From A to B What CMOs Really Care About ft. Kelly Hopping
Nov 12, 2025
Kelly Hopping, CMO at Demandbase and host of the NextGen CMO podcast, shares her extensive marketing expertise. She discusses the critical link between marketing efforts and pipeline metrics, emphasizing that senior leaders care more about business impact than details. Kelly shares how to effectively communicate results to gain buy-in and offers career pivot advice. She also highlights the importance of A/B testing versus qualitative research and provides tactics for CRO practitioners to align with executive priorities.
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Measure Marketing By Pipeline Impact
- Kelly measures marketing by pipeline contribution and ultimate revenue impact rather than surface metrics.
- Every marketing activity must be tied to how it moves pipeline toward closed revenue.
Prioritize High-Impact Tests
- Prioritize tests by expected business impact and traffic volume, not by sheer velocity.
- Focus on the few experiments likely to move pipeline fastest and invest there.
Market Test Learnings Proactively
- Always broadcast learnings from both winning and losing tests and pair each loss with next steps.
- Translate experiment results into strategic insights that inform messaging and product decisions.