Avoid the Three Most Common Mistakes Made when Measuring Marketing Success

Too many organisations measure the success of what they do by how much of the Marcomms plan they execute rather than by the business value it stimulates. There can be no denying that the measurement challenge varies hugely across the marketing mix:

EXHIBITIONS & EVENTS:  It's all well and good to have 100 people turn up at your exhibition stand but, if none of those visits generates a follow-up conversation, then attendance is more likely down to the quality of your giveaways than what you have to sell.

HOSPITALITY: Even in today's climate, a lot of time and money is spent attending sporting events or on tables at high-profile dinners. Too often though, attendees turn up to see a favoured team or for uplifting tales from the after-dinner speaker, rather than to reward you with thousands of pounds worth of business.

COLLATERAL & PROMOTION ITEMS:  A common misperception is that marketing success is evidenced by the quantity of brochures, pens and 'stuff' produced. Unless your business can tell you that a client interaction was stimulated or enhanced based on that material, then what was the point?

I recommend…

  1. Sponsor only those events that offer you a speaking opportunity; if this is impossible, think really hard about whether ‘just being there’ is the best use of your investment.

  2. Focus on Hospitality events that create an environment for conversation. Target attendees that will develop your multi-level relationships in existing clients rather than to help win new business.

  3. Be clear about the target audience for any collateral and giveaways, and that what you produce answers the ‘so what’ question for readers and recipients – or in other words, would your ability to win business be negatively impacted if the ‘stuff’ just wasn’t there?

To my mind, Marketing exists to facilitate sales rather than as an industry in its own right. Without question it can be challenging to implement meaningful marketing metrics but, when the annual tussle for budget comes around again, you'll be so much successful if requesting investment with a proven record of delivering real business value.