Continuing the conversation from my introductory post…
Take a look at this Marketing Evolution Framework™ that I’ve developed. It is designed to show a progression of marketing approaches and their level of impact on revenue. I believe that the road to increased Return on Marketing Investment requires a systematic approach of taking small steps to achieve incremental growth over time. If you were to pinpoint where you are in the progression of steps shown, Where do you land on this chart? Where is your organization as a whole? Where is your industry?
That’s not a rhetorical question – I invite you to comment!
- Marketing Evolution Framework by M. Long
Here is a key to the terminology used:
The steps are cumulative milestones; with each step up the ladder we add more value and revenue generation ability to our marketing activities.
Sales Support Milestone: Marketing is responsible for creating assets such as collateral, sell sheets and information based websites (vs. websites that successfully generate leads), administrative tasks such as tradeshow coordination and other activities that are “Push” orientated. At this early stage, marketing is a function that exists primarily to create content and materials to support sales activities. Impact on sales is difficult to measure.
Marketing Communications Milestone: Marketing is responsible for strategies and execution related to sales support, asset management, event management, the web presence and media management (SEO, SEM, Advertising, PR, Social Media, etc). Branding and identity development is a primary focus of marketing at this level. Marketing may have influence over target markets, but doesn’t necessarily drive those decisions.
Lead Management Milestone: Notice that I use the term “lead management” not “lead generation.” Lead management is the process that drives the generation of leads, qualification and routing. In addition to sales support and marcom, marketing develops formal processes for lead path and lead quality management and plays a vital role in the identification of target markets. Slicing and dicing of target markets into segments and delivery of customized vertical and contact function/role messaging via campaigning is the focus. Structured testing (example: A/B split testing) and analysis of results drives strategy and decision making. At this milestone, marketing is involved in conversion strategy.
Demand Generation Milestone: Having worked for a Demand Generation company for eight years, I know that demand gen and lead gen and lead management are sometimes used interchangeably. I believe there is consensus amongst the experts that lead generation is a component of demand generation. And lead management is incorporated into demand gen. Demand gen is akin to Solution Selling where marketing and sales functions work jointly to understand and communicate appropriately with prospects depending on where they are in the buying cycle. Marketing and Sales work together to develop targeted messaging that reaches the prospects at the right time, with the right frequency and cadence (often via automatic drip campaigns). A key goal at this step in the framework is to attain a closed loop of communication about leads, lead path, lead scoring and nurturing. At this milestone, marketing drives the conversion strategy.
Demand Generation is defined as a comprehensive approach to generating awareness and reinforcing the need for a particular solution, ultimately generating interested sales-ready leads. (Source: Matt West, Sr. Director of Marketing at The Connected Marketer: http://www.genius.com/marketinggeniusblog/2066/how-do-lead-generation-and-demand-generation-differ.html)
For Wikipedia definitions of Demand Generation and Solution Selling see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demand_generation and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solution_selling
Marketing 2.0 Milestone (Ex. Performance Marketing): In addition to sales support, marcom, lead mgt & demand gen, at this step in the framework, marketing is primarily focused on getting measurable return on investment for marketing dollars spent. Little marketing activity occurs if it isn’t projected to show a return, based on research, structured testing and analysis. The performance marketing method whether affiliate marketing, e-mail, search engine marketing, social media, banner advertising, or co-registration, all can be tested with controlled spends in approved environments.
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The X-axis: Raw Data —> (evolves into) Intelligence
The Four Levels of Marketing Measurement:
- Raw data: Not to be confused with data lists – which is a different beast. The data referred to here is output from marketing activity. Raw data in this sense is linear, activity based stats such as open rate, click through rate, retweets, visitors, webinar registrations. Each fact, by itself, is relatively meaningless for decision making because we have little or no context within which to evaluate and make sense of it.
- Information: Unlike raw data, information is data presented in a context that yields meaning. By putting data together into a single context, we create information. Aggregated metrics often show efficiencies and trends, such as percent of visitors to opens or percent of attendees to registrants in a historical perspective by webinar topic.
- Knowledge: Outcome-based, and in terms of marketing effectiveness is typically conveyed in dollar denominated terms: Cost per response, cost of lead, cost per sale, closed business generated from marketing leads and of course, ROI/ROMI. Manual calculation is laborious; analysis is speeded up with the use of software solutions.
- Business Intelligence: Leadership and performance indicators derived from multiple data points and calculated via formulas. Key performance indicators or KPI’s as they’re commonly referred to, report the likelihood of an outcome such as likelihood to respond or raise hand, likelihood to convert to an opportunity, market share or lifetime value of a customer. At this stage, the objective is to have a 360 degree view of the prospect and customer (data from customer service, operations, sales and marketing are synchronized).
The Y-axis: Tools —> (evolves into) Technology
- Stand-alone Tools: Marketing tools for tracking and distribution, such as your email blast tool, spreadsheets used for tracking activity or costs, SEO and SEM tools, etc.
- Basic CRM: Contact management, list de-duplication, sales call, lead and opportunity tracking; The starting point for many companies when begin to use a CRM system.
- Advanced CRM: Deeper customer analysis, such as gaining a detailed view of customer buying habits and demand, Use of mobile devices which leads to reduced paperwork and less chance of losing important documentation. These features promote efficiency and help increase company profitability. This stage includes profiling prospects and customers, advanced reporting and dashboard usage.
- CRM and Marketing Automation: All of the above plus, asset, workflow, resource and campaign management are automated. Emphasis on the grading and scoring of prospects, drip campaigns and structured nurture programs. All of this ensures that marketing and sales agree on the definition of a lead, and they work in unison to move prospects through the funnel.
- Integrated Systems: All of the above plus, the CRM and Marketing Automation systems are integrated. In a truly integrated environment, customer service, finance and operational systems are synchronized with marketing and sales databases as well.
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Future posts that I have in mind:
- Much more on marketing measurement: A deeper dive into metrics and which ones to use in your case
- A look at the processes needed to successfully implement Advanced CRM and Marketing Automation technology
- The skills, we as marketers, need to move up the steps..from being marcom focused to lead management focused. And from lead management to demand generation, etc.
- Examples of successes and lessons learned at each step of the Marketing Evolution Framework™
- Suggestions?
