Marketing analysts face the growing challenge of trying to understand audiences who jump from device to device and online to offline. These users are notoriously difficult to track and categorize. That’s causing some top marketers to change their thinking about measurement and accept that their data is imperfect, according to research in the works by Econsultancy and Google.
“Our data describes our customers and customers are people – chaotic, fickle, emotional, mobile people. Even when we fix every technical glitch and connect every database, data will never be perfect,” writes Stefan Tornquist, vice president of research at eConsultancy. Elite organizations are more likely to develop specific models and employ technology to fill these gaps than the mainstream, which tends to rely on historical precedents.
The research also reveals that leading marketers boast several common characteristics and outperform peers in several ways.
Goals and metrics. They are more than twice as likely to have significantly surpassed their main business goal in 2015 (42% vs. 19%). They also have measurement and processes that reflect the goals of the wider organization rather than just marketing. It’s important for finance and marketing to agree on the top business goals. “In the real world we need to look for those metrics that can make the leap between marketing and finance instead of trying to contend with every possible digital marketing statistic, most of which don’t resonate outside the team let alone outside of marketing,” Tornquist writes.
Find your “hero metrics,” he recommends. Identify the top three goals for 2017 and the key performance indicators for each.
Apply metrics to decision making. Surprisingly, many organizations have advanced measurement capabilities but don’t apply them to decision-making. Data that is collected but unused often creates a lack of trust in its validity. List which metrics are unused, used only for reporting and those used for planning. Focus on those metrics that apply to decision-making.
Strategic experimenting. Leading organizations are more than twice as likely to conduct strategic experiments. Experimentation can be an antidote to this kind of resistance, giving a black and white answer to key questions. Identify the intersections between business goals and customer behavior and use these lessons to prioritize experiments.
Match Metrics to Goals
Other marketing leaders agree that it’s essential to match metrics to goals. Establish specific goals for each campaign and base metrics on those goals, advise experts the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University. If a campaign is supposed to increase brand awareness, use a metric for engagement. If it is intended to drive purchase, conversion rates are more suitable.
Other measurement experts also agree that metrics go unused. The problem is attempting to track too many metrics, which causes an overwhelming deluge of data.
“Just because you can measure something, doesn’t mean you should. There is no shortage of data points available,” advises Jay Baer, founder of Convince & Convert, in his blog. “Don’t select them all. Focus on a meaningful handful of illustrative metrics, and track them rigorously over time, to see trends as they develop.”
Bottom Line: Some marketers commit the mistake of seeking perfection in their data. Leading marketers realize that there will always be gaps in data connecting people, channels and devices. Focusing on a few select metrics connected to key financial goals can enable marketers to find valuable insights that will resonate with executives.
William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.
