CMOs: 3 Action Items to Manage Metrics

As a CMO, evaluating the effectiveness of a marketing campaign continue to be an on-going discussion and with the rapid emergence of data and analytics, this task  of predicting the unpredictable behaviors is getting even trickier. As a graduate student majoring in Integrated Marketing Communications, I have found these two useful articles which discuss methods of developing key metrics to evaluate a marketing campaigns in a structured and simple manner.

    

In this great article of “Metrics for CMO Performance” by Dimitri Maex in warc.com, Maex argued that in most boardrooms, 90% of the is used to count money and how to spend it while only 10% is being used to discuss where the money came from and why it came in. The latter, an important questions for all marketers out there, should be more of a focus in the future because the existence of data and analytics can help explain how much money the company brings in and how it is being generated. To answer these questions, there are five steps to do it; Jointly plan for measurement with the rest of the C-suite, Balance financial and non-financial metrics, Distribute results in real time, Be clear about expectations, and Measure short- and long-term effects and plan accordingly.

Source: www.marketoonist.com

                                             

In another interesting similar article, also in warc.com by Merry Baskin called “Measuring Effectiveness”, Baskin elaborate on how successes doesn’t come overnight for marketers and the key is in knowing how to predict and measure effectiveness so they can invest appropriately for the longer term. Knowing how to predict & measure involves knowing what kind of measurement should be used in what situations, and most importantly how to use it. Baskin re-introduced the “By, By, By, Technique” as a means for marketers to answer ‘what are we going to achieve?’ and ‘how are we going to achieve it?’ in every stage starting from business strategy down to the creative strategy.

As a graduate student constantly exposed to this discussion at Northwestern University, these two articles led me to these 3 actions item to avoid any marketers from getting overloaded with too many metrics to measure:

1. First, Alignment! - Involve the entire C-Suite including the CFO to prioritize what we should measure and instead of focusing on what we can measure to get prioritization and have a clear idea of how we define the success of our campaign.

2. Use "By-By-By" Formula - Carefully select your metrics, articulate and balance both financial and non-financial objective by simply connecting it with a BY formula; our X business objective will be done by achieving Y marketing objective, which will be done by creating Z communication objective and so on.

3. Established Expectation - It is important to let every stakeholder understand when we expect to see results of each measurement and how soon it will impact the organization, be it a short-term or long-term results.

To sum up, the struggles and fuzziness of measuring people behavior will continue to exist for marketers and it is up to us to know how to best evaluate our campaigns in driving those behaviors. One thing for sure is whenever we’re faced with this challenge is to have a clear idea of what we’re trying to do and what is the best available data and analytics out there that can help us to do what we do.

Olavina Harahap

Olavina Harahap is an MSc candidate in Integrated Marketing Communications at Medill – Northwestern University. Prior to going back to school she was a brand management professional for consumer packaged goods industry for multi-national companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Kimberly-Clark and Starcom Mediavest Group for the Indonesian market. She hopes to continue her passion in marketing after completing her graduate degree.

Twitter: @olavina

Linkedin: Olavina Harahap

Thank you for reading my first article on NU Social IMC Blog, I would appreciate any comments and feedback regarding this article.