BUSINESS
Is your marketing working? Part 2 How to measure your marketing success by Trip Jobe, CEO, Rand Inc.
Peter Drucker’s famous quote, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it,” is always a great place to start. But by itself, it can lead to a false perspective on your results. Drucker’s second famous quote is, “Management is doing things right, leadership is doing the right things.” When it comes to marketing, vanity metrics equate to doing things right, but KPIs measure doing the right things.
I’ve seen many ways to buy or grow mass leads that aren’t qualified and cost businesses dollars and time wading through that information. Even if your marketing department or a vendor says leads grew by 60%, it is often not a solid indicator.
What do we mean by Vanity Metrics?
Key Performance Indicators
Vanity metrics are valid marketing measurements, but they don’t have a great deal of correlation with your business results. They will often simply show that your vendors or marketing teams are growing or creating positive results. A few examples may help shed some light on this.
KPIs are measurements that help to determine if your marketing is leading to positive results in your business.
Lead generation growth is often listed as a KPI, but unless you can show a strong correlation of leadsto-deal or revenue growth, it’s more likely a vanity metric.
We can help you understand if other metrics and touchpoints are leading to business by attribution models. For example, if you sell via -e-commerce – only looking at visitors is likely eye-candy but time on site is more likely your KPI. Similarly, “opportunities created” is often a more valuable KPI than leads, which can be bought or influenced by contests.
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The number one KPI for marketing should always be revenue growth.
