In this blog we will look at the three pillars we should be using to build the marketing by metrics mantra in practice.
Of all the conversations we are hearing, this is the number one repeated phrase from the CMO’s office. It sounds great, is powerful, responsible and very presidential like. The metrics-based marketing is a neat summary for the combination of focused needs, plan responsibly and measure outcomes, basically prove me ROI. The problem is how to execute against the mantra.
We always hear from clients that they need the simplest explanations to three basic problems for their (less-) informed colleagues. Look at the table below and you will see we measure average number of sales and/or marketing choices. We have measured upwards of 30+ each year, and while the number grows, it appears the average number of sources used is growing much faster. People want more.
Major league baseball just announced plans to think about and maybe test instant replay. Wouldn't it be great to be able to use instant replay in our marketing? Can you imagine before we actually have to make a decision we can look at the end result, time and time again before we press the decision button? It would be so much easier to give absolutes in our decisions if we could see the future in a perfect way. Life unfortunately is not instant replay-able and nor can marketing be. Our need to be perfect often gets in the way of "best practices." What I mean by this is in our pursuit of the highest immediate performance we underestimate the power of learning from experiments and something as simple as chance. We often look to do the same thing, time and time again and expect different results - hoping to get learning without experimentation. We should experiment and tell our colleagues we are experimenting. This will change the way we all review the learnings from the work.
In a sequence from the film "Aladdin & The Magic Lamp" Aladdin has won riches and a kingdom, with the help of a genie who lives in an old oil lamp. An evil wizard dressed as a street vendor offers a new, shiny lamp in a free trade for the old one. To cut a long story short Aladdin was able to get his old friend back and make the world right again, but there was lots of damage done by the trade. Do not be fooled into thinking that the skills we "should" have had before are not relevant to the new, complex and shiny world of digital marketing. We can and often do far too easily jump to the new without fully appreciating the values of the old. Digital marketing worlds are like shiny new lamps.