Measuring your business value beyond marketing tactics

At least once a year (if not per quarter), “the powers that be” will inquire on how your marketing efforts are being measured and whether or not they’re effective. From campaign to campaign, marketers are able to identify just where they are garnering the most traction, click-through rates, impressions, engagements, etc., and taking that even further to how many of these impressions have actually converted to a sale or at least the next stage in nurturing your leads. While this data is impactful and useful, is it really measuring the value these efforts are providing the business overall? In this blog, I will focus on how to communicate to your boss that your marketing efforts are paying off in multiple ways.

The true art to measuring marketing effectiveness is understanding how to make all of these techniques work together to contribute to your results. Blending data and analysis has broadly proven to be a trusted approach, but the real question is what data is the most appropriate to conduct such analysis? What information do you need to not only deliver a killer presentation but demonstrate to the boss your team’s overall effectiveness and the ROI of your marketing programs and tools?

Use your marketing metrics and understand their true meaning – they are in your budget for a reason.

CPMs, CTRs, CRO, CPA, etc.: acronyms of today’s Marketing Gods. We’re not in Mad Men times anymore. Show your boss hard numbers encompassing the following stats to demonstrate the ROI on your automation tools and efforts:

• Measuring click-through rates (CTR) is great but how many of these leads are engaging and ultimately converting? Are you spending enough time interacting with those who click on your content and are ready to take the next step? Measure your time spent in each of these phases along the customer journey instead of only one. It’s not just about getting the lead; it’s about nurturing the lead into conversion.
• Cost per acquisition (CPA) – How much does it actually cost your company to attract and retain the ideal client? How does that compare to different sources? If any channel is costing your firm more money on resources, time and intellectual capital than others, and impacting your profits, maybe it’s time to revisit the data and adjust your strategy.
• Predictive Analytics – Measure the sales cycles per customer segment. Go even deeper and analyze timeframes of marketing campaigns and their results. How does that vary across your demographics? Are there common threads in terms of buying personalities or trends in your prospects’ activity? Your efforts are sometimes lost but the data gained is invaluable. What can we do better next time? Don’t just “rinse and repeat” but “rinse and rethink”!

While these data sets provide a starting point for your analysis, they are still only recognizing the tactical marketing efforts. In order to be more strategic in your thinking, planning and reporting, consider your audience, analyze your customer segments, the topics and issues that are important to them, and how your brand matters. Is your brand awareness and preference growing? Are you well-positioned against competitors? Are you increasingly recognized as industry leaders? By assessing not just the tactical results but also the strategic data points of how marketing is contributing to KPIs (key performance indicators) of the business, your analysis will be comprehensive, and thus more effective.

It’s important that we look beyond everyday tactical marketing and focus on more creative thinking, while demonstrating value to your company and most importantly, your clients.