Breaking Down the 2023 Marketing Data Impact Report webinar

[00:00:00]  Introductions

Nikki Candito: Hi, I'm Nikki Candito, VP of Integrated Marketing here at Anteriad. And I'm here today with Todd Lebo to discuss the findings from our most recent 2023 Marketing Data Impact Report. This report highlights how marketers like yourselves are using data to build audiences and convert them even under times of mounting pressure.

Todd, I would love for you to introduce yourself to our audience.

Todd Lebo: Oh, yes, it's a pleasure to be here today. And Todd Lebo, my background is a little bit unique because I have both a marketing background and a research background. For over 20 years, I've led various companies, marketing departments, and about eight years ago, I started Ascend2 with my partner and we tried to make research very practical.

So our goal is to not only turn out high-quality research but also help marketers connect the dots for how to use that research to change what they are doing.

[00:01:05] Data Impact Report Key Highlights

Nikki Candito: I love that. So I would love for us to start with like highlights of the report, things we learned, and then maybe we can get down into some great details for the audience.

Todd Lebo: Sure. Probably the best place to start is actually in 2022, because in 2022, we worked with Anteriad and our first research study, we really found out the importance of having a comprehensive data strategy. We interviewed B2B marketing professionals, and that was really what came to the top of our findings.

And so we always try to take the research that we do the next year, learn from that and dig deeper. So in 2023, we dig deeper into how marketers are using data to build and convert audiences. We surveyed 328 marketing professionals from mid and enterprise companies in the U. S. and the U. K. And, Nikki, we always try to have interesting segmentations of the data.

We go into each research study where we try to find four or five segmentations that we feel like will add a little bit more richness, richness and depth to the study. We never know exactly which ones are going to provide the most interesting findings, but we put it out there and then it's fun for our analysts to dig into it and find out what's most interesting.

So for example, number of employees, a change in revenue. We found one group we had was groups that are utilizing the right data to convert audiences, improve pipeline. And we call those people data heroes. And actually we're going to, I think Anteriad is going to do a webinar digging, deeper into that group as well, because that was a pretty interesting data analysis.

Nikki Candito: Yes, it was quite impressive what those individuals are doing.

Todd Lebo: I know it was a little bit surprising, wasn't it, Nikki? Because, we, like I said, we don't necessarily know what the, where the data is going to lead us.

And it's wow, okay, this is pretty cool.

Nikki Candito: Yeah, it is really cool. So speaking of cool, I love the three highlights that we have here for our audience. So why don't we gloss over these and then maybe go deep in each area. Does that sound good?

Todd Lebo: Yeah, let's do that. When we went through and analyzed the data, we found that with better data, marketers can expect better results and more revenue.

43 percent of marketers, who report they use the right data to target their audience saw a significant increase in revenue from last year. So that was 1 of the key highlights and Nikki, it wasn't necessarily surprising, but it was really helpful to have that data to back up that hypothesis.

Nikki Candito: Yeah, absolutely.

It's always good to see it in real life when you have a gut feeling about something. But then when the data shows you what's actually going on, it's good to know that.

Todd Lebo: Exactly, especially since we're data driven marketers, right? So we always have to come back to the data to prove next steps for ourselves.

And the next data point was intent data leads are more powerful as proven in pipeline and revenue, and this was a real big number because 97 percent of those surveys said that intent data leads drive more pipeline than not intent data leads.

Nikki Candito: That's a ridiculously high number. I didn't expect it to be that high, to be honest with you.

But at the end of the day, it shouldn't surprise me because when you're leveraging intent data, that you're talking to individuals that are actually in market for your product you're offering. So in turn, you should see that higher click through rate, higher engagement rate and eventually like a quicker velocity for your pipeline.

Todd Lebo: That's right. The final finding, which I thought was interesting was just this pressure is increasing with marketers, but budgets aren't marketers are being faced and we see that with, where the economy is right now these pressures are mounting for marketers because their budgets are being stable, are stable or being cut the budget's being scrutinized and that just increases the pressure for marketers.

And they have to, close deals more quickly and really find ways to overcome those challenges.

Nikki Candito: Yeah, I feel it too. I think over the last decade, marketing has really gone from a top funnel, creative type of department and it's really moved to a revenue generating pipeline expected department.

And with that, you're going to get more expectations from not only your management team, but from the rest of the organization as well. And by just looking at these numbers, that 95 percent of people are feeling some type of pressure. So I wonder, Todd, throughout the data and the feedback we got from our respondents, is there anything that individuals are doing to help alleviate that pressure for themselves?

[00:06:00] Using Intent Data Alleviates Pressure From Leadership

Todd Lebo: There is. We were able to separate the intent users, people who are using intent data from the non intent users, and we asked them specific question, and we really saw the impact of people using intent data versus not. And here's the list. I don't have to read it to you Nikki, why do you think intent data works so well at proving, especially number one, lead quality?

Nikki Candito: Lead quality? Yeah. Like I said before, you're really, you're shrinking down the audience, right? So instead of trying to go out to tens of thousands of individuals that might fit your persona or might fit your industry, you're adding that extra layer of clarity in so you know that not only are they the persona in industry that you wanna target, But they actually care about your offering.

Prior to marketing automation and the ability to lead score, we didn't have the data at our fingertips to figure out who we should be targeting. But now marketers do have those tools and they do have that data. So it's great to see A that people are using it and B that it is absolutely improving their results for them.

Todd Lebo: Nikki, it's interesting. I started my research career when I was leading MarketingSherpa, back 15 years ago, we talked about pipeline and lead generation. It was always the, we want more quality leads versus quantity, right?

And we've talked about that for a long time, and we've strived for that. And I think intent data is a direct way to actually make that work.

[00:07:29] Ways to Mature the Use of Intent Data

Nikki Candito: Yeah, I totally agree. And, to me, there's probably a lot of different ways that people could use intent data. Here at Anteriad, we like to look at it as a journey, right?

From just starting out using intent and then using it in a really mature way. And 1 thing that I love about the results that you're seeing on the slide is it's showing that, the beginning stages of leveraging intent is the most popular, right? Providing relevant content to the identified audiences and getting that right message in front of your audience.

More than half people are doing it, right? Cause that's probably one of the easiest things that people can do with the systems that they have today. And then as you go down the list, you see these things are a little bit more mature and you're probably going to need some automation and some type of technology behind it.

So while people are using it, it's less people using it. As a marketer, I want to take this and be like, Oh, are we doing all these things here? And if not, how can we build that roadmap to get there? I just, I love to see that the majority of our audience, if they're not doing something with intent, they are planning on doing something with intent.

Todd Lebo: Yeah. I think when I look at that chart too, it really just tells me no matter where you're at, in the process, that's okay. You have to start somewhere. It takes small little steps. You don't have to have the whole thing figured out right away. But if, regardless of where you're at, and hopefully from our discussion today and the research study and other collateral you can receive, you can like just put your flag down and get started and take those small steps.

Nikki Candito: Yep, I totally agree. Okay, so People are feeling pressure. They're turning to things like intent data to alleviate that pressure. What else did we find out that people are doing today?

[00:09:12] Benefits of Using Buying Group Lead Scoring

Todd Lebo: Sure. Another thing that was pretty interesting is buying groups it became really obvious In the data that people that are using buying groups are driving the best results and Nikki yeah, if you could just provide I think before maybe we dive into the research itself, just give a definition of a buying group and so we're all on the same page.

Nikki Candito: Sure. So there's a lot of different definitions out there. I like to partner with Forrester for stuff like this. And their definition of a buying group is looking at a set of people inside of the prospect account that are going to work together to evaluate a solution and make a decision.

These numbers are great. Can you dive into them a little bit for us?

Todd Lebo: Yeah, we found that the survey respondents that are using buying groups scoring are clearly outperforming those who are using individual lead scoring. Buying group users in every single category are improving their metrics. And I think that really what stood out. As you go down here, the green is the buying groups and every single metric that you use is being improved by buying groups.

40 percent of the people that we surveyed said they are using buying groups and Nikki, what do you think about that? From the standpoint of where we're at in buying groups.

Nikki Candito: Yeah. I almost think of it twofold. One, I think that's awesome that 40 percent of marketers are using it and then it's well, what's the other 60 percent doing?

What are they waiting for? I think sometimes the theory of buying groups can be daunting and complex. It's different at every company depending upon what industry you're in what you're trying to sell, who your personas are but there's ways that you can advance just your simple lead scoring and engagement scoring to buying groups.

[00:10:57] How to Start Implementing Buying Groups in Your Marketing Strategies

Nikki Candito: A really simple way to start would be to look at your last full year of pipeline data. Get it out of your CRM, make sure it's enriched, it's appended, download it. And then you're going to want to use a pivot table. If you're not good at using pivot tables, find someone that is. And then once you're in there, start pivoting on a couple different things.

You're going to want to look at one, your industry. Then you're going to want to look at two, products purchased. Then you're going to do it once more by your company size and then from there job titles. And that's going to give you clusters of information about the people that are responsible for buying the product and the influencers that work with them.

And just starting right there, you can do a very simple buying group test. So here at Anteriad, we are actually working on this very thing. We are leaving our traditional lead scoring up and running and our nurture programs are up and running. And what we're doing is we're looking at a very specific group of targeted buyers within a set of prospect accounts. And we're trying to treat them a little bit differently.

One of the first things we did is we, customized their email nurture process and the open rates were four times higher and click through rates were three times higher just from simple targeting and personalization. When we shared that with the rest of the team, we were like, okay, like we need to be able to go and do this for everyone else.

Todd Lebo: That's a, that's a wow factor, right? Just those numbers that jumped out just by doing, doing a few tests. And I think what I would encourage the 60 percent who are not using buying groups is I think the key to marketing success is being curious. And so that's where you get into the data, dig down into it and you'll find, find some things that you can test and then from the test, some things work, some things don't, but you just keep optimizing that process.

[00:12:54] How To Ensure Use of Quality Data and Strategy

Nikki Candito: I love that. Todd, one thing I would love for you to talk about is quality of data. I think that came through not only in our 2022 report, but our 23 report as well.

Todd Lebo: That's right. We want to, go from just like the concept of quality data to really find a little bit more information about, what are people doing? What are their challenges? How are they leveraging data? And here are just a few highlights. We can see, data accuracy, proving results, and data privacy were the top three when it came to data quality.

And Nikki, I'm sure this probably didn't surprise you a whole lot.

Nikki Candito: No, we hear this every day from our customers.

Todd Lebo: Yeah, you could just think about, the last six months, how many people, you know, who have changed jobs, changed positions. So data accuracy and having things that are updated and reliable are critical when you're trying to be more specific with your audience.

Nikki Candito: Yeah, I totally agree. So do you think you'd say that maybe the data strategy is a super important thing for our audience to think about?

Todd Lebo: Oh, for sure. We definitely saw that. And one of the data points we had in the survey, we found that 44 percent B2B marketers said the data challenge quality and completeness was the biggest challenge.

So yeah, I think, having data that you can't feel confident in. Is a very uncomfortable situation when you're marketing.

Nikki Candito: Yeah, I totally agree. I think that your data strategy is really the foundation of successful campaigns. Especially in a place where we have to prove success and pipeline through the numbers.

So you want to make sure that you have a very core strategy set down.

Todd Lebo: And, again, we go back to, I think when we talk about strategy and I know at Ascend2 so many of the things that we, when we do studies, we find that lack of an effective strategy, is it a top challenge. So marketers are, we're all busy.

We all have more than enough on our plate. So it's not the lack of tactics and things to do a lot of times. It's just, how does it all come together and really data? That's going to be your foundation for everything. Your content strategy, your email strategy, everything is going to really be, you need that data strategy to make everything work better.

[00:15:21] Personal Takeaways

Nikki Candito: Yep. I totally agree. That was some really great findings. I know that the report itself , it has a lot more data in there for those of you that are interested, please go and download it. We'll provide you guys with some information at the end. But to wrap up Todd I think that I'm going to walk away with two things, and I want to hear if you have two things to walk away with.

One, I want myself, my team and all of you out there to be curious. Just like Todd said a few minutes ago. When you're curious and you go and poke around and see what other people are doing and start doing little testing and changing variables here and there, you're going to learn a lot about your audience, and you're going to learn about what works and what doesn't.

So always be curious, no matter how much pressure you're under. Don't just fall into the same old tactics, right? Be ready to change things. And then I think the second thing is that this report is telling me is use the data to help you make decisions. The data is going to tell you what way to go and what way that you're going to need to change course.

And when everything is rooted in data, it's a lot easier to prove to your leadership and to your teams what's working and what's not.

Todd Lebo: Yeah, one, a couple takeaways I had. One is, the discussion of is intent data work or not work that discussion's over now. It's more of the discussion of how are you going to do it?

And when are you going to get started? And so I think that is a really important factor and it came out through, this research and then also, going back to groups and just buying groups. I think to me, that's really important because, we always have known as marketers that there's many people involved in the decision process and being able to speak to them, uniquely for where they're at in the buying process and their influence, I think it's really important. As marketers, the more information we have, the better. And so you can see that, that's really important. And I would also just say that for marketers, don't let it overwhelm you.

Start small and just look, take, sometimes it's better to take a step back before you dive into all the tactics and work on that strategy a little bit and then go and you can assess what you're doing and your success and failures better.

Nikki Candito: I love that. That is great. Great recommendation for our audience.

And I want to thank you for partnering with us to, to do this research and to come in here and speak with me about it. There's a number of things that are. audience can walk away from and go check out. You can go download the report and you can learn about all the other things we asked to these wonderful marketers.

We also have some blogs and assets about the benefits of buying group scoring. And then teasing on what Todd mentioned in the very beginning of our time here was how to be a data hero. So there was a chunk of our audience, 27%. So it's a sizable chunk that we're calling our data heroes, and we're going to go.

Deep into that area and you'll start seeing some things come out very soon. But until next time, thank you so much for your time and we hope you have a great day. Thank you. Have a great day. Bye.