A word exists in the marketing lexicon called attribution.
How do you attribute an action to an activity? For example, let’s say we had a marketing campaign consisting of billboards, email, websites, tradeshows and public relations. How can you attribute a sale to one of those tactics? What marketing effort created the sale? What didn’t?
Here is a handy metaphor.
When in a car barreling down the highway at 70 miles per hour, what do you attribute the movement? Is your movement from the wheels, the engine, the car’s design, the road, the fuel or the driver? Or do you zoom because of how all those parts work together?
Driving toward Attribution
A well-crafted marketing plan is harmonious with each tactic playing a role. You should be constantly testing, measuring and checking to see what is helping you move faster and more efficiently through the maze of acquiring new customers.
An email campaign might begin to raise awareness while public relations can lend legitimacy to a brand’s key message. Billboards can be a reminder of the brand while a website can be a place for more details. A physical mailing might put a reminder in the hand of a potential client or customer. In person visits by sales helps to bring it all together to unify your message and to close the sale.
Modern marketers can tell who opens an email, who clicks on a link and the time spent on a webpage. But maybe the in-person visit by the salesperson made the sales, as the marketing aided behind the scenes.
How can you attribute sales success to one of many tactics? What are businesses doing to understand the effectiveness of their marketing spending?
A Starting Point for Attribution
- Data is a starting point. Google analytics will allow you to watch and observe how leads enter and exit a website or landing page. What do they spend time on – a video, a whitepaper or just bouncing around the site? You can monitor and link their data to a CRM (customer relationship management). By connecting these, you can glean some insights from the data connecting web traffic and revenue measured through the CRM, particularly for B2B. Mail programs like MailChimp or more sophisticated versions provide data and analysis from who reads your emails to what they do next. You can know through programs like Leadfeeder when a specific individual returns to your website. Data is your friend if you want to understand what may be working.
- Attribution isn’t just for marketing. Marketing spending and attribution is a “whole company” issue. From sales, operations, and finance, you need alignment to make sure that the organization sees value in the marketing spending. If you are spending $50 to acquire new customers who generate $5,000 in annual revenue, why wouldn’t you continue on that path? Sales and marketing need a handshake agreement when you have KPI’s and data support your efforts. If you don’t have alignment in the strategies, the tactics won’t matter.
- Testing Hypothesis. If you want to know if a tactic is (or isn’t) helping, you have to test. What happens when you run ads on Facebook and generate leads through links? How can you measure if a trade show is worth the investment of time and resources? Is a physical mailer worth the money versus a digital version? Testing never ends if you are searching for ways to measure effectiveness. I like to think of every marketing tactic as a test. First I want to convince myself that it is working, then I can convince others.
Think about the last big purchase you made. What made you purchase that new family car? Was it a recommendation of a friend, the ratings online, the ad you saw last month, a chance to drive that car when you needed a rental or the information conveyed by a salesperson? What do you attribute your purchase to? One of those things, all of those things or something else?
Next time you are driving down the highway, ask yourself what part of the car is responsible for getting you from A to B and how do you know it? There isn’t a speedy answer. It’s complicated.
Confused by your own marketing efforts? What is working, what isn’t and how can you know? Let’s take a drive together. You can set up a time to chat with me about your marketing challenges using my calendar. Email me jeffslater@themarketingsage.com Call me. 919 720 0995. The conversation is free and we can explore if working together makes sense. Try my new chat feature on my site if you have a quick question.
Photo by Lili Kovac on Unsplash
