How do B2B marketers tackle the question of marketing campaign value? Do we make strategic decisions based on real, actionable data?

With the firehose of data that is available to marketers now-a-days, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find the information that truly matters. And this is especially true for B2B with their typically complex, drawn out sales cycles.

In our latest episode of #B2Bchat, we dug into questions surrounding metrics. Here is a summary of the questions and comments, compiled:

Q. Which components of your digital marketing campaigns are delivering the best results? E.g. Search, Email, Display Advertising, Social Media?

• Search (PPC and SEO). These are most effective when in used in conjunction with great landing pages.
• Email
• Mediums are secondary, success depends on the contextual relevance of the message.

Q. Why do campaign budgets get cut? Poor performance or lack of tracking?

• Both: poor performance due to lack of clear objectives. and lack of tracking because no analysis properly done during campaign
• Most of the time the problem is poorly defined goals and metrics
• Budget cuts can also come due to lack of well defined baselines.
• Lack of commitment to the campaign. Unreasonable expectations of sales impact.
• On social media budgets: Shyness with social media due to it being unproven, thus high risk. Execs are holding back.
• Measuring metrics a science, but knowing how to explain them can sometimes be an art. e.g. convincing your boss to keep budget.

Q. What is your biggest pet peeve when it comes to marketing reports?

• First Dashboard reports need to be customized (management level) and meet biz needs…focus on actionable metrics!
• A lot of people over-do it with reports. Too much data and too complex = danger of focusing on wrong metrics.

Q. How do you assess the value of a digital marketing campaign? Where do you start?

• Have specific goals and objectives
• Start with the dollar value of new sales and work backwards
• Measure the number of sales-ready leads and wins
• A good marketing dashboard is fundamental

Q. What metrics (Key Performance Indicators) do you track? Which matter most?

• “Actionable” metrics, data which will allow us to make better decisions and take action
• PDF downloads, newsletter subscriptions, sales leads, e-commerce transactions
• Clicks, conversion, leads
• Customer retention
• Qualified leads, Reach, Buzz, Sentiment
• Engagement: comments/replies
• Predictive actions: signups, downloads, resource access

Word art of transcript from April 29 #B2Bchat – Measuring the Value of Digital Marketing (courtesy of Wordle.net)

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About the B2Bblogger: Andrew Spoeth is an independent marketing consultant who specializes in B2B demand generation. He most recently worked as the marketing director at Enquiro, one of North America’s leading search marketing agencies. You’ll also find Andrew speaking at industry events, co-moderating the weekly #B2Bchat series on Twitter, and blogging at MarketingFinger.com. You can follow him on Twitter at@andrewspoeth.

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Attribution… measurement… return on advertising spend… cost per lead… These are buzz words that marketing executives love. And they are ones that also keep them up at night.

How do B2B marketers tackle the question of marketing campaign value? Do we make strategic decisions based on real, actionable data? With the firehose of data that is available to marketers now-a-days, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find the information that truly matters. And this is especially true for B2B with their typically complex, drawn out sales cycles.

In our next #B2Bchat session, we’ll open up the discussion on measuring the value of digital marketing. Here are some of the questions we’ve collected:

• How do you assess the value of a digital marketing campaign? Where do you start?
• What metrics (Key Performance Indicators) do you track? Which matter most?
• Which components of your digital marketing campaigns are delivering the best results? E.g. Search, Email, Display Advertising, Social Media?
• Which attribution model(s) do you use? First click? Last click? Blended model?
• Who is responsible for collecting the data? Agency? Internal staff?
• Why do campaign budgets get cut? Poor performance or lack of tracking?
• Do you use a reporting dashboard? If so, how often do you revisit the dashboard?
• What is your biggest pet peeve when it comes to marketing reports?
• How has your company’s internal reporting evolved over the past two years?

Join us for this week’s #B2Bchat on Measuring the Value of Digital Marketing, Thursday, April 29 at 8pm Eastern (5pm Pacific). Follow @B2B_chat for updates.

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About the B2Bblogger: Andrew Spoeth is an independent marketing consultant who specializes in B2B demand generation. He most recently worked as the marketing director at Enquiro, one of North America’s leading search marketing agencies. You’ll also find Andrew speaking at industry events, co-moderating the weekly #B2Bchat series on Twitter, and blogging at MarketingFinger.com. You can follow him on Twitter at@andrewspoeth.

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B2B companies, especially those that are not web-based businesses, tend to be late adopters of social media. This has been my personal experience, as Firetide’s social media efforts started less than a year ago (although I had participated in LinkedIn groups for longer than that).

Many companies only have perfunctory efforts – they have twitter accounts, for example, but update it infrequently or don’t engage with their followers. Given that we are early adopters (funny to say that given that social media been the rage for years, it seems) we still have to justify the time and effort allocated to social media efforts.

So the Social Media Measurement #B2Bchat was in part exchange of tips and insights, and in part a venting session – which everyone needs every now and then.

Some highlights from the session.

As a B2B marketer, how do you justify time spent on social media? Are there any detractors within your organization?

I was surprised to hear from one participant that “Day of having to justify SM to anyone is over.” This has not been my experience. I suspect that in many B2B companies social media is still flying under the radar, and needs to “come out of the shadows.”  So there will still be adjustments as social media gets fully integrated into marketing plans, and stops being a skunk works project. Many comments confirmed my impression:

• I just make the time for it. There are a few detractors in my company, but most support our SM efforts.
• Some are quick to be detractors: tend to be expecting too much, or not taking time to understand.
• I view SM as an extension of ‘traditional’ communications – advertizing/PR, so weaving it into our regular mark. programs
• I have spoken to some, who do see fear of unknown and lack on control to be concern.
• B2B is all about relationship building during long sales cycle. Social media is a great way to build relationships.
• I can link revenue directly back to my social media contacts/time. Dramatic increase year to year.

What are social media’s practical benefits, even for companies who do not monetize their web sites?

The responses varied from lead conversion metrics (from those lucky enough to have a closed-loop lead tracking system), to better understanding he industry landscape and listening to conversations, market intelligence and building personas.

• SM gives the users a chance to interact with you as a business/product. It’s a big plus.
• Looking at SM as extension of PR, I track mentions, engagement, as well as briefings & other PR opps secured through SM
• Maintaining/monitoring brand perception in real time is an advantage, awareness of enthusiasts/critics comments = opportunity
• A step above brand monitoring is establishing credibility as an industry expert.
• Competitive/market intelligence is a huge advantage that SM brings; gets rid of ‘tunnel vision’
• SM for a small biz helps to level the playing field; leads to interaction with industry pros – as long as you provide quality content

The last observation was especially interesting to me; you don’t need to have a huge PR or ad budget to know what is happening in the industry, and you can engage with the influencers directly. In addition, having the first-mover advantage, you can establish a position in social media and stand apart from the crowd.

Do you know the impact social media activities have on your brand awareness?

There was no easy answer to this question yet, so many of us have to rely on qualitative feedback.

• You do if you set GSOT (goals, strategies, objectives & tactics) at start & keep scorecard two track progress.
• Awareness is a measure of total reach and increase in reach online. So yes through analytics that can be determined
• Brand awareness can be measured and tracked to some extent; but crucial to establish a baseline from which to measure
• It can be difficult to measure, particularly for small businesses without resources and access to high powered apps or 3rd party software
• Social Media ROI question is tough. BUT, what’s the ROI of having a telephone? Or email?
• Without question, SM lets small companies and startups compete with vastly larger firms.

Do you generate leads with social media? If yes, how do you track them?

• We track leads from SM by using Google Analytics and unique URLs.
• We do a lot of content registration: Webinars + white papers through Facebook & Twitter. 5-10% of registrations come from SM.
• SM for our company has been key for building awareness. Our web analytics show SM as top referrer.
• We assign a unique URL to each tweet and then track inbound clicks all the way to a lead or other success event.

What are the tools that even companies without social media budgets can use to track impact of their social media presence?

• Trackur; Google Alerts; even Tweetdeck are great measurement tools (or combination thereof)
• For tracking twitter engagement over time: @twitalyzer & @klout
• PostRank is a great way to tie social media with blog performance.
• Great SM measurement tools being mentioned: PostRank, Twitalyzer, Klout, Rowfeeder, Trackur, Radian6 (although a later commenter said “Radian6 is a great sm product, but I don’t have $’s for it.”)
• If you are using an existing web analytics package, you can use APIs like the Twitter search/REST API to grab data on buzz.

What are the objections you encounter regarding social media initiatives? Any tips for overcoming them?

This was more of a venting session as I mentioned early. It surely felt good!

• Biggest obstacle I hear about is security and inertia
• The age old challenge in B2B = tying SM to revenue. Yes, it’s a cliché at this point.
• Do I have the resources in time, $ & people to make it work? It is a relevant concern.
• Ah, the famous question: ‘What if they say something bad about us?’ Answer: ‘Then you have a prime opportunity for conversion.’
• Internal objections when starting SM initiatives? “Our clients don’t use SM.” “It’s a time trap.”
• I have a client that would love to tweet if they could do so to a controlled audience. [Classic!]
• “We don’t have time to do SM right.” “Our B2B customers aren’t using SM.” “CEO won’t like negative feedback.”
• Another challenge is the perception that social media is cheap and does not require any specific knowledge and expertise.

So, even as it may seem that social media is a given, many B2B companies are still in the early adoption phase, and are grappling with associated challenges. The dialog helped bring them to light.

As one of the participants said: “Social media is an amplification of the conversations that are happening anyway.” With social media you have the opportunity to participate, rather than staying on the sidelines. Jump right in!

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About the B2Bblogger: Ksenia Coffman is senior marketing manager at Firetide, a wireless infrastructure mesh company, where she is responsible for Firetide’s marketing strategy and technology solution partnerships. Her articles on wireless infrastructure appeared in various publications, including Security Products, Law & Order, SecurityInfoWatch.com and Communications News.

An ASIS member (an international association for security professionals), she is a frequent speaker at industry events, including ASIS workshops and IWCE conferences. Ksenia launched @Firetide – with 800+ followers, it’s is one of the most active Twitter accounts in physical security and wireless infrastructure space. You can read more from Ksenia at Mesh Without Wires blog.

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Phil Lauterjung, President of Integrated LeadGen Results, continues his guest post series.

OK, are you ready for smart way #2? It’s really quite innovative and very high tech – over used word alert, is anything really high tech anymore? Can we still use that term? Well that might just be the point of our topic. It’s fallen out of favor too.

Trade Shows.

Wait, wait don’t start running for the exits just yet. For many years trade shows have been considered a necessary evil of many marketing budgets. And, often for good reason. You went because your competitors were there and it might look bad if you weren’t there. Your marketing department always wanted a big budget so they could make the big splash and razzle-dazzle everyone. Your sales people often spent more time talking to industry network contacts rather than potential customers.

And the ROI. What ROI you ask? Exactly. I once worked for an Executive VP who thought the best measurement was the cost-per-lead from the show. You know that drill – take the total cost for the show and divided by the number of ‘leads’ and the lower cost-per-lead the better. The only trouble with that method is that all it would take to drive the cost-per-lead down was to scan as many badges as possible (who cares if it’s a real lead?) or hold a bogus contest and get a bunch of business cards in a fish bowl and call them ‘leads’. That’s definitely not a recommended way to measure ROI.

Do you still plan on doing trade shows? Still wrestling with the budget and how to measure results? Here are a few suggestions for this coming year.

1. Reduce the size of your booth. I know, I know; marketing might not like that, but consider a few facts about crowd flow. People usually enter the hall and either turn right or left and head for the far wall in their chosen direction. Get a smaller booth at the front of that far wall aisle, and have marketing put their best effort into that location. You’ll be saving money on the smaller booth, but you’ll pick up the first wave (and less tired wave) of traffic.

2. Carefully evaluate which shows you’re in. Recognize that many shows just don’t get the kind of traffic and the level of quality attendees that they once did. Be brutally honest in your evaluation and only display at those shows you know will be attended by your targeted market segments. Talk to your good customers and ask them which shows they still find useful.

3. Conduct pre-show training with your staff. Outline your objectives for the show and emphasize the importance of real leads – potential buyers. Consider offering incentives for leads that come closest to your buyer persona/profile. You will go home with fewer, but better qualified leads.

4. Prepare a post-show marketing campaign. With the money you save on the trade show cost have a marketing campaign in place and ready to go as soon as your return. It will be very important to launch that right away. I can’t tell you how many times I have received letters thanking me for stopping by a booth at a show I attended 2 – 3 months earlier. I have trouble remembering where I was last week, much less a couple of months ago! What a waste of time and effort. They might as well not follow up at all. Follow up soon and measure your response from the follow up.

5. Measure your ROI. No, not the cost-per-lead method mentioned earlier. Track each and every lead, and nurture those that aren’t ready to see a salesperson. Keep tracking them – studies have shown that 67% of leads classified as ‘bad leads’ end up buying within 18 – 24 months. Measure the cumulative sales revenue from those show leads until the number left to follow up dwindle to a pre-agreed number. That will give you your true ROI.

Trade shows may not be the sexiest marketing tactic in your tool box, but it just might be more effective than you think. Let me know your thoughts and experiences in the comment section below.

About the BtoBblogger: Phil Lauterjung is President of Integrated LeadGen Results, providing strategies and tactics for small and medium size businesses to get found, get leads, and get sales. With over 20 years (12 in senior management) of sales & marketing experience helping both small companies and Fortune 500 increase sales, Phil is adept at implementing social media tools with a Certified Inbound Marketing Professional designation, and a member of the Sales Lead Management Association. Phil’s is a regular contributor to BtoBbloggers.com and also can be found on his blog; Conversations Re: Sales | Marketing | Social Media | Etc.

I asked a number of my B2B Marcom colleagues how they’re measuring social media. The answers were varied, but all agreed that anyone involved in social media should measure results, and the metrics will depend on your objectives.

For B2B considered purchases, social media is just like all other B2B marketing communications—there’s not necessarily a direct correlation to a communications such as blog post and a sale. Instead it’s the aggregate impact of integrated marketing communications that drives engagement throughout the buying cycle and ultimately a sale.

Manually mapping trends in social media activity to sales trends.

Let’s say you have a 180-day buying cycle. You would track the number of social media mentions/activities (tweets, social bookmarks, blog references, etc.), white paper downloads, video views, webinar attendance, followers/fans. Then, plot these on a trend chart, and do the same for sales. See if there’s a connection between social media activity and sales activity, particularly within the 180-day buying cycle. You’ll also want to note any other Marcom activity during this same period such as trade shows and events and ads.

Yes, this takes time, but it’s the only way to prove to ROI-conscious executives the value of your social media investment. Although your initial success metric may be tweets, followers, mentions, etc., these metrics don’t equate to dollars unless you can draw a correlation to sales.

Tools to help you monitor social media activity… especially the organic activity that results from good content?

Many of my colleagues started out by using free tools and a good old-fashioned spreadsheet to manually track media mentions, social bookmarks, comments, videos watched, etc. Tools such as Google alerts, Twitter search, socialmention.com and Topsy.com can help you see where you’re mentioned and what’s being said. In addition, you can search Technorati and the blogosphere to listen to what’s being said.

Depending on the scope of your social media activity, you may need to graduate to professional tools, which are fee-based, but offer greater capabilities and automation to more closely monitor your social media activity. Here’s a sampling of social media monitoring tools such as Meteor, objectivemarketer.com, Radian6 and PR Newswire’s MultiVu. You should also check with your web metrics provider. Several web metrics providers also offer social media monitoring add-on services such as <Alterian and Omniture.

Caveat about social media ROI

Social media by its nature is about building and cultivating relationships, which takes time and involvement in the social media sphere. If you’re looking for a social media quick win, then you’ve completely missed the point and should avoid social media… it may do more harm than good. Look at it this way… Do you measure the ROI of every single sales call, even though most don’t result in a direct sale? And do you only count the last foot in the door as the call that really made the sale, ignoring the numerous other visits, face-to-face meetings, etc. that may have influenced the final call? Probably not… you’re looking at the total cost of sales and the revenue it generates.

I think social media ROI should be handled in a similar way. You may need to look at the aggregate affect of social media along with the other elements in the marcom mix to determine ROI. ROI won’t be immediately visible for social media in most B2B considered purchases due to the length of time it takes to cultivate relationships. It’s kind of like trying to measure the ROI of a brochure.

About The BtoBblogger: Joan is a B2B marcom consultant and copywriter with more than 15 years experience helping high tech and industrial companies generate leads and sales through integrated marketing communications including SEO copywriting, social media and website content. She can be reached at www.jdamico.net or through her blog www.integratedmarcom.blogspot.com.