As we wrap up our discussion of the new marketing value chain and ROI, let’s take a moment to reflect back on why it’s essential that marketers prove their ROI in this day and age. According to the 2014 CMO Survey, more CMOs than ever feel the pressure from company leaders to prove marketing’s impact on the company’s bottom line, but they’re not able to prove the impact of their operations: for example, only 13% of firms were able to quantitatively prove the impact of social media marketing. It’s clear that a data and analytics-based approach that tracks quantifiable results of marketing operations is the solution to this disconnect.
Next month, we’ll be focusing our blog topics around how marketers can not only communicate their successes, but plan for the future with predictable, data-centered marketing strategies. Today, let’s get down to the basics of planning future marketing campaigns and discuss why the new marketing value chain helps marketing leaders as they prepare for the future.
You have a wealth of information at your fingertips: from social media follows, likes and comments to your leads’ email addresses and telephone numbers. However, creating a high-level plan for your operations requires sifting through this data to find out what’s most important for helping your company achieve its overall objectives.
Communicate to company leaders that you’re using data to first get a strong, objective overview of the company’s current position in the market, and then explain how your strategy will bolster this position. Use our suggested KPIs to illustrate how you intend to boost the company through marketing positions and track data over time to predict how your strategy will make an impact.
The marketing strategy you develop around analytics relies on the raw data you receive as a result of your tactical operations. Track these tactics over time to see, for example, where your Twitter applause rate has historically landed, and analyze particularly well-performing tweets to understand what content your audience enjoys. By engaging in this kind of analysis, you set yourself up with the data needed to make informed predictions about the success of your ongoing operations.
By structuring your strategy and tactics around data, you ensure that your team and operations are accountable. Providing a quantitative analysis of previous operations and their successes at the end of each month allows you to look back and think about the efficacy of your marketing campaign in reaching your goals. When planning for the future, this log of marketing data allows you to restructure campaign tactics, rethink quantitative and qualitative goals and objectives and predict the outcomes of future operations. Also, if you’re able to track marketing’s impact on company revenue, it’s a useful tool in proving the effect of your marketing campaigns on the company’s bottom line.
Let us know: how do you use data to plan for the future?
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