There is nothing more frustrating as a Marketer than being blind to the impact of our efforts on the company. We spend an enormous amount of time strategizing, crafting plans and implementing tactics ΓÇô from content creation and digital campaigns, to events and promotions, only to guess at the results.
Leads come in daily, and when they achieve the right ΓÇ£scoreΓÇ¥ by taking enough action, they get funneled on to sales, who contact them (we hope) and well, thatΓÇÖs where we begin to lose visibility into the whole darn thing. There always seem to be a long pause when we request a report that shows the status of leads after they transferred from the marketing automation platform into the customer relationship management system. ΓÇ£ItΓÇÖs not working properlyΓÇ¥, ΓÇ£The dataΓÇÖs not accurateΓÇ¥ or ΓÇ£I donΓÇÖt know how to get at thatΓÇ¥- weΓÇÖve heard them all a hundred times. Surely, thereΓÇÖs a better way.
2014 ΓÇô The Year of Analytics
Earlier this year, Forbes contributor Jayson DeMers declared 2014 as ΓÇÿThe Year of Digital Marketing AnalyticsΓÇÖ ΓÇô recognizing the significant role data analysis plays in improving marketing business processes and performance.
Multi-channel marketing strategies create a huge amount of data ΓÇô from website metrics and campaign results, to social media, mobile usage, and more. To deliver real value, marketing analytics need to answer questions the CEO and CFO care deeply about ΓÇô and weΓÇÖre not talking about soft metrics like open rates and click through here.
Credibility vs Vanity Metrics
Leaders want to know which activity is generating more leads that convert to opportunities, which initiatives generate the highest ROI, and what impact a five percent increase in the marketing budget will have on the bottom line. To establish credibility and claim a seat at the strategic table, marketers must move beyond vanity metrics to deliver insight into the performance and revenue impact of our initiatives.
If you canΓÇÖt answer those questions, youΓÇÖre not alone. ItΓÇÖs not easy to evaluate the performance of one initiative against another, optimize business processes, adjust strategies and tactics, and plan future programs, but new tools like data visualization dashboards are making it increasingly possible for marketers to do so.
To learn more, download our whitepaper ΓÇ£Using Data Analytics To Transform Your Business Processes And Your Business.ΓÇ¥