Market View
Beyond MQLs: Reframing success in B2B marketing
Sponsored by:
Produced by:
Sanjana Chappalli
Vice President of Brand Marketing at Revinate
About Sanjana Chappalli
Sanjana Chappalli serves as Vice President of Brand Marketing at Revinate, where she leads brand marketing and communication functions. Since joining in November 2021, she focuses on strategic brand positioning while developing targeted marketing plans to expand their customer base of over 12,500 hotels globally. She plays a crucial role in defining and executing marketing campaigns that drive brand awareness and help the demand generation function meet pipeline revenue targets.
How does your organization measure marketing success, and what metrics do you use to capture marketing's impact on revenue?
We take a two-pronged approach to marketing at Revinate, playing both a short and long game. In the short term, we go beyond measuring MQLs to track metrics throughout the entire pipeline journey. We focus on how much pipeline we've generated, deals closed and the Annual Contract Value (ACV) of these deals.
The long game is equally important and centers around brand marketing. Industry research shows that 95% of potential buyers aren't actively in the market, but they will be at some point. Our challenge then is positioning our brand and products in their minds for when they are ready to buy. We measure success here through mapping brand equity and mental availability through various indicators.
We take a comprehensive approach, monitoring various brand marketing initiatives through a combination of metrics. We track everything from impressions to organic traffic, with particular attention to our blog section since educational or informational content is central to our strategy. As any seasoned marketing professional will tell you, brand equity can be quantified.
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90% of people choose a vendor from their day-one list. This insight drives our marketing strategy at Revinate – our primary focus is getting on that day-one list.
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We're not just looking at impressions, web traffic, or session numbers. We're looking to measure recall – do people remember Revinate as the direct booking platform leader? When hospitality professionals have questions about driving profitability, do they turn to Revinate as their go-to resource?
How do you maintain brand visibility and mental availability in the market?
We invest significantly in creating and distributing educational and informational content. Our podcast, which releases weekly episodes and has surpassed 100 episodes, consistently attracts C-suite level executives as guests. We focus on facilitating valuable discussions about the hotel tech industry without any product pitches. Our CMO serves as the host, and we take a thoughtful approach to building relationships through these conversations. We personally handle pre-recording calls to understand guests' perspectives and explore potential conversation directions.
We also host regular roadshows and customer conferences, with our flagship conference running successfully for over 15 years. These events focus purely on knowledge sharing, inviting industry leaders to share insights and creating spaces for learning. What started as a customer-only conference has evolved to include partners and industry analysts. This organic growth has led to numerous successful business relationships.
Additionally, we've developed strong partnerships with trade publications in the hospitality industry, maintaining a robust content machine that produces everything from webinars to comprehensive guides. Our focus remains on educating hoteliers about transforming their operations and improving their bottom line, rather than pushing product demonstrations.
How do you ensure alignment between sales and marketing teams in revenue generation?
At Revinate, we don't view revenue generation as either sales-led or marketing-led – it's truly collaborative. We have shared metrics for success, with marketing having a stake in both pipeline generation and closed deals. Our CMO's background as a former Chief Revenue Officer gives her unique insight into sales team needs and perspectives.
The alignment comes from three key elements. First, having leaders who understand each other and recognize they're driving toward the same goals. Second, defining shared objectives – we agree on specific pipeline generation targets and their breakdown between inbound traffic, SDRs, and direct sales efforts. With a marketing team of 25-27 people, we've made the strategic decision to have SDRs report to marketing rather than sales, which is quite different from typical B2B SaaS organizations.
Third, hiring the right people who truly understand their respective disciplines. This alignment fundamentally comes from speaking the same language and setting shared objectives. When we agree that pipeline generation needs to hit specific targets, with clearly defined percentages coming from different channels, everyone works toward these same clearly defined goals.
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I don't believe that marketing can come in, tell people they have a problem and offer up a solution two minutes later. That's not how it works. It's a longer process, and we are working to make sure we cover the entire journey - from awareness to long-term partnership.
What do you see as the biggest challenge facing B2B marketing today?
The fundamental challenge lies in finding marketers who truly understand marketing foundations. Many people enter the field through short courses or online tutorials without grasping the core principles of marketing theory like segmentation, targeting, and positioning. At Revinate, we invest in marketing education – our team completed a rigorous marketing course like Mark Ritson's Marketing and Brand Management Mini MBA. These courses give us a shared language and understanding.
We need to move past the tendency to jump on every new trend and instead focus on timeless marketing principles. While tools and tactics may evolve, the fundamental aspects of understanding your audience, creating value, and building long-term brand equity remain constant. The key is finding this balance between maintaining strong marketing foundations while staying adaptable to new technologies and market dynamics.
I also actively mentor young marketers, particularly those in their first few years in the field. I make time, especially on Saturdays, to listen to their challenges and share knowledge about B2B marketing success strategies and brand marketing fundamentals. There's a significant gap where senior marketers often don't make enough time for these mentoring conversations, but it's crucial for developing the next generation of marketing professionals.
About Revinate
Revinate is a global Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) technology company that specializes in the hospitality industry. As a direct booking platform leader for hotels, they develop innovative solutions designed to transform guest experiences while increasing profits for hotel owners and management companies.
About 6sense
6sense is on a mission to revolutionise the way B2B organisations create revenue by predicting customers most likely to buy and recommending the best course of action to engage anonymous buying teams. 6sense Revenue AI is the only sales and marketing platform to unlock the ability to create, manage and convert high-quality pipeline to revenue. Customers report 2X increases in average contract value, 4X increases in win rate and 20-40% reduction in time to close deals. Know everything, do anything, with 6sense.
