Metrics & ROI - Four Foundational Elements of Marketing Analytics Success

The past 10 years have brought a transformation in our marketing profession like no previous decade.

Don Draper's office is now occupied by a marketing rock star who is much more left-brained, process-focused, and technology-centric.

Marketers have had to adapt or perish in this transition from brand to demand and art to science. They have learned a new language—the Demand Waterfall, SQLs, lead scoring. Not to mention new technologies—Salesforce, Eloqua, Twitter, Kapost.

But what is really required for marketers to survive and thrive in this tectonic shift? Insight!

Most marketing organizations are drowning in data and starving for information. In IBM's 2011 CMO Study, only 41% of CMOs said they are prepared to access the unprecedented growth in the volume of data. As a result, their decision-making remains heavily influenced by gut decisions, team meetings, and HIPPOs (highest paid person's opinions).

Pinpoint accuracy into pipeline coverage, campaign performance, and marketing ROI is significantly lacking.

The Missing Imperative: Marketing Analytics

Most CMOs recognize the gap. In IBM's study, customer analytics is ranked as the second-highest planned technology investment for the next 3-5 years. CMOs know that increasing their investment in analytics is a key to…

  1. Driving the competitiveness of their business in the marketplace
  2. Ensuring the ongoing relevance of their department within the organization

The customer is king (and queen) has never been more true than it is today. Studies reveal that B2B buyers today don't wish to engage with a vendor's sales reps until they are two-thirds of the way through their evaluation process. Extracting insight on the digital body language of a prospect is paramount to driving won deals.

In an age when the majority of CEOs are sceptical about their return on marketing investment, proving marketing-driven ROI and pipeline contribution is a need to have for today's CMO.

Best-in-Class Marketing Analytics: Four Foundational Elements

So what does a best-in-class marketing organization look like vis-à-vis analytics? What are the key areas it needs to get right?

As with many failed technology implementations of the past, a lot of marketing organizations today think that they are on the path to greater insight because they now have analytics technology.

The reality is that it takes a significant investment in four foundational areas to ensure analytics success:

  1. A superior analytics strategy that is well connected to the business strategy
  2. Investment in the people that drive and use analytics
  3. The alignment of processes and standards across Marketing and Sales
  4. The use of world-class technology

Foundation 1: Strategy

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Four Foundational Elements of Marketing Analytics Success

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

image of Mark Emond

Mark Emond is founder and president of Demand Spring, a B2B revenue marketing consultancy that works with brands such as Fidelity, BNY Mellon, Seismic, Rapid7, and Dun & Bradstreet to transform their demand creation practices.

LinkedIn: Mark Emond