What Do They Want?

I was recently asked the question of "what are executives looking for from their marketing investment?" It was an interesting question on several fronts because I think it has the potential for a myriad of answers, depending on the executive and on their view of marketing.  I think the more important question that should be asked is, "what do the marketing stakeholders want from their marketing campaigns?"  This is a question we ask our clients and prospects all of the time and the answers vary from "I want awareness" to "I want leads that turn into sales" to "We have not really thought about that."  The bottom line for all marketing no matter if you are talking to the CEO or the Direct Marketing Specialist is marketing needs to show results . . . in other words "show me the money!"

Results in marketing always come down to the return on the investment i.e. what revenue marketing has produced (to steal a line from The Princess Bride . . . ."anyone who tells you something different is lying.")?  Marketers need to be able to show a positive impact on revenue as a result of the marketing spend or run the risk of losing the confidence of the business.  While it seems rather simple, it is ultimately what marketing has to do in order to be relevant and help drive sales.  

With that in mind, when a CEO or CFO asks "what is going on in marketing", they are not really asking for a rundown on the latest campaign or banner ad, what they are really asking is “what was the return on the money we invested in marketing?”  The ones who win will be the ones who can answer their "what's going on question" with an ROI answer.

This entry was posted in Metrics. Bookmark the permalink.