The increasing impact of accountability could make some marketers feel like they are about to crash, with a dire need of an airbag to prevent injury. Are their fears real, or should they be more positive about the opportunities MRM presents?

Facts can be daunting. Especially for marketers. For years on end, facts and figures were considered to be enemies of the creative marketer’s brain. But this has changed. Nowadays, mission critical elements are monitored everywhere within the company, and this is no different with regards to the marketing department. To have a marketing dashboard is almost on every CMO’s wish list. Today “Accountability is No 1”. For some marketers the effect of this new mindset can be shocking. What if concepts that were undisputed for years need to be reconsidered? When facts are undoubtedly ‘ín your face’, the marketing dashboard better come with an airbag.

Think before you act!

What I especially like about Marketing Dashboards is the discussion and exercise you need to have prior to defining the Key Performance Indicator’s (KPI’s). KPI’s are often consolidated values of multiple variables, they need to be measurable, determined at the beginning of the project, reflect the objectives of the organisation and provide the basis for decision making. Basically, it forces marketers to systematically think about everything they do.

Analyse the chain of events

With pressure on the CMO building up rapidly because of budget cuts, increased cost controls and legislation (Sarbanes-Oxley), the scream for dependable information becomes louder and louder. First (re)action is to buy a commercially available software package that does it all. Flashy stats, drag ‘n drop, plug ‘n play, you name it. Then the question arises….what do we want to see? And is that good or bad? And can we trust these figures? All vital questions that trigger a whole chain of events.

For the pride of your nations…start your engines

Where do you start building a marketing dashboard? By identifying those variables (combined into indicators) that help you understand a status, trend or need for action. Most of the marketing dashboards I have seen merely focus on “results” like response, behaviour or “brand score”. As a Marketing Resource Management consultant I also advise to have your “investments” in the overview. Only then you can see how budget, time and knowledge investments lead to campaigns, lead to customer behaviour and finally lead to (sales) results. This way you do not only see the results of things you did in the past, but based on ratios, trend analyses etc. it is possible to better predict results for the future in an early phase. To do so, you need to have a clear understanding of the marketing process, the whereabouts and quality of the data and a solid cooperation of the stakeholders in the process.

Manage processes

An analysis of marketing workflows makes you understand what it takes to make the infrastructure tick, who is doing the sign offs, what the escalation routes are etc. You are looking for those moments in the process where decisions are being made, responsibilities are being handed over and information flows are consolidated through one single point. Especially in the case of multi channel campaigns the complexity of the marketing process often blows sky high resulting in a situation that is better described as “multiple channel”. Multiple project teams communicate multiple messages through multiple channels without any orchestration from above and no chance on synergy. Insight on a high level is vital to improve operational efficiency. Installing a marketing dashboard will help understanding these dynamics.

Empowerment with technology

Now you know what the process looks like, it will not come as a surprise that for having a marketing dashboard you need to aggregate data from an average of 6 to 10 data sources. A time consuming and costly job to aggregate and disseminate manually. Especially when this internal and external company- and customer data is combined and enriched with market- and prospect data. An automated process of data gathering, data validation and transformation to KPI will help to detect problems faster and react sooner. Complexity of both data sources itself, the volumes of information and a market that demands more flexibility are the key drivers to the current popularity of marketing dashboard projects.

The importance of stakeholders

However, most important are the stakeholders. They are at the beginning of the process in regards to data input and at the end of the process as data cusumers. Organisational alignment and understanding on how this will help them to excel in execution needs to be clear. It triggers every department to be more transparent and have unity in definitions, goal setting, measurements, data structures and usage of marketing resources.

Small step or giant leap?

Marketing dashboards are extremely useful. Having one means being able to manage your marketing situation better, faster and cheaper. Installing one means doing a sanity check on your marketing environment and rationalise the process and activities. Those 5 to 10 little green, orange or red arrows at the front end of the process might be one small step for technology, but one giant leap for the marketer at the back end.

By Romek Jansen,
MRM consultant, MRMlogiQ,

Email: romekjansen@MRMlogiQ.com
Web 1.: http://www.mrmlogiq.com
Web 2: http://www.marketinggovernance.com
Tel: +31 (0) 6 430 47 311