There are many definitions of marketing, in fact, too many. Along with the progression of the Internet and consequently the development of new techniques, technologies and marketing ploys, new definitions of marketing are appearing in great numbers. As plural and diverse as marketing definitions are, their essence remains intact. Marketing undoubtedly remains the sole function of the business enterprise and no successful business today is possible without effective marketing.
Most companies believe that the effectiveness of marketing is expressed only in numbers. Apparently, there are aspects (metrics) of marketing effectiveness that can be quantified and measured. The first and foremost goal of marketing is to create customers. Consequently, the effectiveness of this aspect of marketing can be evaluated by the number of new customers, new leads for a company, or, in the case of telemarketing, the number of calls completed. Another important metric of effectiveness is the number of new products purchased by existing customers, since the goal of any company that wants to stay competitive in the market is not only to create new customers, but also to value and retain the ones they already have.
Measuring response is another easy and compelling way to evaluate marketing activities. By taking the total cost of a marketing activity (such as an ad) and dividing it by the total number of responses, you determine the cost-per-response ratio. This cost-per-response ratio can help you decide if this activity was a success compared to alternative marketing activities. A standard measure of the effectiveness of various marketing activities is the marketing ROI (return on investment).
Other than the above, there are aspects of marketing effectiveness that cannot be quantified. Many marketing analysts say that the mission of marketing is to establish an environment in which the customer appreciates the benefits of doing business with your company, to set the stage for making the sale, to create the circumstances that make the sale the next logical sale. and appropriate. He passed. The uniqueness of a company that differentiates it from the competition, its strong dominance in the market, that is, the status of a company as a recognized leader in the field, the ability to remain at the forefront of the customer’s mind can be considered the benchmarks to test a company’s marketing success.
The effectiveness of marketing that results in companies achieving their sales goals, improved profits, and higher bottom line performance is determined by quantified and unquantified metrics. The concept of highlighting certain metrics when analyzing marketing efficiency and performance has been embraced by many and continues to evolve. Making marketing more accountable is an opportunity to test the effectiveness of your marketing performance. Devising modus operandi for measuring marketing performance has become a hot topic in marketing discussions today. There are two stakeholders who are more interested than others in solving the problem. The first party represented by CEOs, CFOs, and board directors want to know that marketing investment pays off. Sellers that make the second party want to try the same thing.
The solution to the problem took the shape and form of a scorecard, no surprise. Thus, marketing is becoming the last in the list of business functions to accept scorecards, a concise report that presents a set of measures that relate to a company’s performance, as a means of measuring business activities. marketing in order to provide a global vision. of the performance of the aforementioned business department.
The next question that arises here is how many metrics and which ones in particular will make a dashboard complete and complete. Some economists claim that there are more than 50 marketing metrics; however, it is clear that not all are equally important. A dashboard that is capable of accurately diagnosing and predicting the future of marketing performance will include the critical metrics that assess only what is truly important.
Critical metrics should include not only quantified metrics that are easy to measure (e.g. number of new customers, ROI) but also non-quantified ones (brand awareness, brand equity) as it is the latter that are mostly capable of to determine the long-term vitality of a company. Therefore, putting together a perfect scorecard that measures marketing performance takes some training. Surveys show that existing ones may still need some refinement and updating.