Google Analytics Is Underreporting Results from Twitter

Question MarkB2B marketers are undervaluing Twitter’s contribution to their business.

That’s hard to believe at a time when many B2B marketers are glomming on to Twitter like it’s the last shiny object opportunity they will ever have (even turning to spamming), but it’s true. It is happening because web analytics packages are dramatically underreporting traffic from Twitter.

How many leads came from Twitter? How many website visits? How many purchases? When your web analytics package doesn’t recognize that traffic is coming from Twitter, Twitter doesn’t get the credit it deserves. [Read more…]

4 Metrics You Need To Track In B2B Lead Generation Programs

Measure Your Marketing InvestmentEnterprise B2B marketers face a conundrum. Businesses needs to drive growth and lead generation is a key way the business expects marketing to contribute.

However, sales cycles are long. It can take months, even years, before marketing is able to prove the value of lead generation efforts with revenue. And you can’t afford to wait that long to optimize your investment and show results.

The first article in this series on publisher lead generation programs looked at the cost of lead generation programs. Here we will look at how to measure and optimize your program effectively in the face of long sales cycles. [Read more…]

Why Marketing Benchmarks Are Bogus

B2B Email MarketingWe like to measure ourselves against something. We want to know that we are doing good work.

Is my my email click rate good? Is my search conversion rate where it should be? Is my brand lift above average?

Ummm, but what are you comparing yourself too? A number in some book or website, based on the results of businesses nothing like yours?

Stop. Now. [Read more…]

5 Metrics Every B2B Marketer Should Track

Ring with old keysYou have a lead generation program. An influencer program. An advertising program. A marketing automation program.

You measure every detail about every program. And your programs are doing great.

There is just one little problem: you are reporting on a series of programs. Even though reporting shows you are becoming a better marketer, it doesn’t show how marketing, overall, is progressively improving your company’s position. [Read more…]

Why Marketing ROI Is All Relative

B2B Marketing ROI Is RelativeWhat is a good ROI on marketing? If you can increase net income by 50 cents for every dollar spent on marketing, that’s good, right? The more you spend, the more money you make.

But what if you learned your primary competitor was getting $1.50 in income for every dollar spent on marketing? 3x the return you are getting on marketing! All of a sudden your marketing looks pretty ineffective! [Read more…]

B2B Marketing’s Measurement Problem

New B2B Buying ProcessNo one makes a million dollar decision based on one white paper, one email or one Google search.

The buying process may take 12 to 18 months. 20 different people may be involved in the decision. Peers, consultants and analysts will provide their input.

It is called a complex sale for a reason, but B2B marketers keep trying to fit it into a simplistic measurement framework: where did we get that lead? [Read more…]

3 Ways To Use the Value of a Like or Follow

Dan Zarella and Hubspot gave the “what is your social media audience worth” pot a good stir last week.

It doesn’t matter if you like Hubspot’s formula or not (at least not for this article). One day many businesses will put a value on their social media audience, if it is in the form of monthly impact to their business or the average value of an audience member.

Then what? How do you use the value of a like, follower, circler, or similar to improve the value of your marketing and your business? [Read more…]

Marketing’s Broken Foundation: Measurement

Data is the foundation for analytics. Analytics is the foundation for marketing driven by data and insights.

When you start with bad data, you get erroneous insights and your marketing goes in the wrong direction.

A recent research result from ITSMA and Vision Edge Marketing is eye opening. Even though the importance of starting with good data should be obvious, B2B marketers are analyzing and optimizing marketing from a broken foundation. [Read more…]