Directive

Last week I did a Closed Lost analysis on 529 opportunities at Directive. Here are the 4 shocking discoveries I made (and the exact process you can use to perform this analysis on your own marketing): 1. Evaluate Closed Lost Lead Sources The key is to isolate the analysis to the lifecycle stage of the opportunity. For example, if you closed lost a ton from a lead source but it’s at the “SOW review” stage that is not indicative of poor fit, but instead maybe price or product. However, if you have a certain source that never makes it past intro call then you should likely pause. Discovery: Sponsored Content is 5x the cost of Convo Ads for us and has worse down funnel performance. 2. Audit Closed Lost Job Titles To make this impactful, you need to build your campaigns by the same titles you are evaluating. So, if you put managers, directors, VPs, and C-suite in the same campaign you can’t change spend easily or pause. Now, if you over segment, and have campaigns for each title, you will have distribution problems with your ads and inflated Cost Pers. The trick is to evaluate by title in the closed lost analysis, but separate Managers from Director+ in the platform. By doing this, you’ll see how purchase authority impacts your win rates. Lastly, you need to layer title data into your employee size segments. Do managers do poorly at orgs with over 1000 employees, but crush for 100-200 size segment? Discovery: In companies with 10-100 employees targeting managers is 3x as wasteful as spending on Director+ titles for this segment. 3. Deep Dive Into Closed Lost Employee Size Segment The backbone of all targeting on paid social, programmatic, ABM, and outbound should be employee size, not revenue. The key is to understand how a particular title performs within a specific employee size range + structure your campaigns so you can easily pivot spend according to persona performance, at scale. Discovery: SaaS Companies with < 200 employees are not investing > $50k a month on ads. 4. Analyze Closed Lost Reasons Correlate your “Closed Lost Reason” back to other segments listed above. This will enable you to see the purchase intent of your audience and understand how your sales process is performing and what gaps exist in your marketing. Discovery: We were not disciplined in our labeling and need a simple 1 pager that properly qualifies each closed lost reason. TAKEAWAY: You need to have clean data to make decisive decisions. Hire a Marketing Ops person and make this an actual priority! Force your sales reps to keep the data clean by adding in conditional logic for when trying to move opps forward in your pipeline. Challenge the quality of your closed lost reasons, force reps to fill out when they closed lost and create a 1 pager with clear definitions around what qualifies to fit within each closed lost reason. The unlock to your growth is right in front of you. You simply have not dug deep enough. Do the work and reap the benefits.

You’re underpaying your copywriter. Or even worse, you’re not paying one at all. Here’s why B2B marketing departments should be spending +$100k/yr to hire the best copywriter they can find (and how to do it): Step 1: Create Budget Simply put, your current team can’t write copy. They're not copywriters, they can not become copywriters, and your marketing is not as good as it should be because you are underinvested in your copy. Great copywriters cost the following salary: Jr. Copywriter: $75-100k Copywriter: $100-125k Sr. Copywriter: $125k+ Step 2: Hire a Freelancer First You probably don’t know how to manage a copywriter, because you have never had one on your team. Your marketing ops person writes emails and your director of demand gen approves copy. This is not the same. You need to learn the areas to get leverage from a copywriter. In short, copywriters should focus on writing words that your audience reads. For Directive, the following words are read most often: 1. Conversation Ads on LinkedIn 2. Sponsored Content on LinkedIn 3. Home Page, Contact Page, Service Pages 4. Brand Video 5. Email  Notice how I didn't include blog posts! By hiring a freelancer, you can learn the strengths you need from a copywriter and make sure you hire the correct fit based on what content your audience consumes. Step 3: Hire a FTE Freelancers are great, but if you want to elevate your copy you need them full time. They need to understand your culture, identity, and vibe if you want to stand out. Obviously, if you have a freelancer you love, recruit them. If not, in the hiring process, send candidates the following prompt in the presentation stage of your interview process... PROMPT: Please build a 15 minute presentation using our pre-approved slide deck to show the following: 1. Rewrite the hero section of our homepage based on your research 2. Rewrite our top performing ad. Please provide insight into your process and why you chose the words you chose 3. Tell us the first 3 things you want to rewrite in our marketing and why You will be able to hire the best of the best if you follow this process. Step 4: Set Goals How do you evaluate if a copywriter is effective? In the first 30 days, benchmark the following KPIs: - Conversion rate on top ad campaigns - Conversion rate on top landing pages - Conversion Rate from Email Marketing By creating a clear starting place, you can evaluate their direct impact on the goals of the marketing organization. Worst case, you can stop writing poor copy and/or having your team work all night writing words they don't like that much. TAKEAWAY: You currently have someone woefully unqualified writing the words for your marketing, stop that. No, AI is not able to do this, cmon. In every marketing organization, your greatest weaknesses are a reflection of your investment into that area of expertise and you can't evaluate the impact of any role, channel, or campaign until you properly fund the opportunity.

You need to calm down. Is the debate about whether gift cards work? Or, are they ethical? Either way. We settle it. (+ another killer worksheet for you.) ~link in comments~

DID YOU KNOW "A brand is the sum of thousands of touchpoints, and there’s no room for mediocrity/anything less than 100%." Our ears perk up whenever Mike Farnham chimes in on the threats to the B2B SaaS marketing landscape. Fear and hypocrisy might not be the immediate threats marketers think of when it comes to their day-to-day. But when you consider how blind adherence to “best practices” and an overwhelming yearning for attribution prevent creativity and innovation, the threats become all too real. TL;DR - Pushing past the fear and hypocrisy that stifles B2B SaaS marketers is necessary. And we have the worksheets and answers. (BONUS: there's a free worksheet here. Not like we were going to charge for it in the first place, but yeah. Still free!) https://lnkd.in/gH__xXa7

“It’s impossible for sales and marketing to agree on anything.” Au contraire! Have you heard of Hubspot’s Sales Hub? Bravo, if so. You get it. If not, it’s time… especially if you’re beating your head against the wall looking for some semblance of collaboration between your Sales and Marketing teams. “HubSpot's Sales Hub is basically a sales team's secret weapon; super easy to use and a one-stop-shop for managing prospects, deals, and outreach. Plus it gets Marketing and Sales to work together. And you know how important that is.” -Kristina Brown, Director of Marketing Operations Everything you need to know about the hub is in the latest B2B Blueprint featuring Kristina. Link to episode in comments.

It's been a week since returning from the 6sense Empowered CMO event and my energy hasn't diminished. This is the first year that Directive sponsored this event and it was incredible. Here's just a few reasons it was one of the best-run events I've experienced: 🌟 Purposeful attendee list. These are some of the most powerful, influential leaders in marketing and the event was both intimate in size yet simultaneously diverse. 🗣 Powerful, interactive sessions. We've all been to events and conferences where you're in a dark room with people zoning out and multitasking on laptops. That doesn't happen here. Speakers were a blend of aspirational, practical, and timely in their topics and everyone in the room felt involved in the discussions. 💅 Surprise and delight was next level. The personalization, thoughtfulness and creativity of the little touches goes a long way. All the "swag" was either consumable or something truly special, not just another tote bag for a landfill. 🥇 Best moderator, hands down in Taylor Buonocore-Guthrie who brought the interactivity and connections to a new height. "Intentional" was the name of the game here. I'll leave this post with a few quotes. Matching tattoos anyone? "You gotta wanna" "What's your good different" "Pissed, pause, pivot"

There's a secret to seeing better ROI with Meta... 🤫 And we've got the tell-all in the latest B2B Blueprint! Here's the deal: 👇 - B2B companies must embrace Meta to surpass KPIs - Meta allows for killer ads and effective MOFU strategies - Meta’s massive audience can (and will) supercharge your sales funnel Look, if you're interested in low-cost tactics to retarget and re-engage your audience, it's time to try Meta. Everything you need to know is in this episode. (Link in comments.)

Shoutout to Nathan Smith, Directive's Player of the Week! Nathan's passion for SEO and proactive approach has impressed our team and clients from day one. His keen attention to detail, problem-solving skills, and willingness to lend a hand elevate our work. We're lucky to have Nathan driving our success and inspiring us all. Keep up the amazing work, Nathan!

Don't sleep on financial modeling. It could mean the difference between hitting your growth goals or not. LTV:CAC financial modeling evaluates your spend and guides budget allocation towards high-performing campaigns and channels. This helps you report accurate financial results, forecast effectively, and achieve growth targets. Which is great since we know the bosses are (enthusiastically) waiting for those results! 🫠 By understanding customer lifetime value and acquisition costs, you can optimize strategies and drive success in your marketing and sales efforts. Want to learn more about LTV:CAC? Check out our website for more deets: https://bit.ly/3WndtnY

Meet Christopher Diaz, Directive's Player of the Week! Chris, you've shown shown incredible dedication since day 1. Your positivity, willingness to learn, and proactive approach make you an essential part of our team. We appreciate your optimism and eagerness to help out wherever you're needed. Keep shining, Chris!