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Anne,a mother of twin babies,purchased a stroller.She had
been researching at it for 9 months now, much before she actually required
it.Across online portals,reviews, friends and of course the television
commercials were always there.
Let’s say the brand she bought has a presence across all of
these channels.Because of the variety of touchpoints, it makes it difficult to
measure exactly where the ad was first noticed that encouraged a conversion
across this cycle of 9 months.Consumers may remember your brand, but may not be
able to recall where they saw your ads.
The marketer for the brand will surely have a tough time
attributing this sale to one channel and then calculate the ROI for it.It goes
without saying,the road ahead is going to be more bumpy as more and more
marketing touchpoints are integrated into the daily life of a customer.
An Art that
has become larger than Science:
In an ideal world,ROI = (Revenue growth – Marketing
budget)/Marketing budget
What about these factors then?
1.Customer
satisfaction impact
2.Multiple Influencers
3.External
macro-economic trends
Marketing will move beyond theories that are false and
theories that are not yet false.to measure it we would require tools to assess
the degree of likelihood of a theory.
Marketing Ratience
will be the successor to Marketing Performance Management,which
incorporates information theory and probability theory.
In Anne’s case,the probability of various touchpoints in her
kind of persona would be crucial for attribution.
The problem
with ROI obsession:
So what can be done to get a hold on this Miura bull called
ROI.We take a step back here and forget about the ROI of Marketing.And,think
about the cost of ignoring it.
If, ROI translates into measuring the variables and outcomes
most applicable to the particular business,then this means we are ignoring the
very factors which measures the business profitability.
The larger problem with ROI. It encourages us to play our
cards safe and hence underperform.
The Unicorn
of marketing,Content :
Content, the poster boy of marketing at the moment, seems to
fall under the Heisenberg uncertainty principle.It states no particle
simultaneously has both a precise position and a precise momentum. We can't
measure both, precisely because they don't both exist simultaneously.So true
for content.
This principles brings on a few questions on content:
• How does
this new white paper and complementary video add value to the X marketing
campaign, but also the value of the Y product release and Z customer forum?
• What’s
the value of a newsletter subscribed member? How does that value increase over
time as the member matures and the amount of such data become larger and
richer?
• How does
the value of each content asset fluctuate over time
• How does
the publishing of media-related products increase the value of the brand over
time by establishing us as a differentiated brand?
Having said that, the power of content can not be denied.A
terrific example here is, ZAGG, an online retailer, knows its blog results in
sales.It earns a whopping 172% ROI and 10% of the company's site traffic.It is
the single most important driver of sales for it today.
KPI’s in a
constantly shifting world:
Key performance indicators (KPIs) use quantifiable metrics to
determine performance over time. These metrics must be customized to your
business and goals. In the fast moving digital landscape, KPIs should be
selected based on three factors:
-How soon does it
matter – business urgency
-How much does it
matter- business importance
-How long does it
matter-business significance
One of the most important things about spending dollars to
get the attention, is to make sure that you are ready for the attention.
XEROX’s “Get Optimistic”campaign with Forbes to connect with
30 top accounts .70% of targeted companies interacted with the microsite,
readership increased 300-400% over previous email campaigns, added 20,000 new
contacts, generated 1,000+ scheduled appointments, and get this: yielded $1.3
BILLION in pipeline revenue.
It's not about just having a website. It's whether or not
that website works well to sell. Remember,it was finally the web or in-store
experience that led Anne to purchase the stroller.And,this is where the holy
grail of UX lies.But that is a story for another time. Stay tuned!
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