In the marketing world, performance is the difference maker - not experience, expertise, effort, or endurance, just results. This article is about how to address underperformance in the three major measurement components (Market Presence, Brand Strength, and Pipeline Health), and six key performance indicators (reach, share, engagement, loyalty, pipeline, and progression).
I chose these indicators and the four measurements for each based on where my peers and I believe marketers can have the most impact. It’s important to note that every company and market dynamic is unique, and the metrics that matter most to CEOs, or are dictated or perceived to matter most, are the ones to focus on. The framework is designed to be easily customized to help drive better performance across the board for the entire marketing function and help marketing leaders and their companies drive continuous improvement.
The four reach metrics are: Earned Media, Social Media, Site Visitors, and Events Reach.
Earned Media is generally the coverage a company generates in its relevant categories, and it’s best to gauge success relative to key competitors. That way, you know you are either gaining or losing ground in the battle for mindshare. If you are in an early stage or emerging growth company, PR can be a strategic weapon to “punch above your weight,” be a disruptive voice, and seize the high ground vs. more established competitors.
Social Media coverage depends on which platforms are relevant to your customers and prospects. For example, if LinkedIn is your target audience's primary platform, you’ll need to build a significant following.
Site Visitors is a proxy for overall Web presence health. A wide range of metrics matter for what I call “web vitality,” including New Visitors, Bounce Rate, Time on Site, Form Fills and Conversions, etc. However, growing traffic is a leading indicator that generally signifies a healthy website.
Finally, Events Reach estimates the percentage of industry events the company participates in as a proxy for how visible a company is to their prospects. It’s common sense to want to be seen when prospects are looking and “capture demand” both digitally and at in-person events.
The four share metrics are: SOV (share of media voice), Indirect Sales (as a % of total Sales), Unbranded +Search (as a proxy for SEO effectiveness) and Branded Search (your company/brands).
Share of Voice is a comparative metric to gauge how your company is garnering press coverage (features, mentions, bylines, etc.) relative to your key competitors. There are a lot of great practitioners and agencies who can help you raise your relative score. In my experience, however, ideally you have a dedicated person on your team to optimize SOV through a combination of in-house directed communication initiatives and externally developed and/or supported ones.
Indirect Sales is a key metric because every company can benefit by expanding their ecosystem of channels and partners that refer, resell, support, or otherwise endorse their product and service offerings. Please, partner ecosystem expansion can be both very efficient (at a much lower relative cost than direct Sales expense) and help bolster and reinforce your brand position.
Unbranded Search is one of the 24 key metrics that can have an outsized impact on your demand engine. With a comprehensive SEO strategy, augmented by GenAI tools and optimization techniques, companies can generate a significant amount of inbound traffic that can help build pipeline.
Engagement is simply how engaged your audience is, whether as first-time prospects or customers for life. If you have say 50,000 followers who are largely unengaged (1% or less) vs. a competitor who has say 10,000 followers who are highly engaged (5% or more), and let’s say is adding followers fasters, it’s easy to determine that the more engaged audience is more activated, and more likely to respond to your communications, campaigns and overall value proposition, leading to higher closed won sales.
Owned Events (whether in-person or online) have been a difference maker at every one of the six times I’ve been a CMO. Whether to drive engagement, build brand, enhance loyalty, and increase product line adoption, these are critical to company success in my view. The difference between designing and executing effective owned events, or doing a mediocre job, can be the difference between making the quarter or missing it, and at a minimum, greatly influence customer advocacy and brand strength.
For community, I’m referring to companies that have created, developed, and nurtured customer relationships through one or more formal structures, such as Customer Councils, Advisory Boards, Tracking Surveys, and the like, as well as online (internal or licensed platforms) communities that foster engagement, increase adoption and lower customer support costs. Some have referred to community as “creating a movement,” around your company, and certainly having more customers using, supporting, and endorsing your products and services can create sustainable competitive advantage.
That covers half of the 24 metrics in the Marketing Performance Index – four each for reach, share, and engagement. In the next article, we will look at the remaining metrics and best practices for measuring them and achieving results.
Full series: A CEO's Guide to Marketing Performance