March 2010

Marketing Measurementand Analytics

Top Ten Impedimentsto Success

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10 Impediments: Overview

Global multi-channel marketing is a reality today for most companies, big and small. With all the experimentation across new channels and new media, marketers face their biggest challenges in understanding what’s really working and where they are getting the best return on marketing investments.

The proliferation of measurement tools and service providers has created an environment where apples-to-apples comparisons of mediums and channels are difficult, frustrating and often just plain impossible.

The slides that follow highlight some of the barriers to success we see all the time.

I am Martha Bush, SVP of Strategy & Solutions At SIGMA Marketing Group.

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Measuring things that don’t matter to top management can be a complete waste of time.

Barrier 1: Measuring what doesn’t matter.

Measurements should focus on the corporation’s profit drivers.

Don’t use valuable marketing resources measuring things that do not impact the profitability of your organization.

Stick to what matters.

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Information overload can be the biggest threat to inaction.

Barrier 2: Too Much Information.

Too many metrics that are non-critical can leave you not knowing which direction to go with your marketing efforts.

Going back to Barrier #1 – focus on what truly matters. Measure things that will enable you to make sound marketing decisions. Streamline your efforts to provide more value in what you do measure.

Optimize your metrics.

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When do I look at historical marketing data versus forecasting?

Barrier 3: Hindsight vs. Foresight.

Many measurement systems focus only on historical trends.

We look both ways before crossing the street. The same should apply to marketing. Marketing measurement should include a balanced mix of historical data and forecasting. Measuring both can identify gaps that will help you achieve your targets.

Look both ways.

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Are you getting the buy-in you need when defining key marketing metrics?

Barrier 4: Inconsistent Definitions.

Conflict between marketing decision makers can cause you to lose focus on important metrics.

It is critical to have a consensus on what are defined as the individual marketing metrics. Every stakeholder should understand and accept what you are measuring and why it matters.

Can’t we all just get along?

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How can you succeed if your executive team does not fully support your efforts?

Barrier 5: No Executive Mandate.

Executive support of marketing decisions is mission critical.

Measurement systems and toolkits must have an executive champion. Without C-Level support you could be wasting time and money on purchasing a tool or solution that looks great on paper, but may end up never being fully leveraged. Often times – tools are purchased and then there is no mandate to make the change to use them.

Because I Said So.

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Cross organizational silos need to hear consistent message from the executive champion of your efforts.

Barrier 6: Misalignment.

Break down the marketing silos in your organization to align efforts.

With the help of C-Level support, cross-functional alignment can be achieved. Organizational silos must be in broad agreement on the value of individual marketing metrics and how they impact the overall success of the organization.

Silos be gone.

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Don’t let your marketing investments and efforts go to waste – training is critical.

Barrier 7: Lack of Training.

In order to effectively measure, we must know how…

The users of the metrics and analytical outputs will need to be fully trained on how to read the measurements.

After being trained, they must know what actions to take as a result of the marketing metrics reveal. Otherwise, what’s the point?

Use it or lose it.

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Having pre-defined marketing metrics does not mean Ad-Hoc measurements becomes irrelevant.

Barrier 8: No Follow-up Support.

Don’t let your marketing credibility suffer because you aren’t asking the right questions throughout the process.

Questions arise. Ad-Hoc research and reporting can be missions critical to making marketing decisions.

Without this type of measurement and support, you may not realize that your audience is evolving and changing. Ad-Hoc reporting and measurement can solve mission critical marketing problems.

Questions Arise.

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Spread the knowledge across all functional groups – especially where lessons are learned and issues are resolved.

Barrier 9: Lack of Knowledge Retention.

If you don’t follow-through with documentation, you’ll find yourself hitting the same trouble spots over and over.

When issues are resolved and questions answered that can impact your marketing measurement efforts, be sure to document what you learned and share with everyone who accesses the marketing metrics..

Documentation can prevent missteps in the future.

Document and Share.

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Things change... So must your metrics…

Barrier 10: Inflexibility.

Your audience and your customers will evolve. Your measurement metrics should evolve also.

Requirements change. Targets change. Do you really want to keep measuring the same old thing, if your audience has evolved and what matters has changed?

Keep your picture of your customers current with new insights and apply this to your measurement tools.

Change is inevitable.

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In closing…

Marketing measurement and analytics can’t be a “do it once and don’t look back” kind of process.

Learnings are iterative and, when successful, initial analytics projects will stimulate a keen interest in learning more across the organization.

The successful organization will make resources available to continue the research so findings are evergreen.

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