Here’s an odd sort of metric for marketers to track: In how many ways can their companies shoot them in the foot?
It may not be the most productive bit of analysis they ever do, but it’s one of the few they probably have all the necessary data to compute. According to a new survey, marketers are being asked to evaluate criteria they don’t have the resources or corporate support to measure.
For instance, more than seven in ten marketers told VisionEdge Marketing they were charged with increasing share in their existing markets. But only half indicated they have a process in place that would allow them to track the metrics necessary to do so.
Nearly half said they were responsible for growing their company’s brand value. But just 19% have the systems in place to measure whether they are being successful. And while 39% are responsible for increasing their firm’s share of business with existing customers, fewer than one in ten have the information they need to do so.
In fact, just over half are charged with calculating ROI for specific campaigns, but 48% don’t have a process in place to calculate it. Another 48% want to measure brand awareness, but only half of those have the mechanisms to do so. And barely 3% have the means to evaluate the worth of the entire customer base, compared with the 28% that would find this helpful.
This year, 40% of those surveyed will audit their metrics in an effort to determine which measurements best suit their marketing. What’s implied in that number is that 60% won’t, preferring instead to flounder around, or simply not bring up to management that the measurement systems are dysfunctional.
Given all this, it’s not surprising that 86% of the study’s 125 participants were either neutral or flat-out unsatisfied with their ability to track marketing performance. What’s more alarming is that only 1% of the respondents are completely satisfied.
That 1% represents one-and-one-quarter marketers, if one doesn’t allow for rounding. Perhaps companies that are urging metrics measurement without providing adequate support should figure out which part of that fractional marketer is saying everything is just fine.
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