Comments on: The Difference Between ROI & Marketing Accountability http://www.beneaththecover.com/2009/06/25/the-difference-between-roi-marketing-accountability/ Inside the Book Industry Sun, 12 Feb 2012 05:57:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.2 By: Maria Peroglino http://www.beneaththecover.com/2009/06/25/the-difference-between-roi-marketing-accountability/comment-page-1/#comment-54912 Maria Peroglino Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:21:43 +0000 http://www.beneaththecover.com/2009/06/25/the-difference-between-roi-marketing-accountability/#comment-54912 Great post, and interesting comment about the CEO versus CMO tenure. As I am neither (yet), I'm going to give my thoughts on your comments about marketing software. Marketing software, particularly marketing automation tools, isn't meant to do all the work for the marketer so that they can just push an ROI button at the end of the month to see their return. Instead, it should automate some processes that typically take lots of time (segmenting, list creation, emailing) so that extra time can be spent understanding the impact of these processes so that changes can be made to improve marketing campaigns. These tools also combine products that were previously purchased separately and has made analysis easier because they are integrated. Since my website is connected to my email marketing I can do more detailed and accurate lead scoring, mixing demographic information with behavioral to get a score very representative of the lead and where they are in their decision. Also, before marketing automation I would have to create two versions of a landing page and then set up a test in Google Optimizer and then wait for results. Now I can do this testing simply in my marketing automation tool and in combination with testing my email offers, content and subject lines. While my CMO or CEO doesn't care about the time I saved in this testing or my methodology for scoring, they do care that it allowed me to provide sales with better leads that are farther down the funnel. And that is what makes marketing software hard to resist. Great post, and interesting comment about the CEO versus CMO tenure. As I am neither (yet), I’m going to give my thoughts on your comments about marketing software.

Marketing software, particularly marketing automation tools, isn’t meant to do all the work for the marketer so that they can just push an ROI button at the end of the month to see their return. Instead, it should automate some processes that typically take lots of time (segmenting, list creation, emailing) so that extra time can be spent understanding the impact of these processes so that changes can be made to improve marketing campaigns.

These tools also combine products that were previously purchased separately and has made analysis easier because they are integrated. Since my website is connected to my email marketing I can do more detailed and accurate lead scoring, mixing demographic information with behavioral to get a score very representative of the lead and where they are in their decision. Also, before marketing automation I would have to create two versions of a landing page and then set up a test in Google Optimizer and then wait for results. Now I can do this testing simply in my marketing automation tool and in combination with testing my email offers, content and subject lines. While my CMO or CEO doesn’t care about the time I saved in this testing or my methodology for scoring, they do care that it allowed me to provide sales with better leads that are farther down the funnel. And that is what makes marketing software hard to resist.

]]> By: Bas Berkenbosch http://www.beneaththecover.com/2009/06/25/the-difference-between-roi-marketing-accountability/comment-page-1/#comment-54911 Bas Berkenbosch Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:16:08 +0000 http://www.beneaththecover.com/2009/06/25/the-difference-between-roi-marketing-accountability/#comment-54911 Hello there, Really happy to come across this discussion. What I would like to add is that this question coming from the CEO (or anybody else) stating that he/she needs more sales allways has to be questioned. (Getting more leads is never a problem. Just start from page 1 in the phone directory.) At what price will we achieve this and what is the ROI outcome? Now this is the real work marketing has to come up with. And that is what the tools and the brains are needed for. The bottom line is that every (marketing) activity (be it acquisition, retention, social media, billboarding, etc.) should be judged by it's incremental ROI for the company. Serving any other agenda will never fully add to the bottom line and wil allways leave money on the table. The CEO needs to understand this and educate shareholders. Hello there,
Really happy to come across this discussion. What I would like to add is that this question coming from the CEO (or anybody else) stating that he/she needs more sales allways has to be questioned. (Getting more leads is never a problem. Just start from page 1 in the phone directory.) At what price will we achieve this and what is the ROI outcome? Now this is the real work marketing has to come up with. And that is what the tools and the brains are needed for.
The bottom line is that every (marketing) activity (be it acquisition, retention, social media, billboarding, etc.) should be judged by it’s incremental ROI for the company.
Serving any other agenda will never fully add to the bottom line and wil allways leave money on the table. The CEO needs to understand this and educate shareholders.

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