Spray and Pray? No Way. 5 Types of Data that Drive Marketing Efficiency

Marketing Efficiency Is About Good Data

Are you tossing marketing dollars in the trash? It’s OK. You’re in good company.

According to Forrester (in their report “Why Marketers Can’t Ignore Data Quality“), “Thirty-seven percent of marketers waste marketing spend as a result of poor marketing/media data quality. About 35 percent suffer from inaccurate targeting.”

But this is no time to fritter away marketing dollars chasing after the wrong accounts. The best way you can ensure you make the most of your marketing dollars is to rely on good data. Think of good data as the dock from which you can launch your investment decisions. With the insights you glean from it, you can identify which accounts to go after and how to move them through the customer journey efficiently. In other words, it’s time to get busy practicing Account-Based Marketing (ABM)!

Here are 5 big data sources to help you get serious about ABM and cut down on marketing waste:

1. 1. Firmographics

      First, reduce waste by narrowing your focus. Use firmographic data to hone in on the right industries, geolocations, company sizes, etc. No sense targeting a small business if you have nothing to sell them. And if you have something to sell to seven different industries, focus on your top three or four and deliver customized, relevant, and timely messages and experiences to them.

   2. CRM Data

      Stop counting leads. Instead, analyze the data that provides insight into whether your marketing efforts are impacting the bottom line. Get laser-focused on bottom-of-the-funnel success metrics like marketing- and sales-qualified leads (MQLs and SQLs), opportunities, wins, and revenue. Basically, the data that lives in your customer relationship management (CRM) system. From there, you can set goals for increasing marketing efficiency and sales productivity ratios over time.

   3. Purchase Intent

      When hand-raisers appear at all (just 3 percent of buyers complete forms today), it’s typically late in the purchase cycle. And they may not even be a definitive indication of purchase intent. Chasing after leads is a waste of marketing money and sales time.

      Think of purchase intent as the new lead–the new highly qualified lead. It signals which Target Accounts are currently in-market for relevant products and services so you can leverage that insight to drive marketing and sales efficiency. For example, we can focus ad dollars on those in-market accounts, craft messaging, and content that reflects buyer interest, and prompt sales outreach at the right time.

   4. Campaign results

      Increasing marketing efficiency means optimization. Look at campaign results early and often. If no one clicks on your ad, change the copy, creative treatment, offer, CTA, or find a more qualified audience. If they click on the ad but bounce on the landing page, revise the landing page or send them to a different one. Do more of what works, less of what doesn’t, and fold campaign learnings into future campaigns and programs.

   5. Engagement data

      The specific content your target audiences engage in is the valuable insight you need to move accounts through the customer journey successfully. Here are a few tips:

   • • Has a target account not been to your website in the past 180 days? Remind them of your brand value.
     • Has a contact visited your product and solution pages? Further engage them with “How To” content, offering them advice on how to go about solving their business problems.
     • Have multiple users in the account have downloaded an RFP template? Have a salesperson reach out.
   Engagement data is behavioral data, indicating where they are in their purchase process. It’s our job as marketers to nudge our audience along that path by presenting them with offers that move them from awareness to deeper engagement and conversion. Leveraging engagement data to customize offers and outreach enable you to reach out to the right accounts with the right content at the right time. In other words, less waste.

In times of uncertainty, marketing efficiency can be the line of demarcation between success and failure. ABM is about becoming more efficient and effective through focus–focusing on the right accounts through the power of data. Make sure all of your efforts are targeted and relevant to your prospects.

Check out our web page to see the latest innovations of our data scientists and engineers at Demandbase, as they turn data into actionable insights.