STATE OF B2B MARKETING METRICS AND ANALYTICS 2015

STATE OF B2B MARKETING METRICS AND ANALYTICS 2015 Research Report - Feb 2015

WHO WE SPOKE TO To understand the state of metrics & analytics in B2B marketing today, we spoke to directors and senior executives of B2B companies to know what metrics they were using to measure their marketing performance and the role of analytics in drawing insights from it. 75 percent of the companies we spoke to were from the technology sector, the rest spread across various industries. 42% of them were over a billion dollars in revenue. While the survey was done globally, a sizeable number of companies (67%) were from the US. REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B MARKETING METRICS & ANALYTICS 2015 / 01

KEY FINDINGS: 84% marketers say they are currently investing in analytics» tweet this «70% marketers cited lack of resources to execute as the biggest obstacle to investing in analytics» tweet this «65% respondents say analytics has helped increase sales revenue by over 10%» tweet this «65% executives use analytics regularly for insights» tweet this «56% marketers expect their analytics budget to increase in the next 12 months» tweet this «REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B MARKETING METRICS & ANALYTICS 2015 / 02

ANALYTICS IMPORTANT FOR MARKETING SUCCESS, SAY MARKETERS As high as 86% of all respondents we spoke to felt that marketing analytics was very important for the success of their marketing program. The rest felt it was somewhat important. How important is Marketing Analytics for marketing success? 86% Very Important 14% Not at all Important 0% Somewhat Important REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B MARKETING METRICS & ANALYTICS 2015 / 03

MAJORITY SAY THEY INVEST IN ANALYTICS 84 percent of marketers said they were currently investing in analytics. Considering that every marketer we spoke to felt that analytics was important to have in her tool bag, we were surprised to find 16% of our respondents saying they do not invest in it. Does your organization invest in Marketing Analytics? 84% Yes 16% No REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B MARKETING METRICS & ANALYTICS 2015 / 04

MOST MARKETERS ARE ABLE TO LEVERAGE ANALYTICS TO MEET THEIR REQUIREMENTS 85 percent of respondents said they were able to leverage their organization s analytics data to measure their marketing effectiveness. 15% said they were unable to do so. Many of them, expectedly, are companies that are also not investing in it. Are you able to leverage your organization s analytics data to measure marketing effectiveness? Yes 85% 15% No REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B MARKETING METRICS & ANALYTICS 2015 / 05

75% OF RESPONDENTS ARE ABLE TO TRACK ROI TO VARYING DEGREES OF SUCCESS 29 percent of those who we spoke to said they were very successful in tracking the ROI of their analytics investment. Another 46% said they were somewhat successful in doing so. How successful is your organization at tracking the ROI of Marketing Analytics? Very Successful 29% 46% Somewhat Successful 25% Not at all Successful REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B MARKETING METRICS & ANALYTICS 2015 / 06

ANALYTICS HELPS THE BOTTOM-LINE 65 percent of our respondents indicated that analytics has helped increase their organization s sales revenue by over 10%. By what percentage has Marketing Analytics helped increase your organization s sales revenue? Below 10% 35% 10-25% 48% 25-50% 13% Above 50% 4% REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B MARKETING METRICS & ANALYTICS 2015 / 07

65% OF THE ORGANIZATIONS WE SPOKE TO SAID THEY REGULARLY USE ANALYTICS FOR INSIGHTS Of the rest, 31% said they do so occasionally. Only a small proportion of marketers (4%) lacked the tools or skills to turning data into insights. Which of the following statements best suits your organization s data utilization to measure marketing effectiveness? Regularly use analytics for insights 65% Occasionally use analytics for insights 31% Lack the tools or skills to turn data into actionable insights 4% Rarely use analytics for insights 0% REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B MARKETING METRICS & ANALYTICS 2015 / 08

IMPROVING MARKETING PERFORMANCE & GAINING INSIGHT INTO THE SALES FUNNEL ARE THE TOP OBJECTIVES DRIVING ANALYTICS Gaining actionable insights to improve marketing performance is the key marketing objective driving analytics within organizations. Considering increase in revenue was seen as the top priority objective for the year 2015 by B2B marketers (State of B2B Marketing 2015), it isn t surprising to find the high degree of importance given by marketers to understanding the sales funnel through the use of analytics. REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B MARKETING METRICS & ANALYTICS 2015 / 09

What are your organization s key Marketing Analytics objectives? Using analytics to improve marketing performance 89% Gaining better visibility into sales funnel 73% Combining data from multiple sources to draw correlations and make predictions Measuring marketing attribution across channels 54% 54% Enhancing customer lifecycle 39% Accelerating the analytics process from data collection to deriving insights Reducing time taken to analyze data and interpret results 35% 27% Gaining executive level buy-in and support 19% Improving competitive analysis 19% Integrating disparate systems and siloed data 19% REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B MARKETING METRICS & ANALYTICS 2015 / 10

ANALYTICS HELP MARKETERS EVALUATE CHANNELS & PRIORITIZE INITIATIVES 81 percent of respondents saw the key benefit of analytics as helping them identify marketing channels that provide the most ROI. 76% said it helps them prioritize their marketing mix tactics. A little over half the respondents (52%) were using analytics to help them demonstrate marketing function s contribution to overall revenue, highlighting the pressure that B2B marketers today are increasingly facing toward achieving sales goals. What are the key benefits of Marketing Analytics in your opinion? Useful for decision-making Helps identify marketing channel that provides the most ROI Helps prioritize marketing mix tactics 81% 81% 76% Better utilization of resources 62% Helps demonstrate marketing function s contribution towards overall revenue Helps reduce marketing cost Better marketing message and positioning 52% 48% 48% Helps predict customer behavior 43% Faster revenue growth Helps identify the precise customer needs Better understanding of market conditions and trends 19% 29% 38% REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B MARKETING METRICS & ANALYTICS 2015 / 11

CROSS-CHANNEL VIEW IS THE MOST IMPORTANT CAPABILITY SOUGHT IN ANALYTICS TOOLS 82 percent of marketers looked for cross-channel view of results in their analytics tool. This was followed by 68% of those who sought predictive and prescriptive analytics. Given the long sales cycles that B2B businesses undergo, we weren t surprised when only less than half the respondents (46%) said they looked for real-time reporting capabilities in their analytics tool. But what did come as a surprise to us was when none amongst those whom we spoke to tagged mobile device support as a capability that they sought. This waning interest in mobile amongst B2B marketers was noted by us earlier in our report on the State of B2B Marketing 2015. REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B MARKETING METRICS & ANALYTICS 2015 / 12

In your opinion, which of the following capabilities are most important while evaluating Marketing Analytics tools & technologies? Cross-channel view of results 82% Predictive and prescriptive analytics 68% Dashboards 64% Advanced customer behavior analysis 55% Integration of online and offline data 50% A/B and multivariate testing 50% Real-time reporting 46% Creation and testing of hypothesis 36% Integration with Microsoft Office apps 5% OLAP and ad-hoc query support 5% Mobile device support 0% REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B MARKETING METRICS & ANALYTICS 2015 / 13

ANALYTICS TOOLS STAY SIMPLE; AND IN THE CLOUD Dashboards (77%) and Spreadsheets (73%) are currently the most widely used analytical tools. In going with the changing times, cloud-based solutions at 64% won over on-premise analytics software at 36%. Custom data modelling (32%) is yet to find popular adoption amongst B2B marketers, who seem to prefer out-of-the-box solutions to meet their analytical needs. Which of the following Marketing Analytics tools & technologies does your organization currently use? Dashboards Spreadsheets Cloud/SaaS based analytics solution Database querying tools Business intelligence tools Data visualization tools Presentation software or tools On-premise/installed analytics software Embedded analytics components Data modeling tools Programming languages Statistical analysis software 77% 73% 64% 55% 46% 41% 36% 36% 32% 32% 27% 23% REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B MARKETING METRICS & ANALYTICS 2015 / 14

EMAIL MARKETING IS BY FAR THE MOST WIDELY USED AND TRACKED TACTIC AMONG B2B MARKETERS Email marketing was chosen by one and all as the most universally used marketing tactic in the B2B space. There were no surprises in the list that followed which included Search Marketing, Social Media and Website Marketing. Video, voted as the most indispensable content type for 2015 by B2B marketers in our earlier survey, State of B2B Content Marketing 2015, came in here at a low 43%, suggesting that it is yet to play a significant role in the analytics mix. Which of the following marketing tactics does your organization use and analyze? Email marketing Content marketing Social media marketing SEO (organic search) marketing Website marketing PPC (paid search) marketing Display/banner advertising 100% 86% 81% 81% 76% 76% 71% Video marketing 43% REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B MARKETING METRICS & ANALYTICS 2015 / 15

MARKETERS STICK TO BASICS WHEN TRACKING THE METRICS OF THEIR PROGRAMS We first asked our respondents how they chose their marketing channels. 75% of them said they based it on their marketing objectives and the profile of their target customer. The role of competitors (20%) did not seem to influence their decision much. On what basis does your company typically select a marketing channel or mix? Target customers Marketing objectives/goals Budget Return on investment Products or services being offered 75% 75% 65% 60% 60% Competitors Stages of customer life cycle 20% 20% Stages of product life cycle 5% Running through the list of metrics that marketers said they tracked to evaluate their marketing programs, we find most of it dominated by numbers that are easy to capture and interpret. There were, however, some exceptions along the way and we will talk about this under each finding. REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B MARKETING METRICS & ANALYTICS 2015 / 16

Which of the following Website metrics does your organization track? Visits 100% Views 95% Page view duration 80% Conversion rate 80% Bounce rate 75% Exit rate 50% It was encouraging to see the conversion rate being tracked by a significant number of the companies we surveyed alongside visits and page views. REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B MARKETING METRICS & ANALYTICS 2015 / 17

What of the following SEO metrics does your organization track? Click-through rate Keyword clicks Percentage of total traffic from organic search Keyword rankings Top sources of organic traffic Unique search terms driving traffic Keywords triggering search results Conversion rate by key term Keyword movement (e.g. month-over-month) Branded versus non-branded organic search traffic 84% 74% 74% 68% 63% 58% 53% 53% 42% 42% Which of the following PPC marketing metrics does your organization regularly track? Click-through rate 84% Visit-to-lead rate 63% Sales conversion rate Opportunity-to-close rate Lead-to-close rate 37% 32% 47% REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B MARKETING METRICS & ANALYTICS 2015 / 18

Which of the following Social Media metrics does your organization regularly track? Social reach (# of followers, likes, members, subscribers, etc.) 63% Traffic referrals by social media channels Engagement per post / tweet Leads by social media channel Conversion rate by social media channel Brand sentiment (ratio of positive to negative mentions) Top influencers Share of voice/conversation (% of conversation compared to the competitors) Sales by social media channel 50% 50% 44% 38% 31% 19% 19% 13% Cost per follower 0% B2B marketers don t expect to generate much leads through social media engagement and this is noticeable by the fact that only 44% tracked leads and 38% track conversion rate. More involved metrics like Brand Sentiment and Share of Conversation are yet to find popular appeal with the marketers. REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B MARKETING METRICS & ANALYTICS 2015 / 19

What Mobile metrics are more often tracked? Click-throughs 83% Mobile site traffic Type of device used to access mobile app/site App engagement Session length Conversion rate App downloads Ad impressions Visitor and consumer usage pattern Customer acquisition cost Mobile advertising metrics Session interval SMS marketing metrics QR/Barcode tags 50% 42% 33% 33% 25% 25% 25% 17% 17% 8% 8% 0% 0% Mobile Apps perhaps need higher traction in the marketing mix to warrant more attention in the analytics area. This is an opportunity that both marketers and their agencies need to address as engaging customers through Apps could be one way of reviving the mobile space in B2B marketing. REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B MARKETING METRICS & ANALYTICS 2015 / 20

Which of the following Email metrics does your organization regularly track? Click-through rate 94% Open rate 89% Conversion rate 72% Unsubscribe rate 67% Clicks-per-email 67% Deliverability rate 56% Clicks-per-link in email 50% List size 44% Social sharing rate 11% Inbox placement rate 0% REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B MARKETING METRICS & ANALYTICS 2015 / 21

Which of the following Content Marketing metrics does your organization regularly track? Leads 83% Downloads 78% Views 61% Likes, +1 s, tweets, shares, etc. 44% Comments per post 39% Conversion rate 39% Duration (time on page) 33% To us it would seem like social integration of content and encouraging conversations amongst stakeholders are areas that need attention as revealed by the rather low numbers cited by our respondents for likes & shares (44%) and comments per post (39%). REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B MARKETING METRICS & ANALYTICS 2015 / 22

Which Video metrics are often tracked? Views 90% Time duration spent 60% Likes, +1 s, tweets, shares, etc. 40% Play rate 30% Visitor traffic 30% Downloads 30% Comments 30% Engagement 30% # of videos produced monthly 20% Conversions 10% Hosting venue 0% Brand conversation 0% REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B MARKETING METRICS & ANALYTICS 2015 / 23

56% OF RESPONDENTS EXPECT THE ANALYTICS BUDGET TO INCREASE IN THE NEXT 12 MONTHS About a third (33%) expect the budget to remain the same. However, in terms of actual allocation, the share of analytics as a percentage of the overall marketing budget remains, at best, modest. How do you see your Marketing Analytics budget change over the next 12 months? Increases 56% Decreases 11% 33% Remains the same What percentage of your marketing budget is currently allocated towards Marketing Analytics? Below 10% 87% 10-25% 13% 25-50% Above 50% 0% 0% REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B MARKETING METRICS & ANALYTICS 2015 / 24

LACK OF RESOURCES IS THE NUMBER ONE CHALLENGE THAT MARKETERS NEED TO ADDRESS TO INVITE FURTHER INVESTMENT IN ANALYTICS 70 percent of our respondents tagged lack of resources to execute, as the biggest obstacle that was stopping their organization from investing in analytics. Given the increasing pitch for outsourcing elsewhere, this might be a good opportunity for external vendors to take the initiative and present a viable proposal to marketers for outsourcing their analytics to them. What are the key obstacles stopping your organization from investing in Marketing Analytics? Lack of resources to execute 70% Time required to collect and analyze data 41% Budget constraints 37% Lack of know how in using analytics tools 37% Issues with data quality and integrity 33% Lack of system integration 30% Lack of strategic vision / roadmap 30% Lack of proper analytics tools 22% REGALIX RESEARCH STATE OF B2B MARKETING METRICS & ANALYTICS 2015 / 25

ABOUT THE ANALYSTS Nimish Vohra SVP, Principal Analyst Nimish, Senior Vice President, works with CMOs and senior marketing professionals. His research focuses on customer experience management, predictive analytics, mobile enablement and other emerging trends that help customers leverage technology as an enabler of marketing and business outcomes. Srinivasan Seethapathy Senior Marketing Manager Srinivasan s research is focused on optimizing customer experiences across all channels. His research is aimed at marketers who want to understand how they can spend their budgets more efficiently by improving customer experiences across marketing channels.

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