Expectations for functions responsible for Marketing investments and activities to generate value, capture market share, increase customer lifetime value, and grow customer value and brand equity continue to rise. Creating a performance-driven marketing organization will help you meet those expectations.

Tackle these 7 Essential Steps to Head in the Right Direction

Achieve Alignment: Having a clear line of sight between Marketing initiatives and the business enables marketers to make strategic and tactical decisions about customers, channels, touchpoints, and content investments. Alignment points the way to accountability and analytics. Alignment needs to be your first step.
Establish Metrics: Create outcome-based metrics and maintain a metrics catalog. Not sure where to start – our post on selecting the right metrics provides guidance.
Leverage Data: We are in a business environment that demands data-driven decisions. Every marketer needs to know how to leverage accurate, timely data. Every Marketing organization needs three tools: A data inventory, a metrics catalog, and metrics data chains.
Build Analytic Skills: The most recent CMO Survey reveals that “marketers are still challenged to maximize the potential value of analytics.” Hone your analytics skills so you can gain insights from your data and build models. This is an ideal area to tap external expertise while your internal team comes up to speed.
Set & Track Performance: Commit to set outcome-based performance targets for every program and track results. When you implement a program without an agreed-upon performance target, it is easy for the C-Suite to arbitrarily declare failure.
Create an Actionable Dashboard: Produce a Marketing dashboard that quickly and visually conveys your contribution to the organization and facilitates course adjustments. Most “dashboards” that are a click away in your Marketing technology platform are excellent for providing information stored within that platform. These are often beautiful displays of data but this is NOT the same as a Marketing dashboard! Consider having your dashboard reviewed.
Refine & Start Over: Keep in mind that continuous improvement takes a ‘reiterative process’ where testing and learning happen in a continuous cycle.

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Make an Impact and Deliver Value with a Performance-Driven Marketing Organization

What you do today will feed back into the process so that you can adjust future actions accordingly. Where should you start on your journey? The very first step is to address the challenges of alignment and accountability. Addressing these two areas will enable you to demonstrate your impact and value to the organization. Both require Marketing to clarify the strategic intent of all investments. Marketing accountability requires Marketing professionals to have data, analytics, and measurement skills. They must be fact-driven.

Achieving these goals may require a significant cultural shift and change in the personnel roster. Want to learn more about creating a performance-driven Marketing organization? We can help.

FAQ:

(written by Penn of Sintra.ai)

Q1: Why do organizations need to become performance-driven in Marketing?
A: Because expectations for Marketing to generate value, capture market share, increase customer lifetime value, and grow customer value and brand equity continue to rise. A performance-driven Marketing organization provides the discipline and capability to meet these expectations—and to prove impact in business terms.

Q2: What are the seven essential steps to build a performance-driven Marketing organization?
A:

Achieve alignment
Establish metrics
Leverage data
Build analytic skills
Set and track performance
Create an actionable dashboard
Refine and start over (continuous improvement)

Q3: Why must alignment be the first step?
A: Alignment creates a clear line of sight between Marketing initiatives and business outcomes. It enables better strategic and tactical decisions about customers, channels, touchpoints, and content investments—and it points the way to accountability and analytics. Without alignment, measurement is undermined.

Q4: What does it mean to “establish metrics” in a performance-driven organization?
A: It means creating outcome-based metrics and maintaining a metrics catalog so Marketing can consistently measure contribution and performance—rather than relying on disconnected activity and output measures.

Q5: What does “leverage data” require at the organizational level?
A: It requires accurate, timely data and the discipline to manage it. Every Marketing organization should maintain three foundational tools:

A data inventory
A metrics catalog
Metrics data chains that connect activities to outcomes

Q6: Why are analytic skills now table stakes for Marketing?
A: Because marketers are still challenged to maximize the value of analytics, yet the environment demands data-driven decisions. Strong analytic skills enable insight generation and modeling. Many organizations accelerate progress by using external expertise while internal capability matures.

Q7: Why is performance target-setting essential (not optional)?
A: Because without agreed-upon, outcome-based performance targets for each program, leadership can arbitrarily declare success or failure. Targets create shared expectations, improve decision-making, and enable credible performance tracking.

Q8: What makes a dashboard “actionable” (and what is the common misconception)?
A: An actionable Marketing dashboard quickly and visually conveys Marketing’s contribution to the organization and supports course correction. A common misconception is that the “dashboard” inside a MarTech platform is sufficient—it may be a beautiful display of platform data, but it is not the same as a cross-program, outcome-based Marketing dashboard. Consider having your dashboard reviewed.

Q9: Why is “refine and start over” part of the model?
A: Because continuous improvement requires an iterative cycle of testing, learning, and adjustment. What you do today should feed back into the process so future decisions and investments improve over time.

Q10: Where should organizations start if they want to make measurable progress quickly?
A: Start with alignment and accountability. These two areas force clarity around the strategic intent of Marketing investments and require the data, analytics, and measurement skills needed to demonstrate impact and value. Achieving this may require cultural change—and, in some cases, changes in roles and capabilities.