Market View
Beyond MQLs: Reframing success in B2B marketing
Sponsored by:
Produced by:
Laura Watkins
Director of Media and Marketing at 11:FS
About Laura Watkins
Laura Watkins is the Director of Media and Marketing at 11:FS. She leads the integrated Growth Team, spearheading content-driven strategies that distinguish 11:FS in the financial services consultancy sector. With her innovative approach, Laura has established a strong, distinctive brand presence for 11:FS, setting it apart from industry giants. Her vision and leadership are instrumental in the company's mission to transform the global financial services landscape through cutting-edge media and content capabilities.
How has account-based marketing influenced the way marketing is measured at 11:FS?
Account-based marketing has really shifted our focus towards maximising existing relationships. It's all about doing more with less – leveraging our current accounts to boost ROI. As a multi-faceted organisation, we're exploring how to extend relationships across different parts of our business. A client initially engaging with one service might benefit from our 11:FS Foundry, Media, 11:FS Pulse or Consulting offerings too.
This approach isn't just about generating new marketing qualified leads (MQLs). Instead, it's about understanding each company's specific needs. We identify their jobs-to-be-done and direct them to the right part of our business that can solve their problems. It's highly personalised, focusing on relationship building and nurturing, regardless of where they are in the sales funnel.
Ultimately, it's personalisation first, then ROI. Of course, the cost per lead is much lower when you're working with an established relationship.
"Account-based marketing has really shifted our focus towards maximising existing relationships. It's all about doing more with less – leveraging our current accounts to boost ROI."
What are the top KPIs you use to measure marketing success?
Our primary measure is return on investment, especially for big efforts like events. Whether we're hosting our own or joining industry conferences, we analyse the returns closely. If outcomes don't meet expectations, we dig into why and adjust our strategies accordingly.
For our events, adding value to the business is crucial. We aim to cater to both our community of fans and broader business interests. It's about ensuring clients and prospects get a great impression of 11:FS, nurturing relationships, and opening doors for future engagements.
We also track event sign-ups rigorously, focusing on quality over quantity. We look at how many attendees are from key companies and how many are decision-makers. It's about being granular with our event turnout to ensure these engagements align with our business objectives.
Lead generation is vital, but it's not just about numbers. We assess both the volume and quality of leads. Are we reaching the right buying personas and key decision-makers? We're constantly critical of the quality within those numbers to ensure our efforts are targeted and truly beneficial.
If you were in your CEO's shoes, what metrics would you put in place to measure the marketing team's contribution to new business revenue generation?
ROI is critical, but ensuring accurate attribution is equally important. It's a common concern among marketers – properly citing the sources of deals. With brand awareness, it's tricky because you can't always pinpoint what exactly captured someone's attention. But when a deal closes, we need to document what triggered it – was it a podcast episode, an outdoor campaign, or a research report? Getting that attribution right in our backend is crucial for accurately determining ROI.
This gets particularly challenging with brand awareness campaigns where the impact might not be immediate. We need to look at both ROI and cost per lead. In performance marketing, the cost per lead is clear, but for events, we need to weigh leads generated against the event cost.
We also focus on the ratio of leads to qualified leads. It's great if a high percentage of leads qualify as potential clients. And since we're content-led, continuously measuring our audience – size, geography, dynamics – is crucial. We keep a close eye on our podcast audience, for instance, monitoring where our listeners come from.
These insights help us inform the sales team about potential new markets. It's not just a vanity metric; it's actionable intelligence that can open doors and drive strategic sales initiatives.
"ROI is critical, but ensuring accurate attribution is equally important. It's a common concern among marketers – properly citing the sources of deals."
"As technology evolves, balancing automation with personal interaction will become an even more critical discussion in marketing and sales strategies."
What are the key trends and challenges that will shape the future of sales and marketing collaboration in the next few years?
We need to continuously innovate to attract new markets and audiences. Avoiding saturation and finding new iterations of our services to capture new audiences will be crucial.
We'll need tighter alignment between sales and marketing, especially around buying personas. This ensures both teams are in sync as our services evolve. Content consistency is another key aspect. We must maintain our content's impact and not lose our brand personality as we grow.
This is particularly important in the maturing fintech field. As companies scale and add compliance layers, there's a risk of branding becoming similar and less distinctive. We need to maintain our unique flair – that distinctiveness that's characterised our brand.
On a broader scale, while marketing automation can streamline processes, it's not suitable for every aspect of the sales funnel. Over-automation can lead to challenges, with potential clients filtering out content that feels automated. As AI improves, people are getting better at spotting what's not genuine. While marketing decisions are logical, there's always a human element – people respond personally and emotionally to marketing. Authenticity is key.
Just because we can automate doesn't mean we always should, especially in sales. Sometimes, a personal touch seals the deal. As technology evolves, balancing automation with personal interaction will become an even more critical discussion in marketing and sales strategies.
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About 11:FS
11:FS is a trailblazing financial services consultancy that challenges industry norms through innovative research, strategy, and the design, building, and launching of digital propositions, including bank builds. Their unique content-led approach delivers actionable insights and impactful solutions, fostering a dynamic media presence and engaged community. By providing resonant thought leadership, 11:FS distinguishes itself from traditional consultancies, driving its mission to reshape global financial services for the benefit of businesses, merchants, and consumers.
About 6sense
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6sense are changing the world of marketing, one customer advocacy programme at a time. Ready to transform your business?
