AMA: Salesforce Senior Director, Product Marketing Launch Strategy, Jodi Innerfield on Product Marketing KPI's

You have to start somewhere! What do you know about this market that may help you identify the right targets? What do you know about your existing markets that might help you set a target? Is it possible to set a goal based on existing knowledge of a different market or product--5% increase in CTR, 10% increase in new logos--and see how it goes? Even if it's the first time YOU'VE entered a market, someone else has done it before. There has to be SOME data out there that can help you build a framework for some initial targets, and then you adjust.

KPIs are super important to me as a PMM, as it helps me get a sense of what's working/not working. "Key Performance Indicators" truly are indications of what's performing--and what's not performing. Some of the metrics I like to look at are: * Web traffic, trial starts, trial conversions, CTRs on demos and content downloads: Are people engaging with my webpage? My trials? Content? If not, what part of the journey is broken and needs to be addressed? * Sales enablement, usage of sales resources: Does my sales team understand the products they are selling? Are they having the right conversations with customers? * Event attendance and ratings: Is my content at an event resonating? Are the right people coming to an event? * Campaign CTRs: Is the message resonating? Am I targeting the right audience with the right message?

There are short term and long term metrics you can look at to gauge launch success. Here are a few! Short-Term Launch Success Metrics: * PR & AR: Press/media mentions, media interviews, Analysts briefed, analyst report inclusion * Social: Social engagement, click-throughs, shares * Web: Traffic increases, CTR on key CTAs, demo views, content downloads * Content: Engagement, downloads, shares * Sales: AEs enabled, opportunities opened, customer engagements scheduled * Product: Trials, downloads, engagement Long-Term Launch Success Metrics: * Product: MAU, engagement, retention * Sales: Pipeline, revenue, average deal cycle length, average deal size * Web: Overall traffic trend changes

Product launch KPIs should span the funnel so you can identify what's working and what's not. You also want to understand the customer, media, and sales team's interest in your product. Tracking a variety of KPIs will help you do that; Awareness: * Media interviews, Press mentions, clickthrough rates on the press release, website views, social views/interactions; Demand Gen: * CTRs on social and paid ads that go to your website so you can track campaign performance and customer journeys; Form-fills on content, demos; Open rates on emails Pipeline: * This requires your SKU to be live. So if your announcement predates your actual GA date, it gets harder to track * Before SKUs are live, you can track number of AEs, SDRs, SEs trained; Track usage/downloads on first call decks, demos, and other internal resources that give you a sense of how often sales teams are using your content; You can use hashtags on opportunities to get a ballpark idea of whether the field is having customer conversations about your product * Once SKUs are live, tracking pure pipeline and revenue tied to your product; number of customer meetings; time to close;

What KPIs you bring to the CMO or CFO to prove the value of PMM depends upon which metrics you can directly attribute to PMM in your organization. Some organizations have attribution models that let them directly attribute pipeline and revenue to marketing-driven activities. Here are some quantitative and qualitative metrics you can use: Sales team enablement/engagement: PMMs are directly responsible for enabling the field on products. Any metrics around # of AEs/SEs/SDRs trained, usage metrics on enablement content, pipeline created X days after an enablement, or qualitative feedback from sales teams will prove PMM's value. Content performance: PMMs create demos, webinars, datasheets, guides--any content created by PMMs can be tracked. Does performance often rely on how well it's also promoted? Yes. But especially if you can track webinar attendance and completion rates, downloads on content, or even how often sales teams are using this content with customers, that will be a direct reflection of PMM's value to the organization. Pipeline and revenue impact: If your organization has an attribution model enabling you to tie marketing activities to pipeline or revenue, that's the golden ticket. If not, you could look at pipeline and revenue generated by specific individuals/teams/accounts who engaged with a marketing activity/activation For example, opportunities opened or closed after an event; accounts that attended a webinar or downloaded a piece of content. Website and Campaign Performance: While PMMs might not directly own web or campaigns, we do own the message and influence the strategy. How does A/B testing on campaign messages impact performance? What about web metrics after improvements and updates? It's all fair game!

There's two big challenges when implementing KPIs for PMM: * Attribution * Reporting You need to be able to properly attribute KPIs to the work a PMM does. Unlike sales where it's pretty clear that AE Alvin closed Deal Delta, marketing efforts can be a little more nuanced to attribute to a deal. Also, many marketing efforts are crossfunctional: Demand gen, web, social, events--all touch initiatives that PMMs either lead or co-lead. You need to identify what KPIs you're attributing to PMM, HOW you're measuring attribution, and make sure your incentives are aligned with your marketing partners so you're not running into each other in your efforts. This requires a lot fo cross-functional teamwork. Then, you need to properly report on your metrics and KPIs. If you can't accurately and adequately pull metrics, it's pretty hard to measure them and then be held accountable to them. Who owns your MarTech stack? Are PMMs trained and equipt to pull the metrics they need? Do you have partners in the organization that can help pull and interpret results? This is essential to making sure you're set up for success.