Measure the metrics that matter
The secret for turning video into a top revenue-earning channel.
Did you know 62% of B2B buyers trust video content when making purchase decisions?
Even still, I talk to so many marketers who struggle to justify the time and resources video requires. I get it, video is hard!
But it’s also a crucial marketing channel, especially in B2B where products are complex and buyers journeys are long. So, here’s a look at how to understand whether your video efforts are paying off.
Ignore vanity metrics
A lot of marketers obsess over vanity metrics. Likes, views, even shares — these are the simplest to measure and they do have their place, but they won’t really tell you whether your video strategy is driving revenue.
If you can’t show that you’re driving revenue, it’ll be hard to keep your CFO from cutting video budget. We don’t want that, do we?
Focus on revenue predictors
These metrics are the best I’ve found for predicting revenue. The best video teams I know use these to evaluate their video content. They’re generally harder to measure, but trading extra time is worth it to understand performance.
Intent signals: these are signs of someone actively considering a purchase. Comments or DMs about your service are a great sign that someone is in the research stage of buying.
You can measure these manually by scanning comments on your videos asking for more info, or DMs from prospects. You can also set up social listening tools or CRM integrations to flag high-intent interactions and see if they can be traced back to your content.
Pipeline influence: this is basically whether your videos influenced someone to buy (or not). Are people converting better after interacting with your content? How and when in their buying journey do they interact with it?
You can measure pipeline influence by asking your sales reps (nicely) to flag video mentions that come up in calls. There are even some sales tools that let you set up filters to automatically flag mentions of certain keywords. A company that does this really well is Gong.
Of course, self-reported attribution forms can work too — i.e. “How did you hear about us?”
Sales Velocity: does your video content make people go from first touch to closed-won faster? If so, it’s probably worth doing!
Some marketers butt heads with their sales teams. I think they forget we’re on the same team. As a marketer, making content that helps your sales team do their job better, faster, or easier is a big win!
Compare average sales cycle lengths for leads who did engage with video content vs. those who didn’t. You can also track touchpoints in your CRM to see how early and often leads interact with video content, if you want to be fancy.
If you really want to make buttloads of dough with video, you have to know the metrics that lead to dough. Likes, views, and shares are great for growing an audience, not so great for growing your bottom line.
Let’s keep our eyes on the right prize.
- Ademola
p.s. I’m back from vacation. Did you miss me? ‘Cause I missed you.