The six principles of measured marketing – delivering real ROI

'Measured marketing' is just that – marketing activity that is clearly defined and measured against a set of business objectives. Marketing and lead generation agency McDonald Butler have developed an approach based on six simple principles.

According to McDonald Butler while measurement obviously lies at the heart of the 'measured marketing' approach, it's not this in isolation that generates results – it's how you develop and manage actual marketing activity that makes the difference. After all, they point out, it's just as easy to measure a 'bad' marketing programme as a 'good' one!

The key to success lies in having a full understanding of:

• who the target audience, or 'community', is
• what the business issues are that drive and challenge them
• how your offering addresses their needs.

The 'community' is built by first defining a profile of the target prospects: which industries, what size companies, which job roles/titles best identifies them etc. This is done by establishing your objectives and value proposition to the market. Based on this knowledge, the next part simply involves a lot of research and hard work on the telephone to identify named individuals. It is this community of individuals which will become the focus of measurement throughout the rest of the marketing programme.

You can then engage with the community through a series of relevant marketing activities. These include workshops, thought leadership events, and targeted communications – such as newsletters and thought pieces – delivered to the community in an integrated fashion over a number of months. The purpose of these activities is not only to create awareness, but to position you as a thought leader in your space and to further validate your credibility within the target community and their industry, encouraging that community to engage with you and open a dialogue with them.

The level and quality of responses from the individuals in the community is tracked throughout the programme, enabling you to know the status of any individual in the buying process at any point in time. This exchange of information doesn't just stop with marketing – you should work closely with your sales team to ensure close integration of marketing activities with the on-going sales process.

So how does it work?

It works logically. All you need to do is follow a results-driven process that incorporates metrics that can be clearly measured and reviewed at each step of the way. The measured marketing approach is based on the belief that if activity is measured it will get done. What makes it work is following a clearly defined process.

There are six elements to creating a 'measured marketing' plan:

1. Lay the foundations
This is the most important part. By clearly defining what your objectives are, you can then build a marketing programme that is totally focused on achieving those aims. Four key areas should be addressed:

• The Community: Be clear from the outset about who it is that you want to target. This should include the type of key influencers and decision makers that will ultimately become leads for the sales organisation. Be as specific as possible, so that your marketing team can target named individuals that fit the profile (e.g. industry, type of company, size, geographic location, job role, job title etc). Work closely with your sales team to ensure that you both share the same view of what a sales lead actually is.
• Messaging: Once you have defined your audience you then need to better understand their world. To this end, the messaging part of the exercise is about clearly understanding and defining the market environment for your product or service. What are the current needs and drivers in the marketplace, and within your target audience? What level of demand exists? What are the critical issues that your product or service addresses?
• Positioning: Clearly define the value proposition that your company offers in light of your new understanding of what's driving the market. Combine your value proposition with messaging that resonates with – and appeals to – your target market.
• Metrics: Defining measurable performance criteria is key to understanding how well the marketing programme has performed against objectives. What these metrics are will depend on what your overall business objectives are. However, examples might include the number of qualified leads that respond to a marketing-generated message – for example, attend an event or take part in a survey – or the number of leads that are suitably qualified to be taken on by the sales organisation.

2. Create the community
Creating the community means creating a database of named individuals from the target audience based on an agreed profile. This database forms the basis for all communication with the target audience and acts as the 'system of record' for all activities. This database will be used to track the metrics defined in the earlier stage, so it's important that it's structured in such a way that it will incorporate the required metrics. Also, that it's kept up to date so that progress can be reviewed at any point in time. This is arguably one of the most labour-intensive parts of the process, but the effort put in will be reflected in the success or otherwise of the whole measured marketing programme.

3. Build the community
Creating a community database is obviously only the start. It's what you then do with it and how you develop the community that's key. This can be done through a coordinated programme of activities aimed at engaging members of the target community. It should take them from being aware of your product or service, to being interested in it, to wanting it, and ultimately (in the case of construction products at least) to specifying it.

4. Map the community
Mapping and tracking your progress is vital. This will enable you to check at any given time where you are against your objectives, and to assess how the relationships you are building are developing. Crucially, it will also help you if adjustments need to be made to the marketing programme, such as speeding up the process (adding more resources, refocusing upon on priorities), altering the marketing mix, or responding to updates in messaging and positioning based on feedback. Adapting or changing the plan isn't a sign of failure. Recognising that changes need to be made and then not following through is.

5. Align the business
The success of a measured marketing programme is never down to the marketing team alone. It relies heavily on support and input from across the business, most notably of course from sales. Aligning messaging and objectives ensures that your company presents a consistent image to the outside world. It also ensures that when marketing activities do create a qualified lead that it's exactly the type of lead that sales want, and that they're primed and ready to act on it. The challenge of integrating objectives and activities across a business should never be underestimated. It often requires an on-going programme of internal communication to guarantee that all parties 'keep the faith' and maintain a unified focus upon the agreed objectives.

6. Measure the results
Finally, review the metrics collected. Doing so gives you the basis of a robust ROI report and provides bedrock for future measured marketing programmes.

The measured approach to marketing is designed to ensure that your marketing activities contribute positively to the success of your business – and that the efforts are recognised for the results they generate.

 

Based on an article originally published by McDonald Butler.

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