Every action has an outcome… or it should. One of the sayings of management is you can not manage what you do not measure; that’s it!, if you are unable to give an answer to the question ‘which are the outcomes of my business actions?’ then you are not dealing responsibly with your business: you are not managing it.
The same applies to marketing, then. You must measure and monitor your marketing-mix (pricing policies, promotions, product development and offering, place), the actions associated to these and, mostly important, their outcomes, the return of your marketing actions.
Once you have been able to find which are the best methodologies for measuring every marketing channel, linked to your marketing strategy, you will be able to assess your marketing performance (targets v actual results). Further, if your measuring activity is so effective that you are capable of connecting the cost of every channel with the derived benefits in currency terms, then you will know which channel has the biggest return on investment (ROI).
Please note the strength of that information: once you are aware of the ROI for every channel and activity;
- You will be able to optimise your marketing plan, relocating resources to the most profitable channels.
- Your predictions on the outcomes of new campaigns will be more accurate, improving your budgeting.
- You will have a better understanding of cause-effect within your marketing and business processes.
So, are you willing to measure your marketing-mix ROI?