Heatmaps provide a visual overview of trends in different aspects of Demandbase account activity. The type of information that’s applied to the rows of the heatmaps gets compared to the type of information applied to the columns, which results in a grid representing various degrees of activity shown by different color shading (the darker the gradation, the larger the value). For example, the field where Row = Marketing and Column = Manager has the darkest shade in the following screenshot because the value is the highest number in the row.
Tip: Another important function of heatmaps is to make it easier to filter data in tables. See Filter Tables with Heatmaps.
The following Demandbase solutions are built with heatmap capabilities:
- Engagement: Shows the number of engagement minutes.
- People: Shows the number of associated lead and contact records.
- Journeys: Shows the number of accounts in an identified Journey Stage.
In addition, if you have a Salesforce integration with Demandbase, you can choose from sets of different information types to apply to rows and columns as criteria for what to display in the heatmap on the Visualforce page (for example, Account Location, Role, etc.).
Even if some heatmaps are saved as Views, the data parameters that define heatmaps are flexible to some degree. You choose the parameters from drop-down lists above the heatmap. There are two modes for selecting the data contours.
Preset: The Preset mode shows the different Views that come delivered in Demandbase by default. The View options in the screenshot below are for the Engagement solution; other solutions offer different sets of heatmap criteria choices. Note that the row entity is identified before the column entity.
Custom: When the heatmap is in Custom mode, you can select from all available fields and Segments in Demandbase, as well as from integrated marketing automation systems and Salesforce. This gives you the latitude to define the data criteria directly in the Demandbase solution that you’re viewing, such as Engagement, People, etc. An Admin of Demandbase can use View Management to create a default heatmap that appears in the Custom mode for users under the Admin’s control. See Create and Manage User Views for how to create a heatmap with default settings.
Tip: At the top right of the heatmap, you can set the maximum number of heatmap rows displayed on the page.
Use Cases for Heatmaps with Preset Parameters
There are many different ways to set up heatmaps, even if you rely on the Preset parameter. The following articles provide details about how to configure and view some heatmaps that gauge the progress of common use-case dimensions of Account-Based Experience:
- For activity analytics in Engagement Minutes: Understanding Activities
- For engagement by location: View Activity Locations
- For engagement by People categories (leads and contacts): Understanding the Person Dashboard and People Page
- For Journey Stages progress: Understanding the Journey Volume Dashboard
- For Journey conversion: Understanding the Journey Conversion Dashboard
- For metrics about the average number of days accounts take to move to the next Journey Stage: Understanding the Journey Velocity Dashboard
Use Cases for Heatmaps with Custom Parameters
There are other useful pairings of row/column information types that involve using the Custom drop-down lists to render the heatmap. The following table has some recommendations.
| Row | Column |
|---|---|
|
Industry |
Region |
|
Account Tier |
Industry |
|
Account Tier |
Region |
|
Intent |
Industry |
For post-sales personas, the challenge of getting the pulse of existing customers can be harder. A couple challenges that heatmaps can help address:
-
It’s hard to know who within the account is engaged: Use the Engagement View by Role.
- Don’t know what other products or services to upsell to existing customer: Find out the Intent keywords that get the most interest and the accounts that are showing higher engagement.
Filter Tables with Heatmaps
The most efficient way to filter the data in a table of a Demandbase solution page is to use the heatmap (if one is available on the page).
Click on a column heading, and the table focuses on only the subject of the heading. Similarly, if you click on the row label, the table displays information centered around the subject of the row. And clicking a field in the table narrows down the data of the table to the type of information specific to the field.
For example, if you click on the VP column header in this heatmap . . .
. . . you see a table that only lists data for people whose job title for their role has “VP” or “Vice President.”
To exit out of the focused view, click the column heading, row label, or field that you selected. This returns you to a view of the full heatmap with all corresponding data in the table.