Darwinian Marketing: Where Are You In The Evolution?

 

**Note - To the person/company who came up with this slide, thanks. I saw it in a colleague's presentation and have used it here without knowing the original source. I'd be happy to provide credit where credit is due, just let me know.

It's been 5 days and counting. Another load of yellow pages books was delivered to my condo building this week, and every book is still sitting right where it was delivered.  Not a single resident of my building has taken one.   This isn't a new phenomenon, of course.  Last year, I wrote a post about the same experience.   But I love evolution, and every time I see the pile of books, I think about how the internet has helped marketing to evolve, and how that has forced marketers and the companies they work in to evolve  - not an easy thing.

I had a discussion recently with a search marketing solution provider, and we shared our thoughts on the importance of marketing accountability, especially in today's financial climate.  We realized that we see similar behavior patterns from clients in our respective work.  Both of us work with clients of all sizes, and regardless of size or maturity, companies wrestle with their evolution to accountability.  Whether you're talking about a website or a search marketing program, being able to measure means adapting to a new environment.

For many businesses, marketing has never been particularly measurable.  When something isn't measurable, it's only natural for it to be viewed as an expense vs. an investment or a revenue driver.   While being able to measure the success of an online marketing program sounds like nirvana compared to blindly writing a check for a display ad or another year of the yellow pages, most companies find that it takes a good deal of work, time and mindset shift to navigate in the new world; in other words, it takes evolution.  

Industry veterans report that on average, a company trying a paid search program for the first time abandons their effort in 3 months or less.  Yet, any astute search marketer will tell you that it takes much longer, 6 months at least, to see real impact, optimization and ROI.  Websites are the same way.  How many times I have seen potentially great sites abandoned after a couple of months, left idle after the "project" was officially over and the company moved on to other things.  Trouble is, if you're not used to measuring your efforts and you suddenly have the bright shining light of data staring you in the face, the early results may show less than favorable statistics, and the instinctive "flight" reaction to abandon any money-losing effort kicks into high gear.

A recent Marketing Accountability Study by ANA/MMA (download a copy here) provides some great insights into how companies are coping with their evolution towards marketing accountability:

• Only 27% of study respondents said that marketing and finance share common metrics in their companies.
• 44% of respondents said that their senior management views marketing as an expense vs. a revenue driver.
• There is direct correlation between time spent on marketing ROI and progress made.  In a Conference Board study referenced in the report, 63% of those who had been pursuing marketing ROI for six months or less reported no progress towards their goal, while 73% of those involved for three years or more said they had made good progress.
• The key hurdles to making marketing analytics easy to use were cited as a) people:  training staff to use analytics and think differently and b) process:  integrating analytics into planning and strategy.  So, it is indeed about evolution.

As I think about companies and clients, large and small who have made the successful transition to marketing accountability, they have some important things in common:

• They view marketing as a strategic function vs. a discreet set of tasks
• They identify success metrics up front before they "test" anything.  After all, what are you testing if you don't know what you're measuring?
• They align the organization around common metrics and communicate progress regularly.  Marketing accountability requires that you work across the entire organization: finance, sales, operations, customer service, IT, etc.  in order to be successful.  Example: you can buy keywords and put up web pages all day long, but if the person answering the phone or processing orders isn't aware or on board, your ROI will plummet.
• They take the long view, starting at a level realistic for their company's size and resources and build from there.  They watch metrics to get early benchmarks and then seek ongoing improvements vs. overnight fireworks.  They stick with it vs. hopping across trial and error tactics. They understand that integration of customer data and automation of measurement processes will be a lengthy but worthwhile.
• They focus on progress, not perfection.  Getting all of the numbers and data sources to line up, getting every program to execute perfectly, it just doesn't happen  But that's not a reason to scrap your quest to accountable marketing.  In fact, it's the reason to keep going, keep pushing, keep moving forward.  Evolution, like momentum is a hard thing to break once it's started.

If you're well on your way to accountable online marketing, keep moving. If you haven't started, take the first step, however painful, and keep moving. 

And to you yellow pages book delivery guys, my building doesn't want any next year. 

Comments

[Brian Kaldenberg]

I have a veterinary client who hasn't really grasped this concept fully. He is doing some Google Adwords with us... which is better than most veterinarians. But he isn't doing nearly enough.

We are moving to quarterly video breakdowns of our clients' Google Analytics data. I'm hoping some of them will finally see the light!