I see companies that deal with attribution trying out self-reported attribution and, to be honest, it looks ridiculous. Let me break it down for you why.
1. They are doing it with the intent to show you that it isn’t working. Therefore, their conclusion is that it isn’t working.
But let’s get deeper.
1. They don’t mark it as a must-answer field. If you don’t say that this is a must, it is obvious that you’re not serious about asking about it or measuring it. Still, the majority of people will probably answer it.
2. They compare it to their multiple attribution software and they say that it doesn’t give enough information. This is wrong on so many levels, but I’ll add just one of them.
3. Self-reported attribution is just for creating demand. You still need software to measure closing demand.
See why this is a bit ridiculous and it doesn’t make sense?
4. They say that it isn’t working because the answers are shallow, often just one word. Related to traffic coming from Google, they say that there are no keywords, etc. I say ok, let’s break it down.
One-word answers they are probably getting:
• LinkedIn
• Google
• Google Search
• Online
• Online Search
• Internet
• YouTube
In most cases, those are the answers related to companies that don’t create demand.
On the other hand, they surely get a couple of them that say the name of the person or the name of the company that referred to them. This is where they can find out specific stuff.
Instead of concluding the 5th one, I’ll tell you that all this tells us that self-reported attribution is working.
But how, they will ask?
Because it shows us that they aren’t creating demand!
They aren’t focused on creating demand, so they find out that they are occasionally creating demand via advertising or paid outreach via LinkedIn (we can call it social selling) or getting referred by existing customers.
It shows that they are focused only on closing demand.
And that’s ok, perfectly fine if there is enough demand, but the whole narrative is we’re right, they are wrong, which is not the case here.
I’d recommend adding another field called “Why would you like to work with us?” or “Why would you like to buy/use our product?’, or any variation of it. You’ll find out how much they actually know about it, if at all.
It will open your eyes, trust me.
So, how do we do it right? I’m sharing with you information from people scheduling calls on our website.
As I mentioned, we’ve added two straightforward questions to the form on our website.
👉 How did you hear about Funky Marketing?
👉 Why would you like to work with us?
Those are 2 open field questions telling us if what we’re doing to create demand is working.
1️⃣ LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a place where our target group is. We’re sharing the way we help B2B tech companies, results, processes, POV, values, and us as people. Altogether, more than 10M people see our content.
Answer to the first question:
“Through Nemanja’s LinkedIn”
“Guess how! LinkedIn”
“I got Nemanja’d on LinkedIn ;)”
“Nemanja jumps out of the pate on LinkedIn :)”
“I follow you on linkedin and your message really resonates with where we are in our marketing.”
2️⃣ Referrals
This is what we’re optimizing our content for. We know that on LinkedIn we gotta go past marketing and sales to CMOs, VP of Marketing, and COOs, so we connect and interact with them and with people that going after the same ICP as we are.
We zig when others zag and we’re bringing insights not many people are. They see it, recognize us as subject-matter experts, and recommend us.
We know how B2B buyers are buying today and we make sure we distribute the content the right way so when it’s time for them to buy, we’re on top of mind.
Answers covering referrals:
“From our current marketing advisor”
“Peep Laja recommended you”
“From UserGuiding”
“Clever Profits”
“Refine Labs”
3️⃣ Google
We have a podcast called Funky Marketing show and thought leadership content on the website. Google just started to work, but those people aren’t the right fit, We need to go before the intent.
From time to time we are mentioned as top companies in other people’s blogs.
But do clients think the same? Why do they wanna work with us? Here are some of the answers.
“reputation in the marketplace”
“We like your vision and we want an end-to-end review of our marketing strategy and help with implementation.”
“Innovative approach to Marketing and a special DNA that sets you apart from other agencies”
“Because you guys think differently. I’m in the industrial space and the marketers are generally mediocre and unoriginal.”
“We are looking at improving our growth marketing”
“Eager to learn more about that during the call, but a recommendation from Peep goes a long way.”
“I like the way you do B2B marketing”
“We would love you to help our company with Branding. I look forward to hearing from you soon”
“Looking to create a profitable and scalable inbound marketing strategy.”
“Some of the content I have seen (B2B strategies) have resonated in the way I see my start-up content to be. So why not start a conversation.”
So It really works! Check out the Funky Marketing blog and Funky Marketing Show to learn more about the way you can do it, too!
And share this with someone who needs to see it.
If you need help, we can always jump on a call.
Let’s bring the funk to B2B tech companies!
