Let’s start with a quote this week:
In 2012, marketers will need to focus more sharply on hard metrics to gauge digital and social marketing ROI. They will be pushed in this direction by economic and competitive forces, and by rising expectations from internal stakeholders who are more interested in the bottom line than in creative experimentation. Up until now, marketers have been content to dabble in digital and social marketing out of curiosity or peer pressure. But as stakes get higher, these media will have to provide concrete business benefits.
That’s from eMarketer. I agree wholeheartedly, and here’s why.
Even though we’re well into the second decade of the commercial (read that marketing-supported) internet, many companies still don’t approach it as a marketing discipline. They do things because the see their competitors doing them – social media, mobile, whatever seems to be the flavor of the week. I know that sometimes the actionable business part needs to wait because the tools aren’t yet available to support those decisions. But if the folks who drive the revenues – marketers and their agencies – are demanding the tools, they’ll magically appear.
That’s not even the first step. Any of us who use digital to further our marketing goals need to take a step back and figure out what we’re trying to achieve (as we do with the older media). I’ve had clients who focus on reaching consumers when the reality is they should have been using digital for B2B efforts. That was time, energy, and money not deployed with the best chance of a significant return. Just because the media are newer doesn’t change the imperative to use them within the business protocols used elsewhere.
I know many CMOs wonder if digital, and especially social, marketing is producing any significant ROI. Hopefully over the next year we all stop dabbling and do a better job of measuring concrete returns.
Thoughts?
Consult Keith 