The Top 3 Measures of Success in Marketing

Last week I attended the Canadian Internet Marketing Conference in Squamish. Among the speakers was Kristin Auger from Salesforce, who presented the results of a recent survey her company did with 4,000 marketers around the world. What they were looking for were the characteristics of high performing marketing teams (18% of the survey population). High performing teams identified themselves as “extremely satisfied with the current outcomes realized as a direct result of their company’s marketing investment.”

One of the results that caught my attention were the top 3 ways that marketers measured their success. The three most answered measurements for marketing success were customer satisfaction (indicated by 35% of respondents), revenue growth (33%), and customer acquisition (24%). I’m going to talk a little more about each of these goals:

Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction has previously been the responsibility of service teams, but now is the top success metric for marketers. As the Salesforce report says, “This is further evidence of the blurring lines between marketing, customer service, and sales.”

How can marketing help improve customer satisfaction? With the increased usage of social media, customers are often voicing their delight and disappointment about products and services they use and the businesses that provide them. For most businesses, social media responsibilities fall under the marketing department. It becomes the marketer’s job to listen and respond to these customers and improve their satisfaction levels.

On a deeper level, the marketing of a company impacts the expectations of the customers. If you exaggerate the benefits of your product, your customer will be disappointed from their experience. If you understate the benefits of your product, your customers will be delighted – but many will try your competitor’s product instead. How you decide to market your business, product, and service will impact the level of satisfaction your customers feel.

Revenue Growth

Businesses are looking to their marketing efforts to help with the growth of their business. This can come in 3 ways:
– New customers – If you attract new people to buy from your company, your revenue will grow
– New products – If you can offer your current customers a new product that improves their life, they will buy more from you and your revenue will grow
– Increased customer retention – If you can lengthen the days/months/years that a customer buys from your business, your revenue will grow

Marketing plays a key role in reaching new customers, designing and rolling out new products, and communicating with current customers.

Customer Acquisition

From my experience, customer acquisition is the main reason small business owners invest in marketing. They are hoping that their marketing efforts attract new customers – not any customer, but the right type of customer.

A few years ago I implemented an SEO strategy for a local business. During the second month, they got a new customer that brought $15,000 in new business. The business owner was delighted at the results because he could see the tangible return-on-investment from the marketing.

How do you measure the success of your marketing efforts?

PS – The results of the survey are published in a report by Salesforce titled, “2016 – The State of Marketing“. It’s an intriguing read.