Making Friends in Marketing
...Marketing is not an exact science, it never has been and
it never will be, so, measuring marketing effectiveness is
often a contentious issue in boardrooms across the
globe…
…Finance want to know what they are getting back for
their investment in marketing.
….Sales want to know how successful marketing
campaigns are likely to be, so that they can gauge how
many leads they are going to get.
…and the product development team wants guaranteed
success for their next product launch.
How Long is a Piece of String?
With so many different types of measurement and
accountability being required from each area of the
organisation, many marketing managers and directors spend
much of their time delivering marketing effectiveness reports
that try to meet too many measurement criterion. And as a
result end up creating barriers and enemies within the
organisation.
When it comes to measuring marketing effectiveness there
are a range of very effective software packages, mainly used
by B2C organisations who need to analyse the success of
direct mail, advertising etc.
They have their place and some do an extremely good job
of analysing response rates etc and help with campaign
planning.
But what if you are a B2B company, or an organisation who
just needs to know how effective their marketing Is without
investing in this type of software and want to stop the games
you play with Finance and Sales?
The answer is to think, and ensure you are measuring the
right things for each area of the business, there is no magic
formula, accountability differs from company to company.
However, what remains the same is the ability to develop
good relationships with Finance, Sales or Product
Development. This ensures that marketing develops the
reputation is deserves and raises you head above the
parapet for all the right reasons.
Making Friends in Finance
Measuring Return on Investment is one of the most used
measuring tools in marketing. Here are two of the formulae
used;
♦ No of direct mails sent out / number of responses =
response rate
♦ Cost of direct mail/number of positive responses = cost per
lead
But what does that really tell us – we had a good response rate
and it cost us £20 per lead. What the finance department really
want to know is how much revenue was generated as a result
of a marketing campaign, so that they can see the real Return
on Investment, such as
♦ Cost of direct mail / sales = good or bad return on
investment.
However, this only really works for individual campaigns such as
direct mail or email marketing where there is a start and an end
to the project and relies on a proactive sales force to take your
leads and turn them into revenue.
So how can you demonstrate marketing effectiveness to an
Finance Director that you sometimes fail to see eye to eye with
on marketing issues? Yet the success of your relationship with
finance is vitally important for the prosperity of the business.
A good marketing professional will understand the value of
taking the time to work with the Finance Director to work out
mutually agreeable measurement criterion.
Make Time
So take some time to discuss with the Financial Director
what can and can’t be realistically measured. Reach an
agreement on how you will demonstrate and justify
marketing spend and select sensible metrics that can
measure outcomes such as direct mail campaigns etc.
Rather than trying to measure the impact of a change of
logo etc.
Outline that as a marketing professional you can bring
clients to the front door, through effective marketing but it is
up to sales to close the door behind them and seal the
deal. So choose measurement criterion which reflects your
part in the sales process, such as number of leads, or
cost per lead.
Making Friends with Sales
The relationship between sales and marketing is often a
rocky road, they want quality sales leads and lots of them
and it’s your job to provide them. They will measure you on
how good they perceive your leads are, and through the
quality of the marketing support material you provide them
with.
The following example is probably a very black and white
view of the relationship, but it is typical of the type of B2B
companies that we have worked with over the years.
The Sales Director will often measure marketing
effectiveness on how the marketing feels, sounds or looks to
them at any given time. If they are hitting their targets and
they perceive marketing is helping them generate revenue,
then all should be sweetness and light. However if revenue
is down marketing is usually the first to blame.
Measuring Sales
So, how can you work with sales to agree effective
measurement criterion through the good times and the bad?
The first task is to understand what they believe effective
marketing is and how they think it should be measured.
Once you understand how the Sales Director wants to
measure marketing, you can discuss the most effective way
of reporting marketing activity to them.
For example you could agree on the following
♦ “Marketing to provide a maximum of 50 sales leads per
month to the sales department from companies that are
in the agreed target audience”
♦ “Marketing to provide a sales tool kit including
presentation, case studies and keep this updated on a
monthly basis as required by sales.”
This will give you a good basis from which to agree whether
marketing is being effective or not and set some sensible
ground rules for any future claims that marketing is to blame
for the lack of revenue.
If you take time to understand what drives the sales team
and deliver the marketing they need, the relationship should
be a much happier one.
Making Friends with
Product Development
Obviously this department doesn’t exist in some companies,
but where it does, ensuring that you have a good working
relationship with the product marketing manager or director
is essential. You need to ensure that you can effectively take
the products that they have been sweating blood and tears
over for months, to market for them.
They will obviously want to make the most of their new
product and you need to ensure that you take the time to
understand what they believe a successful product launch
looks and feels like to them.
How will they measure success, a good product review or a
sale into a prestigious organisation? Make sure you know
what they expect and work towards achieving this for them.
Agree with them how you intend to market the product and
how you will be working with sales to maximise conversion
from sales lead to revenue. Obviously timing and careful
planning is critical, once a release date has been agreed you
need to ensure they stick to it. Ensure they understand that if
they don’t it will impact on the planned marketing activities
and the interest generated by marketing will not be
capitalised upon by sales as there is nothing to sell.
Marketing Success
Measuring marketing success means different things to
different people in the organisation. Make sure that you
know, how Sales, Finance or Product Development hold
marketing accountable.
Work with them to understand their world and collaborate
with them to measure marketing in a way that meets their
needs. It doesn’t have to be complex or time consuming.
Just agree on one or two basic metrics for each department
that you can build into your marketing plans to ensure that
marketing has a positive effect on revenue and the minds of
the individuals who you work with?
Take a look at more of our marketing articles
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