The Ritterbusch Group recently conducted a bit of research. We were interested in hearing from today’s business owners about which marketing aspects they found to be the most vexing for them as company leaders.

The response was clear: Measuring Results

Not an unexpected response. It’s only natural to want to validate any business expenditure. But what defines successful marketing?

Is it …

• Increased sales?
• Business/product/service awareness?
• New customers or prospects?

Establishing metrics

Depending on the client, type of business, industry, etc. the metrics will vary. However, it is imperative they are established before tactical execution.

Here are a few of the basic metrics marketing can impact:

• Awareness/familiarity – It can be quantitative or qualitative (based on assumptions).
• Lead generation – How many leads are needed (based on close rates) to achieve the sales objective? A lead management system must be in place to capture leads, forward to sales and measure the outcome – sale/amount/no sale/prospect file, etc.
• Activity – are sensible marketing activities being done on-time, on-budget and well?

For all of the above, ask yourself: Is there a benchmark to be measured against? If not, one MUST be established.

Some activities are difficult to tie directly to sales and must be evaluated as part of the overall marketing effort. And some individual tactics are difficult to measure in and of themselves. A savvy business executive understands this up-front, makes some assumptions and gets agreement on what the measurement might look like.

The following is a simple way to organize the process:

Each marketing situation will be unique, but if agreement can be reached on the function of the various entities in relation to “growing my business” – progress can be made on providing meaningful measurement.

“measure” flickr photo by Mad House Photography https://flickr.com/photos/mad_house_photography/4311409835 shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license