In just a few years we’ve gone from few Marketing measures and metrics to an endless sea of Marketing measures and metrics. Today we can be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of data. What was once a challenge to secure data has become a challenge to manage data and determine which measures are really meaningful and worth sharing.

Far too many of Marketing’s measures are activity and output based. Far too few prove Marketing’s value. As a result, Marketing organizations continue to struggle to prove value.

The brings us to the key question today. Which metrics do we really need? While we can’t tell you what are the right measures, metrics and KPIs (key performance indicators) for you, we can tell you how to identify and select the right metrics.

Make Sure Your Marketing Measures and Metrics Meet 3 Criteria

The most important metrics to collect are those that meet the following three criteria:

They enable you to make decisions or recommend a course of action.
They help you identify opportunities for accelerating growth, creating customer value, improve business performance, and making the right investments.
They demonstrate the link between Marketing and business outcomes.

filter marketing measures and metrics with value and yield — Use Value and Yield as a filter for selecting your Marketing measures and metrics.

Your objective is to identify and track measures and metrics that help you achieve these three criteria. These are the metrics you should include your Marketing dashboards.

If you are still trying to get started on your Marketing Performance Management (MPM) and metrics journey, we’d recommend you check out what Best-in-Class Marketing organizations do better and differently. We’ve been conducting research in the area of MPM since 2001 and many of our white papers provide insights into this exceptional group of Marketing organization.

If you are in the early stages of your journey and focused on opportunity management and lead generation, we’d recommend you begin by focusing on those metrics that allow you to in some way to measure value and yield.

Value is related to determining worth or return. Having metrics that help you assess value of your Marketing efforts is important to determining whether those efforts are worth repeating.

Yield is about the amount or quantity produced. Your Marketing efforts are designed to produce some kind of outcome and therefore it is important to measure the degree to which we achieved the yield target.

You can use the past years’ data to establish a baseline by calculating the value and yield of each of these year’s marketing efforts. By understanding the cost of your programs and yield in terms of the contacts, suspects, leads, qualified leads, prospects and customers produced from each program, you can determine the value and yield of each of your initiatives.

Once you have this data, you can work with management and Finance to determine whether the value and yield are within acceptable parameters and if not, what improvements are required. Armed with only this information you can ascertain both the value and impact of each initiative, determine whether the effort is worth repeating, and if so, what changes if any are needed.

FAQ:

Q1: Why has managing Marketing metrics become so challenging?
A: The explosion of available data has shifted the challenge from collecting information to managing it and determining which measures truly matter. Many Marketing metrics remain activity- or output-based, making it difficult to prove Marketing’s value.

Q2: What criteria should Marketing metrics meet to be meaningful?
A: The most important metrics:

Enable decision-making or action.
Identify opportunities for growth, value creation, business performance improvement, and investment.
Demonstrate the link between Marketing and business outcomes.

Q3: How should value and yield guide Marketing measurement?
A: Use value (worth or return) and yield (quantity produced) as filters. Metrics should help you assess whether efforts are worth repeating and measure the degree to which yield targets are met.

Q4: How can organizations establish baselines for value and yield?
A: Analyze last year’s program costs and outcomes (contacts, leads, prospects, customers) to calculate value and yield. This baseline enables better assessment of Marketing’s impact and guides future investments.

Q5: How should Marketing work with Finance and management on metrics?
A: Collaborate to determine if value and yield are within acceptable parameters. Use this data to decide which initiatives to repeat, improve, or discontinue.

Q6: Where can I learn more about Best-in-Class Marketing Performance Management?
A: VisionEdge Marketing’s white papers and research offer insights into MPM best practices and how to select metrics that drive measurable business value.