Anyone who has either managed marketing, financed a marketing budget (CEOs and CFOs) or been the recipient of marketing’s harvest knows one thing to be true: marketers cannot reliably measure ROI. There’s a mountain of personal experience coupled without several research reports that bear this out.
Last week a new survey report published by ifbyphone, though not an empirical research gem, confirmed this (get the report here).
While 82% of survey respondents are held to account for marketing ROI, only 29% have confidence that they can really measure it.
Not surprisingly, as this eMarketer chart shows, the newer the type of marketing used, the harder it is to measure. There’s one exception: after several decades, only 18% of marketers believe they can substantiate the payoff from PR.
Should spending stop? No. As the lead-in quote to this blog implies, you’d be killing the half of marketing that does work.
Does the answer lie in the new analytics tools and marketing process software? Partly. Many of the tools are great, but they’re only as good as the skill of the person using them.
What’s the answer, then?
It’s continuing what started a decade ago after the dot.com bust: continually assessing spend and results, demanding to see connections, and selling for less. There’s no silver bullet. It’s about raising the bar and continuous improvement.
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