For too long, marketing has had to deal with a “crisis of credibility”. Some perceive the marketing department’s role as simply supporting sales, while others see it as the “arts and crafts” department.
While marketers might know the value of thing brand awareness, it has historically been challenging to display such a value in meaningful metrics.
But things are changing. Today, more than ever, marketers have access to key insights and analytics that allow them to measure the impact of marketing on the business.
With this data, marketers can identify where they have delivered the optimal return on investment (ROI) by assessing the performance of specific channels.
That’s why analytics now accounts for 9.2 per cent of the marketing budgets (Gartner) and why investment in this technology is expected to increase by 200 per cent over the next three years (Duke University).
Finally, marketers have the tools available to prove their worth for a company’s bottom line.
Speaking to CEOs and CFOs
Click through rates and page views might be important numbers for a marketing team, but for a CEO or CFO, they are next to useless.
CEOs and CFOs want to know about dollar signs. How much profit has been made? How much revenue and profit is forecasted for the next quarter?
So how can marketers speak in a language that resonates at a board level?
Forecasting results is a useful tool for marketers looking to drive their business case.
Marketing executives can forecast how many leads, opportunities and customers marketing will draw in the future.
To effectively forecast, marketers must model the stages of the revenue, get accurate inputs for how many new leads can be generated, model the flow of current leads and then review the results.
How you can use marketing metrics
With the right marketing metrics and analytics in place, you can accurately forecast the results of each marketing activity put in place.
This will help you to better plan upcoming campaigns and optimise existing activities in real time.
Most importantly, you’ll be able to back up all marketing activities and budgets with the cold hard numbers CEOs and CFOs want to see.
To find out more, check out Marketo’s Definitive Guide to Marketing Metrics and Analytics.
