Measurement Challenges Stump Marketing Executives

Most marketers know that company executives want to be able to measure marketing tactics and campaigns. But as the marketing mix evolves and becomes more interconnected, this has grown more challenging.

Voice-based marketing automation platform Ifbyphone surveyed marketing professionals for its “2011 State of Marketing Measurement Report” and 82% said their executives expect every campaign to be measured.

Yet, breaking down the different marketing types, only 47% of US marketers believe they can effectively measure the return on investment of email marketing, and other types of marketing saw even smaller percentages. For social media marketing, only 26% of marketers think they can effectively measure ROI.

When it comes to the challenges of online marketing, measuring which keywords drive either the most clicks (40%), the most online conversations (40%) and the most phone calls (37%) were cited by marketers as challenges.

But these marketers are accepting the challenge and working out ways to connect marketing programs back to sales. The tools they use to measure marketing campaigns include web analytics, cited by 48% of respondents, email marketing software analytics (47%), leads from contact forms (38%) and social media monitoring (30%).

But with these tools at their disposal, what do marketers track? Of respondents, 62% said they track an overall net increase in sales to measure the success of marketing programs. Additionally, 57% look at the number of new customers acquired, 39% track the number of new leads generated, 33% look for an increase in customer retention and 33% measure a quantified increase in awareness.

Measuring the impact of marketing has always been a struggle for companies. As the marketing mix expands and integrates social media, digital and more traditional marketing, the challenge has grown. Yet marketers are embracing it and trying to connect their outreach to sales and business results—elements that executives will appreciate.

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