Times have changed. And quickly. Marketers today have never been more accountable. Advocate of advertising and pioneer of marketing, John Wanamaker, once said “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half”.
A century later we have no such excuse. The explosion of rich data, developments in technology and the application of sophisticated mathematics in this space, means that a generation of insight-driven marketers are now able to make decisions based on robust insights – not just on gut feel alone.
The challenge is no longer that marketing is a black art with minimal information on how this business investment is working, it is that marketers can be swamped by data and opinion, some of which is misleading or biased. During years of measuring and optimising the effectiveness of marketing I have found three core rules that should sit at the heart of marketing strategy:
1: Your marketing channels need to work as a team
Media channels may be competing for budget but they need to work as a team. Traditionally methods to measure the impact (£ value) and efficiency (ROI) of marketing, like A/B testing and less sophisticated econometric models, do not consider the interactivity of marketing channels. They calculate how a channel works in isolation but neglects the crucial “interdependency factor” which, if understood and acted upon, can dramatically enhance the impact of marketing.
Mathematics has provided the solution. New, sophisticated attribution methods that are built at an individual customer level, consider not only the marketing being delivered but the sequence, timing, and combination of channels. Transforming understanding of the customer journey and enabling marketers to deploy the right combination of marketing weapons at the right time.
2: Make all media channels work
Often in marketing meetings, you hear phrases like “press just doesn’t work for us” or “TV was extremely effective at Christmas”. While the media channel chosen to deliver the marketing message is core to the success of a campaign, it is just one part of the equation. Knowing this and developing a suite of measurement solutions that enable true understanding of performance is key.
The media channel or ‘vehicle’ for delivering marketing is just one element of the campaign. Combined with other key components, such as tailored messaging and impactful creative, it can create successful marketing that resonates with customers and hopefully encourages a purchase. All media channels can work. They can all achieve a positive ROI, drive awareness and increase brand saliency - and all can fail to do so.
All media vehicles can work if the message is clear, compelling and relevant. Disentangling the elements that determine the success of marketing is challenging. It requires a suite of techniques which, used in combination, give a marketer a 360 degree view of the campaign results. A complete marketing effectiveness suite should include:
Commercial impact measurement
- Sophisticated models that are capable of disentangling simultaneous events and considering the interactivity of component factors via methods like highly advanced data-driven attribution and econometrics.
- Direct causation methods like A/B tests (to validate models and trial tactics)
Customer view
- Response trackers that capture claimed awareness and response
- Research and focus groups to deep-dive on core questions
Customer response
- Neuroscience techniques to understand the non-conscious emotional response to marketing creative
Invariably, brand owners need to harness external expertise in order to fulfill this breadth of requirements. Choosing the best agency for each solution and ensuring that they are committed and capable of working seamlessly together is the best approach.
3: Know what your short-term needs are while planning for the future
Marketers need to ‘tool up’ to be prepared and able to talk to their customers in the future. Brands that are keen to “get fit for the future” are leading the way in testing and building an understanding of how emerging digital channels can be best deployed (as part of the team) in combination with traditional channels, to engage with a generation of new consumers.
Wrapping it up
In the backdrop of marketing budgets being scrutinised and investments having to work harder than ever, marketers now have an unprecedented ability to measure and optimise their work to deliver powerful campaigns. This blog outlines the three crucial rules to bear in mind when measuring marketing effectiveness:
- Understand how your marketing works holistically and deploy your comms across a team of media channels
- Measure each element of your marketing, not just the channel, so that you can truly understand and optimise
- Keep an eye on your 'consumers of the future' and build knowledge and expertise in how you will communicate with them