How do you leverage analyst recognition and endorsements to boost your brand awareness and credibility? (original) (raw)

Analyst relations (AR) is the strategic function of building and maintaining relationships with industry analysts who influence your target market, customers, and prospects. AR can help you gain insights, feedback, validation, and advocacy from these influential experts. But how do you measure the impact of your AR activities and demonstrate the value of analyst recognition and endorsements to your stakeholders? In this article, we will explore some of the key metrics and best practices for measuring analyst engagement impact.

Define your AR goals and objectives

Before you start measuring anything, you need to have a clear vision of what you want to achieve with your AR program. What are your business goals and how can analysts help you reach them? How do you align your AR strategy with your marketing, sales, and product development plans? What are the specific outcomes and benefits you expect from engaging with analysts? These questions will help you define your AR goals and objectives, which will guide your measurement approach and criteria.

Analyst Relations don't work in a silo, we collaborate with different teams within the organisation and therefore, we need to link our objectives with the wider business goals. Do you have a new product that your company is bringing to the market? The number of briefings you do is a great measure when you are bringing a new product/service/offering to the market and want more analysts to know about it so they can confidently speak of the product to their clients. Tracking the number of inquiries is suitable when you are looking to learn from the analysts whether it is about new markets, new technologies, new areas the company might be looking to enter, etc.
There are many ways to track analyst activities, but it's not always easy to use those to show true ROI. This is where many AR practitioners fall short—simply documenting activities is not showing impact. Since AR has such high value, it's key for AR pros to figure out how to tell that story using the data they've tracked throughout their programs. There is no "right way" to show ROI with analyst relations programs, it's dependent on the overall goals of the program. But it is *essential* to figure out how to show that ROI, without it, I guarantee you the org won't understand just how much these activities can move the needle. I've seen AR activities that were attributable for millions in revenue—but I had to show the org how and why.
There is no one way, right way, or right approach to track your AR outcomes. Depends on multiple factors whether you are a product or a services firm, you are a start-up or an established firm, you are new in the industry or have matured capabilities, and many others. You need to define your own metrics, measurements, goals, and objectives depending on what you would like to achieve from the program.

Measure your AR outcomes and impacts

The next step is to measure your AR outcomes and impacts. These are the effects and benefits of your AR activities and outputs on your business performance and reputation. For example, you may measure the awareness, perception, and preference of your brand, product, or solution among analysts, customers, and prospects. You may also measure the influence, reach, and credibility of analyst recognition and endorsements on your marketing, sales, and product development outcomes, such as leads, conversions, retention, revenue, or innovation.

There is no "right way" to show ROI with analyst relations programs, it's dependent on the overall goals of the program. But it is *essential* to figure out how to show that ROI because analyst programs are expensive and time-consuming activities. I've seen AR activities that were attributable for millions in revenue—but I had to show the how and why by connecting activities to data points to revenue results. Sometimes it's easy to show how one thing influenced another (i.e. "our leadership position in an MQ led to 10Minrevenue"),butothertimesit′snotassimple.Itmightbe"thatanalyst1:1ataneventwithourprospecttookhimoverthelinetoclosethe10M in revenue"), but other times it's not as simple. It might be "that analyst 1:1 at an event with our prospect took him over the line to close the 10Minrevenue"),butothertimesit′snotassimple.Itmightbe"thatanalyst1:1ataneventwithourprospecttookhimoverthelinetoclosethe2M deal"—but if you don't tell that story, you don't get the credit.

Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

AR strategy is never done. It's constantly evolving and tactics are changing depending on the maturity of the program and the overall goals of the company (and therefore the AR program). A mature AR program that's been running smoothly for 20 years still needs new strategies, adapting to both a changing analyst landscape and changing priorities of the business. A new AR program might be focused on simple awareness one quarter (outbound AR), but may shift to strategic inquiries for product roadmap advice in another quarter (inbound AR). Staying agile and continually assessing the goals of the program while *also* shifting your strategies to reach those goals is paramount for a truly strategic AR program to thrive.

How do you leverage analyst recognition and endorsements to boost your brand awareness and credibility? (original) (raw)

Define your AR goals and objectives

Measure your AR outcomes and impacts

Here’s what else to consider

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