MQL Reporting

• 

  Phil Bosley

  • June 28, 2019 19:50
  Hi Kate,
  
  As the former Lead Marketing Automation Strategist at Act-On, this was an extremely common question, at it can be difficult to give a 'canned' answer to as companies define 'MQL' in so many different ways.  As the owner of Tactical MA, a digital agency specializing in Act-On, one of my first goals is to help my clients define MQL for their organization, which is usually a combination of some profile, account, and behavioral information (e.g. MQL = Director + title with $5M AR + Lead Score of 40+)
  
  My recommendation would be to first define and document the criteria for lead stages.
  
  Anything that can be defined can be segmented in Act-On.  I strongly recommend creating segments for each stage in your marketing and sales funnel.
  
  Now for the reporting.
  
  Your idea of using an automated program is the easiest way to do this in Act-On's core functionality.  You should always trust the AP report numbers over the Funnel Report numbers as Funnel Reports have very specific limitations on how contacts can enter them.  I personally will not use funnel reports as I find them unreliable and finicky.
  
  If you want something more sophisticated, I highly recommend investigating Act-On Data Studio, or it's light version 'Engagement Insights.'  Using Data Studio exports, you can export based on any behavior or list segment in Act-On.  This makes automatically exporting the leads in your MQL segment very easy.  Combined with the ability to load data imports into Google Sheets or a BI tool, you can begin automatically generating very sophisticated reports on an ongoing basis.
  
  This is something I regularly walk Act-On customers through.  If it feels outside of your skillset, you can always chat with your Account Manager about a free consultation through Act-On Professional Services.  
  
  
  
  
  
  ------------------------------
  Phil Bosley
  CEO, Tactical MA
  Act-On Professional Services Partner
  ------------------------------
  -------------------------------------------
  Original Message:
  Sent: 06-29-2018 12:04
  From: Kate Bluhm
  Subject: MQL Reporting
  
  Hey Community!
  
  I'm hoping you can help me and my team out on an urgent issue we're experiencing. We are looking for help with best practices when it comes to reporting on MQLs. Since we are required to report on the exact MQLs each month we need accurate reports. Is the funnel report the best way to do this? We've noticed that the funnel report might now show everyone in a month that became an MQL as they've move to later stages.
  
  Part B of the issue is that we need exact time stamps for when someone became an MQL. Due to this need, I have set up an automated program that creates an MQL task and alerts our sales team when a prospect becomes and MQL based on a lead score. The caveat is that the funnel report and automated program lists don't always match.
  
  Are there better ways to go about reporting on MQLs?
  
  Thanks for your input!
  
  ------------------------------
  Kate Bluhm. Email Marketing Manager
  Audigy
  ------------------------------
  
  0
• 

  Anders Hermansson

  • June 28, 2019 19:50
  Hi!
  We use an automated program that integrates with zapier. Zapier adds a row to a Ggogle sheet with a time stamp, email address, and the number 1. We display the data in Google data studio. 
  Works great.
  
  ------------------------------
  Anders Hermansson
  CEO & Co-founder
  Business Reflex
  ------------------------------
  -------------------------------------------
  Original Message:
  Sent: 06-29-2018 12:04
  From: Kate Bluhm
  Subject: MQL Reporting
  
  Hey Community!
  
  I'm hoping you can help me and my team out on an urgent issue we're experiencing. We are looking for help with best practices when it comes to reporting on MQLs. Since we are required to report on the exact MQLs each month we need accurate reports. Is the funnel report the best way to do this? We've noticed that the funnel report might now show everyone in a month that became an MQL as they've move to later stages.
  
  Part B of the issue is that we need exact time stamps for when someone became an MQL. Due to this need, I have set up an automated program that creates an MQL task and alerts our sales team when a prospect becomes and MQL based on a lead score. The caveat is that the funnel report and automated program lists don't always match.
  
  Are there better ways to go about reporting on MQLs?
  
  Thanks for your input!
  
  ------------------------------
  Kate Bluhm. Email Marketing Manager
  Audigy
  ------------------------------
  
  0
• 

  Paul McDevitt

  • June 28, 2019 19:50
  Unfortunately the tools within Act-On are very limited in this regard. (I am not even sure why the 'funnel' view is even included in its current form.) And the Engagement Insights tool is the most unintuitive tool yet within Act-On, and I have only used once to limited effect ( and I am    pretty useful with Excel and other BI tools.)

  
  

  On top of that, the traditional view of lead uses BANT or something similar (budget, authority, need, timeline) and while this may not be the best definition it is not easily tracked in a marketing automation tool. 

  
  

  Of course none of this helps with the core question you asked about tracking the specific time created in a report and would assume it would be related to a campaign too.

  
  

  We integrated to a CRM just for marketing because of the challenge in managing campaign data, contact data, tracking leads and creating reports. While the organization as a whole had not yet moved over to a CRM, it was easier for us to use it - and it only required one license - to do that stuff. Act-On integrates  nicely with CRM systems, which allows you to let Act-On do what it does best and let the CRM take care of the tricky issue of managing the leads.

  
  

  If you do decide to roll out a CRM beyond marketing you then have the advantage of defining the stages more effectively (beyond simple definitions like BANT) to defining activities or actions that mean a stage is complete. These can be made mandatory to complete and therefore create a more structured process around the whole 'funnel' process and even track the total time in a stage. Another advantage would be tracking the outcome of a lead in terms of what closed and the final revenue to truly track campaign effectiveness. But that's getting ahead of things.

  
  

  It would cost about $80 a month for one license of Salesforce, Dynamics or something similar to let you do what you need.

  
  

  Cheers

  Paul 

  
  
  ------Original Message------
  
  Hi!
  We use an automated program that integrates with zapier. Zapier adds a row to a Ggogle sheet with a time stamp, email address, and the number 1. We display the data in Google data studio. 
  Works great.
  
  ------------------------------
  Anders Hermansson
  CEO & Co-founder
  Business Reflex
  ------------------------------
  
  0

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