Today’s marketers say new thinking is critical to measuring marketing’s impact on business goals.

AUSTIN, Texas, March 15, 2005 – A recent research survey among business and marketing executives revealed a high level of interest in improving their organization’s ability to measure marketing performance. Most companies appear to be moving from activity-based metrics to more operational metrics to measure marketing and remain primarily focused on customer acquisition as the most important measure of success.

According to the online survey conducted by VisionEdge Marketing, Inc., a business-to-business metrics-based marketing company, 59% of the respondents consider measuring marketing performance to be one of the top-three priorities for their company this year. Despite this high priority, only 9% of the survey respondents were somewhat satisfied with their company’s ability to set and monitor marketing metrics. The results also suggest that managers are feeling increasing pressure to better understand and track the complex, multi-faceted contributions that marketing makes on business goals.

“Today’s marketers are increasingly challenged to ‘connect the dots’ between their marketing efforts and business outcomes. By having good marketing metrics in place, marketers can demonstrate their progress and strategic contributions. Marketing metrics provide measurement points and feedback linked to annual organizational goals that both management and shareholders are seeking,” said Laura Patterson, president of VisionEdge Marketing. “The challenge is for marketers to move from measuring marketing efficiencies to linking marketing to business performance.”

Other key findings include:

• Fifty-five (55%) percent of the respondents said the rate of customer acquisition was the performance indicator most commonly reported to upper management and board of directors.
• Sixty-five (65%) percent of the survey respondents have plans to conduct or want to conduct an audit of their marketing metrics in 2005.
• Just twenty-seven (27%) percent of the business executives and managers in the survey reported they have training budgets for improving their team’s ability to set, track and report on performance indicators for marketing.

About the online survey

During January and February of 2005, VisionEdge Marketing sent survey invitations to 1,024 companies in the U.S. Nearly 10% (101 companies) completed the online survey. Of the participants, 16% had C-level titles, 50% had marketing titles and 8% were in sales. The remaining 26% had a range of other titles.

A copy of the complete report can be purchased online ($50) from visionedgemarketing.com.

About VisionEdge Marketing, Inc.

VisionEdge Marketing (visionedgemarketing.com) is a strategic and metrics-based marketing consulting firm that excels at helping business-to-business companies strengthen their competitive advantage and accelerate their ability to acquire, keep, and grow profitable customers. They are pioneers in working with companies to establish marketing metrics, market and customer intelligence, new market opportunities, product and company positioning strategies, and customer acquisition and retention initiatives. In 2004, the company published “Measure What Matters: Reconnecting Marketing to Business Goals,” and introduced Envisage, an online suite of marketing tools. Founded in 1999, VisionEdge Marketing is located in Austin, Texas.

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