the same time prove how your work as a marketer contributes to revenue.

How do you increase sales by optimizing the lead cycle?

The difference between an amateur and a professional is that the professional thinks about the measurement in advance and divides it up from start to finish. Basically, you can divide the funnel into 3 segments.

• Visitors who visit your site for the first time
• Qualified leads
• Leads with a sales opportunity

The task of you and your team is to strictly define these 3 (or more) segments, as well as the transition to the next segment and the transfer to the sales team. This also allows you to identify trends and bottlenecks in lead management. Is it more worthwhile for you to focus on the first segment or the third? You need to answer these and other questions in advance.

ToFu (Top of the Funnel)

What do I need? Potential customers in this "buying phase" have only just been added to your sales and marketing funnel. They may be aware of your product or service, but are not yet ready to buy. This channel can be further divided into "new names" and leads. New names are people who are interested but have not yet been to your website, e.g. someone who has left their "business card" out of interest. Leads, on the other hand, have been to the website, visited several pages, downloaded something, etc.. Leads must be stored and maintained in a database (CRM)!

MoFu (Middle of the Funnel)

Leads with the right data are in the middle channel. They show the right buying behavior, interact with your content and are in the right demographic or target group. Here, too, it is possible to divide them into two groups: marketing-qualified leads and sales-qualified leads. The marketing-qualified lead simply fits into the target group and shows the right behavior. As soon as a lead has been qualified by marketing, the sales team checks by email or telephone whether the lead is ready for the lower channel. If not, it goes back to the marketing team.

BoFu (Bottom of the Funnel)

Why should I buy it from you? These are leads that are about to become customers. We further divide them into customer and opportunity. A customer is, of course, someone who has already bought something. But that doesn't stop here. You should always continue to support the customer in order to cross-sell, up-sell and re-market. An existing customer is always better than a new customer. Opportunities are qualified by the sales team, have enough time for sales, are allowed to buy the product, have the necessary budget and solve a problem with the purchase. These are virtually "almost customers" and offer the most potential for the sales team. Measurements are particularly important here. Why was nothing bought in the end? Was the lead too bad or did the sales team fail? How and how did the opportunities get here?

How do you model the lead cycle?

Here you should recognize how many leads are in the funnel, how high the conversion rate is and how much time they stay with you. This is necessary in order to measure where most leads get stuck. This information is immensely important, as it is the only way to focus on these bottlenecks and untie the knot if necessary. Thanks to segmentation, you can track and optimize the behavior of the phases very well. Questions such as:

• How many leads do we need to reach the quarterly target?
• Is there a certain phase in which leads (often) get stuck?
• How long does it take from the first "visit" to the purchase?

should be answered. To make forecasts possible, you need to identify and measure your goals. What would be a good result? Even in the early stages, you can and should definitely derive forecasts.

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Measuring the most important marketing KPIs

An experienced marketer not only knows which KPIs are relevant for what, but also knows when to measure them. Many marketers usually only measure at the beginning of the campaign. Other key figures need some time to be usable. So when do you measure what? Measuring actually starts before the campaign. In order to measure the success of the campaign, you need to know what it looked like before the campaign. Previous programs and opportunities would be possible indicators. Shortly after the launch, you can already analyze the first openings and clicks, after about 4 weeks the leads qualified by the marketing team, after 3 months the opportunities and after about half a year at least the forecast on the revenue. (The values can vary depending on the industry!) Early indicators are, for example, increased website traffic, shared articles, new visitors, interactions on the website or completed forms. The aim is to obtain as many relevant leads as possible. Then you can deduce which channels perform best. Which channel delivers the most leads, which the best, which the cheapest?

An important key figure here is the investment per lead.

Later indicators are, for example, the number of opportunities, the ratio of first contacts to multiple contacts, etc. As soon as the leads go to the next step and become opportunities, you can measure whether the campaign has achieved its goal. In the middle or later phase, you should also analyze how quickly the leads convert. Which channels and campaigns have a positive effect on revenue? Ultimately, only the ROMI (Return Of Marketing Investment) counts. However, a complete ROMI calculation is not possible for all campaigns. Some figures cannot be measured accurately, such as the number of participants at an event. However, a ROMI analysis should at least include revenue, opportunities and the pipeline. The analysis not only provides results but also helps to identify the primary profit factors. Management can also see the program costs and estimate what targets can be expected.

From lead to customer

It often takes a long time for a lead to contribute to ROI. Normally, a buyer needs 7 contacts before a purchase is made. On average, 50% of leads are not ready to buy, so this should not be underestimated. It is therefore all the more important that every contact with the company is measured. Even acquisition campaigns that generate few leads can be extremely successful simply because they increase brand awareness or retain leads that are already known. In the past, marketers usually only measured the FT (first touch) of their campaigns or, for example the "last click" in Google Ads. The problem: a lead can become an opportunity after the FT from another campaign, but the original campaign is usually measured. This is only useful when it comes to lead generation for the database and the sales cycles are very short. However, if the sales cycles are longer (e.g. for B2B) and it is also a matter of nurturing the leads and their willingness to buy, the leads should be assigned according to MT (Multi Touch). This divides the allocation from one campaign into several. Example: A lead visits your website, fills out a form and downloads an e-book on the topic of analytics. The lead is now in the database and you know that they are interested in analytics. You also have the contact details. Now you can send an invitation to an analytics webinar to their email, for example. They then take part in the webinar, after which you send them a discount code for an upcoming trade fair and a recording of the webinar. The lead is interested and interacts with your content. At the trade fair, the lead is engaged by a salesperson and ultimately a purchase is made.