You know performance metrics and great analytics are important, but do you know what marketing metrics and data are important to your C-Suite? Are you using data and analytics as predictive tools? If you do that's great! But the scary fact is very few marketers use metrics and analytics to decide which strategies and tactics to apply in their campaigns. It’s not surprising, then, that less than 10% of CEOs use marketing data to make business decisions. Soooo, as marketers, the onus falls on us: How do we make marketing more relevant?
Like most marketers you probably report activity, operational efficiency, and history of performance. This is only a foundation for reporting what really matters: outcomes, effectiveness, and predictions. That’s what the best-in-class marketers do, according to the surveys we read.
The marketers who earn an A in performance management do better at:
- Speaking the language of the business
- Demonstrating the link between marketing activities and business goals
- Understanding how business leaders evaluate marketing effectiveness
- Improving operational efficiency by doing things right and producing actionable marketing dashboards
- Using data and analytics as a predictive tool while employing analytic talent, investing in analytical tools, and building analytical models
- Communicating how marketing is impacting the business
They’re also better at using data to build analytical models. They speak the language of the business and know how leaders evaluate marketing’s effectiveness. In turn, their dashboards are windows that provide actionable insights on the very metrics that speak to the company leadership.
As to your customers, it's now clear that relevance has become an essential element of successful marketing. Today's environment is filled with marketing clutter, and as the clutter increases, the effectiveness of generic, self-serving marketing messages decreases. You need to:
- Define and communicate a customer-centric brand promise;
- Drive demand for and with your channel partners;
- Improve your customer’s online experience.
Relevant marketing is especially important for B2B organizations. Many B2B companies sell products or services that are relatively expensive and/or complex. As a result, more people are involved in the purchasing decision, and the sales cycle is often measured in months rather than days. Business buyers are incredibly busy, and they no longer need to rely on vendor visits for information about products and services. They can go online and find whatever information they need whenever they need it. If these buyers receive marketing messages that don't speak to their immediate concerns, they'll just ignore them.
Now that we told you what works – talk to us so we can make things work for you!
