Results obsession ‘stifling marketing’

business people freeThe vast majority of businesses do not use marketing data to drive their corporate strategies because marketers are so obsessed with CRM dashboards and results that they are failing to look at the bigger picture.
That is one of the stark findings of the 2013 Marketing Performance Management Survey carried out by Forrester Research, with just 9% of chief executives and 6% of chief financial officers relying on marketing data to make strategic decisions.
The reason is that marketing dashboards report marketing activity rather than business outcomes, as marketers cling to performance metrics to continuously justify budgets and resource allocations. What they should be doing, however, is showing how marketing moves the needle on topline growth and profitability, says the study.
“This report demonstrates how marketers rely too much on their CRM and marketing automation systems to produce dashboards or report on marketing results,” said principal Forrester analyst Laura Ramos.
“These systems are fine for providing a view into marketing activity, but most fail to produce the level of information and metrics that business executives want to see,” she added.
Measures of operational efficiency such as on time delivery, budget, productivity, campaign performance, and lead data are the most common metrics marketing tracks and reports. On average, 54% of marketers use data analytics to finetune the marketing mix.
However, few marketers are using data to predict customer behaviour, make strategic recommendations, drive innovation, or boost customer acquisition, retention, or growth – measures that make a stronger connection between marketing activity and business outcomes. For instance, just 35% of marketers use data analytics to predict customer buying behaviour, the study shows.
It goes on to report that the metrics marketers say they use suggest an “almost myopic” focus on efficiency, instead of effectiveness. Marketers need to add metrics that measure the effectiveness of their campaigns as well as measures that will help them make strategic recommendations.

3 Comments on "Results obsession ‘stifling marketing’"

  1. Obsessed with #dashboards? Using your marketing #data incorrectly? A lot of companies are. http://t.co/YZZcfE7GGb Our expertise can help!

  2. Marketing should focus on how it “moves the needle on topline growth and profitability” http://t.co/hW5TguCyzC reports @DM_editor

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