In the “Crave Results? Six Free Skills to Achieve Marketing Excellence” post, we discussed the “mental skills” you need to achieve Marketing performance excellence. While MPM is a mindset, it also entails a skill set. One of these key skills applies to the ability to select relevant and actionable Marketing metrics and data.

After years of conducting the annual Marketing Performance Management benchmark study, we have been able to identify three primary Marketing organization personas: Value Creators ( the top performers focused on creating value and accelerating growth), Sales Enablers (the middle group of performers focused on servicing the Sales organization), and Campaign Producers  (the bottom group of performers who operate primarily as internal agencies focused on creating Marketing elements and programs).  One of the reasons Value Creators earn the “A grade” from the C-Suite is in part because of skills: they have more mastery of the MPM discipline.

Consider the skills differences between the three personas for these key dimensions: using analytics to improve effectiveness, using data to link marketing activity to business outcomes, selecting metrics that measure Marketing’s value, and analyzing data.

It is challenging being a marketer today in a customer-driven environment with a proliferation of channels and a never-ending fire hose of data.  As we delved into the benchmark studies, we wanted to learn whether the Value Creators do anything differently in regard to data and metrics management.  The short answer – yes. We learned that this elite group of marketers consistently creates and uses three performance measurement tools to address data and metrics:

1. Data Inventory – describes the format, location, and source of Marketing and Sales data, where the data is stored, and how the data is accessed and updated.
2. Metrics Catalog – defines each metric tracked by Marketing and the exact algorithm used to calculate it, the measures associated with the metric, and how it is used.
3. Data/Metrics Chains – illustrates the sequence and relationship of measures and metrics that form links between the work of Marketing and the impact and contribution to the business.

We discovered that when organizations employ these three tools– Data Inventory, Metrics Catalog, and Data Chains – they achieve a level of MPM maturity that helps ensure their metrics development process is sound, enabling greater success in their pursuit of MPM.  In fact, the study revealed there is a strong relationship between the use of these specific Marketing performance management tools and the grade earned.

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In the sample of survey respondents using any of these approaches, the percentage of Value Creators in that sample is almost half, twice the average for the full survey sample.  On the other hand, in the sample of survey respondents NOT using any one of these approaches, the percentage of Value Creators in that sample falls to 14 percent or less.

The bottom line:  the use of any one or all of these data and metrics management tools is an excellent indicator of MPM performance and a skill that will help you join the ranks of the best-in-class marketers, the Value Creators. Do you want to gain more useful insights into what the Value Creators do better and differently, and learn more about how you can become one of them? Curious as to where you are on the MPM maturity curve?  Check out our free guide Adopt an MPM Maturity Model and evaluate your MPM Maturity. 

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