Today’s marketers – particularly for SMEs – are finding that long-term gains are lost in the pursuit of undefined ‘vanity metrics’ that aren’t moving the needle in ways that align with real returns on investment.
The world has changed, and marketing must change, too. To avoid eventual brand ‘rigor mortis’, marketing needs to become rigorous. What do I mean by this?
Essentially, marketers must realise that they need to let go of ineffective activity-based marketing that breaks the budget and rather embrace a new marketing culture of outcome-driven marketing to ensure that marketing spending yields returns instead of becoming a money-losing exercise in creative wishful thinking.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of going through the motions – aka activity-based marketing. You have a scope of tasks that must be completed, and you have a budget. That’s the job, right? To hit the mark on the number of posts per week, that email blasts are sent out on time, and stick to the content schedule.
Just doesn’t cut it
Unfortunately, that just doesn’t cut it anymore. While it ticks the boxes on productivity because, let’s face it, you are working hard, measuring this work using vanity metrics like followers, clicks and traffic is just that, ticking boxes.
There is no clear, measurable strategy and minimal real data analysis for optimising campaigns. There is also another crucial element missing in this approach – adaptability. Marketing must be adaptable, which means cutting loose that reactive mindset and being open to changing the strategy if you see it’s not bringing in the proverbial bacon.
So, what should marketers do instead? How about results-driven or outcome-based marketing that prioritises hitting specific, measurable goals to deliver a positive ROI? This means developing and focusing on KPIs like leads and sales that directly impact the business. How?
Be ready to be agile
By using an approach driven by solid data insights, clearly set objectives, and a well-defined strategy so that everyone is familiar with the roadmap.
And be ready to be agile – data gives you insights and the insights should be driving your strategy. If the insights tell you things are not going great, it’s time to quickly change lanes. The beauty of digital marketing is that we have the ability to make real-time adjustments, so why are we not doing it more often?
Campaigns must respond to changes in the market and also changes in the customer mindset. Forget about, “We sent 100 emails this week” and start looking for “we increased qualified leads by 25% this quarter” or “We reduced customer acquisition cost by 15%.” This is the quantitative data that equates to marketing gold.
Why does this matter?
Can you see the difference? Activities vs outcomes. Vanity metrics vs KPIs. Lack of strategy vs data-driven plans. Reactive vs proactive. This all translates into non-existent value vs high and measurable returns. Why does any of this matter?
Aside from the impact on your bottom line, results-driven marketing delivers accountability and gives you a view of the true value of your marketing efforts. This gives you the edge in tracking progress and growth and ultimately justifies your budgets and advertising spend. With a focus on outcomes instead of activities, every Rand you spend goes right back into growing your business.
This is where the power of a results-driven partner comes to the fore for SMEs exploring the idea of outsourcing their marketing needs or a collaborative team to amplify their in-house efforts. It is also up to business leaders to ensure vanity metrics are left behind in favour of data, analysis and optimisation.
Challenge assumptions
Ask the hard questions – what is their approach to reporting? Do they have sound methods for tracking ROI? Are they ready and willing, with the capabilities to adapt, re-strategise, and rework if necessary? Anything other than an ‘of course’ would be doing your marketing a disservice.
Of course, the best marketing partnerships are built on transparency and collaboration. That is a given. But when choosing to work with partners who, in essence, become an extension of your team, they must be willing to move beyond ‘doing’ to challenge assumptions and give you honest and measurable feedback.
Good enough is no longer good enough. It’s time to shift marketing into ‘achieving’, starting with demanding more tangible outcomes.
Julie Rosenbaum is founder of Jubez Digital, a South-African-based digital marketing boutique offering.
