What are the most effective ways to track and report on analyst influence and impact?

- 🎯 Define clear goals and KPIs for your Analyst Relations (AR) program, aligning them with your business objectives. - 📊 Use surveys and feedback forms to gather insights from analysts on awareness and reputation. - 🖥️ Track media mentions, reports, and analyst quotes to measure visibility and influence. - 💼 Analyze the impact of AR activities on lead generation and sales by correlating AR engagements with business outcomes. - 🌐 Utilize social listening tools to monitor analyst discussions and sentiment across platforms. - 📈 Regularly report on these metrics, showcasing trends and areas of improvement to stakeholders. - 🔄 Continuously refine your AR strategies based on data-driven insights to enhance impact.

This is an executive level conversation that has to balance realistic AR goals with budget and timeline constraints. AR goals typically contribute directly to marketing funnel (analyst mentions and content licensing), to sales velocity (waves, MQs, analyst advocacy), or to the difficult to measure category of analyst advice that successfully guides either those two or product strategy decisions. Above all else: do not fall prey to the siren song of letting an activity count be your AR goal - counting inquiries or briefings is an easy goal, but not an impactful one.

The influence and impact of AR is the quality and candor of analyst insights / feedback to trusted stakeholders. The way we, as AR professionals, manage the feedback from analysts, speaks volumes about how we value the relationship. Over a period of time, the ultimate measure of AR is the influence on client / partner decisions.

The impact of AR Management is not just outbound influence, but even more about getting insight into your business, that you couldn't get otherwise at all, much slower or in less reliable quality. AR helps you accelerate and amplify the value of your best programs, projects, products and people. To measure the impact you need to bring analyst insights into your machine room and speak with your subject matter experts: How will this be useful for you? Then touch base later: How has it helped - or not - and why? Brief back the analyst about these results, translated to business measures: Cost, time, risk, agility, etc. Not only does this exercise give you an SME-backed value, it also drives analyst confidence to publish about you.

Even beyond defining your goals and metrics and making sure they align with business objectives, you need to first make sure that you have a cross section of key stakeholders from across the organization who are willing and ready to engage with you on the topics. For example, does the organization view product improvement as the biggest goal this year? Then work with engineering and product management to understand their needs from analysts and create goals and metrics to track our progress toward delivering what they need. In this case, our success with analysts helps ensure the organization's success on the product front.

Track Consumption & Engagement: Monitor downloads, views, and shares of research reports. Analyze website traffic driven by analyst content. Gauge social media mentions and discussions around analyst insights. Identify Actionable Insights: Track mentions of analyst recommendations in news articles or company filings. Use surveys or interviews to understand how clients use analyst reports. Monitor client investment decisions potentially influenced by analyst ratings. Measure Reputation & Credibility: Analyze media coverage referencing the analyst's expertise. Track industry awards and recognition received by the analyst. Monitor client satisfaction surveys regarding the value of the analyst's insights.

Volume Vs Value led conversation is the key. AR Platform, Engagement Tracking, Analyst Reports Monitoring, Surveys and Feedback, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Relationship Management Tools, Social Media Monitoring, Case Studies and Success Stories and Benchmarking are some of the good livers to use.

Defining clear objectives is crucial, whether it's to enhance brand visibility, drive product adoption, or shape market perception. Metrics should then be tailored to these goals, encompassing analyst mentions in reports, media coverage, and social media engagement. Moreover, tracking analyst interactions such as briefings, inquiries, and advisory sessions can provide insights into their influence on key stakeholders.

Analyst Relations (AR) ROI is critical. To measure its effectiveness, leverage advanced analytics tools. Monitor media mentions, social shares, and engagement metrics to gauge analyst impact. Correlate analyst coverage with sales pipeline, win rates, and revenue to quantify ROI. Identify key performance indicators (KPIs) for AR success. Track analyst sentiment, quote mentions, and speaking engagements. Use these metrics to benchmark performance against competitors and inform strategic decisions. Leverage AI-powered tools to streamline tracking. Automate media monitoring, sentiment analysis, and competitive intelligence. This frees up AR teams to focus on building relationships and driving business impact.

If your goal is to track revenue influenced by analysts, the best sources of information are - a win/loss program that specifically asks about analyst influence, data about MQL conversions from analyst research you licensed for distribution, and any revenue intelligence platform that records your sales team's calls. Pro tip - set up an alert for keywords related to your AR program.

Once goals and metrics are established, the next step is to collect and analyze data to demonstrate the impact of analyst relations (AR). Leveraging tools and platforms like ARInsights, Spotlight AR, or Kea Company can streamline the process by automating data collection and analysis. Consistency and reliability in methodology are crucial to capture the breadth of AR impact and account for various influencing factors and variables.

Creating and sharing reports is indeed the crucial final step in communicating the impact of analyst relations (AR) to stakeholders effectively. Reports should be meticulously crafted to be clear, concise, and compelling, emphasizing key findings and insights that underscore the value proposition of AR efforts. It's imperative to customize reports for different audiences, catering to the specific needs and interests of executives, marketing, sales, product, and finance teams. The ultimate aim is to render reports engaging, informative, and actionable, encouraging feedback and suggestions for continual improvement.

Here is a recent example: When I joined my current company, I was tasked with putting together an AR program for an entirely new market area where we had little to no mind share with analysts. As a starting point, I worked with my primary spokespeople to put together a strategy/messaging deck that we then took out to our core analysts in this new market. Through that, I gathered as many insights during the briefings and follow-up inquiries as I could. When all was said and done, I sat down and found 7-10 key messages we were repeatedly hearing from analysts. I used those key messages as a way to categorize/contextualize high-value insights that I then presented through a readout to key product and marketing leaders.

Analyst influence is difficult to track or measure. However, an AR person usually have a sense if the engagement is moving or not. While counting on inquiries, briefings or report participation may not be the best way but it is important to track that volume. If you can identify the key analysts and engage with them in multiple ways, over a period of time it helps you to show the impact.

While there's no sure shot metrics to measure an AR program but one can execute the following things for measuring the impact: 1. Email Campaign: Share the report with your database and a CTR will help you gauge the credibility of the report to some extent. 2. Listing Report: List the report on your website and measure the downloads and form fills it garners over a period of time. 3. LinkedIn Posts: Have a few organic posts and measure the engagement levels with your audience. 4. Direct Feedback: Lastly but most importantly, share the report with your customers and take the feedback if the report mentions resonate with what they have been experiencing through our services or not.

Analyst influence happens at various stages of the buying process. In order to correctly evaluate all impacts it is crucial to map the buying center to the various analysts involved throughout the different stages. In addition a significant part of analyst influence can be leveraged indirectly by using analyst content in marketing and sales. Including these areas in any measurements of analyst influence ROI requirements a comprehensive analysis of all impacted departments.

In addition to defining goals and metrics, collecting and analyzing data, and creating and sharing reports, it's essential to consider a few more elements for effectively tracking and reporting on analyst influence and impact. By incorporating these elements into the tracking and reporting process, organizations can enhance their ability to assess and communicate the impact of analyst relations activities effectively.