Marketing has traditionally been the first to be blamed when things don’t quite work the way they should. Not much has changed in that respect over the years. What has changed, however, is the shrinking marketing budget across industries, across B2B organizations of all sizes, everywhere. With bigger targets to chase, tighter budgets and fewer resources to deploy, marketers are struggling to implement successful marketing programs. Even more challenging is the ability to track performance and report financial contributions to the bottom line. So it’s not surprising that most marketers simply don’t do it.
A recent eMarketer report I read says only 1 in 3 B2B marketers worldwide report financial-contribution metrics to senior management. It says further that, “Though a third of B2B marketers track revenue metrics associated with marketing-generated opportunities, closed deals and percent of total sales, 35% do not report any financial-contribution metrics to executives.”
The full report makes it sound as though by not measuring and reporting the right metrics, marketers are not doing their jobs. In my opinion, budget cuts and the centralized marketing approach are to blame.
Senior executives (the Bean Counters I have referred to earlier) only care about certain metrics which don’t provide the most comprehensive picture of what’s working and what’s not. On the other hand, if marketing departments had the independence and resources to develop, run and test local and specialized campaigns, they most certainly would in the long term be able to measure contribution to financial metrics, ROI and company revenues. With a sound marketing strategy in place and a balanced approach to lead generation efforts, there’s no reason for B2B marketers to shy away from performance metrics and reporting solid figures for marketing-generated company revenue.
I go back to reiterate, don’t let power sit in your boardroom. Instead, strengthen marketing autonomy and watch your marketing programs have greater impact, generate better leads and deliver more sales! Would love to hear your thoughts on this…leave me a comment.
