The Marketing Report That I Trust Above All Others

By David Ronald

Every marketer has a report that they rely on.

A report that cuts through bias, noise, and opinion to reveal the truth of what’s really happening.

For me, it’s the weekly pipeline influence report.

It’s the one snapshot that keeps our feet planted firmly on solid ground – especially when everything else in the business feels full of shifting narratives and competing priorities. 

In this blog post I explain why this report matters to me so much. 

What is a Pipeline Influence Report?

A weekly pipeline influence report is a recurring analysis that shows how marketing activities are contributing to the creation and progression of the revenue pipeline. 

At its core, it highlights what pipeline was created or progressed, which touchpoints shaped that movement, and where early opportunities or bottlenecks are emerging. 

It brings together data from a variety of sources including our CRM platform, marketing automation platforms, and website analytics to reveal which campaigns are influencing opportunities at each stage of the buyer’s journey. 

And, because it’s built on consistent definitions and clean data sources, it provides a stable, trusted view of how marketing affects real revenue outcomes, and not just vanity metrics.

What The Report Shows

The pipeline influence report tells the story of real customer movement, not surface-level performance data, and it does so without clutter.  

At its core, the report answers three things: 

1. What pipeline was created or progressed this week? This surfaces new opportunities, deals that moved forward, and any shifts in deal velocity or value.
2. Which marketing touchpoints influenced that movement? It connects engagements such as content downloads, events, ads, emails, or website activity to opportunities, showing where marketing is helping spark or accelerate buyer interest.
3. Where are the emerging opportunities or bottlenecks? By normalizing data week over week, it highlights patterns, friction points, or early signals that might impact future revenue.

Because it’s built on consistent definitions (eg, what counts as an “influence,” “qualified engagement,” or “pipeline”), it provides a stable and trusted view of how marketing affects revenue outcomes.  

When done well, it connects the dots across channels, campaigns, and sales activities without exaggerating marketing’s role or underplaying the contributions of the broader go-to-market engine. 

Building Your Own Pipeline Influence Report

Although there isn’t a “one-size-fits-all” example of a “weekly pipeline influence report,” especially since much of the information on would be proprietary, there are some excellent templates available: 

1. Pedowitz Group

The Pedowitz Group provides a practical breakdown of how to define, track, and report influenced pipeline. Their guide outlines the core elements: defining qualifying touchpoints, mapping contacts to opportunities, choosing an attribution model, and building dashboards that show pipeline / revenue by channel and program. 

2. Salesforce

If you use Salesforce, there’s a built-in Campaign Influence feature, and you can run reports like “Campaigns with Influenced Opportunities (Customizable Campaign Influence)”. 

3. Qualified

Qualified offers a Weekly Pipeline Council framework that’s designed for cross-functional team alignment. While not exactly a “pipeline influence report” in the pure marketing attribution sense, this kind of structured weekly council model ensures the data (influenced pipeline, velocity, risk) is being consumed by stakeholders and acted upon. 

4. Microsoft

Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 Marketing (Customer Insights / Journeys) has a built-in Marketing Program Effectiveness report. It includes a “Lead Pipeline” report and an ROI / attribution section. You can export or snapshot this weekly to serve as your influence report if you define “programs” or “journeys” as your influencing touch points. 

5. ClickUp

ClickUp provides a weekly sales report template that tracks key pipeline metrics: velocity, number of new opportunities, deal values, conversion rates, and so on. While it’s more of a sales pipeline report than a “marketing influence” report, you could combine this with a custom influenced-pipeline dashboard to approximate your weekly pipeline influence report. 

Conclusion

When a report consistently helps you make better decisions, you start to rely on it – not out of habit, but out of earned confidence.

And over time, it becomes more than a dashboard. It becomes the compass you trust in both calm and chaotic seasons, the one source that points you back to what buyers are actually doing, not what anyone wishes they were doing.

Thanks for reading – I hope you found this blog post useful.

Are you interested in discussing how to improve your ability to track marketing’s influence on pipeline? If so, let’s have a conversation. My email address is david@alphabetworks.com – I look forward to hearing from you.

How to Make Your Product Launch a Success

By David Ronald  

Nearly 95% of new products fail to create profitable impact, according to research from Harvard Business School. 

Not surprisingly, the cumulative cost in wasted development budgets, marketing spend, opportunity cost, and brand damage of these failures is enormous.  

What’s more, many of these failures don’t stem from bad ideas or technology, but from overlooking the go‑to‑market and launch disciplines that separate a promising concept from a commercially successful offering.  

In this blog post I provide guidance on how to embed launch rigor, align cross‑functional stakeholders, and transform your next product release into a growth engine instead of a write‑off.  

(You may also be interested in reading this blog post Too Many Product Launches Are Unsuccessful.)

1. Launch Discipline

One of the major reasons why products flop is due to companies becoming “too engrossed in product development” and neglecting market readiness.  

But building a product doesn’t guarantee market traction – what matters is how you bring it into the world, how you communicate value, how you reach the right buyers, and how you support them once they adopt. 

In many ways launching a product is like sending a rocket into space  – building the rocket is essential, but if you don’t coordinate launch timing, trajectory, mission control, communications, and landing procedures, you might build a beautiful spacecraft that never reaches orbit.  

And the very high failure rate of new product launches shows that many organizations miss one or more of those mission‑critical pieces.  

By building discipline into a launch you make visible the hand‑offs, dependencies, timelines and metrics across product, marketing, and sales.

2. Performance Metrics

Tracking a launch shouldn’t be about checking boxes. It needs to be about measuring signals that the product is resonating and scaling. And, in this regard, there are five metric categories that we need to consider: 

2.1 Awareness

How many target prospects know about the offering and have seen targeted messaging?

• Measure – website traffic to launch pages, downloads of pre‑launch assets, invitations accepted, ad click‑throughs, earned media mentions.
• Trigger question – are we getting sufficient exposure among the right segment of buyers, not just broad traffic?

Ultimately, this stage is about ensuring awareness translates into meaningful engagement with the audiences that matter most.

2.2 Engagement

Are prospects actively interacting with the product narrative and experiencing value?

• Measure – free trial or demo sign‑ups, webinar attendance, product preview invitations, event participation.
• Trigger question – is the engagement meaningful (ie, deep enough) to suggest interest, not just curiosity?

The goal here is to confirm that prospects are moving beyond initial interest and beginning to connect with the product’s real value.

2.3 Acquisition

Are we converting engaged prospects into paying customers at an acceptable rate and cost?

• Measure – conversion rate from demo to customer, customer acquisition cost, time‑to‑close.
• Trigger question – is our cost to acquire acceptable relative to the expected lifetime value of the customer? 

This phase is about validating that our acquisition efforts are both efficient and sustainable in driving profitable growth.

2.4 Retention

Are customers staying, using, deriving value and avoiding churn?

• Measure – monthly/weekly active users, churn rate, usage metrics, customer health scores.
• Trigger question – does the product deliver value such that customers want to stay and expand?

This stage focuses on ensuring customers realize lasting value that deepens their loyalty and drives long-term retention.

2.5 Referrals

Are customers so delighted that they refer others, amplifying growth?

• Measure – net promoter score, referral count, viral coefficient, word‑of‑mouth indicators.
• Trigger question – do customers act as advocates (not just users)?

Additionally, collect qualitative feedback from customers, prospects, sales, marketing, and product teams to surface issues, insights and opportunities for improvement.

3. Cross‑Functional Alignment

One of the major launch risks is functional silos. 

Product builds something, marketing tries to push it, sales tries to sell it, but alignment is weak. It's crucial to build a coordinated launch plan with owners, deadlines, KPIs and an end date.  

But how do you make this work?

• Define a launch command center – designate a launch lead (often from product marketing) who owns end‑to‑end readiness. Bring together stakeholders from product, engineering, marketing, sales, enablement, support, operations, finance, and channel/partners.
• Build your launch plan as a living document – include launch goals, target segments, positioning, key message pillars, pricing/packaging decisions, distribution strategy, marketing campaign timeline, sales enablement materials, support readiness checklist, risk mitigation items, and metrics.
• Set an end date – launch may schedule a date, but the real work lies in the “post‑launch review” phase (such as measuring outcomes, comparing to KPIs, capturing learnings, deciding next steps). Without an end date, the launch drifts into “we shipped, now we move on” mode and you lose evaluation, feedback and refinement.
• Communicate continually – keep internal teams and external stakeholders updated via weekly or bi‑weekly status reviews, dashboards, risk logs, and decision points. Transparency reduces surprises and aligns everyone to the same objectives.

By establishing clear ownership, living plans, defined timelines, and ongoing communication, you turn a potential siloed effort into a coordinated launch that delivers measurable impact. 

4. Pre‑Launch Demand Building

If you think launch day is the moment when demand begins, you’re probably already be behind.  

Effective launches often start weeks or months in advance with demand‑building activities that include thought‑leadership, awareness campaigns, community engagement, pre‑registrations, beta access, influencer outreach, and partner outreach.  

By building a pre‑launch funnel you do three things:

• You warm up the audience so that launch day already has traction.
• You validate messaging and offer (by tracking sign‑ups, engagement, conversion intent) and iterate early.
• You build operational muscle (marketing campaign flow, sales outreach, onboarding processes) before full scale.

This aligns with the concept of a customer journey that begins well before the product is sold.  

As the original article iterates, the buyer journey moves from “Unknown” to “Known” to “Engaged” and, finally, to “Converted”.

Extend that idea to the product launch journey: build awareness and engagement ahead of time, convert early adopters, iterate, then scale.

5. Scaling After Launch

Many product marketing teams celebrate on launch day and assume the job is done.  

But the reality is, the hardest work often begins after launch.  

 So, you should:

• Plan for scale – if the product starts gaining traction, do you have the processes to expand marketing spend effectively, onboard new customers efficiently, support them professionally, and capture referrals? If not, you risk peak and decline.
• Monitor metrics continuously – use the five metric categories (awareness through referrals) to track early indicators of trouble: stagnating conversion, accelerating churn, weak engagement, siloed acquisition. Use dashboards, regular reviews, and trigger thresholds (eg, conversion falls below X% for two weeks → initiate corrective action).
• Iterate and optimize – no product launch is perfect. Use early feedback to refine messaging, pricing, packaging, onboarding flows, and even product features. Treat the launch as a 90‑day sprint, not a one‑and‑done event.
• Leverage success for momentum – when you hit milestones (eg, first 100 customers, first customer success story, first referral loop), use them as marketing assets. Social proof and case studies accelerate adoption and credibility.

Growth is never automatic. Conversion curves, customer onboarding, usage adoption, churn, upsell, channel activation all need nurturing.

6. Leadership Imperatives

Beyond process and metrics, the kind of culture you bring to product launches makes a big difference. Some leadership and cultural behaviors that correlate with successful launches include:

• Customer obsession – building a product you think customers want is not enough — focus on what customers demonstrate they want, will pay for, and will use.
• Cross‑functional collaboration – product development, marketing, sales, support, operations all need to work in tight feedback loops rather than hand‑offs.
• Launch mindset not just “shipping” mindset – many organizations celebrate the development milestone (“It’s out!”) but fail to celebrate the business milestone (“It’s used, valued, scaling!”).
• Fail fast, learn faster – instead of burying failures, investigate them quickly, share learnings, adjust next launches.
• Accountability for outcomes – everyone involved in the launch should own the metrics and be involved in post‑launch reviews.

Cultivating these behaviors creates an environment where launches are not just completed, but truly drive impact, growth, and lasting customer value.

7. Launch Checklist

Here’s a practical checklist you can consider using when planning your next product launch:

• Define the business goals such as target revenue, market share, margin, time‑to‑break‑even.
• Map buyer segments and buyer journey for this product specifically.
• Conduct pre‑launch validation using messaging tests, pre‑registrations, pilot customers, willingness to pay.
• Build a launch plan with owners, milestones, KPIs, risk mitigation, end date and post‑launch review.
• Ensure pricing and packaging are aligned with value and segment.
• Create demand‑gen pipeline ahead of launch (awareness, engagement).
• Coordinate with sales/enablement regarding things such as training, collateral, pricing tools, objection handling.
• Ensure operational readiness across customer success staffing, support workflows, supply/distribution, onboarding flows.
• Establish launch metrics dashboard across awareness, engagement, acquisition, retention, referrals.
• After your launch, review performance, capture learnings, and iterate as needed.

Following this checklist helps ensure your product launch is strategic, coordinated, and positioned for measurable success from day one and beyond. 

Conclusion

It’s simply not enough to build an innovative product.

You must also launch smart.  

A robust launch process, disciplined cross‑functional alignment, validated market readiness, tracked metrics and a culture tuned to outcome, not just output, aren’t optional . They’re the difference between writing off your investment and unlocking growth, momentum and distinction.  

If you commit to linking product launch activities with business outcomes, treat launch as a strategic discipline and embed a learning‑and‑iteration mindset, your next product release is far more likely to be one of the 5 % that succeeds.  

And, what happens when it does?  

The rewards for growth, brand credibility, customer loyalty, and economic return are well worth the investment. 

Thanks for reading – I hope you found this blog post useful.  

Are you interested in discussing how to improve your next product launch? If so, let’s have a conversation. My email address is david@alphabetworks.com – I look forward to hearing from you.

The Product Marketer’s Guide to Market Research

By David Ronald

Market research isn’t a “one and done” project.  

Market research is a continuous feedback loop that keeps product marketers aligned with their customers, competitors, and the market’s direction of travel.  

Yet, in practice, many teams treat it as a box to check before a launch.  

This is a mistake that will create problems downstream.  

Truly effective product marketing teams know that smarter market research is what fuels everything: messaging that resonates, positioning that differentiates, and strategies that drive growth.  

In this blog post I explore some of the best practices that product marketers can apply in their market research.

1. Start with a Clear Objective

Before collecting any data, define why you’re doing the research.  

Are you trying to size a market opportunity? Validate messaging? Understand buyer pain points? Or something else.  

Clarity here prevents wasted effort and ensures every question and interview serves a specific purpose.  

Write down the decision you need to make and frame your research around that. 

For example: “We need to know whether our target audience values speed or reliability more – so we can adjust our product messaging accordingly.” 

2. Blend Quantitative and Qualitative Insights

Smarter market research doesn’t rely on one type of data.

• Quantitative methods, such as surveys, usage analytics, or secondary market data, show you what’s happening.
• Qualitative methods, including interviews, focus groups, social listening, explain why it’s happening.

The best product marketers triangulate both to get a full picture.  

For instance, survey data might reveal that 60% of buyers switch vendors within a year, but one-on-one interviews uncover the real reason: frustration with onboarding complexity.

3. Don’t Skip Competitive Intelligence

Competitive research is more than just tracking product features or pricing.  

It’s about understanding positioning. How are your competitors framing their value? Which segments are they targeting? What emotional levers are they pulling?  

Set up a simple framework to track competitor messaging, campaigns, and reviews monthly.  

This living document can be a goldmine for refining your own differentiation story.

4. Bring Sales and Customer Success Into the Process

Frontline teams often hear customer pain points long before they show up in survey data.  

Regularly interview sales and customer success reps to capture those insights early.  

Ask them questions such as, “What objections come up most often?” or “Which customer stories make deals close faster?” 

Integrating this voice-of-customer intelligence into your research makes your findings more grounded – and your go-to-market strategy more effective.

5. Turn Findings Into Action

Even the smartest research is useless if it stays trapped in a slide deck.  

Summarize insights in a concise, narrative format – highlight what’s new, what it means, and what action it requires. 

Create simple one-page briefs for stakeholders or use internal workshops to turn insights into positioning updates, campaign ideas, or roadmap inputs.

6. Make It Continuous

Markets move fast, and insights age quickly.  

Build lightweight, ongoing mechanisms to keep a pulse on change – automated sentiment tracking, regular win-loss interviews, or quarterly buyer persona refreshes. 

When research becomes a habit, not a project, product marketers stay closer to their customers than the competition ever will.  

Smarter market research is about better questions and faster learning.

When done right, it becomes your most powerful strategic asset – not just informing your marketing, but shaping the very direction of your business.  

Thanks for reading – I hope you found this blog post useful.  

Are you interested in discussing how to improve your market research? If so, let’s have a conversation. My email address is david@alphabetworks.com – I look forward to hearing from you.