Make CFOs ♥ Marketing | Part 3 – Measuring Up

ThinkstockPhotos-453116321-smInherently, CFOs are numbers people. One reason CFOs tend to struggle with marketing is because it can be challenging to track and show real attributable results. However, by utilizing some of the newest marketing automation and tracking technology, marketing can connect their efforts to actual work-brought-in.

One way to track ROI on every marketing campaign is with your CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system. To do this, you’ll want to tag every potential project or contact with a specific campaign. This tracking includes how they became a connection, who they first connected with, and who’s responsible for managing/building the relationship. Some CRMs, like the one we recommend to our clients, also allow us to input the cost of that campaign. Once you’ve done this part, the CRM calculates the cost per lead, cost per opportunity, and the ROI of that campaign. CFOs (and CEOs) love this data! Of course, it’s better for the marketing department to show positive results from their efforts rather than negative ones. On the other hand, it provides justification for changing up tactics that aren’t working and continuing the ones that are providing results. An added benefit of utilizing your CRM system for marketing tracking is having access to data in “real time.” Real time data allows you to adjust your campaign mid-stream instead of waiting months for results to come in.

If you don’t have access to a CRM that is collecting data from multiple people/roles in your organization, you should call us. Or, there is another way for you to accomplish similar results. But that means Marketing and Business Development must work closely together, sharing information and insights on each and EVERY lead and project submittal and reviewing challenges and success EVERY day. On second thought… you should call us.

All joking aside… “You can’t measure what you can’t track.” If you can’t track your results because you’re missing the tools, or struggle with developing specifically targeted campaigns for your best prospects, call us and we’ll get you started. Now go invite Business Development to lunch!

Next time, we’ll discuss automating your tasks with systems.