Last-Touch Attribution:

Businesses know relationships between buyers and sellers are very complex and don't happen happen in the short term.  Some address this by providing comprehensive full-funnel engagement data.

Many don't, but whether you're a 'have' or a 'have not', sales teams still often focus only on a primary call to action (CTA) conversion, overlooking the numerous touch-points and opportunities to engage that influence a prospect's decision-making process. This can be the difference between success and failure when converting marketing funnels to a sales pipeline.

Shockingly,some marketing agencies providing 'demand creation' services are happy to provide engagement data on spreadsheets, or a  light version of an automation tool.  Combine that with having a quarterly focus and you're racking up diminishing returns.

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The limitations of last-touch attribution

Last-touch attribution assigns all credit for a conversion to the final interaction a customer has with a brand before taking a desired action. While this model offers simplicity, it disregards the earlier engagements that play a crucial role in nurturing prospects.

For instance, a potential customer might first encounter a brand through a blog post, later attend a webinar, and finally convert after receiving an email offer. Focusing only on the email ignores the significant influence of the initial blog post and webinar.

Impact on appointment setting

When sales teams base their appointment-setting strategies solely on last-touch data, several issues can arise:

• Incomplete Prospect Profiles: Without considering the full engagement history, sales teams may lack insights into a prospect's interests and pain points, leading to less personalized and effective outreach.
  
  
• Misaligned Follow-Up Strategies: Ignoring early-stage interactions can result in follow-up efforts that don't resonate with the prospect's journey, reducing the likelihood of securing an appointment.
  
  
• Under-utilisation of Marketing Efforts: Marketing teams invest in various initiatives to engage prospects throughout the funnel. Disregarding this data means not leveraging the full spectrum of information available to convert leads into customers.

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The case for multi-touch attribution

To address these challenges, adopting a multi-touch attribution model is beneficial. This approach assigns appropriate credit to all interactions a prospect has with a brand, offering a holistic view of the customer journey. By integrating multi-touch attribution into appointment-setting processes, sales teams can:

• Enhance personalisation: Understanding all touch-points allows for tailored communication that aligns with the prospect's interests and engagement history.
  
  
• Improve conversion rates: Recognising the cumulative effect of multiple interactions can lead to more strategic and effective follow-up, increasing the chances of setting appointments.
  
  
• Strengthen sales and marketing alignment: Using comprehensive engagement data fosters collaboration between sales and marketing, ensuring that efforts are synergistic and focused on converting leads.

While last-touch attribution offers a straightforward view of conversions, it falls short of capturing the complexity of today's buyer journeys. Sales teams that rely exclusively on this model for appointment setting risk missing out on valuable insights provided by full-funnel engagement data.

Embracing multi-touch attribution not only enriches the understanding of prospects but also enhances the effectiveness of sales strategies, leading to better outcomes and a more cohesive approach between marketing and sales efforts.

Many sales teams don't have the luxury of this in-depth analysis of data intelligence, especially if they are in a start-up situation or smaller business.  It requires significant investment, maintenance and adherence to structured outreach to engage buyers throughout their engagement cycles and your selling cycles.

If you'd like to know more about how to get access to an enterprise-grade programme, underpinned by all the technology needed to get competitive edge today, this is where you start.