C-Suite’s Top 5 Marketing ROI Metrics

Earlier this year, I conducted a research study on Boardroom views regarding effective marketing ROI reporting. In order to find out which metrics are most effective in linking marketing performance to company profit, 108 Board members answered the following question:

How much do the following KPI’s tell you about marketing’s profitability or ROI?

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Now available: Survey Results ‘Marketing ROI Reporting To The C-Suite’

What is the most effective way to measure and report on marketing ROI? This may seem like a strange question. After all, the term ROI (return on investment) is an accounting term that is very clearly defined. Nevertheless, over the years, a good number of marketers have been ‘creative’ in applying ROI-methodologies to marketing. There are too many examples of marketers reporting non-monetary KPIs (performance-based) - or sometimes even plain marketing activities (activity-based) – under the ROI label. In other cases, the ‘ROI family’ is being extended with exotic non-monetary variations such as, for instance, ROO (return on objectives) or ROE (return on engagement).

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Marketing ROI Reporting To The C-Suite

What is the most effective way to measure and report on marketing ROI? This may seem like a strange question. After all, the term ROI (return on investment) is an accounting term that is very clearly defined. Nevertheless, over the years, a good number of marketers have been ‘creative’ in applying ROI-methodologies to marketing. There are too many examples of marketers reporting non-monetary KPIs (performance-based) - or sometimes even plain marketing activities (activity-based) – under the ROI label. In other cases, the ‘ROI family’ is being extended with exotic non-monetary variations such as, for instance, ROO (return on objectives) or ROE (return on engagement).

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Marketing ROI – Not Exactly Science?

There is continued discussion on whether marketing is an art or a science. The short-cut difference being that for marketing, as an art, it would be impossible to predict or measure commercial results. Whereas for marketing, as a science, it would be possible. The discussion is, however, an exercise in futility. After all, the question ‘is marketing an art or a science?’ presents a false dilemma.

To me, M.C. Escher’s work is a great metaphor for marketing. His work is as  much geometry (science) as it is art. Similarly, marketing isn’t either art or science. It is both!

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The Difference Between Virtual and Vital Marketing – RU 4 Real?

As a marketer, you can only be one of two marketing types: the virtual marketing type or the vital marketing type. The difference lies in how you answer the question: RU 4 Real?  The ones that aren’t for real, I call the virtual marketing types. By extension, the marketers that are for real, I call the vital marketing types.

To explain what this means (2b or not 2b 4 real), let me start by describing the virtual marketing type. Here follows the freedictionary.com definition of the word virtual:
vir·tu·al (vûrch-l) adj.

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