Author: Franz Malten Buemann

Starting and running your own business can be incredibly stressful. One survey of small business owners from Capital One found that 42 percent of them are currently experiencing burnout or have experienced it within the past month. This is why having a good support system is invaluable for entrepreneurs. Having a space to share the ups and downs of small business ownership and having people around you who understand your challenges can help make you more resilient and able to weather the storm that is small business ownership.We spoke to several incredible small business owners who are juggling multiple growth challenges, growing families, and all the while being focused on ensuring they get the support they need to be the best version of themselves and take their businesses forward.Holly Howard, a longtime business consultant says it best “I always say there’s no business growth without personal growth.” She goes on to say, “it’s about how we show up and how we take care of ourselves.” And the data supports it; in the same Capital One report, they found that more than half (53 percent) of business owners report that when they experience burnout, it is a barrier to success for their business.In Small Business, Big Lessons, season two, episode six, we detail how the owners of Harlow, SparkToro, Made With Local, Zingerman’s, Destination Unknown Restaurants and Paynter Jackets approach getting support as small business owners.Set healthy boundaries and intentional work policiesThe first place many small business owners mention when talking about support is getting support through setting healthy boundaries. Those can be in the form of setting healthy boundaries for themselves, as well as supporting those boundaries through intentional work policies that protect their team from burnout as well.Kelly Phillips, the founder of Destination Unknown Restaurants, a group of restaurants based in Washington, DC, knows that boundaries often start with her as the leader. “I am very respectful about time off and not texting, not calling, not emailing when I know people are off when they’re on vacation.” She leads by example when she’s not working, “I try not to let myself get caught up into work when I’m off. I know that I’m a better leader if I have time to rest.”Kelly is also focused on the environment that she cultivates at her restaurants. “I try to have a stress-free environment. Yes, it does get stressful. Yes, it does get busy, but I’m a big fan of lightening the mood by making a joke or, you know, giving somebody a high five or just saying something that’s gonna perk them up a little bit and make them feel good about themselves.” This environment makes a difference when her team is more supportive of each other through the highs and lows, “We know it won’t always be hard, you know, we’re gonna get through this. We have to close the doors eventually, and tomorrow will be a new day.”Intentional work policies can make a huge difference when it comes to burnout and cultivating a supportive network. Andrea Wildt and Samantha Anderl, co-founders of Harlow, a software designed to help freelancers with their business, know this first hand. They quit their nine-to-five jobs because those jobs didn’t work for them, so they built their business in a way that supported them and future employees. “So we have this saying actually at Harlow, that we believe that we are all better and more creative when we’re living well-balanced lives.” Samantha shared about their approach.They put into place policies to have limited meetings and a work culture that takes away the feeling that everything is urgent. The result? Both co-founders say they’re showing up as better versions of themselves. “Our brains don’t function in this ‘on state’ for eight, nine hours a day. We need downtime, we need breaks. And I think that. A lot of corporate environments just aren’t conducive to that at all. And so Samantha and I really wanted to build something different where we could foster more creativity.”♥️Read more about how Kelly Phillip’s approaches business in her post about putting employees first, not customers.Build up a community of other founders and of your customersAnother way to get support is to build up a community around yourself — both of other founders who understand what you’re going through and are facing similar challenges, and also to look to your community of customers, who understand your business better than a lot of others.Holly explains it as, “Who are those people that you can go to, that you can speak to about what you are going through?” She says that gathering can be really powerful because “everybody goes through the same challenges as an entrepreneur, and when we see our peers, and we have that camaraderie with our peers.” And this group environment is better for growth, too. “It’s actually much easier to change than when we’re isolated. So that support network of other people who understand what you’re going through and you can lean on each other is really important.”The co-founders of Harlow have been doing this since the beginning, proving that it’s never too early to start building a community. Samantha explained that they’ve been building up their community for the past eight years, it includes other founders and freelancers, and it has a very positive effect on them because, as it stands, Samantha said, “I don’t think we ever have a problem that we need to solve, that we don’t have somebody in our community that we’re like, ah, we should go talk to that person.”Community can also be found through more traditional business groups. Sheena Russel is the founder and CEO of Made with Local, a Canadian snack bar company and a certified B-corp. She’s found a lot of support through the movement. “I absolutely feel like we’re part of an incredible purpose-led business community.” Sheena knows the importance of community through her own experiences, “It can be lonely out there as a founder and as an entrepreneur.” She looks not only to her community of other entrepreneurs but also to her customers. “We have an amazing community around us of other businesses, but also of our customers as our community.”The theme with all of these business owners, as Rand Fishkin, the co-founder and CEO of SparkToro, is that he calls “an intentional investment in building a network of like-minded founders and like-minded companies.” There are a lot of ways to go about building up a support network through community, the key is just to get started.Several members of the Made With Local team.Join an existing network of like-minded people through groups or social mediaSometimes there is already an existing community where you can find support. Kelly is a part of an organization called Re: Her, a national non-profit driven by women restaurateurs. The organization’s mission is to empower women entrepreneurs, specifically in the food and beverage industry. She explains, “We have regular calls where we discuss issues in the restaurant community, and we have resources for each other. And even if it’s just checking in to say, Hey, how’s everybody doing? Oh, you know, prices have gone up on this. Does anybody have a good vendor for that? We really help each other.”This kind of existing organization can be a huge advantage for gaining support and making like-minded connections. These groups can be found online through tools like Meetup, Facebook Groups, and LinkedIn Groups. You can also ask around in your industry to see what organizations others already know about.Social media is another powerful tool for finding existing communities, groups, and resources. Sheena, who runs Made with Local from a smaller city in Canada, turns to digital platforms to connect. She shared, “If you’re an entrepreneur that’s struggling to connect with a community or with some mentors, I would say start looking online, honestly, through social media is an incredibly algorithmically driven way to find people that are doing things just like you are. Whether it be through Instagram or LinkedIn. It’s a really nice way to figure out where your people are.”Samantha from Harlow has had the same experience. “I’m very active on Twitter. I’m very active on LinkedIn on Instagram. And so I am constantly making connections there.” When it comes to joining those communities, Samantha’s advice is: “People are there, and people are having the conversations, and you just have to throw yourself into it.”Look for professional support through therapySupport comes in many forms, and sometimes the kind of support that you need might be professional support in the form of counseling or therapy. Holly, who in addition to being a long-time business consultant is a trained therapist, explained that with her background, “often I end up recommending that clients go to therapy. And a lot of times for entrepreneurs, it’s the first time they’ve had an experience of therapy before.”Ari Weinzweig, the co-founder of Zingerman’s Community of Businesses, has personal experience with getting this kind of support. “I started going to therapy, and then at that point, I was ready through pain, and I wish I would’ve gone at 10. I mean, it’s like having a coach at the gym. There’s nothing weird or wrong about it. Who wouldn’t want a grounded, thoughtful, caring, slightly disengaged with your day-to-day emotional struggles, person to talk to?”Ari is definitely not alone in seeking this kind of support. Rand has had the experience of looking to therapy after a particularly difficult time. “I am a few years away from my experiences with mental and emotional challenges, depression, and anxiety. And I’m very grateful to be through those times. But it was absolutely heart-wrenching and awful going through it. When I experienced that, I ended up stepping down from my CEO role at MOZ, and eventually away from the company.” Though Rand says that “talking to a professional coach and therapist helped“ he’s also hesitant to give advice on the topic because “I don’t think that what worked for me will work for everyone. In fact, what I hear over and over again from other founders and other people who’ve been through this kind of thing is the solutions are often different, right?”Now, Rand is taking a different approach to his mental health. “One of the things that I’ve done to try and prevent that same pattern from reemerging is to prioritize personal health and happiness over work, as hard as I can.”Rand Fishkin alongside co-founder Casey Henry.You can always pause as wellThere are a lot of different avenues for getting support as an entrepreneur and small business owner. It’s important to remember that that support can sometimes also look like showing down.Becky Okell and Huw Thomas, co-founders of Paynter Jacket Co, a company that creates limited-edition jackets four times a year, both have healthy perspectives on slowing down when needed. Huw shared, “When you get momentum going in your business and you sort of keep it going and the busy times become normal times one day.” He said he and Becky experienced this and realized they needed some time for themselves. Huw describes it as, “It’s kind of being self-aware enough to realize, okay, you need me to pause and slow down a bit. Take a breath.”Becky’s perspective on the busy times is that “There has to be peaks and there has to be troughs. Not everything can go at a million miles an hour and not everything is going to be perfect either.” Her approach and advice to others is, “you have to actually take time to top up your creative energy to, to make sure you’re reading and getting an outside perspective.”None of us can go it alone, and we all need support from others. Whether it’s specific knowledge, emotional support, a kind word, or just someone to listen to our rants, we rely on our communities to lift us up when we need it.Want to hear more about getting support as a small business owner? Listen to the full episode of Small Business, Big Lessons.

In many ways, marketing leadership has never been harder.
Over the past year alone, you’ve needed to navigate economic turmoil; a workplace shift to more globally distributed teams; and new trends that felt like they arose overnight (TikTok, anyone?).  
Which is why 76% of marketing leaders say marketing has seen more change in the past three years than the last 50. 
Change isn’t always bad, but it is always challenging. And, as we prepare for the year ahead, many marketing leaders are wondering: What should I prepare for? Where should I focus my efforts? And what are my biggest blind spots? 
To help you create a powerful and agile strategy for 2023, we’ve surveyed 500+ marketing executives on the biggest challenges, opportunities, and trends ahead of us. Plus, we’ve interviewed some of the biggest experts across the industry — ranging from CMOs and VPs at LinkedIn, Uber, Microsoft, Dropbox, SEMRush, and more — to uncover best practices for becoming a better, more effective leader. 
If you’re not a marketing leader, but interested in becoming one, you’re in luck. We also have plenty of content and best practices on getting ahead in your career — including how to get executive stakeholder buy-in, and how to get promoted on both an individual contributor and manager-level. 
Let’s dive in. 

Executive Leadership Survey Results [Top Findings You Need to Know About + Expert Insights] 

1. The biggest challenges marketing leaders’ expect to face in 2023 include generating revenue, securing budget, and improving sales-marketing alignment.
When asked which challenges marketing leaders’ expect to face in 2023, 14% said generating revenue and securing the budget they need are tied as the top challenge they believe they’ll face. 
Both of these concerns stem from the possibility of an upcoming recession. When asked how marketing leaders would respond if a recession were to occur, 30% of marketing leaders say they would respond by increasing their marketing budget, while 1 in 4 plan to reduce their budget in an economic slowdown.
Other top challenges marketing leaders expect to face include: 

Improving sales-marketing alignment (13%)
Having to pivot your marketing strategy due to major events, e.g. recession, pandemic, political turmoil (13%)
Facing increased competition from other brands (12%)

Additionally, we surveyed marketing executives in our Marketing Trends report earlier this year, and 14% of marketing leaders say they anticipate ‘adopting a data-driven marketing strategy’ to be a top anticipated challenge of theirs in 2023. While this isn’t a top challenge in our Executive Leadership report, it’s still worth pointing out as many of the experts we spoke with told us it’s a big concern of theirs. 
Collecting data has gotten increasingly difficult as consumers’ become increasingly concerned with protecting their privacy. So adopting a data-driven strategy in 2023 will require marketers to ensure they’re effectively combining first-party and third-party data. 
Microsoft’s Global Head of Programmatic Evangelist, Daniel Godoy, says, “Shaping your strategy by leveraging 1P or 3P trustable data becomes necessary to expand potential reach and start piloting your data strategy for the future.”

Plus, to create a powerful data-driven strategy, you’ll want to collect custom audience attributes (not just basic descriptive information), and then create dynamic prospect lists through audience segmentation. From there, you’ll want to develop unique messaging that resonates with your prospects. 
ZoomInfo’s Chief Marketing Officer, Bryan Law, told me, “You’ll need to figure out how to convey your ability to alleviate their challenges in a unique way to penetrate the significant market noise. Practice consistency in your overall theme, and include contextual personalization when applicable.”
The Top Challenges Marketing Leaders Expect to Face in 2023 & How You Can Solve For Them [Expert Insights & Data]
2. Out of those that struggle with growing a global audience, 62% say it’s their biggest challenge right now. 
For some context: In our Marketing Trends report, we asked 1,000+ marketers to identify the challenges they’re currently facing. 
Then, we asked them to select the one challenge they struggle with the most. 
And over half — 62% — told us growing a global audience is their biggest issue. 
The good news? We asked Neil Patel, a New York Times bestselling author, one of the world’s most influential marketers according to the Wall Street Journal and Forbes, and co-founder of NP Digital to provide us with solutions to marketers’ biggest challenges from 2022. Take a look at the full video, below: 
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3. Marketing leaders agree that increasing revenue and sales is their top goal for 2023.
Increasing revenue and sales is a top priority for most marketing leaders in 2023, with 22% — or roughly one-fourth — saying it’s their number one goal. 
To increase revenue, marketing leaders will want to identify areas of the customer journey that can be further optimized. For instance, perhaps you’ve observed your audience reach plateau-ing or even shrinking. To continue increasing revenue, you’ll need to consistently reach bigger pools of qualified leads. You might do this by testing out new platforms like TikTok or podcasting. 

Alternatively, maybe you notice your marketing team is attracting plenty of leads, but they’re not converting at high rates. To combat this challenge, you’ll want to create stronger offers or a more effective lead generation strategy.  
Gaurav Agarwal, Chief Growth Officer at ClickUp, says increasing revenue and driving sales is a top priority for his team in 2023.
He told me, “As a fast-growing company with industry-leading NDR, adding in new revenue sustainably is our top priority. We are hyper-focused on building out different growth and sales capabilities to achieve that goal. As we embark on our 2023 planning, we do so with a renewed focus on efficiency and clear goals around our different self-serve and sales-assisted motions.”
Michelle Keene, Dropbox’s Sr. Director of Global Marketing, Document Workflows, agrees that increasing revenue is a top-priority.
As she puts it, “In 2023, a year that is expected to be dominated by economic uncertainty, the shift to profitable growth [rather than growth at all costs] will only be accelerated — moving from a nice idea to a requirement.”

The Top Goals of Marketing Leaders in 2023 [New Data + Expert Insights from Uber, Dropbox, and ClickUp]

4. Sales is the KPI that matters most to marketing leaders, followed by customer retention.
To uncover which KPIs will matter most to marketing leaders in 2023, I spoke with executives at G2, LinkedIn, and HubSpot. 
Here’s what they say matters most: Reach, leads, MQLs (marketing-qualified leads), conversion to sales, return-on-investment, and brand strength. 
Ultimately, choosing your primary KPIs comes down to aligning with company goals for 2023. As Jordan DiPietro, HubSpot’s VP of Marketing, puts it, “As a marketing leader, it’s important to choose a KPI that is most aligned with your company’s overarching business objectives — it could be a revenue metric, it could be a reach metric, or in the case of HubSpot Media, it could be both! The important thing is that your KPIs and the action plans associated with those KPIs are ones that can be directly connected to the KPIs of the business.”

KPIs can vary greatly. For Robin Izsak-Tseng, G2’s VP of Revenue Marketing, leads and conversions matter most. She says marketers should track a blend of metrics, including MQL production, as an indicator of inbound interest. It’s equally critical that marketing leaders pay attention to SAL (sales-accepted leads), since that is another indication of lead quality.
ROI is another equally critical metric for many marketing leaders — and that importance is only growing. In fact, one-third (33%) of marketing executives, VPs, and directors say that using data to demonstrate the ROI and business value of their efforts became more important in 2022.
Jim Habig, VP of Marketing, LinkedIn Marketing Solutions, agrees that ROI is important … but it’s not the only metric that matters to him. He told me, “Let’s not discount the importance of other measures of long-range brand strength. With only 5% of buyers in-market at any given time, you need to ensure your brand creates pull for decision-makers now and in the future.”

The data aligns with this. In our Executive Leadership survey, we found: 

60% of marketing leaders say sales is one of the most important metrics to track when measuring the performance of your marketing activities (when allowed to select up to three).
Sales is followed by customer retention (44%), ROI (43%), and brand awareness (43%) as the most important metrics to track.
The top ten metrics that marketing leaders track to measure performance include: Sales (62%), customer retention (55%), return on marketing investment (47%), brand awareness (45%), web traffic (42%), customer testimonials (40%), customer acquisition (39%), organic traffic (38%), conversion rates (38%), and customer lifetime value (37%).
Sales, leads, and conversion rates is the KPI the majority (49%) of marketing leaders use to assess the performance of their website.

How to Get Buy-In from Some of the Top Marketing Leaders: 3 Execs Discuss What KPIs Matter to Them
5. The most effective strategy for getting leadership buy-in is clearly demonstrating the impact adopting the new idea will make on achieving the company’s business goals. 
Getting leadership buy-in isn’t easy, particularly when budgets are tight and marketing leaders’ need to be especially careful about where they spend money. 
Which is why it makes sense that clearly demonstrating the impact adopting a new idea will make on achieving a company’s business goals is the number one most effective strategy marketing leaders’ reported for getting buy-in. In our survey, we found roughly one-third (31%) of marketing leaders believe it’s the most effective strategy. 
A few other potentially effective strategies include: 

Clearly demonstrating the impact the new idea will have on other teams at the company, e.g. a tool that will improve sales/marketing alignment (29%). 
Demonstrating how the new idea aligns with company-wide goals/initiatives (25%).
Providing examples/case studies of other companies who adopted the new idea successfully (24%).
Demonstrating the challenges the new idea will help solve (23%).
Demonstrating the opportunities the new idea presents (22%).

6. Leads, conversion rates, and total monthly visitors are the SEO metrics that matters most to marketing leaders.
SEO is an undeniably powerful strategy for audience growth, brand awareness, and increasing sales. 
In fact, 43% of marketing directors, VPs, and C-suite executives reported SEO as one of the most effective strategies their companies currently leverage.
But there are so many SEO metrics that it can be difficult to determine which ones actually matter. Is it organic traffic? Conversions? Keyword rankings? 
Our data uncovered these are the SEO metrics that matter most to marketing leaders when it comes to assessing the performance of their website: 

Sales, leads, and conversion rates (49%)
Total monthly visitors (43%)
Traffic from social media (40%)
New vs. Returning visitors (39%)
Click-through rate (38%)

It’s interesting to note — organic traffic or rankings on the SERPs don’t even hit the top five when it comes to important SEO metrics for marketing leaders. 

Additionally, I spoke with Semrush’s VP of Brand Marketing, Olga Andrienko, to uncover the SEO metrics that she’d advise leaders pay attention to in 2023. Some of her tips include: 

Focus on the metrics that tie directly back to revenue — like conversions and new MRR.
Don’t forget about branded keyword search volume.
Consider click-through rate and how it correlates to organic traffic.
Don’t ignore rankings, backlinks, domain authority, and user behavior metrics.

Which SEO Metrics Matter Most to Marketing Leaders, According to Semrush’s VP of Brand Marketing

7. A content strategist is the top role marketing leaders’ plan to hire in 2023. 
When asked which role marketing leaders’ plan to recruit, 32% say ‘content strategist’ is their top priority in 2023 — followed by content marketing manager (23%). 
This makes sense. A strong content creation strategy is one of the most effective marketing plays. As we enter the new year, many companies will need to hire strong content creators to ensure they’re continuing to create unique and compelling content for audiences that likely already feel overloaded. Additionally, many content creators will need to become adapt at shifting the types of content they create for various channels.
A content creator in 2023 might be tasked with creating a TikTok reel one day, then a blog post, and a YouTube video after that. 

Additionally, 37% of marketing leaders say ‘a lack of qualified candidates’ is their biggest challenge in hiring right now. Marketers are expected to be increasingly skilled in niche areas such as TikTok, podcasting, or video creation, so the pool of qualified applicants becomes smaller as companies expect more from their candidates. 
A few other highlights when it comes to hiring and promoting: 

14% of marketing leaders say hiring top talent is the biggest challenge they expect to face in 2023.
Leadership (39%), communication skills (33%), and problem-solving skills (33%), are the most important qualities & traits marketing leaders look for when promoting an IC to a senior position. 
Leadership skills (27%), a strong work ethic (23%), and communication skills (22%) are most important to marketing leaders when they’re considering promoting a people manager to a director+ position.

8. When promoting individual contributors, 24% of marketing leaders look at an IC’s ability to pivot their marketing strategy in response to major events (e.g. recession, pandemic, political turmoil). 
If you’re hoping to get promoted as an individual contributor (IC), it’s important to know what marketing leaders’ look for when promoting an IC to a senior position. 
These are the promotional factors that matter most to marketing leaders right now when it comes to ICs: 

24% of marketing leaders’ are tied on three factors that matter most when promoting an IC: Their ability to pivot their marketing strategy in response to major events (e.g. recession, pandemic, political turmoil) or new opportunities; Their ability to strategically plan for both the short and long term; and expertise in their industry.
23% of marketing leaders care about an IC’s ability to keep up with and experiment with new platforms and features (e.g. BeReal, YouTube Shorts) when considering a promotion. 

If you’re an IC who is looking to become a people manager, you’re in luck — we also asked marketing leaders’ what they look for when promoting an IC to a people manager, and 26% say they care most about an IC’s ability to build trust and rapport within their team. That’s followed by 25% who say they look for an IC’s ability to bring people together to solve problems. 
On the people manager side, marketing leaders say that people managers can make the greatest impact in their roles by motivating and empowering their team (39%). That’s followed by helping their team exceed goals and expectations (32%) and helping their team exceed goals and expectations (31%). 

As we segue into 2023, it makes sense that both individual contributors and people managers want to know how they can grow at their current companies. 
If you’re an individual contributor and you’re hoping to get promoted in 2023, VP of Brand at Help Scout, Kristen Bryant Smith, told me a few factors that could help you stand out. These include: 

The ability to tell stories to express the level of impact you’re having on the team. 
Being a cross-department translator — in other words, being someone who adds contextual knowledge and listens to others across the business. 
Being able to set realistic goals and hit them. 
Being consistent. 

Alternatively, perhaps you’re a people manager and you’re looking to get promoted to a director-level. As you a people manager hoping to get promoted, Smith says you’ll stand out if you demonstrate: 

An ability to navigate ambiguity and translate it effectively.
Providing role clarity to each of your direct reports.
Thinking on longer timelines.
Demonstrating empathy.

Thinking on longer timelines, and being able to strategically plan for the long and short-term, is supported by the data. 25% of marketing leaders say it’s the most important factor they look at when considering promoting a people manager, along with their ability to set clear goals and expectations for their team (24%). 
What Help Scout’s VP of Brand Considers When Promoting Individual Contributors & People Managers [+ How These Promotions Differ]

Other Surprising Findings

On average, marketing leaders think 17% of employees are quiet quitting (which is when employees intentionally do the bare minimum required of them in their role).
29% of marketing leaders strongly agree that the quality of an employee’s relationship with their direct supervisor is the most important factor in determining whether they engage in quiet quitting. 
77% of marketing leaders agree that it’s the responsibility of the leadership team to prevent quiet quitting. 
Marketing leaders are optimistic going into 2023, with 78% expecting their company to perform better than in 2022.
58% of marketing leaders say their company has performed somewhat or much better since the pandemic started.
Marketing leaders report social media marketing to be a critical skill marketers’ should focus on for career growth, with 26% marking it as a top skill they look for when hiring.
On average, marketing leaders say 33% of their overall company budget goes towards marketing.
Marketing leaders say the most effective strategies for cutting costs in your marketing budget is leaning into earned (free) media (e.g. unpaid news coverage of your company) and leveraging automation or AI in your marketing strategy.
56% of marketing leaders expect the U.S. economy to grow in 2023.
80% of marketing leaders have taken steps to plan or prepare for an economic slowdown or recession.
Marketing leaders say the most effective strategies during an economic slowdown or recession are focusing your marketing efforts on existing customers and adapting your messaging to empathize with what your audience is experiencing.
Marketing leaders say healthy work-life balance is the most important aspect of company culture for marketers to succeed.
Marketing leaders say unsupportive management is the aspect of company culture most likely to negatively impact marketers ability to succeed in their roles.
Just 13% of marketing leaders say their marketing team will work fully remote in 2023. 53% will work hybrid and 34% will be in-office full time.
36% of marketing leaders say the best way for marketers to get visibility with their leadership team is by stepping into leadership opportunities (e.g. leading a newly created committee, volunteering to present research findings at a company-wide meeting).
The majority of marketing leaders (53%) say their team’s reliance on third-party data didn’t change in 2022, and 46% don’t believe it will change in 2023, either. Similarly, 52% of marketing leaders say their team’s reliance on first-party data didn’t change in 2022, and 44% don’t expect it to change in 2023, either. 
74% of marketing leaders say consumers should be directly compensated for sharing their personal data with companies.  

More Data and Insights

The Top Challenges Marketing Leaders Expect to Face in 2023 & How You Can Solve For Them [Expert Insights & Data]
The Top Goals of Marketing Leaders in 2023 [New Data + Expert Insights from Uber, Dropbox, and ClickUp]
How to Get Buy-In from Some of the Top Marketing Leaders: 3 Execs Discuss What KPIs Matter to Them
What Help Scout’s VP of Brand Considers When Promoting Individual Contributors & People Managers [+ How These Promotions Differ]
Which SEO Metrics Matter Most, According to Semrush’s VP of Brand Marketing

 

Whether you’re creating a new content campaign, launching a YouTube series, or revising your social strategy, you’re going to be asked the same question by leadership before getting their support: “How will this impact our company’s bottom line?”
That can be a difficult question to answer — which is why it’s critical you know your key performance indicators (KPIs) to:
a) measure the success of your program, and
b) receive executive buy-in — which is typically a prerequisite for getting the budget and resources you need to successfully launch any new paid marketing program.
There are so many different KPIs any marketer might use to measure success, including sales, web traffic, follower growth, conversion rate, or brand awareness. But which ones matter most to leadership? In other words: Which ones should you focus on if you’re seeking executive approval?
Here, we spoke with executives at LinkedIn, G2, and HubSpot to uncover which KPIs matter most to them in 2023. 
Coming Soon: Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader [Click Here to Add to Google Calendar]
What KPIs Matter Most to Execs in 2023
1. Reach and leads.
If you work backwards from your company’s primary goal — of increasing revenue — then it makes sense that reaching new audiences and converting those audiences into qualified leads for sales would be two of the top KPIs that matter most to marketing leaders.
As Jordan DiPietro, HubSpot’s VP of Marketing, told me, “As a marketing leader, it’s important to choose a KPI that is most aligned with your company’s overarching business objectives — it could be a revenue metric, it could be a reach metric, or in the case of HubSpot Media, it could be both! The important thing is that your KPIs and the action plans associated with those KPIs are ones that can be directly connected to the KPIs of the business.”
For instance, DiPietro told me the two KPIs his team focuses on are overall reach (visits, opens, listeners, and views) and leads (net new contacts driven from media content).
He says, “Our reach KPI is indicative of the fact that HubSpot wants to grow top-of-the-funnel awareness for the business. Our media team does this by increasing the reach of our blog content, newsletters, podcast network, and YouTube network.”
He adds, “Our revenue KPI is indicative of the the fact that HubSpot is a SaaS business — so we want to generate leads that can be shared with the sales team in order to turn those leads into qualified leads, and then into satisfied customers.”
When deciding which KPIs to focus on — whether you’re a marketing leader or individual contributor looking for buy-in — you’ll want to consider which metrics will directly connect to your organization’s broader goals. For instance, if your company is hoping to improve its customer retention, then you’ll want to focus your marketing efforts on KPIs like brand sentiment and churn rate.
But perhaps most importantly — don’t choose too many KPIs. As DiPietro told me, “In terms of secondary KPIs, keep it simple. I’ve noticed that sometimes marketing teams can get too distracted by measuring and tracking and not focused enough on actual impact. So I think it’s fair to have a main KPI, and then I limit it at two sub-metrics.”
DiPietro provides two examples of this. In one, let’s say you’re running a newsletter company that relies on advertising. In this situation, your main KPI is likely ad revenue, and your two sub-metrics might be subscriber growth and unique opens.
Alternatively, if you have a subscription business, your main KPI might be overall revenue, and your two sub-metrics could be LTV: CAC and renewal rate.
DiPietro advises, “Whatever type of marketing organization you’re leading — a SaaS team, a content team, a web strategy team, a media team — ensure you stay connected to the objectives of the business, ensure your KPI is laser-focused, and limit sub-metrics to two per KPI to avoid diluting your impact.”

2. Number of marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) and conversions to sales.
Ultimately, marketers are only one part of the equation. Which means marketers can only pay attention to the KPIs they can control: Namely, leads and conversions.
As Robin Izsak-Tseng, G2’s VP of Revenue Marketing, puts it, “Though most marketing teams have goals around pipeline, the fact is, marketing doesn’t open pipeline — sales does. Marketing’s role is to create awareness, demand, and inbound interest in your solution. There are factors outside of marketing’s control (changes in sales processes, for example), which can cause wild fluctuation in pipeline production.”
Rather than focusing on pipeline, Izsak-Tseng suggests marketers focus on two primary metrics: MQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads), and conversions.
For starters, she says marketers should track a blend of metrics, including MQL production, as an indicator of inbound interest. It’s equally critical that marketing leaders pay attention to SAL (sales-accepted leads), since that is another indication of lead quality.
A few other metrics Izsak-Tseng suggest marketing leaders focus on include:

Conversion of total pipeline to revenue: To track how marketing-sourced pipe is performing against pipe sourced by outbound efforts. Since marketing-sourced pipeline is inbound, the conversion to revenue should be consistent and strong.
CAC (customer acquisition cost): Track this over time. Rising costs can indicate diminishing returns on marketing programs — or show that it’s time to explore new markets.

Izsak-Tseng adds, “All of these metrics give growth leaders a view of the full funnel and help us understand marketing’s impact on revenue (not just pipeline). Much of this can also be applied to retention. In 2023, when budgets are likely to be even tighter, teams that are primarily focused on acquisition need to embrace goals around renewals and customer growth. Finding ways to create greater value for your customers and community will protect revenue — especially during uncertain times.”

Considering it costs 5-25X less to retain customers than capture new ones, it’s a good idea to focus on customer retention as a primary KPI. But customer retention isn’t always easy. To satisfy and retain more customers, you’ll need to:

Build trust with your customers. Ensuring your account managers check-in and show support for customers over the course of a year — and not just when it’s time to renew — is critical for demonstrating to your customers that you care about them and their success.
Implement a customer feedback loop. This will help you collect, analyze, and distribute customer reviews and surveys to strengthen areas of your customer experience that aren’t working for your current customers.
Provide a personalized customer experience. Providing each customer with tailor-made solutions and content designed to fit their needs is vital for retention. Your customers don’t want to feel like they fit into a one-size-fits-all approach. Ensuring your organization helps them with their specific challenges and needs is critical.

(P.S. Already a G2 customer? Click here for 20% off eligible HubSpot products, or get started for free.)
3. Return-on-investment (ROI) and brand strength.
During times of economic uncertainty when businesses’ budgets are tight, it’s become increasingly important to be able to demonstrate the ROI of your marketing efforts to your leadership team.
In fact, one-third (33%) of marketing executives, VPs, and directors say that using data to demonstrate the ROI and business value of their efforts became more important in 2022.
Jim Habig, VP of Marketing at LinkedIn, agrees that ROI is important — but he encourages marketers to think full-picture when they’re considering their top KPIs, too.
As he puts it, “It’s paramount that we think about the full funnel when it comes to measurement. Of course, ROI is a slam dunk since it represents how our work directly impacts the bottom line.”
He adds, “But let’s not discount the importance of other measures of long-range brand strength. With only 5% of buyers in-market at any given time, you need to ensure your brand creates pull for decision-makers now and in the future.”
To create a strong brand identity, you’ll want to:

Create a memorable brand voice.
Communicate your consumers’ pain points — and how you can solve for them — effectively.
Demonstrate how you’re different from your competitors.
Broadcast your brand’s mission statement and brand values to build connection with your audience.
Use type, colors, and imagery to represent your brand’s personality.

If you’ve created a brand identity already but need to build brand awareness, consider channels that will help you reach new audiences — like podcasting, or other social media platforms. Alternatively, perhaps you can create a strong co-marketing campaign to build credibility in your industry and generate new leads.
Once you’re investing in brand awareness, you’ll want to measure branded keyword search volume to see how many impressions and search volume your brand is getting. This will help you evaluate your brand awareness efforts over time — if your branded keyword search volume is rising, it’s a sign your brand awareness plays are working.
While this is a strong starting point, you’ll need to do your own research to determine your organization’s goals for 2023, as well as your executive team’s marketing plans in particular. From there, you can determine how your KPIs for a specific marketing campaign or program might fit in.
If you can’t see a strong through-line between your own KPIs and the KPIs of the business, it might be time to reassess where you’re focusing your efforts and whether shifting your strategy might better impact the bottom line — and help achieve buy-in from leadership.

As an agency keen on signing more clients, increasing revenue, and growing your business, an effective email marketing strategy is non-negotiable. 42% of businesses agree that email marketing remains one of the best lead-generation marketing channels. Clients are the lifeblood of your agency. Hence, you need to have a pipeline of leads that you can…
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