Volume, Velocity, and Value: The Three Vs that Make Your Marketing Engine Hum
Make your marketing engine hum by focusing on velocity and value in addition to the typical volume metrics.
Whether on a dirt track or in a sleek Formula 1 car, many preparations are necessary to win a car race. It takes the right fuel, from the breakfast consumed by the driver to the high-octane gasoline powering her ride. The right equipment is required, from the driver’s fire-retardant overalls to the vehicle’s technical specifications. And it takes a winning team, from the mechanics in the pit to the athlete behind the wheel.
In the business world, the three Vs of volume, velocity, and value will rev your marketing engine and keep your company performing at top speed.
Volume
One of the most commonly measured marketing metrics is volume. Focused on the sheer quantities pouring into your marketing engine, volume measures how many
- people visited a specific landing page
- forms were filled out
- leads were generated
- opportunities were created
- sales were made
Because it’s relatively easy to measure — and because more typically seems like a good thing — many businesses focus heavily on this marketing metric. But organizations that are overly concerned with simply generating more leads may find their marketing engine start to stall. And that’s why the next of the three Vs is an important marketing metric.
Velocity
The second of the three Vs measures throughput or conversion rates through the marketing funnel. High-performing marketing organizations capture velocity metrics like:
- page visits to form fills,
- inquiries to leads,
- leads to opportunities, and
- opportunities to wins.
And when marketing organizations focus on improving their conversion rates in addition to maximizing volume, there is a larger yield further down the funnel.
Let’s say your organization generated 1,000 leads from a recent webinar. Your teleprospecting team typically converts 10% of webinar leads to opportunities and ultimately passes 100 good-fit accounts in an active buying cycle to the sales organization. The sales team wins half of the deals it pursues, so at an average deal size of $5,000, the webinar generates $250,000 for your company.
But a company that focuses on improving the lead-to-opportunity conversion rate in addition to generating as many quality leads as possible is going to pull ahead.
Let’s say that in addition to the scenario above, your marketing team is going to go above and beyond in its post-event follow-up efforts. (And, to be clear, this does not mean increasing the number of calls or emails sent to the prospect.)
By leveraging thought leadership content and demonstrating your company’s expertise and desire to be a trusted business partner, let’s say that your organization is able to improve the lead-to-opportunity conversion rate just a bit, like two percentage points. For the same number of prospect touches and at no extra cost, your marketers will send 120 opportunities to sales rather than 100. Using the same opportunity-to-win rate and the same average deal size, your organization just earned $50,000 more in revenue.
Value
The last marketing metric that should be monitored to make your marketing engine hum is value, which can be viewed in two ways: the cost to fill your pipeline as well as the revenue generated.
When it comes to fueling your marketing engine, high-performing marketing organizations look at value metrics like the cost per:
- visit to a landing page,
- lead by tactic type, and
- opportunity by channel.
And when it comes to the revenue generated, value metrics include:
- the average deal size by tactic type or channel and
- the average add-on sale.
Need Help with Your Marketing Engine?
Our marketing mechanics regularly measure and adjust volume, velocity, and value metrics to fuel our clients’ growth. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help your marketing engine hum.
Kristin Wagner
Kristin is a data-driven marketing and e-commerce leader who enjoys helping companies grow. When she’s not honing her marketing skills, she’s busy working her way through a very long travel bucket list.