Digital Lab

Why Most Marketing Programs Are Broken

Marketing is a Pandora’s Box of opportunity, but… companies consistently miss their revenue targets and fail to scale their profit stably.

It always boils down to a single point of failure.

Data!

Measurement is Money

The data points that you choose to measure (or fail to measure) directly influence whether your marketing makes any money at all.

The easiest data to collect is rarely the right data.

Basically, every marketing tool gives you access to measure:

• Impressions
• Engagement
• Subscriptions
• Clicks
• Forms

None of these metrics have anything to do with how much money you make (or if it’s profitable).

So… what should you be tracking?

Find the Right Data

The data points that you should be measuring are not easily present in any marketing tools.

That’s because they’re ultimately business metrics.

• Costs
• Revenue
• Margin
• Sales Cycles
• Retention

There’s a laundry list of metrics you can measure against each of these.

Here are some of the best ones you likely already know (or can find with a little math):

• Cost Per Lead (CPL)
• Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
• MQL to SQL Rate (% of leads that are qualified)
• Close Rate (% of SQLs that produce revenue)
• Churn Rate (% of customers lost per year)
• Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV)
• Average Order Value (AOV)

You should be measuring these in two ways.

1. By Channel
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   Each marketing channel should be measured based on its contribution to these business metrics. (ie. each investment should be evaluated in a vacuum of outside influence)
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2. Blended
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   Your total marketing investment should be evaluated to determine whether or not you’re overall spending is returning a profitable outcome. (ie. a winning investment may outpace a losing investment)

Sometimes a marketing investment will fail the profitability check when measuring by channel, but when evaluated as part of the blended investment it proves to be worthwhile as it assists or offsets other departmental costs.

Where Do I Start?

The best thing you can do today is figure out what you don’t know.

Of the metrics in the section above, how many do you know?

If you do know the metrics, how up-to-date are they?

How frequently are you updating them?

Are you measuring by channel and/or blended?

Odds are the questions you don’t like the answer to are the problems you need to address immediately.

The honest truth is that until you have a strong grasp on these metrics your marketing program will continue to be broken.

You do not know exactly how good or bad your campaigns are for your business.

Until you fill in the gaps, you’ll be making *educated guesses* at best.

Know the data and you’ll find a clear (somewhat obvious) path to sustainable growth.

Need help building the marketing program your company needs?

Our team has built thousands of high-performance marketing programs for companies scaling to $100M and beyond. We’ll help you build a marketing-led business you can be proud of.