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Irreconcilable differences?
Marketers are struggling to reconcile the need for enhanced measurement and integrated
techniques, according to new research by B2B Marketing and Eloqua
B
2B marketers are committed identifying their measurement as ‘poor’
both to using integrated said this was because they ‘don’t have
marketing techniques, and the the right tools’.
growing need to measure
effectiveness, but are finding Barriers to measurement
that the two are increasingly difficult to
91%
The primary obstacle to effective
reconcile. This is according to new measurement of marketing, according to
research by B2B Marketing in 51 per cent of respondents, is ‘difficulty in
association with Eloqua into attitudes to tracking certain techniques’, which almost
measurement and integrated marketing, certainly reflects the issue of integrating
which demonstrated the extent to which digital and traditional channels.
practitioners are focused on these two
of respondents believe
Meanwhile, 23 per cent suggested
potentially divergent objectives.
measurement and ROI will
‘lack of a single reporting source’ as
The research showed that 64 per cent
become more important
mostly to blame for measurement issues.
of marketers believe they will increase the This was also reflected in a further
number of marketing channels they use,
factors in their marketing in
question about how reporting is
whilst at the same time 91 per cent say
the future
conducted, with 53 per cent using a
they will focus more on measurement. spreadsheet collated in-house, whilst 21
However, over 50 per cent of respondents per cent use reports generated from a
believe the use of integrated techniques ‘all’ or ‘most’ of their marketing CRM solution
makes measurement more difficult – in campaigns. Opinion was split regarding Less than five per cent benefit from a
comparison with only 24 per cent who the reason for using integrated specialised multi-channel reporting system
suggest it makes measurement easier. techniques: the largest group (35 per to collate and enable analysis of integrated
More worryingly, 12 per cent of cent) suggested it was down to marketing campaigns. This is likely to mean
respondents ‘don’t know’ what impact penetration (‘campaign more likely to that the majority of marketers are missing
integrated techniques is having on their reach key individuals’); whilst 27 per cent out on an opportunity to benefit from
ability to measure marketing effectiveness. suggested they generate better ROI and superior levels of insight into campaign
Clearly the combination of these two are 28 per cent suggest it is because they results and effectiveness. However, this
causing concern and confusion amongst allow access to a broader audience. appears to be recognised, with
B2B marketing practitioners. Respondents were later asked how approximately one third of respondents
they would describe their ability to expecting to invest more in technology.
High penetration of integration accurately measure ROI on integrated
The majority of B2B marketers are marketing activity. Only 32 per cent Other findings
already focused on integrated marketing, described this as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’, Respondents to the survey generally felt
according to the research, with just under whilst 60 per cent described this as marketing was considered important by
70 per cent of respondents integrating ‘average’ or ‘poor’. The majority of those their organisation, with almost 90 per
Measuring marketing performance
is a top concern of B2B marketers
By Steve Gershik, vice president of marketing at Eloqua
Integrating marketing campaigns and measuring to company revenue. Top marketers have marketing channels (email, SMS, RSS, direct
the results of those campaigns have surfaced as ranked measurement of their efforts as more mail) they use and they plan to invest more
two of the top concerns of B2B marketers, important than aligning marketing with sales money in measuring the results of their efforts.
according to this survey. The lack of meaningful and even having greater board-level visibility of And, priority in marketing spend will be given
ROI data from marketing campaigns is the marketing within an organisation. to online marketing and those channels that are
greatest source of pain and many marketers are In the survey, more than half of marketers more directly measurable.
struggling with proving marketing's contribution said they plan to increase the number of steve.gershik@eloqua.com
B2BM MAY 08 – www.b2bm.biz
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