4 ways to link your marketing efforts to revenue

Ever wondered why there’s so much data but still too little information to improve results and drive revenue?

The problem, especially in large organisations, is that all this data lives in silos such as Google Analytics, Ads, Bing, multiple social media platforms, marketing automation, CRM, and legacy ‘built in house’ systems. Trying to apply this ‘silo’ data into one true customer journey picture then becomes a nightmare. How do you see their clicks, calls, live chat, or visits in one place? The data is disparate, unrelated, and basically a hot mess.

Having worked in corporate environments most of my career, I’ve asked quite a few of my marketing peers what they do in this scenario. If you’ve tried to pull all that data into one view and got as far as a dead-end Excel spreadsheet, you’re not alone.
As someone who wanted to see what was driving revenue not just web visits, I often got this far too.

Many other marketers I speak to still routinely struggle to link their marketing inputs with their revenue outputs.
Forrester recently reported that the lack of defined metrics to measure success is a major concern for almost half (48%) of decision makers. And let’s all admit that, at some stage, we’ve hung our heads and said: “Well, we got some good leads and brand exposure… just don’t ask me from where or how or what sales it generated.”

But with the right metrics and a full set of data, marketing can successfully and quickly be linked to revenue increases. Here’s a list of steps you should take:

1. Figure out your shortest path to a return

Rather than just hitting marketing metrics, start thinking with a revenue focus. Sure, you’re targeted to make ‘X’ number of leads in your demand generation programmes, but what’s converting to profit? When you know what works, divert investment from less successful avenues. Remember Pareto’s rule – 20% of your marketing is driving 80% of your revenue.

2. Decide on what metrics to use

Determine the metrics that support revenue goals and put procedures in place to regularly monitor and act on them. Ask your stakeholders what they measure and need. Remember, without metrics that the whole business buys into, you’ll be held accountable to measure every minor item – even if not revenue effective – and consequently overwhelm the business with a million minor measurements. It’s about relevancy, focus and alignment.

3. Get wide ranging visibility

Related to #2, do you have all the relevant data points you need? Are you measuring offline as well as online activity?
Can you measure phone calls as well as clicks? What about leads from your exhibitions, magazine advertising, posters, and flyers…?

If you’re not measuring your wider prospect interactions, your analytical data could be wide off the mark.

4. Connect systems

I know – easier said than done right? No wonder you resort to Excel spreadsheets when your software can’t talk to each other. And in such a big organisation, the mere mention of ‘integration’ visibly puts years on your IT Director. But, you need to find a simple way, and the answer is usually through an easy (and of course secure) API – or a ‘layered on top’ application – that will pull all the data you need, automate the analysis and create a single source of information for you to work from.

It’s easier than you think to join up all your marketing data, measure your efforts to revenue generated, and do away with unnecessary spreadsheets. All while saving yourself stacks of time and resources.

Corporate organisations that align marketing results to revenue outcomes and develop actionable metrics are smarter and faster than their competition. Forrester concluded that insights driven public companies will grow an average of 27% annually, and insights’ driven start-ups will grow 40% annually. If you can apply this type of revenue growth to your own marketing efforts, are you telling me you wouldn’t want a piece of that?

For more information on how Mediahawk may be able to help you, call us at any time for a chat.