InsightIQ Blog

Marketing Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s)

Jun 22 2010

Not too long ago, a client with a leading edge reputation and revered loyalty program contacted me to discuss how we can help them re-affirm their direct marketing vision. They are staffed with long tenured and notable marketers, but were seeking a fresh perspective of the initiatives and capabilities they might consider to drive the very best customer experience.

Early in the process of helping this client, one of the tactics we leveraged were surveys to gauge senior leadership and mid manager’s sentiments on what they do well, what they do not and where they perceived gaps. The dimensions of the survey addressed a broad range of marketing subject areas such as contact strategy, segmentation, business intelligence, customer experience, technologies, business processes, etc. Surprisingly, the responses across management levels were generally consistent in all areas. Such results are not typical; however in this case the consistency of the responses was representative of the organization's strong leadership, which advocates objectives and strategies with a disciplined KPI framework that ensures indicators are Quantitative, Practical, Directional and Actionable – and most importantly, formally reviewed by constituent teams on a regular basis.

Conversely, many marketing organizations have more difficulty prioritizing initiatives to improve their marketing effectiveness and technical capabilities. We often find that similar surveys delivered across various management levels often yield responses that uncover a lack of consensus around marketing goals, gaps and needs. This is not to imply a dysfunctional organization, but rather it can be partly attributed to a lack of clear and regularly monitored KPI’s for important strategic imperatives.

As you consider achieving your marketing vision and objectives, those that are most successful typically apply strategies and a KPI framework with indicators that are:

Quantitative – results can be benchmarked, tracked over time and presented as a number(s).
Practical – aligned to existing company processes so metrics can be easily captured.
Directional - to determine if improvements are being attained – or not.
Actionable - sufficiently in your control to effect change.

If your strategies are implemented without KPI’s that are understood, meaningful and measurable by all stakeholders you will likely be hindered by factors deemed not in the control by the individuals responsible.

I have found companies that are careful to apply a disciplined KPI framework to each of their strategic initiatives tend to execute more effectively, yield quicker and better results, and have superior alignment across management levels. In my opinion, these firms tend to be more successful and nimble to keep their marketing vision fresh and able to evolve their customer experience in meaningful and timely ways.

Following are a few links with more information about Marketing KPI’s – enjoy !

http://www.ibisassoc.co.uk/key-performance-indicators.htm

http://chiefmarketer.com/crm_loop/performance-indicators-062806/

http://www.clickz.com/3527431

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Leave Your Comment Comments

Jun 8 2011

# hamburg114 said:

Hi

Tks very much for post:

I like it and hope that you continue posting.

Let me show other source that may be good for community.

Source: <a href="http://keyperformanceindicators.info/production-manager-kpi">Production manager KPI</a>

Best rgs

David