Market View
Beyond MQLs: Reframing success in B2B marketing
Sponsored by:
Produced by:
Vivien Kilian
Marketing Excellence Director at Materialise
Market View
Beyond MQLs: Reframing success in B2B marketing
Sponsored by:
Produced by:
Vivien Kilian
Marketing Excellence Director at Materialise
About Vivien Kilian
Vivien Kilian serves as the Marketing Excellence Director at Materialise, a company specialising in additive manufacturing. Her role encompasses elevating the marketing strategy, implementing processes and tools for effective marketing, and bridging the technical-commercial gap with her background in chemistry. Recently, Kilian expanded her responsibilities to include the role of marketing director for the company's software unit, furthering her impact on Materialise's marketing efforts.
As we witness the continuous evolution in B2B marketing strategies, how do you perceive the impact of account-based marketing on traditional marketing measurement methods? Could you elaborate on the changes you've observed and implemented?
The landscape of B2B marketing is indeed shifting, with account-based marketing playing a pivotal role, especially as we delve deeper into the customer journey. Initially, our focus is broad, aiming to generate awareness without a direct product pitch. As the journey progresses and we acquire a deeper understanding of our customers, the strategy shifts dramatically towards account-based marketing. This strategy becomes particularly potent during the upselling and customer loyalty stages. This pivot towards account-based marketing, especially in upselling and fostering loyalty, represents a paradigm shift. Now, modern tools allow for a more refined and structured approach, enabling us to target our marketing efforts more effectively and ensure that we are meeting the specific needs of our existing customers with precision.
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This pivot towards account-based marketing, especially in upselling and fostering loyalty, represents a paradigm shift.
In synchronising your marketing strategies with sales goals, particularly around account-based marketing objectives, what hurdles have you encountered, and how have you addressed them?
One of the main hurdles is the often-discussed discrepancy between marketing and sales in the perceived quality of leads. The sales team's scepticism about the leads not sufficiently meeting the target criteria highlights the necessity for a tight-knit alignment between the two departments. In my tenure, a significant part of my role has been to mitigate this by fostering open, constructive dialogue ensuring that marketing can refine lead quality based on direct feedback from sales. The alignment is crucial for the seamless transition of leads within the customer journey, ensuring that both marketing and sales work towards a unified goal. This synergy is vital in our efforts to not only nurture leads but also in upselling to existing customers by providing them with relevant product updates, showcasing a broader industry trend where marketing is increasingly taking on roles traditionally filled by sales.
Reflecting on your experience, what key performance indicators (KPIs) do you believe are paramount for evaluating the impact of marketing efforts on generating new business revenue within your organisation?
The cornerstone of our evaluation framework is the analysis of the revenue generated per marketing tool and the cost associated with producing each lead, broken down by the various channels we utilise. This meticulous approach allows us to discern the most cost-efficient strategies for lead generation. Another indispensable metric is the volume of marketing qualified leads (MQLs), which are rigorously defined and classified within our system. This process of lead scoring and classification culminates in their transition into our CRM as MQLs, marking a crucial phase in their journey and serving as a key performance indicator for our team. Effective data analysis is vital for us to navigate the market dynamics accurately and make informed decisions that drive our business forward. This focus on precise measurement and classification underscores our commitment to optimising marketing efforts for the best possible returns.
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Effective data analysis is crucial for us to navigate the market dynamics accurately and make informed decisions that drive our business forward.
How integral are data and technology in deciphering account health and buyer intent in your strategic planning?
The role of data and technology cannot be overstated. Although our industry, additive manufacturing, is adept at gathering sector-specific data, the real challenge lies in leveraging our own data to refine our strategies and execution. We're on a journey to bolster our data utilisation capabilities, with a clear recognition of the immense potential that effective data analysis holds for strategic decision-making. By enhancing our ability to collect, interpret, and act on data, we aim to solidify our understanding of account health and buying intent, thereby driving our marketing and sales efforts with greater precision and insight.
Looking ahead, how do you see the role of generative AI evolving in account-based marketing within your organisation?
We're currently exploring the potential impacts of generative AI with great interest, particularly its ability to streamline and enhance decision-making processes. The challenge, however, lies in balancing the substantial initial investment against the direct financial returns. Generative AI holds promising potential, but it's about finding the balance between investment and returns. Our focus is on integrating this technology to complement our existing workforce, aiming to augment efficiency without displacing human insight and oversight. It's a delicate balance, but one that we're navigating with a keen eye on the future of marketing technology.
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Generative AI holds promising potential, but it's about finding the balance between investment and returns.
If budgetary constraints were no obstacle, what areas would you prioritise for investment to elevate your B2B marketing strategies in the coming years?
Without question, our primary investment would be in the realm of data integration. The ability to demonstrate the concrete returns on investment from advanced data analytics would open the door to more refined and targeted marketing campaigns. Before broadening our scope, however, it's imperative that our foundational data infrastructure is robust and capable of supporting these advanced analytical endeavours. Ensuring our systems are prepared for this level of sophistication is essential. Demonstrating the returns on investment from enhanced data analytics would pave the way for more targeted and effective marketing campaigns. Our focus on establishing a solid data infrastructure is the first step towards enabling meaningful analysis and insights, which, in turn, can drive more strategic and successful marketing initiatives. With the right foundation, we could leverage data in unprecedented ways, tailoring our approaches to meet the specific needs of our target accounts more effectively and efficiently. This investment in data would not only optimise our marketing efforts but also strengthen our strategic decision-making across the board.
About Materialise NV
Materialise incorporates more than three decades of 3D printing experience into a range of software solutions and 3D printing services that empower sustainable 3D printing applications. Our open, secure, and flexible end-to-end solutions enable flexible industrial manufacturing and mass personalization in various industries — including healthcare, automotive, aerospace, eyewear, art and design, wearables, and consumer goods. Headquartered in Belgium and with branches worldwide, Materialise combines the largest group of software developers in the industry with one of the world's largest and most complete 3D printing facilities.
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.
