Marketers who have come to be perceived as value generators for their organization have learned how to use data, analytics, processes and metrics to move business results and demonstrate their contribution. The problem is that many marketers are tracking metrics that are easy and convenient but have little or nothing to do with the organization’s performance. The real challenge for a good number of marketers is to develop and use metrics that drive results.
ITSMA and VisionEdge Marketing have teamed up in an Marketing Performance Mangement survey (open until July 27th) to give marketers the opportunity to gain insight in their use of marketing data, metrics, and analytics to inform marketing decisions, predict buyer behavior, improve marketing performance, and forecast trends.
VEM’s 2011 MPM Survey revealed that far too often marketers’ marketing performance measurement practices are not aligned with business outcomes desired by the C-Suite. The research confirmed that most of the commonly reported marketing metrics measure the output from a marketing activity. These types of metric fail to indicate how marketing is moving the needle for the business. They are not, in other words, outcome-aligned. As a result, these types of metrics do not enable marketing to make an impact on the business and show it. In fact, last year only 23% of the nearly 500 participants in the VEM survey indicated that they’d earn an A (90-100) from the C-Suite on their ability to demonstrate their value and impact.
Marketers, as a group, can benefit both from more deliberate attention to performance measurement and from a better focus on those metrics that drive organizational outcomes and therefore earn higher marks from owners and senior executives. The key is to develop marketing metrics measurement practices that are aligned with C-Suite expectations, the organization’s strategic initiatives, and key business outcomes. Central to marketing accountability and alignment is the ability to use data, analytics and processes. Many marketing organizations have been making substantial investments in the systems, tools and skills associated with these capabilities.
How far has marketing come on the marketing performance measurement and management journey? Have marketers made the skills and systems progress needed to leverage data, analytics, metrics, and process in order to improve and prove marketing’s value?
The survey enables marketing and business professionals and executives to provide insight in your current performance and benchmark your marketing data, analytics, and metrics. All responses are confidential. Along with a copy of the survey highlights, the first 500 respondents to complete the survey will be entered into a drawing for a Kindle Fire. . .
