Companies achieving the highest levels of performance from customer marketing and marketing operations have instituted marketing performance strategies and measurement capabilities, according to a benchmark study by Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks company. The analysts define "best in class" performers as companies achieving a 9 percent mean increase in return on marketing investments, 12 percent mean increase in new leads to pipeline, 11 percent mean increase in customer cross-sell or up-sell opportunities, and 10 percent mean increase in customer retention rate. Free report, with sponsorship by QL2, Connexion.a and SA.

The study finds that best-in-Class companies have instituted marketing performance strategies to establish marketing’s value to the organization and improve management’s view to marketing decisions. Moreover, 33% of all companies surveyed identify proof of results for justification of next year’s marketing budget as a key driver for the adoption of new performance measurement capabilities.

According to research presented in a new report, “Measuring Marketing Performance: The BI Roadmap to Information Nirvana,” Best-in-Class companies have increased their Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI) at nearly twice the rate of Industry Average companies. As a whole, Best-in-Class companies have adopted and are planning to invest in technologies and services that center around improvement of customer profiling and understanding, combined with real-time analytics capabilities that enable faster response to changing market dynamics.

“Improvement of marketing performance, and specifically the ability to pinpoint the drivers and detractors for performance, is the holy grail of marketing organizations. The ability to analyze performance across all activities and generate improved results defines the ‘information nirvana’ marketers are looking for, said David Hatch, Research Director of Aberdeen’s Business Intelligence Practice.

"Traditionally, companies have taken a hit-or-miss or ‘let’s do what worked before’ strategy toward developing and executing their marketing initiatives and campaigns. As the pressure to improve performance has increased and budgets have come under close scrutiny, organizations are now faced with finding new ways to make marketing activity more effective, efficient, and yield higher return," concluded Hatch.

Two of the recommendations included in this report:Improve the timeliness of marketing performance information, by reducing the gap between actual business activity and information about the activity. This enables companies to respond to real time results of a marketing program, instead of waiting until an activity is finished to analyze the results.

Elevate the role of marketing within the organization. Marketing measurements should be used to establish the value of marketing to the company. Marketing measurements should not be limited to internal pressures, such as providing better management views into marketing information. For true success, companies need to shift the focus from internal pressures to external pressures.

About this study

The Aberdeen Group report, “Measuring Marketing Performance: The BI Roadmap to Information Nirvana", offers a roadmap for marketing and business executives who desire to improve overall marketing performance through Best-in-Class use of marketing performance measurement capabilities and enabling technologies.

Free copy of this report available for download from the Aberdeen Group web site, with sponsorship from QL2, Connexion.a and SAS. Registration required.

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