Before rolling out a new marketing automation platform (MAP), first establish baseline measurements to provide a basis for comparison and the assessment of progress.

Below are baseline measurements that SiriusDecisions recommends organizations take when embarking on a marketing automation initiative.

Note: While it’s unlikely that organizations coming from an environment without a marketing automation platform will be able to measure all elements, it’s nonetheless important to measure as many as possible.

For your demand waterfall, measure:

  • The number of marketing inquiries generated each month for the last 12 months (by source if possible, or at least grouped by inbound and outbound)
  • The number of marketing qualified leads (MQLs), sales accepted leads (SALs), sales qualified leads (SQLs), and closed/won opportunities generated each month for the last 12 months
  • The average velocity and mid-80 percent velocity between each waterfall stage. Two measurements are taken for velocity so that the organization can measure average velocity as well as account for outliers’ impact on average stage-to-stage velocity.
  • The number of unique individuals entered into the sales force automation (SFA) system by month for the last 12 months. Break out by type (e.g. customer, prospect, non-target) and by source (e.g. marketing, telesales, support).
  • The average time to follow up on MQLs and mid-80 percent time to engage MQLs. Break out by sales group and sales rep if possible.
  • The total number of touches (e.g. marketing email, sales email, sales call) by stage each month for the last 12 months.

    • Tactics measurement:

    • For all emails sent in the last 12 months, measure the number of individuals who: Were recipients; became a hard bounce-back; opened the email; clicked through the email; opted out; and reported the email as spam.
    • Measure form visitation and form submissions by month for the last 12 months. If possible, segment by form type (e.g. contact me, white paper download, webinar registration).
    • Measure total Web site visitors and sessions by month for the last 12 months.

      • Measure your active marketing database, including contacts that:

      • Are/are not within a defined target universe
      • Have/have not taken an activity (e.g. email click) in the last six months
      • Have/do not have a mechanism to contact (e.g. valid phone number or email)
      • Have/do not have all primary segmentation or personalization fields populated

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