Marketing Governance

Measuring is knowing, people say. Theres no difference for marketingdepartments. Because when you measure your results, you measure your succes. And when you measure, you can hold people accountable.

For measuring results you need data, and theres no lack of data nowadays. Customer and businessdata is more available then ever, says Jonathan Lewis on marketingprofs.com. But the sheer volume of data increases the chance on misunderstanding and misinterpreting it significant.

According to Lewis there are five common errors that must be avoided when measuring results.

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Elements of user interface that you control are vital to the success of your marketing platform adoption & ROI.  You are developing the materials in order to be a simple, effective shortcut for your marketers while you provide them a healthy freedom within a framework.  Your goal is to make available a path to success in record time.  Saving your participants time will save your budget.  Making the items easy to navigate and locate will be one of the top contributers to user adoption success.

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Warc, wich combines trends observed in marketing budgets, trading conditions and staffing levels, the index has risen to a 56.2 in February, where 50 represents a positive trend. That is 1.2 point increase compared to January.

The biggest rise can be found in Asia Pacific. The headline GMI in this region stood stood on 53.8 in January, and has climbed to 56.2 in February.

The Americas are the most optimistic. It’s headline GMI went up from 58 to a firm 59.5 points.

Europe is lacking behind in this all. Although the trend is positive and  the index went up 1.2 points, it stills keeps a low score at 53.1 points in February.

(graphic by marketingprofs.com)

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If you are going to deliver Operational Marketing Excellence in your business you need to get your technology implementation right.

Here are the top 10 critical moves you should make.

Perhaps your marketing organization, like so many we work with have a marketing dashboard. At two recent conferences where the topic was marketing dashboards we asked attendees whether  their dashboard enables them to the following:

1. Inform the leadership team of the contribution and impact marketing is making on acquiring, keeping, and growing the value of customers?
2. Provide a direct link between your marketing programs and investments and business results?
3. Enable you to make strategic decisions?

Most every participant indicated that their dashboard is not addressing these three questions.  If this situation sounds familiar, then it may be time to do some fine tuning.  Below are three attributes we use to evaluate a dashboard’s ability to facilitate decisions, improve marketing, and prove marketing’s contribution.

Alignment

One of the first things we look for when reviewing a dashboard is the degree of connection between marketing activities and investments and business outcomes.  This signals how well marketing is aligned with the business needles the company is trying to move and whether marketing will be able to communicate its impact and contribution.  For example, let’s say one of the metrics on the dashboard is brand awareness.  That might or might not be a good metric.  And even if it is a good metric for the organization, if the relationship between brand awareness and the outcome it is expected to impact is unclear, then the dashboard needs adjustment.   Members of the C-Suite are invest in marketing initiatives that will help the company acquire more of something, faster, less expensively, for example, more customers, more market share, more business with existing customer; faster conversion rates, and faster product adoption.  Does your marketing dashboard show marketing value, contribution and impact on find, keep and grow, and answer the questions of more, faster, and at what cost?

Outcome-based Metrics

The next thing we examine is the metrics themselves.  Most of the time what we see is data around marketing activity and leads.  Rarely are the metrics actionable.  If the metric isn’t helping you make course adjustments or strategic recommendations it might be interesting and you may want to track it, but it probably isn’t one you want to send up the flagpole. Think about the dashboard in your car.  There are just a very few indicators you are monitoring such as level of fuel, engine temperature, air pressure, and speed.   Each of these indicators are tied to some very important outcomes, such as not getting stuck because the tank is dry or the tire is flat or the engine overheated, or not  getting a speeding ticket.  Each of us uses the dashboard in our cars as a way to make decisions to help manage or mitigate risk.  Some of us are willing to push the risk envelope a bit more and keep the pedal to the metal or keep driving even though the gas gauge needle says the car is running on fumes.  But we have the metrics we need to decide whether to stop and fuel up or not.

Performance Targets

Lastly, we look to see whether the dashboard compares targets to actual.  Many dashboards are missing this critical element.  Monitoring, measuring, and reporting results need to be within the context of the target and the commitment made.  There are two parts to this dimension:

1. Performance Context:  If you report that you ran a 5K race at a 10 minute per mile pace how can we determine whether that was success or failure?  If you typically run at an 8 minute per mile pace for a 5K then this information tells us something was off and we can begin to do a diagnostic – were you sick, did you lack fuel, were you over-trained, did you have a cramp, fall down?  But if you typically run at a 12 minute per mile pace, then this is a huge improvement.  We have performance context for your results.
2. Performance Commitment.  What performance commitment did you make?  Was your commitment to place in the top five in your age group? Or was it to surpass your personal record? Or, something else?  The point is that your dashboard should enable you and anyone who to evaluate the results within the performance context and commitment.

Summary

If you have a dashboard that makes the connection between marketing activities, investment and results, is comprised of metrics that foster decision and action, and reports performance within context and commitment you are on your way to having a dashboard that will enable you to improve and prove the value of marketing.

Chief marketing officers and other senior marketing leaders now recognize that agility has become a critical attribute of successful marketing. The interests, values, and preferences of today’s buyers change rapidly, and marketers must be ready to respond effectively to a competitive environment that is always evolving.

The growing need for more adaptable and responsive marketing has given birth to a new marketing discipline that’s known appropriately as agile marketing . Agile marketing is derived from the discipline of agile software development. It is based on several principles, but the primary focus is on rapid prototyping, small-scale experimentation, and breaking marketing activities into small tasks that can be completed in a relatively short period of time (a week or a few weeks in most cases). The ultimate objective of agile marketing is to make marketing more responsive to a rapidly changing customer and competitive landscape.

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Over the last year we have seen some initiatives on Augmented Reality (AR) applied to marketing collateral and editorial content. But now AUDI is launching an AR campaign to promote the R8 supercar.

AR is recognition technology that allows a person to see additional content such as a video, 3D imaging or web editorial when scanning a symbols on a printed media. So you think here we go again. Another piece of technology which is difficult to incorporate in daily marketing processes, another investment needed from your superiors with no real arguments, another nifty gadget with its true potential unknown.

But AR is different. For years we have been focussed on creating multichannel campaigns, aligning collateral production workflows and creating channel agnostic content. AR now brings it all together. We can use this technology to engage our customer and we can now track the use of mass media like its direct media. We can expect marketers to struggle with the application of AR and the integration into the marketing processes. But we will offer our customers a great 21^st century experience and in that process become 21^st century marketers.

Watch the movie at Audis UK Facebookpage

Lattice Engines created this infographic exploring the most pivotal inventions that have revolutionized sales. Read More