By Erin Lynch-Klarup
(Note: This is Part 2 of a 4-part series on marketing planning. Part 1, “Making the Case for Higher Spend“, can be found here. Check back here every Wednesday in August for a new installment!)
B2B marketing organizations today are emphasizing the transfer of ideas to customers (just consider the rise of terms like “thought leadership”, “consultative selling” or “solutions”). This makes sense – done right, an insight-based approach is one of the few ways suppliers can avert pure price-based competition. Additionally, our research shows that insight is valued by customers in the long term. “Teaching” activities such as offering unique perspectives on the market or helping the customer navigate alternatives strongly predict loyalty.
It follows that marketing plans this year should have a strong insight orientation. Naturally the marketing plan will align to broader organizational strategy, but the marketing objectives that support company strategy should be grounded in delivering insight that changes customers’ valuation of your offering.
Metrics, of course, are a key element of the marketing plan. They’re the primary tool we use to operationalize marketing’s goals. The right metrics will measure progress, yes, but also to communicate the marketing plan at a level that individuals can act on.
As we examined insight-led marketing this year, we found ourselves wondering how the metrics we track change for a marketing plan geared towards educating customers (in a way that prompts purchase). In partnership with MarketingNPV, we’re in the process of developing a metrics framework for the insight-led world.
We’ve divided the relevant metrics into four categories:
Marketing
Broadly, we want to know if marketing is identifying compelling insights for target segments, and getting them out to those segments through content and sales enablement.
Sales
We want to know if marketing’s closest functional partner “buys” the insight-based approach. Is sales adopting or even helping to co-create an insight-led sales pitch?
Customer Engagement
On the customer side of things, we want to know if customers are consuming our content and sharing it with others. And if so, is this earning us purchase and loyalty?
Outcomes
Are we transferring insight to customers in a scalable way? Are we teaching customers things that clarify their decision and prompt purchase?
MLC members, for more on how to build insight selling and commercial teaching into your marketing plan, please make plans to attend our webinar, Building an Insight-Led Sales and Marketing Strategy, on September 14. Two times are available; one from 9-10AM eastern, the other from 2-3PM.
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[...] planning. Part 1, “Making the Case for Higher Spend“, can be found here. Part 2, “Selecting Metrics“, can be found here. Check back here every Wednesday in August and September for a new [...]