Measuring the success of any company investment comes down to the return on investment (ROI), but when it comes to B2B lead generation, assessing ROI can be challenging. Many companies bypass ROI in favor of a trial-and-error strategy, or they simply chase the newest trend in marketing and hope they’ll hit gold at some point.
An undefined marketing strategy can easily lead to excessive spending. For instance, a company may have a marketing strategy that includes posts on Twitter four times each day and publishes two blogs a week on Facebook, only to find out after six months that their audience spends all its time on Instagram. A problem like this wastes a lot of time between social media specialists, content writers and editors.
In order to measure your ROI, you need a clear understanding of the connection between your marketing activities and the leads they are generating. You also need to measure the quality of those leads, so that once they’re passed on to the sales team, there’s some assurance that the lead is on the brink of making a decision.
A common disconnect between marketing and sales is the definition of a lead. While for some a lead may be a name on a list, others define a lead as a nurtured contact that’s ready for a face-to-face meeting.
Your key performance indicators (KPIs) can help you set the marketing goals that you’ll measure. For instance, if one of your KPIs is to improve the quality of a nurtured lead before it goes to the sales team, then counting the number of followers you have on Instagram won’t do much to help you understand how you’re meeting your KPIs.
It’s little more challenging to track the impact of social media on your lead generation, because in many cases, social media is effective for generating brand awareness. It may be hard to measure, but it’s still benefiting your lead generation strategy.
As a result, you need a balanced approach to your strategy. Mix digital methods like email newsletters and social media with traditional methods like telemarketing and live events. Throw in a podcast for good measure. For each of these areas, make sure you are measuring your investment versus the leads you are producing.
If you’d like more information and practical, step-by-step instructions for calculating your ROI on B2B lead generation, read more in a recent white paper on this topic. Measuring your ROI may be simpler than you expect with the right tools.