What and Why To Measure
December 8th, 2006 by Doug ReynoldsI recently participated in a measurement panel discussion and it reminded me of the unique measurement needs of BtoB marketers. All marketers need to measure their campaigns for two important reasons:
- To measure effectiveness
- Communicate internally
Measure Effectiveness
Good measures of effectiveness use relevant comparisons to tell marketers when their dollars are well spent. Many marketers start by looking at broad-based tactical benchmarks; banner click-through rates, email campaign interaction rates, rich media interaction rates, etc… They then gauge their campaign’s success in comparison to those benchmarks. The problem with this approach is that benchmarks are based on BtoC campaigns and/or aren’t always relevant to your business goals.
An awareness campaign, for example, may employ a banner campaign that achieves a 4% click-through rate. In comparison to the industry benchmark (.25%), the CTR is considered phenomenal and worth a case study in Marketing Sherpa. The problem is that the high CTR doesn’t have any relationship to the campaign goal: increase awareness by 7%. Industry benchmarks are a place to start, but marketers need to establish benchmarks that are relevant to:
- Audience - Who are you trying to reach? CXO’s behave differently and respond to different messaging than managers.
- Call to Action - What action do you want them to take? The effectiveness of “Learn more”, “enter to win”, “get involved with the conversation” are measured differently.
- Products and Services - What are you selling? Software is sold differently than hardware. Medical services are promoted differently than medical equipment.
- Channels - Where are you reaching your prospect? The proliferation of channels means that you need to know where and when to present your message. The objective is to meet people where they’re most ready to hear your message.
- Costs - How much does it cost to get a lead or create a conversion? A conversion may be things like downloading a white paper, watching a video, registering for a demo. How much does it cost to stimulate a given conversion?
- Sales process - How do people make a purchase decision? The sales process tends to be long in BtoB and there are a lot of touch points. There a lot of opportunities to connect with prospects during awareness, consideration, and purchase.
Measurement benchmarks are meaningful when they’re tied to the program strategy and campaign goals. For example, a media plan that supports an awareness campaign may include print advertising, banner advertising, and an eMail campaign that all drive users to a landing page to download a white paper. The primary measure of success on this campaign will be pre- and post-benchmark surveys that segment the audience. Secondary measures, however, will look at how each channel is performing against the stated Call to Action.
Communicate Internally
The second objective of measurement and reporting is to communicate internally. Effectively communicating the impact of a campaign requires an integrated, 360 degree view of the campaign in the context of each group’s business needs. The executive team wants to know how a campaign is impacting sales, the marketing team wants to know if it’s reaching the right channels, the agency wants to know how best to optimize the program, the interactive team wants to know where they can optimize the user experience. Marketing campaign dashboards should strive to consolidate all this information and highlight a key performance indicator that answers the audience’s question: is the campaign achieving my goal and is there anything we should do to improve it?
For the people reporting on a campaign a lot of vital information is locked inside CRM systems, telemarketing reports, sales figures, and past performance numbers. Those data are an important dimension of a campaign report and its ability to communicate the importance of marketing.
Marketing reports that communicate the importance of marketing start with a commitment to measuring and reporting on a clearly defined, relevant set of Key Performance Indicators. The time spent up front defining KPI’s that reflect the strategy, goals, data sources, and audiences is well spent.
More to come…