By Are you struggling to meet your B2B marketing KPIs? You're not alone.You might be surprised at how many B2B technology companies find themselves in this situation. They've done their due diligence to choose the right KPIs based upon their business goals and data. Still, something isn't working. And that ‘something’ is threatening to bring down the whole B2B marketing plan.
You know that sinking feeling when you have to face a C-suite with another non-compliant quarter? It's incredibly uncomfortable given that you have your eye on joining them someday. The good news is that one of these six fixable B2B marketing problems is usually the culprit. Addressing that one ‘something’ may be the game-changer you're looking for.
1. Lack of Communication
Many B2B technology marketing leaders have their eye on the prize. But they're struggling to achieve the employee and C-suite buy-in needed to make things happen. C-suite may not understand how certain marketing KPIs contribute to success. So, they're unwilling to allocate an adequate budget for revolutionary strategies in the B2B technology arena like marketing automation, inbound content, and sales enablement.
At the same time, employees can't see how what they do contributes to KPIs or business success. It can happen both within the marketing company and in a broader sense with poor marketing-sales communication and alignment.
Therefore, this isn't a KPI issue. It's a people problem you can only fix by effectively showing how it's all connected. Then, you empower your people (marketing and sales departments) to work together to meet goals.
At the end of the day, everyone must understand "why." Why are we doing this? Why do we do it in this way and not another?
2. No Roadmap
You've aligned each KPI and budget with your overarching business goals. But you may be struggling to understand how to get from point A to point B — meeting big goals, such as increasing revenues and growing the company. The right KPI will help you create a clear roadmap that leads to goal success. Without that roadmap, you end up either failing to meet your KPIs or meeting the wrong ones.
Revisit your KPIs, marketing budget, and goals. Make sure that your KPIs are truly key indicators that you're working towards when meeting your goals. And if your budget seems inadequate to meet those KPIs, then consider the need to work on selling the importance of marketing and increasing your marketing ROI.
Marketing is not an expense. Marketing that works is an investment. We both know marketing matters, from increasing brand mentions to influencing how happy customers are with your product to consistently converting MQL to SQL.
Ultimately, marketing should improve budget effectiveness and efficiency throughout the company.
3. Inconsistent Measuring of B2B Marketing KPI
If you're not tracking KPI performance continually, you can't improve it. By the time you see delayed indicators, opportunities have passed and you've likely spent money on initiatives and resources that aren't helpful.
Reevaluate how you're tracking KPIs and how your analytics tools present that data to yourself so you can act upon it. If you have to dig through multiple reports, do some math, or wait for someone to compile helpful business intelligence, it's time to streamline data collection and analytics. Ideally, you need a single view dashboard you see every day that includes every KPI in one view.
4. KPIs You Can't Meet
Like other goals, every marketing KPI should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound). Though, failing to meet KPIs doesn't necessarily mean you need to lower the bar. As you consider all possible reasons B2B technology companies aren't meeting KPIs, don't sweep this potential problem off the table.
5. Not Leveraging Marketing Automation
There's a reason B2B technology companies using marketing automation outperform the competition. Modern automation can achieve better tracking, timing, and sales enablement than what is humanly possible along with more efficient use of resources. If the price of marketing automation seems cost-prohibitive, it's time to learn more about how automation helps B2B marketing departments do more with less.
6. Not Understanding Why You're Not Meeting KPIs
We won't be too hard on you. This is, after all, why you're here. Until you can put your finger on the problem(s), performance won't improve. Start putting your KPI to the test. Do any of the above apply? How can B2B marketing automation and sales enablement improve this situation?
Are there any other reasons you’ve found that contribute to not being able to meet your KPIs? Leave a comment below.
