How to Leverage Actionable Metrics to Drive Predictable Growth

How to Leverage Actionable Metrics to Drive Predictable Growth

When used correctly and strategically, data-driven marketing can help B2B marketing teams identify opportunities that can generate stronger business outcomes. Many teams, however, struggle to optimize marketing data to drive better business performance and ROI. So how can B2B marketers measure what counts to accelerate their initiatives?

That’s why we’re talking to Kenny Ridgell (Founder, Ridge Media LLC), who shared tried and tested strategies on how to leverage actionable metrics to drive predictable growth. During our conversation, Kenny emphasized the importance of understanding a company’s sales cycle, prioritizing high-impact metrics, and simplifying data analysis. He also elaborated on how integrating CRM systems can improve marketing attribution and enable full-funnel visibility. Kenny also advised against over-complicating marketing strategies, highlighted the value of continuous experimentation and optimization, and stressed the importance of demonstrating campaign effectiveness to get executive-level buy-in.

https://youtu.be/0Swnwrtiwk0

Topics discussed in episode:

[2:45] Why many marketing teams struggle with using data to achieve tangible business outcomes

[10:53] Examples of leveraging the right technology and tools for data insights

[13:21] Kenny explains why social media is a major pitfall for B2B marketers

[15:59] Why patience and experimentation are essential in B2B marketing

[19:14] How B2B marketers can leverage creativity and strategy in data-driven marketing

[23:14] How to get stakeholder buy-in and overcome internal resistance

[28:30] Actionable tips for B2B marketers to improve data practices

[30:37] Key metrics B2B marketers should track for long-term success:

• Number of Contacts in the pipeline
• Data input and output
• Number of call and form leads
• Engagement rate per page on site

Companies and links mentioned:

• Kenny Ridgell  on LinkedIn 
• Ridge Media LLC
• CallRail
• StackAdapt
• Crazy Egg

Christian Klepp  00:00

Many marketing teams struggle with leveraging data to achieve tangible business outcomes. They’re caught up in the cycle of analysis paralysis, or even end up looking at data that doesn’t really drive growth. A lot of it comes down to having the right strategy, understanding what the goals are, and making sense of the data. So how can B2B marketers measure what counts and leverage actionable metrics that drive profit. Welcome to this episode of the B2B Marketers in the Mission podcast, and I’m your host, Christian Klepp. Today, I’ll be talking to Kenny Ridgell, who will be answering this question. He’s the founder of Ridge Media LLC that aims to overcome the digital marketing chaos. Tune in to find out more about what this B2B marketers mission is. Off we go. Mr. Kenny Ridgell, welcome to the show, Sir. 

Kenny Ridgell  00:51

Yes, sir. Thank you. Christian, happy to be here. 

Christian Klepp  00:55

Man, it’s great to have you on the show. We had a fantastic pre interview conversation where we’re talking about fatherhood and crying babies and sleep deprivation and all that good stuff, right? 

Kenny Ridgell  01:07

All the fun stuff that everyone has to either look forward to or reminisce upon.

Christian Klepp  01:11

Yeah, or they look back at it and go, Yeah, I’m glad that’s passed. I’m glad that ship has sailed right.

Kenny Ridgell  01:16

Exactly, either reminiscing upon or lack of sleep, or looking forward to the lack of sleep, and nothing can prepare you.

Christian Klepp  01:23

Exactly, exactly. Or the comments like, oh, yeah, I remember those days.

Kenny Ridgell  01:24

Exactly. It’s like, I don’t even remember how bad it was six months ago. I think part of it is that amnesia that occurs. It’s like, oh, it’s not that bad.

Christian Klepp  01:38

Yeah. It’s a bit of a brain fog, exactly. Great. Kenny, but moving on now, from fatherhood to B2B marketing, Man, I’m really looking forward to this conversation because, let’s be honest, it’s a conversation that I think is something that needs to be had within an organization in order to drive that success. So what am I talking about, ladies and gentlemen, well, let’s just dive right in. Okay, so you’re on a mission to simplify marketing analytics, where you assist founders and CEOs in leveraging data for evidence based decisions that drive revenue. I hope I got that right. But for this conversation, let’s zero in on this topic, how to measure what counts and leverage actionable metrics to drive profit. Now people are probably thinking like, measure what counts. Hmm. Wonder what that means. But let’s kick off the conversation with two questions here. Okay, and I’m happy to repeat them. Why do you think so many marketing teams struggle with using data to achieve tangible business outcomes, and what do you think is the root cause of these issues?

Kenny Ridgell  02:45

I’ll go inverse. I’ll start with the second question. First, I think the root cause kind of stems from like a lack of understanding truly the industry or the business that you’re talking to. And what is the sales cycle like? How long does it take to get the clothes. What does the conversation and process look like? I mean, at the end of the day, if you take a manufacturer versus the landscaper, right? You’re going to have a landscaping like, visit, you’re going to audit the property, you’re going to come back with a proposal pretty quickly. It’s going to be brief. You might be able to close within like, you know, a week to three weeks, Max, maybe six or as a manufacturing opportunity, a lot of times, like, say, somebody’s coming in, they’re building something custom. There’s gonna be engineers involved, there’s gonna be spec involved. There’s gonna be multiple site business involved. It’s probably a year along two year long buying process before they actually purchase that equipment. I think the wrong video can get obsessed with is the incorrect metric from that right? 

Kenny Ridgell  03:39

So take impressions, for example, I call marketing a lot of times smoke and mirrors, because I think a lot of people can do it that song and dance they can do, like the pony show. But at the end of the day, what actually matters to this business owner money in their pocket. So if you back it up and, like, reverse engineer the situation the manufacturer, take that for example, how many eyeballs actually quantify of like, a quality buyer. There’s probably only a limited pool of people who are going to be buying this. You should not be measuring impressions as like, one of your like, Okay, we got 100,000 impressions. There’s probably not 100,000 people that are actively shopping for that piece of equipment at all. You don’t need to be looking at that. It needs to be much more like, of a less of a shotgun approach and more of a rifle specific, I think, the old adage of, you know, throwing the spaghetti against the wall and seeing what sticks that that may work in, like a B2C or retail type situation, but it B2B, it’s cutthroat. You got competitors who either, like, you know, in front of your customer already, and they’re already working with them, or they’re courting their your customer right now. So you got to be aft. You got to be quick. You got to be agile, and you got to really make sure that you’re telling the story directly to these people and not just measuring. Oh, well, what was their engagement? Did they come to my site and spend a lot of time on there? 

Kenny Ridgell  04:50

It’s no, it’s like, What page did they spend a lot of time on? How can we feed that type of information back to our sales team through the CRM (Customer Relationship Management)? How can we, like, connect the data? I think a lot of times, and the B2B world, there’s just a disconnect between what your sales team and there’s like your CRM is telling you and the updated refresh data versus what you’re learning on the other end. You need to be trying to understand this customer user journey. So we take Christian as like a prospective buyer. He looks at a Google ad. We now know that, you know, he has a device ID tag. He’s going to our LinkedIn. He’s going to our website. We already have him on our CRM, his emails there. He finally calls in, you know, off of a meta ad. Okay, well, did Christian come from Facebook because that was the last place he saw, or was it the entire user journey that mattered? What steps did it take? The full cost isn’t the cost per click on meta. The full cost is the Google cost per click, the cost of the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) campaign to find it again, the cost of your LinkedIn campaign, your email marketing drip, your sales guy who touched on again before he came to meta. And you want to know that whole pathway. And then you got to understand, like, you know what? What could we done to maybe shorten the pathway so it’s not as expensive? 

Kenny Ridgell  05:58

And then number two, h