{"id":1243,"date":"2011-04-18T15:37:32","date_gmt":"2011-04-18T19:37:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.archimediastudios.com\/corporate\/?p=1243"},"modified":"2011-04-18T15:37:33","modified_gmt":"2011-04-18T19:37:33","slug":"best-practices-in-marketing-roi-and-analytics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.archimediastudios.com\/corporate\/2011\/04\/best-practices-in-marketing-roi-and-analytics\/","title":{"rendered":"Best practices in Marketing ROI and Analytics"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>One of our favorite marketing sayings is:<\/strong><\/h3>\n

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it”<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Below are what we feel are best practices in marketing analytics and measuring and improving marketing ROI.<\/p>\n


\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

  • Marketing reporting is less important than making the marketing DECISIONS that improve ROI.<\/strong> Don\u2019t measure just what you can \u2013 measure what you can ACT on.\u00a0 Ultimately marketing ROI should not be about \u201cwho gets credit\u201d, but instead about what decisions the measurements allow to improve overall profitability of the program \u2013 and the company.<\/li>\n
  • Measure to find not just what works, but what works better; focus on \u201cimproving ROI\u201d not \u201cproving ROI\u201d.<\/strong> Measuring marketing programs should not be a pass \/ fail exercise. Instead, focus your efforts on learning what you can do that will improve ROI. This isn\u2019t about dropping low-profit programs; it\u2019s about a holistic view of what works and where profit comes from. The best ROI may come from improving targeting or optimizing sales conversion.<\/li>\n
  • It\u2019s possible to measure just about\u00a0anything\u00a0in marketing, but impossible to measureeverything\u00a0in marketing.<\/strong> Just because you can measure something doesn\u2019t mean you should. Marketing measurement costs time and money, so focus your time and energy on the metrics that will support the most profitable decision-making.<\/li>\n
  • Don\u2019t be an \u201carts and crafts\u201d cost-center; marketing should be a revenue driver worthy of investment.<\/strong> It\u2019s easy to measure marketing activity (inputs such as budget and programs), but hard to measure marketing results. Contrast this to sales, where activity is hard to measure but results are easy to see. Given this dynamic, is it any wonder that Sales tends to get the credit for revenue but marketing is perceived as a cost center? To build credibility, focus your measurements on the metrics your CFO cares about \u2013 things like revenue, cash-flow and profit \u2013 and position your budget in terms of investment instead of cost.<\/li>\n
  • Avoid \u201cvanity metrics\u201d that sound good, but mean little if anything about real marketing ROI. <\/strong>Many common marketing metrics \u2013 such as names gathered at a tradeshow, Twitter followers, and press release impressions \u2013 sound good and impress people, but don\u2019t really have any strong correlation to revenue. It\u2019s OK to track these internally if they help you make better marketing decisions, but avoid sharing them with executives outside of the department unless you have previously established why they matter.<\/li>\n
  • Focus on effectiveness (doing the right things) more than efficiency (doing possibly the wrong things well).<\/strong> The best ROI gains come from focusing time and money on doing the right things (such as targeting the right segments) more than on how well or cost-effectively you do them. Metrics that show a CFO that marketing is impacting revenue are more likely to protect the budget than metrics that show how well the marketing department is operating internally.<\/li>\n
  • Program planning includes ROI planning: \u00a01) what to measure 2) when to measure and 3) how to measure<\/strong>. It\u2019s important to quantify the expected outcomes from any marketing investment being planned, and to know exactly how you will measure the program against those goals. You can also take specific steps to make marketing programs more measurable, such as setting up control groups or varying spending levels by geography to measure relative impact.<\/li>\n
  • True marketing ROI requires understanding all the costs involved, not just top-line impact.<\/strong>Sometimes a marketing program that appears profitable won\u2019t be if sales expenses and COGS (cost of goods sold) are taken into account. Even better, incorporate the full lifetime value of a customer into your calculation. The more your metrics can correlate to the net-present value of lifetime profits from incremental closed revenue, including all marketing and sales costs, the better.<\/li>\n
  • Fundamentally, marketing measurement is about sales effectiveness, not marketing.<\/strong> The two most important questions you can answer about marketing\u2019s results are: (1) what effect is marketing investments having on sales effectiveness and productivity and (2) how are marketing activities lowering the combined expense to revenue ratio for sales and marketing combined? By focusing not just on marketing is isolation, but on how marketing impacts sales productivity, you will get a much more comprehensive view of the true ROI of your activities.<\/li>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    One of our favorite marketing sayings is: “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it” Below are what we feel are best practices in marketing analytics and measuring and improving marketing ROI. Marketing reporting is less important than making the marketing DECISIONS that improve ROI. Don\u2019t measure just what you can \u2013 measure what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1246,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-marketing-insights","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archimediastudios.com\/corporate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archimediastudios.com\/corporate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archimediastudios.com\/corporate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archimediastudios.com\/corporate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archimediastudios.com\/corporate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1243"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.archimediastudios.com\/corporate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1251,"href":"https:\/\/www.archimediastudios.com\/corporate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1243\/revisions\/1251"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archimediastudios.com\/corporate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.archimediastudios.com\/corporate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archimediastudios.com\/corporate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.archimediastudios.com\/corporate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}