Professional marketers are more successful when they use integrated marketing automation to evaluate their performance and to become more competitive in the marketplace.
This means they’re more sophisticated than their competitors in determining their returns on investments, according to a 2012 study.
“Overall, the research found that companies taking a holistic approach to leveraging integrated marketing automation to drive effectiveness have increased key business and financial outcomes,” according to the report.
The “Lead Generation Marketing Effectiveness Study” was conducted by the Lenskold Group in tandem with The Pedowitz Group, pedowitzgroup.com, in Manasquan, NJ.
It reveals how integrated marketing automation, strengths in core competencies, and using ROI metrics affect lead generation and stimulate marketing success.
Debbie Qaqish
“This report provides key insights into the specific drivers that enable marketing automation to impact effectiveness and efficiency,” says Debbie Qaqish, principal and chief revenue marketing officer of Pedowitz Group.
“Best practice companies are reaching a strategic level of support, reinforcing the need for CMOs to begin or continue their revenue marketing transformation,” she explains.
My sense is that she’s right, as CMOs often have difficulty gaining support from CEOs who often see marketing as an expense vis-à-vis an investment. When profits decrease, CEOs usually cut budgets for marketing.
That’s a mistake in my view. (A secret to success in a weak economy is to expand marketing.)
By successfully documenting a marketing ROI, a CMO’s relationship with the CEO will improve.
Then, it will be easier for a CMO to use the four keys to market ideas to the CEO.
“The survey results show that marketing executives focusing their organization on the key business outcomes and creating the environment to deliver will get much more value from their marketing automation,” says Jim Lenskold, President of Lenskold Group.
“There is great potential to improve marketing impact on sales, revenue and ROI when marketing automation generates greater alignment with sales, better measurement insights into lead outcomes and the ability to continuously improve both effectiveness and efficiency,” he adds.
“Overall, the research found that companies taking a holistic approach to leveraging integrated marketing automation to drive effectiveness have increased key business and financial outcomes.”
Key findings:
- Marketing automation users that also use ROI metrics to assess effectiveness are much more likely to realize an increase in “total marketing revenue contribution” from their automation (69 percent compared to just 19 percent of marketers using only traditional, non-financial metrics).
- The best practice group of “highly effective and efficient” marketers is more likely to attain a strategic level of marketing support from their automation, with CMO support and sales team integration (46 percent vs. 19 percent of all others).
- Highly effective and efficient organizations are much more likely to report strengths in proactively managing the marketing funnel, measuring incremental sales and revenue, providing a pipeline forecast and being accountable for revenue goals. The differences were quite significant, averaging 70 percent for highly effective and efficient marketers vs. 30 percent of all other marketers.
- Lead generation marketing effectiveness increases with marketing automation. Marketers report an increase in six key outcomes as a result of implementing marketing automation, with 6 in 10 reporting increased quantity and quality of leads and close to half reporting increases in the “percent of leads accepted by sales and the total marketing revenue contribution.”
Respondents were drawn from a worldwide sample of 373 lead generation marketers.
From the Coach’s Corner, here are related strategies:
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9 Tips to Evaluate Online Advertising Options — Are you at a point at which you want to advertise your company on the Internet? But you’re unsure which sites are the best for you? The options are endless and can be confusing. The last thing you want to do is to market a product or service that doesn’t reach the right people.
“Marketing takes a day to learn. Unfortunately it takes a lifetime to master.”
– Phil Kolter
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