Marketing Metrics: You’ve Come a Long Way!

At ITSMA’s recent 2019 Marketing Leadership Forum in Napa, CA, we conducted a survey to assess just how far marketing has come in fulfilling its role as a strategic growth driver. We compared the 2019 results to those from a 2007 survey that explored marketing’s role in leading the growth agenda. Interestingly, there was little or no movement on some of the questions (more on that in another post), and some remarkable changes on others.

One question, in particular, showed a dramatic change. We asked, “What does your marketing measurement system look like?” In 2007, two-thirds of marketers were using Excel spreadsheets to track marketing results. Fast-forward to 2019 and that number drops to 17%!

Today, two-thirds of marketers are using web-based applications to track their marketing results. These web-based applications are more likely to come from a third-party, however a sizeable percentage have developed their own proprietary tools.

Modern marketers certainly have more technology at their disposal, but does this mean we are better able to use metrics to improve marketing performance and prove market’s impact on the business? What KPIs really matter? Have we made the shift from tracking vanity metrics to business outcomes? What challenges remain?

ITSMA is launching a new survey to answer these questions and more, and to learn how marketing leaders can identify, measure, and communicate the impact on KPIs that matter most to drive improvements in the 3 R’s of strategic marketing: Reputation, Relationships, and Revenue.

Update:

The results of this research was shared in our follow-up webcast, Measuring What Matters to Improve Marketing Performance.