As you start the initial phase of reporting on your clients’ ABM program's performance, there are several critical elements to consider. These include determining which metrics to capture, identifying the types of reports to produce, establishing the reporting cadence, and understanding how to tailor these reports for the various audiences that will review them. This guide outlines everything you need to know to effectively report on the performance of your clients' ABM programs, ensuring you deliver actionable insights and maintain transparency throughout the reporting process.
Metrics to Capture in Your Reports
When it comes to the metrics essential for reporting back to your clients, it’s important to differentiate the types of insights you'll be capturing. To effectively manage and communicate these insights, we recommend categorizing them into two distinct buckets.
1. High-Level Metrics
These metrics provide a birds-eye view, offering an overarching perspective at a macro level on how your ABM program is performing. They are designed to give stakeholders a snapshot of the program’s overall health and success across both engagement and revenue performance. We go into detail around each metric here.
2. Granular Tactical Metrics
This second bucket provides detailed insights into the operational aspects of your ABM strategy. These metrics are much more focused and detail-oriented, covering the performance of specific tactics, channels, and other micro-components of the campaign. Examples might include click-through rates on individual ads, conversion rates for specific offers, and engagement metrics for particular content pieces.
Both types of metrics are imperative to provide your clients with comprehensive reporting that will instill trust and portray how the campaign has been performing. High-level metrics help you gauge the effectiveness of the ABM program and make strategic decisions, while granular tactical metrics allow you to dive deep into specifics, optimize continuously, and refine tactics on a more micro-level.
Types of reports
When reporting ABM success to your clients, we recommend utilizing three distinct types of reports to comprehensively cover the key aspects of your campaign's performance. Below we outline the objectives and content that each report should include, ensuring you deliver valuable insights effectively. While we will discuss the nuances of a weekly reporting cadence in more detail later in this guide, the following sections detail the recommended structure for each reporting type.
1. Engagement Report (Weekly)
Objective: Provide a regular update to the client highlighting engagement levels and interactions across your target accounts.
Included:
- Engagement Trends: Capturing the engagement levels of specific tactics or occurrences within the week. This report should be viewed as offering lighter metrics; major shifts may not be evident on a week-to-week basis but it’s crucial for capturing unique insights and ensuring regular communication on any significant breakthroughs or immediate challenges.
2. ABM Scorecard (Monthly)
Objective: Offer a concise report that tracks progress towards key objectives, providing a quick snapshot of performance against established goals.
Included:
- Engagement Assessment: Highlight the increase in engagement levels among target accounts and contacts.
- Revenue Growth: Evaluate how the program is impacting revenue growth through both qualified meetings generated and closed-won deals.
- Program Goals: Report on the progress of any unique goals tailored to the ABM program.
- Tactical Performance: Analyze the effectiveness of each tactic within the campaign orchestration plan, identifying successful strategies and pinpointing areas for improvement (ex: ad clicks, target account website traffic).
3. ABM Performance Report (Quarterly)
Objective: Deliver an in-depth analysis of your ABM program’s performance, expanding upon the monthly scorecard with added context and strategic insights.
Included:
- Comprehensive Insights: Expand on the elements from the ABM Scorecard with additional data and deeper analysis.
- Key Challenges and Roadblocks: Identify and discuss any significant challenges or obstacles that have arisen during the quarter.
- Successes: Highlight elements of the program that are performing well.
- Wish List: Specify desired improvements, additional resources needed, or strategic shifts required for future cycles.
Establishing a Reporting Cadence
When establishing a reporting cadence for your clients, it’s important to select intervals that optimally demonstrate the measurable changes within your ABM campaigns. Experience suggests that monthly reporting is most conducive for observing significant developments in account engagement and overall performance. While weekly measurements can be useful for monitoring the immediate impact of specific actions or events, they may introduce volatility and may not effectively capture long-term trends.
Weekly Reporting
If your clients require weekly updates, we recommend utilizing these reports to highlight particular tactical implementations or noteworthy activities, such as the effects of an ABM-led event. This frequency is beneficial for illustrating the immediate impacts of your strategies and for rapidly modifying tactics based on real-time feedback.
Monthly Reporting
It is imperative to set clear expectations, noting that substantial shifts and trends are more discernible on a monthly basis. Monthly reports offer a more comprehensive perspective on how strategies influence target accounts over an extended period, providing a clearer depiction of both progress and necessary adjustments. We advocate for monthly intervals as the standard for thorough analytic reports.
Quarterly Reporting
Quarterly reviews of the ABM program’s performance are crucial for conducting a deep, detailed analysis. These reviews should expand upon your monthly reports by aggregating all insights at a granular level. The goal is to craft a strategic narrative that details past activities, highlights achievements, and outlines areas for future optimization. Additionally, these reviews should address potential roadblocks or challenges, discussing strategies for overcoming them to ensure ongoing improvement and success in future cycles.
Tailoring Your Reports Based on the Audience
When delivering reports to your client, it's essential to tailor your communication and metrics to suit the specific audience that is being addressed. Each group within the client's organization will have different interests and focus areas, making it crucial to adjust your approach accordingly.
Here’s a breakdown of the three key audience types and the kind of metrics they prioritize:
1. Executive Level (C-Suite)
For the C-suite, the focus should be on high-level metrics that directly illustrate the impact of your ABM efforts on the company’s bottom line. This audience is primarily interested in understanding how your strategies are moving the needle in terms of revenue generation, overall business growth, and strategic movement of target accounts through the sales funnel and engagement stages. They seek to see a macro view of the ABM program’s success and its contribution to the organizational goals.
2. Marketing and Cross-Functional Teams
This group requires a blend of both high-level and granular tactical metrics. Since these team members are closely involved in the execution of strategies, they benefit from seeing how their specific actions influence overall campaign outcomes. Sharing detailed metrics allows them to see the direct results of their work and provides a deeper understanding of the tactical effectiveness. This in-depth view helps them to optimize their efforts continuously and align more closely with broader marketing goals.
3. Sales Teams
For the sales audience, the focus should also be on high-level metrics, particularly those related to revenue and lead quality. Sales teams are most concerned with how the ABM program is driving revenue, enhancing relationship building, and delivering high-quality, conversion-ready leads. While they may appreciate some insight into specific engagement metrics, the overriding emphasis should be on outcomes that demonstrate how the program helps them achieve their sales targets and improve their efficiency. Granular details should be limited and focused only on those aspects that directly correlate with their goals and contributions.
Best practices
When preparing and presenting your ABM reports, it's crucial to employ a set of best practices that ensure clarity, credibility, and actionable intelligence.
Here’s how you can structure your approach for optimal impact:
- Link to Data Sources for Transparency: Always provide clear references and links to the sources of your data. This practice not only fosters transparency but also builds trust with your audience by allowing them to verify the information independently. It helps in maintaining clarity about how data is gathered and processed.
- Interpret the Metrics: Don’t just present data; explain what it means in the broader context of the ABM efforts. Provide insights into how these metrics reflect on the strategies you’ve implemented, what they signify about market responses, and how they relate to the overall business objectives.
- Assess Lagging Indicators: Regularly review lagging indicators such as revenue performance against pre-set goals. Lagging indicators provide a solid foundation for evaluating the success of your marketing initiatives by showing the end results of your efforts.
- Evaluate Leading Indicators: Focus on leading indicators to gauge the potential future performance of your ABM campaigns. These indicators, such as engagement rates or lead generation metrics, help predict how well the sales funnel might be filled and nurtured in the future. Understanding these can guide proactive adjustments to your marketing strategies.
- Develop Hypotheses Based on Current Performance: Use your findings to formulate hypotheses about what’s driving your results and what could be improved. This approach allows you to test specific elements of your ABM strategy and make data-driven decisions that enhance your program's effectiveness.
- Craft a Compelling Narrative: Create a narrative that ties together all your data and insights into a coherent story. This should highlight key findings, actionable insights, and strategic recommendations. A well-crafted narrative helps stakeholders understand the significance of the ABM program and how it aligns with broader business goals.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is crucial to establish a clear precedent regarding the metrics you intend to use, all of which should align with the parameters set during your initial ABM setup. You should consistently communicate these metrics following the prescribed cadence, incorporating both types of metrics while also tailoring them to suit different audience types within your reports. Equally important is client enablement; it’s pivotal to ensure your clients are equipped to effectively articulate these reports across their cross-functional and leadership teams. This step should not be overlooked as it significantly enhances the value and comprehensibility of the insights provided.
Learn how Propensity is helping Marketing Agencies add an ABM practice: https://www.propensity.com/marketing-agencies