Execs See Increase in Marketing’s Impact on Bottom Line
Source www.hwassociates.com
According to a study called “Measuring Marketing Effectiveness” cited in BtoB Magazine, executives perceive that marketing is doing a better job contributing to the bottom line. That’s good news. The not-so-good news? Marketing’s inability to forecast its impact on the bottom line. This is why marketing is often treated as an organizational parasite, particularly in the tech BtoB space, rather than the essential contributor it should be. Marketing budgets are slashed at the first sign of economic trouble because we can’t prove that marketing actually delivers meaningful, tangible results. I continue to be shocked and dismayed at how many tech BtoB marketers don’t even attempt to measure results, creating programs with no measurable objectives, or worse, creating such objectives and then failing to measure, analyze and refine to improve results over time. If marketing wants to be taken seriously as a vital contributor to the corporate bottom line, we need to get serious about forecasting and measuring that contribution.
Tags: bottom line, marketing, measurement, results
May 6th, 2010 at 2:31 pm
Agree. I would add that Marketing also needs to bridge the gap that often exists between itself and the Sales department. Too many B2B marketers are isolated, or isolate themselves, from the sales process. This perpetuates the impression (and perhaps the reality) of a weak connection between marketing activity and closing deals.