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February 13, 2004
Who's Going to Care About Metrics?
At our staff meeting last week, Ciceron newcomer and director of business development Rob Silas made an observation about our business that was pretty on target. He said, "You know what I like about web marketing? It's a pure combination of marketing, IT, and finance."
That really got me thinking.
If true, Rob's statement would indicate that someone from each discipline would be present during -- at least -- the strategy portion of a client engagement. Unfortunately, while Rob's assertion is indeed correct, the team approach as he's suggested isn't quite there yet in my experience.
For many businesses marketing is still a silo-ed endeavor that exists as a necessary but somewhat mystifying expense on the company's profit and loss statement. Everyone knows marketing is important because, well, it is. It's supposed to "do something" for us. Make the phone ring? Make people feel good about our brand? What's marketing supposed to do again?
As you can see, we're supposed to care about marketing but we can't exactly put our finger on why. This statement is nearly always proven true when budgets are really tight and the finance department is asking for a contribution to cost-savings -- marketing tends to be one of the first to go.
Until now.
We've entered a new era of the accountability and measurability of marketing. In this new era -- where we're literally driving at specific marketing performance metrics -- the age old segregation between finance, IT and marketing must and can absolutely come to a close.
Because marketing can no longer purely exist as an immeasurable expense on the P & L statement, we need to influence accounting and management processes too. Here are questions that need to be addressed:
1. How much are we willing to pay to acquire a lead or a customer?
2. How much gross margin are we willing to invest in marketing?
3. Are we planning to hold all marketing campaigns -- offline and online -- accountable to performance? Or just that which we can measure?
4. Are we planning to hold our agencies and marketing partners accountable to return-on-investment performance?
In order to answer these questions, marketing, IT and finance need to put their collective heads together and determine what's achievable and when. Often times, in these still-early stages of Internet marketing and commerce, those of us involved in web marketing are the first to bring actual, empirical data to the table. We can prove what's working and what's not.
We're all fighting the good fight because of metrics. We can rally around a common goal of enriching our respective companies by holding us all accountable to performance standards. Doing so will be good for our businesses, shareholder values, and individual careers.
Until next month,
Andrew Eklund
CEO
The Best and Worst of 2003
First and foremost, happy new year from all of us here at Ciceron to all of you, loyal readers, clients, and friends. I've been looking forward to 2004 since the beginning of Q3-2003. I don't know why exactly, but I've been feeling and hearing about such a sense of optimism about this year that I just kind of wanted it to happen. So now we're here -- 2004. May it be filled with goodness, both personally and professionally, for you all.
Now onto the business at hand.
As a marketing consultant, it's my professional responsibility to pontificate gratuitously by engaging in the ultimate act of self-importance by telling you what I thought was the Best and Worst of Last Year in the ever-changing world of Internet marketing. So brace yourself. And enjoy yourself.
Best of 2003
Permission Leadership
In the year when unwanted email overflowed from our inboxes, we also witnessed some excellence in truly permission-based marketing. Those leaders who were determined to adopt and embrace permission marketing principles reaped the rewards. The basic principle of permission marketing means the more you provide content of value to each individual user the more they respond favorably and provide to you increasing levels of permission to engage with them. Permission marketing is not a new concept; it's just that it's been so slowly adopted. Watch in 2004 for the advancement of permission as a core strategic value for brands.
Thinking Beyond Just Clicks and Visits
2003 also became the year when senior marketers paid more attention to metric data other than simple web clicks and visits. When leaders have good information, they can make good decisions. In the absence of good information, leaders are left with the meaningless drivel of web site counters and very average stat generators. Tools are now widely available to measure: real user behaviors, marketing dollars to sales, campaign successes and failures, and a whole host of data points which make us more relevant to our customers, targeted in our approaches, and better stewards of limited budgets.
Finance and Marketing Working Together
For the first year in our existence (that's eight long years!), we've not only asked for but received an ongoing dialogue with finance people to have them help us be more creative in how we invest marketing dollars. Looking at marketing as an investment vs. an expense is once again at the core of long-term success. The aforementioned marketing metrics give marketers the necessary arsenal of credibility to influence better financial decisions.
Usability and the Delivery of Value over Creativity Wins
This past year showed good signs that people who care more about how a web site delivers value to customers rather than whether it wins creative design awards are at the helm. In order for the web to mature and become the mission critical business component it truly is, we need to continue to challenge the traditional thought that the web is a branding exercise only.
Worst of 2003
Wanton Lawbreaking Junk Emailers
And they're not just evil-doers who operate off-shore mail servers pitching prescription drugs and low-rate mortgages. No. They can be you and me if we choose not to educate ourselves on the newly enacted anti-sp^m laws. So the next time someone within your company thinks that the best way to grow your email list is to purchase a non-permission based list, think again. It could be your ticket to large penalties or worse.
The Under-financing of Online Marketing
According to the well-respected Forrester Research, online marketing represents only 2% of the marketing budget, yet commands over 30% of the time households spend with media. Second only to television -- which commands almost 40% of budget! Even worse, people spend less than 10% of their time reading newspapers, but newspaper ad spending receives almost the same budget as television. This trend has to change. It's time to de-ostrich and get budgets in line with the demands of customers.
Email in General
Worst of 2003? You bet. While I'm proud of the great successes we've been a part of with our clients and their email campaigns, email is still one big headache. With all of the technical problems, legislation, minefield dodging, and temptations by many to grow their lists by less than acceptable or legal means, email consumed a lot of unproductive time. And guess what? I expect email to continue to be both one of the fastest growing medium of marketing, and one of it's most successful. I just wish we could all get along and get on with it.
Conclusion
2004 is already showing signs of a year of growth and opportunity for businesses actively pursuing the advantages of online marketing. Keep your head up for changes in the laws, heads down on your metrics, and head on over to some greener pastures of marketing.
Until next month,
Andrew Eklund
CEO
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