RV136 - Optimizing Marketing Investments Across the Customer Lifecycle | Chris Walker Weekly episode 1
Jan 26, 2024
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Marketing expert Chris Walker and guests discuss optimizing marketing investments across the customer lifecycle. They explore the shift from traditional lead gen to demand gen strategies, balancing investments, the buyer-centric pipeline, and the evolution of marketing analytics. They also cover optimizing the sales pipeline in the B2B SaaS industry, challenges in setting growth targets, measuring different types of events, and investing in organic demand creation strategies.
Categorize investments based on the customer lifecycle stages to assess balance and make strategic adjustments.
Transition from lead gen to demand gen strategy requires data-driven analysis of lead sources.
Measure intent signals from the buyer's perspective to optimize go-to-market strategies.
Deep dives
Differentiating investments based on customer lifecycle
Investments should be categorized based on the customer lifecycle stages: creating demand, capturing intent, converting pipeline, and expanding accounts. By categorizing investments in this way, companies can assess the balance or imbalance of their investments across these stages and make strategic adjustments. For example, a company that overspends on customer marketing despite most revenue coming from net new business can identify the need to rebalance their investments.
Transitioning from lead gen to demand gen
Shifting from a lead gen to a demand gen strategy requires analyzing the productivity of each lead source and evaluating the costs of acquisition, sales velocity, and sales productivity. By doing so, companies can identify low productivity channels that should be stopped, acceptable channels that can be improved, and successful channels that should be optimized. This transition is data-driven and should be based on a comprehensive analysis of the performance of each lead source.
Measuring intent and evaluating the buyer perspective
Instead of determining lead sources based on the department responsible, companies should shift to measuring intent signals from the buyer's perspective. This approach, known as pipeline sources, focuses on clear intent signals exhibited by buyers before engaging with the sales team. By shifting the perspective and measuring pipeline sources, companies can optimize their go-to-market strategies based on buyer intent rather than departmental credit.
Choosing the right metrics for long sales cycles
Companies with long sales cycles should focus on metrics such as account engagement and account conversion to assess progress and momentum. Account engagement measures the percentage or volume of target accounts engaging with the company's website, while account conversion tracks the progress of accounts from lead capture to qualified opportunities. These metrics offer insights into the effectiveness of the sales process and enable companies to evaluate their investments and strategies accordingly.
Analyzing and reevaluating event objectives
To optimize event strategies, companies should align their objectives with specific stages of the customer lifecycle. Different types of events serve different purposes, such as capturing intent, converting pipeline, expanding accounts, or creating demand. By scrutinizing event budgets, companies can ensure that investments are allocated appropriately and results are measured based on the primary purpose of each event.
In the first episode of the new series, Chris and guests cover creating demand, capturing intent, converting pipeline, and expanding accounts. Led by Chris Walker, the latest discussion unpacks a nuanced take on shifting from traditional lead gen to more sophisticated demand gen strategies, influenced by hard data and innovative approaches.
The conversation gravitated towards the art of balancing investments across the customer lifecycle, where Chris introduced a groundbreaking shift from department-centric to buyer-centric pipeline sources. With the touch of a strategist, the distinctions between creating demand and capturing intent were deeply explored, revealing a rich perspective on marketing's evolution beyond siloed analytics towards a seamless go-to-market vision. His insights resonate with an industry acutely aware of the need to refine marketing budgets and tactics, ensuring everything from webinars to SDR outreaches is measured against the modern buyer's journey.
Thanks to our friends at Hatch for producing this episode. Get unlimited podcast editing at www.hatch.fm
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