Make Sure Marketing ROI Covers Return on MARKETING Investment

In the next series of articles, I offer some tips on what to look for when selecting a viable marketing ROI solution. There are many consultants and solution providers out there offering marketers their expertise to fulfill pressing Marketing ROI needs. However, a simple online search on Marketing ROI reveals that the label means different things to different people. And with so many different and oftentimes clashing Marketing ROI philosophies going around, it can be difficult to find the right solutions for your company.When is a marketing department in need of Marketing ROI solutions?

1. When (some) marketing team members don’t feel directly responsible for realizing the company’s commercial targets.
2. When marketing stakeholders – CEO, CFO, sales, business development, et cetera – don’t clearly understand marketing’s commercial role and added value.
3. When the marketing budget is more susceptible to budget  cuts when business is slowing down.

If any of these symptoms apply to the marketing department, it is a first priority for marketers to prove their added value in terms of monetary value. Keep in mind, though, that this exercise will be counterproductive when marketers are accused of falsely taking credit for business results they had little or no influence on.

Especially B2B marketers should be wary of this. In most cases, B2B marketers are not responsible for direct selling. As the decision-making process of B2B customers is extended and oftentimes complex, personal selling is the key factor in closing the sale. In that case, B2B marketers should resist the temptation to take credit for the all over sales results or all over (new) customer value. It will result in unwanted debates on who is responsible for the sale. A debate that marketing will likely lose. And you don’t want your sales colleagues to pull an ‘Al Gore’ on you. Remember his famous quote: “George Bush taking credit for the wall coming down is like the rooster taking credit for the sun rising.” Bush Sr. then went on to lose the 1992 US Presidential Election. Okay, I am aware there is a logical fallacy in this argumentation. But my point stands that B2B marketers have nothing to gain from misrepresenting their added value. It reinforces an image of a marketing department that doesn’t exactly know how they add commercial value.

A good Marketing ROI solution provider will go at any length to measure only those results that are exclusively within the realm of the marketing department. And there is plenty of credit for B2B marketers to be claimed in the area of increased commercial effectiveness and of creating new profit streams for the company.

CALCULATED MARKETING SUCCESS!