Internet Marketing Blog Australia - First Rate

Dec 08 2011

Marketing ROI – The Most Important Measure of Marketing Success

Published by Samuel under Google Analytics

IBM has conducted face-to-face interviews with 1,734 Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) across 19 industries and 64 countries to understand the forces changing business and markets today – and how the marketing profession is changing in light of these.

The four biggest challenges that their market research study highlights are:

The explosion of data
Social media
The proliferation of channels and devices
Shifting consumer demographics

The study points out that CMOs are generally feeling anxious about the level of complexity that is on the horizon.

But it also gives readers hope in drawing the conclusion that there is consensus as far as key areas of improvement are concerned, which can be summarised as:

Understanding and delivering value to empowered customers
Creating lasting relationships with those customers
Measuring marketing’s contribution to the business in relevant, quantifiable terms.

I want to pick up on two themes here. ROI and Data.

CMOs Have to Show a Real Return on their Marketing Expenditure

Here’s a quote from the IBM study by Rob Colwell, Executive Manager – Commercial and Marketing, Qantas Frequent Flyer:

“The success of my role is far more about analytics and technology than it is about hanging out with my ad agency, coming up with great creative campaigns. We must increase campaign ROI.”

We are glad to hear industry leaders talk about marketing ROI.

We’ve been talking about it for a long time. Check out this post from June 2004 discussing our Media Tracker ROI tracking technology (now replaced by Google Analytics) and prior to that in November 2003 where First Rate’s founder Jon Ostler (now Group CEO of Q Ltd, First Rate’s parent) spoke on marketing ROI and the case study work we did for NZ Retirement Commision’s sorted.org.nz.

IBM makes the following observations as far as marketing ROI is concerned:

At one stage, it was enough to point to advertising recall, brand perception or website traffic. But CMOs are under increasing pressure to provide quantifiable evidence of how their marketing expenditure is helping the organisation achieve its goals.

If they are to use their budgets as wisely as possible, CMOs also need to know which initiatives deliver the best returns. In other words, they need to know what to stop investing in, as well as what to ramp up.

But here is the quote that really stood out for us:

CMOs are well aware they will have to be much more financially accountable in the future. In fact, 63 percent of respondents believe marketing ROI will become the most important measure of success over the next three to five years.

I have included a graph from IBM’s study, below, which puts the 63% in context.

Here are the seven most important measures to gauge marketing success:

marketing return on investment - IBM CMO survey
Source: ibm.com/cmostudy2011

Outperforming Organisations Use Data Extensively

Clearly marketing ROI and the underlying data is (finally) becoming more and more important for organisations. What is equally important is that the correct analysis skills and interpretation is applied to extract valuable information – in turn influencing marketing decision making and company strategy.

IBM states that we now create as much information every two days as we did from the dawn of civilisation to 2003, quoting Eric Schmidt. That’s staggering!

The key is to ask yourself what you are doing with all that data that is being generated by YOUR organisation…?

Think about the various data repositories that exist. How well do you think you are currently extracting compelling insights that demand organisational change, to bring about an increase in sustainable competitive advantage?

Are you mining the new digital data sources to discover how your customers found your website, why they transact (or why not), how to best optimise along the entire purchase chain – from keywords to ad copy to landing pages to purchase funnels and beyond – and understanding what your customers really want from you?

Are you gaining true customer insights from your Google analytics configuration or are you simply comparing traffic levels year on year? – Similarly, are you tracking and taking action on what consumers are saying about your brand on review websites?

Outperforming organisations use data much more extensively than underperforming organisations throughout the entire customer lifecycle. The differences are particularly marked in the phases devoted to stimulating awareness and desire and building advocacy after the sale.

According to IBM’s study more than 70 percent of CMOs state that they aren’t fully prepared to deal with the data explosion that is currently happening, and this will only accelerate.

If you haven’t yet read the study, make sure you do. It’s quite an interesting read; you can download it from here.

Please contact us for a discussion around extracting insights and value from your web analytics or driving increased marketing ROI from optimised digital marketing campaigns and an ongoing CRO programme.

Insurance – Google Analytics Case Study

Published by NZ Editor under Google Analytics, Marketing Case Studies

First Rate Enables Pinnacle Life to Make Better Business Decisions using Google Analytics

Pinnacle Life became the world’s first life insurance company selling fully underwritten policies online in 2007 and since then has gone from strength to strength.

For a business utilising both online and offline marketing channels, detailed analytics intelligence is vital. It is important that all marketing activities are accurately measured through to conversion, such as new customer applications. This allows an accurate assessment of marketing spend leading to maximum ROI from all marketing activities, with budget allocated to the most effective channels for continuous campaign improvement.

Pinnacle Life choose to use Google Analytics combined with First Rate’s analytics expertise to deliver this value.

Click here to download the Google Analytics case study.

Ten Excellent Tips To Get The Most From Your Website

Published by Greg under Conversion Rate Optimisation, Online Strategy

It’s a sad fact that there are a lot of businesses whose websites are under-performing, leaving thousands of dollars on the table without even knowing it. When it comes to websites most businesses are frustrated with poor conversions, sales and the lack of qualified traffic the website receives.

If you are going to be investing in online marketing and using your website as means of building and growing your business, it is essential that you extract maximum value from your investment by ensuring your website is performing to its full potential.

Having the best looking site has NOTHING to do with whether it will bring you more clients, make more sales or grow your business. A fact lost on many organisations. Don’t get me wrong, it’s important to have a good looking site, but the design element of your site should never be your first consideration.

The simple truth is this: the internet is one of the greatest business building inventions EVER, but you have to use it the right way or it becomes a huge black hole that you pour money into.

So how do you ensure your website gets the most from your online marketing efforts?

Here are 10 tips to help you get the most out of your website

1. Focus & Purpose. Your site should be built with a specific purpose in mind. If this is unclear you are going to be shooting blanks in the dark. Ensure your website is set up to achieve a specific outcome from the onset.
Some common purposes include:

An extension of our current advertising (radio, newspapers, etc.)
To educate customers and prospects
To develop a list of qualified prospects
To make/ increase sales
To compete in the global marketplace

2. Show them the Value. If you don’t immediately show your visitor just how valuable your site is, then they will leave… QUICKLY. On the Internet you only have a few seconds to capture your visitor’s attention, otherwise they are gone… and they AIN’T COMING BACK! It’s a known fact that people will do business with companies or people they like and trust. Your website should answer these 4 questions in the mind of your key prospects:

Is this what I was looking for?
Who is this company?
Can they help me?
Can I trust them?

3. Beware of the glorified brochure syndrome. Your prospects are tuned into channel WIIFM, (What’s In It For Me). Your site needs to speak directly to your ideal customers and you need to show and tell them that you have what they are looking for and how they can get it. Visitors come to a site expecting to find answers to their questions, solutions to their problems or for entertainment value.

4. Function over form: Flash based sites look good but you will really struggle to get them to rank well in the search engines. So many sites focus on the design element and miss the point all together. Your website must be easy to navigate and designed in a way that makes it easy to find information. One of the goals of your website design should be to keep usability easy, and simple.

5. Let your business occupy their head space. Remember this: your visitors will only be on your site for a short time, and once they leave they are NOT coming back. Unless, unless, unless you do one very important thing…YOU NEED TO CAPTURE THEIR CONTACT INFORMATION!!!

6. Follow up: Once you have your prospects contact information you can then follow up and build a relationship with your prospect.

7. Basic SEO elements are missing. Good luck trying to rank your site if it is missing basic SEO fundamentals. Before you ever lay down a byte of HTML code for a site you have to know and understand at least the basics of SEO and how it fits into the design. The number one aspect of SEO for web design is selecting keywords relevant to your site.

9. Keep your site up to date. Have you ever seen those sites that haven’t been updated in four years? Full of outdated material, outdated pictures, maybe even a copyright date that says “2001”?

Nothing will drive people away faster than a site that looks like a ghost town… remember, your visitors don’t trust you… and they are looking for any validation of that mistrust that they can find.

10. Measure to see what’s working. You need to measure and see what’s working and what isn’t. So many web site owners have no idea how to track, manage and gather statistics so that they can make better strategic decisions. This is crucial to the success of your online endeavors. A tracking solution like Google Analytics provides invaluable intelligence that no website should be without.

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