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As marketing professionals, we are constantly working on growing and enhancing business performance. Internally, results can be measured in a number of ways, such as lead generation, content downloads and social media interaction, etc.
However, it is common that there are difficulties in demonstrating the value of our programs and initiatives to other departments, management or board of directors; especially when there is no direct purchase from our community.
This is where the proper selection of metrics will help us demonstrate how impact is being generated, not only in the area of marketing, but in the overall results of the company. Managers are interested in data on investment costs, campaign costs and customer acquisition.
How to demonstrate the impact of marketing activities?
According to Forrester, B2B businesses that have an aligned strategy between marketing and sales teams achieve up to 24% faster growth, and also increase their revenues. Marketing is the first step towards consolidating your sales, and there are ways to prove it.
Kristie Colby, executive director of customer accounts at SmartSearch Marketing, says there are some factors that will demonstrate the Return on Investment (ROI) of marketing programs to managers:
1. Understand the marketing objectives
The first step is to understand that marketing objectives often go beyond a sale. Normally, our activities could be aimed at achieving the following goals:
- Brand recognition and market positioning
- Lead generation.
- Lead nurturing and sales training.
- Customer acquisition.
- Customer loyalty programs.
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Each of these efforts will involve multiple points of contact that will generate different levels of impact on the decision-making process of clients or prospects. But what is their ultimate value to the organization? We will answer you at the next point.
How to create reports that demonstrate the valueof your marketing efforts.
2. Success factors for measuring marketing impact
Acquiring customer data. According to Forbes, 66% of marketing data is used to improve the focus of offers, messages and brand content. It is crucial to have the right technology and infrastructure in place to record relevant contact information to help generate leads and acquire new customers.
For example, online registration forms can capture data from potential customers in exchange for valuable content such as name, email, company name and phone number. In most cases, a marketing automation platform is used to supplement the data provided by users.
Payback time. This is about giving the board of directors a time frame that the company needs to make a return on the money invested. 75% of marketers say they get better ROI when they include visual content in their strategies, in other words, customer conversion increases.
If you work your strategies with inbound marketing professionals, for example, the ideal is to see a return on investment in a period of no more than one year. The shorter the period in which you recover the investment, the faster you will be able to see profits with those new customers.
Customers generated from marketing. This data will allow management to know which of their new customers or closed deals come from your marketing team's efforts. The impact this department has in generating leads and new customers tends to be much higher than the sales team imagines. The ideal percentage will depend on the business model.
Customers influenced by marketing. Here we talk about all the new customers that the marketing team interacted with during the sales cycle, when they were leads or prospects. This allows us to see the impact of marketing on potential customers during the purchase cycle and how the marketing work (content, buyer people, early attention) helped to close sales.
Test the marketing ROI. According to Hubspot, the best way to demonstrate a clear and measurable contribution to the final marketing results to management is to keep your statistics up to date (integrated into all sales and marketing systems). This data-driven approach is critical to the success of any team, and will also allow you to know which areas are most profitable and which need to be improved.
The more data you have, the more effective the process of analyzing and evaluating your marketing initiatives will be, as potential customers move through your sales cycle.
With these metrics you will be able to generate compelling reports and have greater confidence in communicating to management how your marketing efforts are having a positive impact on sales.
If you would like more information on how to obtain these statistics or how to create reports that demonstrate the performance of your team, at Innova Marketing Solutions we can help you do it. Don't think twice! Call us now and get a free 30 minute consultation with our experts.