The difference between conversion and real opportunity generation in B2B Tech marketing

When it comes to B2B marketing, especially in the technology market, I often notice confusion in the understanding of some professionals between conversions with real business opportunities. 

Thus, it is essential that marketing managers understand the difference and adjust their expectations and metrics so that the investment in campaigns is really effective.

What's a conversion?

Conversions represent interactions or actions performed by a user in response to a marketing stimulus, such as:

• Download rich content such as ebooks or guides;
• Completion of forms in landing pages;
• Watching one webinar or video;
• Like or comment on a post on social media.

While these actions demonstrate engagement, they do not necessarily indicate purchase intent.As marketing expert Mark Ritson well points out:

“ Marketing that generates activity but not qualified leads is just an exercise in vanity”

Consider this case extracted from a form (anonymized data):

• Identifier: contact 
• Name: valid
• Telephone: (11) 99999-9999 
• Social reason: abc tech hotel 
• Message: Hello, I would like to know the technology service. Can you get an agenda with those responsible? 
• Accept terms: [“ON”]. 
• Origin: organic search | google

This type of conversion is a good example of genuine interest, but many reports present less relevant interactions as if they were real opportunities.

What's a real opportunity?

A real opportunity goes beyond superficial interaction.It is the moment when a lead it presents clear signs of interest in solving a problem that your solution can solve. Some typical characteristics are:

• Direct contact requesting more information about the product or service;
• Demonstration of alignment with the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP);
• Request to schedule a meeting with clear buying decision on the horizon.

I share the case taken from a form that shows a lead more advanced in the funnel (anonymized data):

• Identifier: contact 
• Name: valid
• Telephone: (31) 88888-888
• Social reason: xyz consulting 
• Message: Hello, I work for a consultancy and my client saw your success case with company X. I would like to know what solutions you have adopted for this project. 
• Accept terms: [“ON”]. 
• Origin: organic search | google

Here, we have a real and contextual interest, indicating a more advanced stage in the buying funnel.

Where do conversions fool reports?

Traditional reports often mask true performance by presenting numbers such as:

• Inflated numbers of downloads of rich materials;
• Growth in page views and clicks;
• Leads originated from paid campaigns or SEO, but without deepening the funnel.

A Demand Gen Report study revealed that 95% of leads generated by B2B campaigns are not ready to buy, while only 5% are at the ideal time of searching for solutions.

This means that many of the conversions presented as successful in meetings can be from people who:

• They lowered one ebook why they find the topic interesting;
• They watched one webinar for learning only;
• They interacted with a post out of pure curiosity, with no purchase intent.

How to identify the real intention in the B2B Tech market?

To differentiate between superficial conversions and real opportunities, consider the following indicators:

1. Full lead profile

• Name and contact provided voluntarily;
• Well-defined company social reason.

2. Proactive message with business context
3. Source and journey of origin

• Clear origin as organic search with transactional intentions;
• History of consistent and relevant interactions;

4. B2B market decision cycle

• Evaluate whether the lead it is at the time of purchase is critical to separate the curious from the buyers.

How to improve the quality of reports?

1. Segment your leads by funnel stage

• Top of funnel: generic interest;
• Middle of the funnel: exploring options;
• Funnel bottom: ready to decide.

2. Adopt lead quality metrics such as:

• Meeting scheduling fee;
• Percentage of Leads Marketing Qualifiers (MQL);
• Conversion rate of Leads Marketing Qualifiers for Leads Sales Qualifiers (SQL)

3. Empower your sales team to differentiate curious from real buyers.

So differentiating conversion from real opportunity is what separates campaigns from Certainly! "Inbound" in Portuguese can be translated to "entrada" or "entrante" depending on the context. However, "inbound" is widely recognized in business and marketing contexts and is often used in the same form in Portuguese-speaking countries, particularly in the context of Inbound Marketing. So, the translation would typically remain "inbound" in both languages for specialized terms. Here are examples in broader contexts: - If referring to traffic or shipments: "trafego de entrada" or "cargas entrantes" - In marketing: "inbound" (as in "Inbound Marketing") So, the most accurate and natural translation in most business and marketing contexts would be to keep it as "inbound." marketing that generates value from campaigns that only generate beautiful numbers in reports. The B2B Tech market, with its long decision cycles, requires marketing managers not only to attract, but also to qualify accurately.

How are you differentiating your metrics?