It should come as no surprise that one of the topics of great interest to the customer intelligence community is marketing measurement. And like anything, the better the measurement, the better the potential impact for management. So, to address the topic of marketing measurement for our recent Webinar with the American Marketing Association, we went straight to the definitive authority – Katie Paine.

Katie’s ease and confidence with the material helped make the content accessible so the audience had a clear starting point for applying these thoughts in their own operating environment. One of my favorite parts was what she called her “6 Steps to the Perfect Measurement System,” which I’ve extracted for you below.

1. Define the “R” in your ROI.There’s no better place to start than understanding the return you want to achieve because doing that forces early consideration of both feasibility and approach, and it also establishes the units of measurement. There are times when narrowly defined returns, such as response rates or increase in conversions, are completely adequate. But the best way to demonstrate relevance is to tie the initiative to revenue or profitability.
2. Define the audience. It’s worthwhile to revisit the fundamentals from time to time to be sure the overall direction is correct, and this one is straight from Marketing 101. The point here is that understanding the audience and then planning based on that understanding is important.
3. Establish benchmarks. An important part of this process is to get the baseline to show the starting point, which then enables you to show the margin of improvement. Then, it’s a matter of making sure you understand the orders of magnitude that apply to your industry, and the best way to do that is to have a look at your competitors.
4. Define your kick-butt index. This is the logical complement to benchmarking, and it’s simply the need to understand what your management would consider a success. Knowing that at the outset enables the ability to map out the route to success and to aid any potential triage along the route if you need to redirect efforts or resources to achieve success.
5. Pick a tool,
   Make sure the one you choose is suitable for your needs and sized right for your intended purposes.

6. Figure out what it means, and then change and measure again.
   Look at the results and prepare your reports. If steps 1-5 have been planned and executed properly, it should be clear how things are going and if any changes are needed. But don’t be afraid to make changes if necessary.

This Webinar included some audience polling, so you might find it interesting to see how you compare to your peers on these questions.

Take a moment to watch the Marketing Measurement: Less Talk + More Action = Better Results onDemand webinar, and let me know what you think.