The world’s financial troubles have put marketing departments under greater pressure to prove their worth. But are they rising to the challenge? While research shows that 80% of CEOs now mistrust the value of marketing work, a recent survey also found that fewer than 1 in 3 B2B companies properly measure ROI for marketing activity.
A significant body of research, collated in an infographic by marketing automation company Eloqua, indicates that there is a divide between the expectations of corporate management and the practices of marketing departments.
CEOs expect measurable marketing results
There is a significant level of concern at board level that marketing needs to be more accountable, as this Fournaise Group study of CEOs found:
• 80% of CEOS say they don’t really trust the work done by marketers
• 80% say marketers are too disconnected from the financial realities
• 78% believe marketers lose sight of generating quantifiable customer demand
• 74% want marketers to become 100% ROI-focused
Marketers agree in principle, lag behind in practice
Marketers seem to recognise this perception problem created by lack of concrete measurement. Responding to a Forrester survey, 76% of B2B marketers agreed that ‘ability to track marketing ROI gives marketing more respect.’
But when it comes to implementing an effective ROI measurement system, B2B marketing departments are clearly failing to deliver.
Less than 1 in 3 companies properly calculate marketing ROI
Only 28% of B2Bs surveyed by eMarketer answered ‘yes’, when asked ‘Do you calculate ROI to assess marketing effectiveness?’ A further 29% said they calculated it ‘somewhat’, while a full third (33%) said that their company did not calculate marketing ROI at all.
Social media measurement is low
Among the companies that do calculate marketing ROI, often using marketing automation software, email and SEO are the best-measured channels, while the value of social media and blogging is far less monitored.
The research also reveals the consequences of a lengthening sales cycle, the use of Google Analytics and which ROI metrics marketers find most effective.
View the full infographic in the Campaign ROI section of the Modern Marketer universe.
