A recent study by Data & Marketing Association (DMA) says marketing effectiveness continues to erode, falling 62% over the last two years.
But alongside that potentially spiraling analysis, the DMA and research firm Merkle have also released an accompanying CMO Measurement Toolkit, with recommendations for marketers to focus on more relevant measurements.
“Marketing effectiveness is below pre-pandemic levels for the second year running,” says Ian Gibbs, DMA’s Director of Insight, “so we must prioritize implementing effective measurement to combat the industry’s worsening measurement crisis.”
While MediaPost’s Joe Mandese says some of these recommendations “may seem like obvious no-brainers,” he highlights the DMA’s overall push for brand-building, “which is something I think the marketing industry has moved too far away from due to its increasing push for short-term performance KPIs.”
The DMA says it has 178 different metrics in its database, for instance, but only 8% of those spoke to the tangible, concrete numbers and effects that executives and boardrooms “really care about,” according to Gibbs. “Has your campaign shifted the dial on market share, profit growth, shareholder value, that kind of thing.”
Gibbs also identified high net promoter score and high retention rate as metrics linked to business effects.
“For today’s typical CMO, proving effectiveness is vital, even more so now that marketing budgets are tightly squeezed and pressure to compete with both traditional rivals and new market or category entrants is keener than ever,” says Azlan Raj, Merkle CMO. “There is so much data that’s now at our fingertips that it can prove paralyzing, as marketers struggle to keep their heads above the data flood and aren’t sure what to report upon.”
SEE FOR YOURSELF
The Magazine Manager is a web-based CRM solution designed to help digital and print publishers manage sales, production, and marketing in a centralized platform.
