The Long and Short of It

Pity the marketer sitting in room 1A21 during the recent DM Days New York Conference & Expo. In one morning session, he learned about measuring customer engagement through online interactions. In the one that followed, he received a tutorial on bottom-line-focused lifetime value calculations.

Both speakers presented their version of The Truth About Key Marketing Metrics. But the real truth is that each offered only part of the answer.

First up was Daniel Neely, CEO of Networked Insights. Neely clearly favors the softer metrics of engagement and influence which revolve around monitoring how consumers interact with each other, what they say and whether the consumer is an influencer or one being influenced.

As Neely put it, marketing is no longer controlled by marketers. And campaigns don’t merely begin and end; consumers are inclined to seek information on a product in their own time and on their own terms.

Here’s how this works: A sporting-goods dealer creates a lifestyle site