How do you pick the best B2B metrics?

Creating audience personas of your target audience is the best way to do this. Don't just include demographics, they're the least important part of your personas! Include their background, identifiers, goals, primary challenges, where they get their information from, topics they're interested in and influencers they follow. You should include a summary explaining how all this information you've gathered can be used to help.

FOMO (fear of missing out) is real, it can be really stressful- and B2B Marketing is no different. But before you decide to conquer a new channel or social media platform, ask yourself if you're going to engage with your target audience specifically on that platform. If you're not sure, and the ROI on your efforts is likely to be low, you should probably avoid the buzz and direct your efforts towards the right medium for your audience-online and offline.

A lot of people in the marketing space will tell you that making an online presence is important. However, it's only a half-truth. What matters the most is "where" you are making a brand presence as a B2B organization/brand. Each channel is different and you can certainly not start "all-at-once" The best way to approach B2B marketing is to track your ICP. Know where they could be found and then put your efforts according to the channel. For eg, LinkedIn is the best platform if your TG is C-Suite individuals. Therefore, Instead of doing it all, try scaling one thing at a time. Make meaningful connection than simply barging your solutions to them.

Look back at your audience personas and see where they are and pinpoint good ways to engage with them. You don't want to be everywhere, focus on a few channels and perfect them before scaling.

The major difference in B2B and B2C marketing that I've been evangelizing for a long is; In B2C - numbers matter. You could be having a viral social media post of 1K likes, and out of that 1K people, 1% might get converted as a lead. However, that's not the case with B2B. The qualification cycle here is long. When you're chasing numbers or impressions, per se, in B2B it would be of no use. Your TG might not even be interacting with your SM posts, but that doesn't mean they are not interested in your product or they don't have a problem that your solution could solve. Instead of focusing on vanity metrics such as likes, comments, and shares, focus on more valuable assets like click rate. Focus on solving 1 problem, rest will follow.

It's better to have 2,000 engaged followers than 10,000 followers who aren't interested in your services. Remember you don't have to be on every platform! Focus on a few. Plus engaging with your community and building relationships should be your focus not just increasing that follower count.

A metric is a form of communication between a Reporter and their Audience. So there has to be a common understanding of Context, Content and Implication. And you have to define the purpose of the metric - why you are reporting on it. Just for information? So what? Serious purposes include: insight, trend, prediction, warning and alarm bells ...