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At MindTree, we are beginning to plan for 2011-2012. A theme that is emerging for the marketing team is how we effectively move up the marketing continuum towards outcome based marketing. Since 2008, we have brought a lot of transparency and measurement to what we do in marketing at MindTree. We have goals in place, in the form of numbers, for just about everything you want, such as:
• # of inquiries from the Web site
• # of analyst briefings
• # of events supported
• # of blogs
• # of unique visitors to the Web site
• # of LinkedIn followers
• Etc.
This has been a good start, and I am not suggesting that this is something we stop monitoring. But by moving away from activity-based marketing and moving towards outcome-based marketing, I want to be able to measure:
• Revenue
• Customer Lifetime Value
• Market share of a client
In other words, I want to better measure marketing’s impact on MindTree’s business. In order to do this, we need to focus less on the top end of the sales funnel; and focus more on the bottom end of the funnel. I’d like to see marketing at MindTree focus on moving leads through the sales cycle (quicker) and help build loyalty as leads come at the narrow end of the funnel and ultimately become clients.
How do we accomplish this? What are the critical success factors? I have my views and I will share them in my next blog. In the meantime:
• Has anyone effectively implemented an outcome based model within their marketing organization?
• If so, what were your critical success factors?
I look forward to hearing from you.
Subroto Bagchi
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praneeth says:
i am little curious how you do it.
They are a question marks in online marketing space itself on how we attribute value to last marketing exposures that led to a website and resulted in a conversion. (in a nutshell even if a customer is exposed n number of times via different display ads/offline ads, the value is passed to the final property (mostly to google) where he goes before transaction)
And attributing customer lifetime value to your marketing spends is quite a challenge (especially when the lifetime value is a result of lot of internal and external factors)
Pinakin Upadhyaya says:
Hi Joe, I agree with you. Services companies has to convert Marketing dept. from cost center to revenue center. And so every marketing activity needs to be tied with numbers and tangible outcomes.
But for services companies, it is very difficult to plan marketing activities that will generate business. I mean to say tactical marketing like blogs, events, PR, would not help to get the business. They are just for promoting the brand and make people aware about the company. I think there is no short-term financial gain in this. May be in long-term this would bring business.
Can you please share activities that has tangible / revenue attached outcomes?
Awaiting your response.
Thanks,
Pinakin
Abhijeet says:
Tracking effectiveness of Marketing programs has always been a challenge, I believe an effective way to measure metrics should definitely include the ‘outcome’ of all activities or marketing programs.
Also, if we want to move the leads quicker within the funnel, then ‘Lead Nurturing’ marketing programs are very important. Sometimes leads go cold and we tend to ignore following up with them which should be avoided.
Joseph King says:
It is a challenge Praneeth. Most consumers (B2B or B2C) have 10+ touches or contacts with your organization before they make a purchase decision. The # goes up with the complexity (cost) of the decision to be made. Therefore, it sometimes very hard to attribute a win to a single activity within your marketing program.
Joseph King says:
Absolutely Abhijeet. Expect to stick with a lead for months or longer to see results. I know at MindTree, the average sales cycle easily reaches over 6 month.
Joseph King says:
Pinakin:
Top of mind activities that usually have direct correlation to business sold include email campaigns, analyst relations (if applicable to your business) and events (i.e. meeting someone at an industry event). The activities you mention above could also directly lead to business sold, although as you mention it is usually not the case.
Amit Gupta says:
Hi Joe,
Interesting Read.
Outcome based marketing primarily works where we can track/measure where the lead is coming from and how it gets nurtured.It takes time to convert those prospects to client. But since in marketing we use so many channels, it is very difficult to measure where this lead came from.(I think somehow sales folks are also responsible for not updating the lead follow up process in the system). But one channel I am very bullish on when it comes to generating leads and that is online media (Google adwords, LinkedIn ads) where you can directly measure the lead. Events and Analyst relationships are another channels where a direct point of contact sales guys get. That can also be measured. But others like PR, thought leadership article published on different journals help in building brand of the company not directly converted in terms of revenues.
In a nutshell, Outcome based marketing is done in more packaged way – by identifying the activities/channels cover under it.