Marketing ROI Is a Broken Metric

Marketing ROI MathYour marketing makes me dislike you. In fact, it makes me, once a potential customer, reconsider if I should even do business with you.

However, your marketing performance measurement doesn’t capture my disdain. I am simply one more individual that did not buy. I am just part of your standard drop-off rate.

How many more people like me are out there? More than you realize. [Read more…]

How Search Reporting Misleads Marketers

To see how a particular element of your online marketing program is performing, you likely turn to your most recent reporting. But what if your measurement is wrong?

When online marketing reporting is based on the most recent click (which is the standard across most solutions), your reporting will be inflated for any marketing that reaches your audience shortly before they buy, register or sign-up.

The end result? You make the wrong marketing decisions. [Read more…]

Measuring Success in B2B Marketing

Join #B2BChat on Twitter every Thursday at 8:00 PM EasternIn B2B marketing, collecting numbers is easy. Picking the right measurements and consistently using them to improve your marketing is the real challenge. Here are just a few of the questions you will need to address:

  • Should you be focused on revenue that is directly attributed to your marketing activities?
  • Is the data you have reliable?
  • How do you measure and manage newer segments of marketing, including social media?
  • How do you judge the impact your content is having?

[Read more…]

The New SiriusDecisions Waterfall (and New B2B Marketing Acronyms)

If you measure or benchmark B2B demand generation activity across sales and marketing, one of the best benchmark resources just received a major facelift and a number of improvements.

Yesterday SiriusDecisions unveiled their new demand waterfall at the annual SiriusDecisions Summit. The new waterfall (or funnel, to most of us) provides a framework for measuring and benchmarking demand generation from initial inquiry to close and across sales and marketing. [Read more…]

Cookie Deletion and Measurement: What you Need to Know

Cookie Crumbs in the LibrarySome days it seems online marketing revolves around cookies, those small text files stored in your browser that may be automatically deleted by browsers or routinely deleted by individuals.

Cookies are used (among other things) for measuring performance, targeting advertising and personalizing sites. But how reliable are cookies and more importantly, how does that impact our data and decisions?

As a way to identify an individual, third party cookies are unreliable. However, most advertising applications for cookies assume they are used to identify a person consistently over time. [Read more…]

Pinterest: How To See Who Pins Your Content & How Much Traffic They Drive

Reese's Cups in Magnifying GlassThe latest report shows Pinterest now drives more traffic than Twitter. You may want to know not just how much traffic Pinterest is driving but also what users are pinning your content and driving the most traffic.

Fortunately for marketers, Pinterest is one of the easiest platforms to track.

Recently I published tricks I have learned to discover who is sharing your content on Twitter and LinkedIn and how much traffic each is driving. Here is how to get the same information about Pinterest, even if you aren’t using Pinterest. [Read more…]

The Greatest Danger in Marketing: Metrics

Confused Street Sign by Richard Masoner / Cyclelicious, on FlickrWithout marketing metrics, marketers cannot manage investments or show the value of marketing. However, without careful selection of metrics, diligent analysis and a clear overarching vision, those same metrics can become the biggest barrier to successful long-term marketing programs.

Short term metrics are easily gamed, and it often happens unintentionally. Here are a few common metrics for B2B marketers and ways some businesses influence the metric without driving long-term results. [Read more…]

Integrated Marketing Measurement: It’s Like Lasagna

Crepe Lasagna - Aix CreperieAll marketing is integrated, even if it is unintentional, poorly done or working against itself. Marketing activity does not happen in a vacuum void of other influences.

What is the ROI of your social media activity? What is the ROI of search? What is the ROI of TV? Most marketers don’t actually know.

Traditional marketing organizational structures and measurements are built around individual components. Integrated marketing measurement requires focusing on the final outcome. [Read more…]

B2B Marketing Metrics [#B2Bchat Recap]

Join #B2BChat on Twitter every Thursday at 8:00 PM EasternWhat are B2B marketers biggest measurement challenges? How do they effectively communicate results within the organization? What are the trends they are looking towards in 2012?

We tackled these and other questions during the weekly #B2Bchat discussion on Twitter on December 8, 2011. Highlights from the discussion along with additional commentary on each question is below. [Read more…]

Klout’s Best Move: Making You Not Care About Your Score

KloutWere you upset by Klout’s recent algorithm change? Do you pay less attention to Klout than you did before the algorithm changes? If so, you may be doing exactly what Klout wants you to do.

If you care about grades in school, you study for your exam. The algorithm is clear (test results, possibly quizzes, attendance or participation) and you work to influence the result. [Read more…]