Successful Marketing Organizations Measure ROI

Pedowitz Group. The study looks at the use of marketing metrics and marketing automation for managing and delivering ROI and growth.

It turns out that the more effective and efficient an organization calls itself, the more likely they are to measure and report the results of their marketing efforts, as shown in the figure below:

Some other interesting findings from the report:

Higher growth companies report sales conversion and closed revenue metrics. Companies outgrowing their competitors are much more likely to report marketing, sales and revenue contribution to senior management than companies with the same or slower growth, using the metrics Percent of Total Sales Contributed by Marketing (38% vs. 23%) and Percent of Total Revenue Contributed by Marketing (30% vs. 18%).

Marketers are reporting and forecasting metrics – at much higher rates among users of integrated marketing automation. Companies using full-featured marketing automation integrated with CRM or sales automation indicate much higher rates of reporting and forecasting metrics. Compared to marketers with no marketing automation, integrated marketing automation users were more likely to report performance metrics (average 58% vs. 36% per metric), report financial metrics (average 46% vs. 22% per metric) and forecast metrics (average 56% vs. 35% per metric).

Effectiveness and efficiency are tied to strengths in key capabilities to measure and manage high-impact marketing. Highly effective and efficient marketers rate their capabilities as strong – “4” or “5” on a 5-point scale – at almost twice the level of all other companies (average 76% vs. 32% of all others).

Marketing automation when integrated with CRM or sales automation improves marketing performance. Companies with integrated marketing automation are more likely to have highly effective and efficient marketing (22% compared to 13% of marketers with automation not integrated and just 7% of those without marketing automation).

Based on the results, the Lenskold Group gives four tips to achieve better ROI, effectiveness, efficiency, and growth:

1. Define, measure and report financial contribution metrics
2. Forecast key metrics aligned to business outcomes
3. Adopt and integrate marketing automation
4. Apply marketing ROI measurements and processes to metrics, forecasting, and automated marketing.

The report provides insights and arguments for adding marketing accountability to your priorities list.

Download the full report here.