Allocadia Webinar: Looking Forward & Back in Marketing Performance
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Don’t go into your next planning & budgeting cycle without insight into your marketing performance — both past and future. Planning and budgeting season is almost here. Many organizations simply pull out last year’s plans and tweak them… but without factoring performance into the planning cycle, big opportunities can be missed. Performance metrics can radically transform your marketing organization: -- With marketing plans driven by past performance data, you’ll reduce costs and drive more revenue, since you’ll be investing more in the programs that really move the needle. -- With meaningful, achievable forward-looking performance targets, you’ll bring your team into closer alignment and set them up to be more successful. So why don’t more marketers do this? Performance measurement is complex. Metrics can be spread across siloed systems, and various parts of the business can define success in different ways. And what do you do with the data once you get it? This webinar provides perspectives, tools and best practices for measuring your past performance so you can revitalize your budgets and plans for next financial period. We also discuss how to set meaningful performance targets for the year ahead.
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Allocadia Webinar: Looking Forward & Back in Marketing Performance
- 1. 1 Welcome! Please see the instructions in ReadyTalk for connecting to audio. @allocadia #mktgperformance
- 2. 222 Your Hosts James Thomas CMO Allocadia Katherine Berry Chief Product Officer & Co-Founder Allocadia
- 3. 333 Join Us on Social #mktgperformance @allocadia
- 4. 444 What We’ll Cover Today 1. Understanding Performance • Past, Present & Future! 2. Setting Meaningful Targets • 5 Recommendations for next year 3. Real-world Scenario • Global Marketing Organization
- 5. 555 Intro Performance: Are we spending to plan? + What are we getting out of that spend?
- 6. 666 The Path to Performance
- 7. 777 Challenges with Performance Data Challenges… • Complex • Things change • No time • Status quo • Data in silos • Analytics expertise
- 8. 888 Analyst Data Analyzing Performance Source: VentureBeat Report: The State of Marketing Analytics: Insight in the age of the customer (2015) Does your company formally evaluate your marketing analytics for quality and accuracy?
- 9. 999 Analyst Data Source: VentureBeat Report: The State of Marketing Analytics: Insight in the age of the customer (2015) In terms of total time spent generating analytics reports, what percent of your time is spent on the following: Reporting on the past Analyzing the present Predicting/ influencing the future Analyzing Performance
- 10. 101010 Recommendation: Gathering Data Start With Either Past Or Present Present Past Present Past
- 11. 111111 Gathering Past Data 1. Finance systems 1. Spend/Commit data 2. CRM 1. Revenue/Pipeline data 2. Campaign Influence data 3. Marketing automation 1. Campaign Results data 4. Social 4. Brand Data 5. Web analytics 4. Activity Data Start with a view of what you spent then work your way up the funnel
- 13. 131313 Recommendation: Metrics to Gather CMO / VP of Marketing Field & Corporate Marketing Marketing Operations Efficiency | Bus, Mark, Org Finance Accuracy | Org Output | Marketing Impact | Business
- 14. 141414 Recommendation: Analytics Approach Top-down vs. Bottoms-up Aggregated vs. Granular
- 15. 151515 Reminder on Attribution 1 Single Touch 100% credit to last or first touch 2 Rules Credit to each touch based on specific business rules 3 Statistically Driven Credit to each touch based on a data driven model Regression model Probabilistic model Evenly weighted Custom weighted Time decay Position based First Touch Last Touch Sophistication Accuracy / Insight Cost / Complexity
- 16. 161616 Recommendation: Gathering Future Data Start with simply combining Past Actuals + Future Plan Past Actuals + Future Plan = Forecast
- 18. 181818 Components of Performance Measurement • Goals • Targets • KPIs • And motivation!
- 19. 191919 The Importance of Performance Targets Benefits Challenges • Focus • Accountability • Alignment • Motivation • Too aggressive = cut corners • Too moderate = not enough fire • Morale can suffer when you don’t hit targets, important to re-adjust
- 20. 202020 Recommendations for Performance Targets 1. Start with an understanding of the overall business goals. Ensure marketing targets are aligned with company goals.
- 21. 212121 Recommendations for Performance Targets 2. Fine-tune your targets. Historical data or present conditions will help you to make these small adjustments.
- 22. 222222 Recommendations for Performance Targets 3. Compare your targets to relevant benchmarks. Historical, industry and analyst benchmarks can further optimize your targets.
- 23. 232323 Recommendations for Performance Targets 4. Internal communication is essential. Well-defined marketing targets inspire marketers to define individual performance goals.
- 24. 242424 Recommendations for Performance Targets 5. Empower your marketers to hit targets Well-defined strategic marketing plans help you to more accurately forecast and therefore hit targets.
- 25. 252525 Recommendations for Performance Targets Scenario Planner Strategic Alignment Planner Revenue Performance Planner
- 26. 262626 Analyst Data Reviewing Plans Source: Ventana Research Next-Generation Business Planning Benchmark Research
- 28. 282828 Example Scenario Creates the Strategic Plan • Outlines top 3 strategic goals within a document • e.g. Goal: Drive $100M in net new revenue VP of Marketing, Monarch Tech Inc. Scenario: It’s September 2016. The company has just completed its yearly strategic planning conference. 1 Identifies High-level Targets2 Communicates Plan to Stakeholders3 • Outlines top 1-3 KPIs per goal • e.g. Target: Invest 10% of revenue in marketing programs • Share with C-level execs as well as Operations
- 29. 292929 Example Scenario Gathers Data • Either manually or through automated connectors within a system like Allocadia VP of Marketing Ops, Monarch Tech Inc. Scenario: It’s October 2016. He’s received the strategic plan and needs to operationalize it. 4 Analyzes Performance 5 Fine-tunes Targets & KPIs6 • Through: • Data visualizations • Audit trail • Targets e.g. Starts with $100M marketing investment target divided into regions and business units • Breaks it down to specific targets for particular Regions and/or BUs • KPI e.g. All Business Units to be Over/Under Target by 3%
- 30. 303030 Gathering the Data Step 4: Ops has connected their investment and returns performance data to Allocadia.
- 31. 313131 Step 5: Ops uses Allocadia reports (& audit trail) to look at a historical FY view of performance. Investment Target vs Actual Returns Target vs Actual Analyzing Past Performance
- 32. 323232 Example Scenario Empowers marketers to build a strategic plan & hit targets! • Gives them visibility into: • Functional Targets • Strategic Targets • Estimated Revenue Impact VP of Marketing Ops, Monarch Tech Inc. Scenario: It’s November 2016. He now needs the marketing organization to build a plan that meets targets. 7
- 33. 333333 Step 7: Marketers see functional and strategic targets as well as estimated revenue impact. Empowering your marketers to hit targets
- 34. 343434 Example Scenario He presents the operationalized plan VP of Marketing Ops, Monarch Tech Inc. Scenario: It’s December. He now needs to present the plan to stakeholders to demonstrate alignment. 8 • Showing the plan is: • On track to be on Target • Aligned to objectives • Has enough output to impact revenue
- 35. 353535 Step 8: A view of the strategic marketing plan aligned to targets. The Strategic Plan
- 36. 363636 Example Scenario On-going Visibility into Performance – in Real-time VP of Marketing Ops, Monarch Tech Inc. Scenario: It’s January. The marketing team is executing. He needs to monitor performance on-going and make adjustments to targets as need be. 9 • Forward-looking view of performance • Can course correct early and often
- 37. 373737 Step 9: Monitor performance in real-time with a forecasted view of performance. Future View of Performance
- 38. 383838 Key Takeaways 1. Understand your business objectives to set meaningful targets. 2. Invest time in communicating those targets and giving marketers visibility into their progress. 3. Aim for a real-time forward-looking view of performance.
- 39. 393939 Questions Type your questions in the comment box #mktgperformance @allocadia
- 40. 404040 Additional Resources The Gold Medal Playbook of Marketing Planning (eBook) Strategic Planning for Modern Marketers (Ventana Research white paper) Plus on-demand webinars: • 5 Marketing Planning Best Practices to Achieve of your Objectives • How to Align Campaign Plans & Budgets with SiriusDecisions & Allocadia All available on the Resources section at allocadia.com
- 41. 414141 Thank you! James Thomas CMO Allocadia Katherine Berry Chief Product Officer & Co-Founder Allocadia #mktgperformance @allocadia
Editor's Notes
- James to introduce Katherine and himself.
- We’ll be live-tweeting this webinar using the hashtag “#mktgperformance”.
- James: -The concept of “planning with performance in mind”: something we advocate for our customers -Our simple definition of performance: Are marketers spending to plan? AND what are they getting out of that spend James setup for Kath: -Kath can you give a bit of color on this definition and why it’s a little different than how others may define it? Kath: Yes thanks. I think they key difference is simply that we include spending as part of performance. We know that for marketers it’s often not whether they are going over budget but if they are going under. It’s often hard to find the time and resources to spend the money needed to spend to generate that return. So spending is as much a performance indicator as the actual returns are. We believe these go hand in hand. And btw this is why we advocate for calling your “budget” your investment target. A lot of organizations do use this but not all. Many still use the traditional “budget” but it really is a target. The exact wording for this definition comes from a customer of ours, a global financial institution, who on a first call when I asked what he cares about most he said “marketing performance” and after I said love that asked what is that to him and he said exactly what you see there which is a simple and elegant way to put it. Customers always give my inspiration in how to talk about things in less technical wording! (For those of you familiar with the marketing technology space and analyst definitions of the space) this was another confirmation to me that although the marketing technology space does not yet always see financial management and ROI as the same thing, fitting under one umbrella of marketing performance, marketers do! It makes sense to them as it makes sense to us. Namely that investments and returns go hand in hand and for us we’ve made these part of one solution. I’ll let James introduce that concept here with a visual in a moment. James setup for Kath: -Kath can you give a bit of color on why we’re talking about this now? Kath: Many of our customers have a Jan FY start. Many are starting to embark on their yearly planning cycle now. Over the years I’ve started to see some consistencies in how organizations plan in terms of timing. The overall cadence is often: 4 months prior to an organization’s FY start do the strategic corporate plan, 3 months setup the planning infrastructure for their marketers, 2 months prior have marketers input bottoms-up plans and 1 month prior run reports to ensure all aligned, At the start of FY they then start to execute as the first month of the FY starts. Kath setup for James Let’s go back James to you describing our approach to performance with more of a visual
- James – introduce the framework -Two pillars of investments and returns shown here and how they work hand in hand -When you connect the two you get a full view of your marketing performance -This is about what data points you need to fulfill that view from targets to plans, actuals and forecasts on both sides -You can then connect to different types of systems to fulfill your path to performance -On the investment side you can connect to financial planning to get targets, push out to project management and traditional MRM as well as to PO systems, pull in from ERP -On the returns side you can connect to top of the funnel to bottom of the funnel results systems such as web analytics, ad spend, automation and of course CRM. James setup for Kath: Kath can you talk about which areas we’ll be addressing today? Kath: Yes I love using this as a tool to frame up discussions. We use this as a great framework to help guide our conversations in product, CS, marketing in our internal knowledge share sessions we do etc. so this is no exception. For today, well we’re touching on all areas of this P2P! The whole concept is “this is a full view of your marketing performance” so that means talking about performance we touch on all. The first half is about the top half of the pyramid when we’re talking about past and present performance we’re looking at what did we actually spend and what did we actually generate. This is the cross-section of what we call “actuals”. You can also look at what you actually generated in terms of ROI when you marry these two data points up. When we talk about future performance we’re talking about the Forecast at the very top of the pyramid. This is where you want to get in terms of understanding your full marketing performance picture. The second half is about the bottom half of the pyramid when we’re talking about settings meaningful targets we’re looking at Targets on both investments and returns, the first layer. To support this target you can also control what data you insert into your plan/automate some of your plan in order to generate that meaningful forecast. So we use the plan layer as well in a way as a way as a performance layer that helps us feed a more accurate forecast view. So we’ll be keeping it relatively high-level but the message here is that this is a framework you can use on how to approach and think about performance.
- James: Here are some of the challenges. It’s complex! An attitude like, “Things have changed since last year, so is past performance data relevant”? No time to gather, process the data Marketers feel resigned to big parts of their marketing plans being “set in stone” (i.e. certain key tradeshows) regardless of performance Performance data is held in silos: CRM systems, marketing automation systems, finance systems, etc. This makes it difficult to let alone gather past performance data in a meaningful timeframe let along get present data in real-time and even further hard to get a forward-looking view. Kath: 6) I would add another. Having a marketer that has an analytics background or skillset is hard to find but it’s becoming more and more of a need for marketing teams. Organizations have had to outsource this usually but it needs to come in-house. I remember getting the title “Technical Marketing Developer” in the past when I was starting my career in marketing which was a new kind of title. It’s a skill set that’s not as common for marketers but it’s getting to be more and more relevant and will set you and your org apart. You need to have someone who “has a data brain/mind” who can evaluate the quality and accuracy of marketing analytics. It’s more of that technical/operations mindset even on small teams. We see titles like “performance analyst” or simply marketing operations etc.
- Kath: Some of this data here reflects that gap in analytics skillsets on marketing teams A study posted by venture beat last month noted that noted that 45% of marketers don’t review their data formally for accuracy or know if they do (which is worse!). (more data on next page) http://venturebeat.com/2015/08/26/marketing-analytics-biggest-challenge-is-marketers/
- Kath: 73% of marketing analytics is reported on from the past or present. In the future much more time will be spent on looking forward. This is where you need to get to be an industry leading marketing team. For us, this is where we believe that having the most solid plan is the best way to start getting this future view. http://venturebeat.com/2015/08/26/marketing-analytics-biggest-challenge-is-marketers/
- James setup for Kath: So with all this complexity can you share an approach to looking at measuring past, present and future performance? Because that’s a lot for an organization to get a hold of all at once Kath: Yes it is. Organizations have struggled with simply understanding past performance let alone present and future. Let me first qualify what we mean by past, present and future. Understanding your past data is your best way into the future view (I’ll explain that a bit later but in summary you want to understand and get a hold of past performance data that can feed your model to get a better view of the future. Also we’re talking here about forecasting essentially which is a view of your past + your future plan). Understanding the present is just about getting a real-time view of data through all those data connections we spoke about on P2P So to make progress you need to start somewhere You can really look at tackling either the past data or present data first (but still the “actuals” layer of P2P we just went through) Being able to tackle present first is somewhat enabled by developments in technology today which is giving us more options. To start with past data You need to be able to have had a baseline dependable data source for past investment and returns data. If you can gather this data relatively quickly and easily then do this because as I mentioned just now this will help you feed your future view as well. If you can make just one adjustment or different decision in next year’s plan based on this then that’s a win. Remember your data doesn’t have to be perfect but you have to have some degree of consistency that you can aggregate on To start with present data You have to have made that determination that there’s not really dependable data source(s) or you don’t have the resources or skillsets (and sometimes the political stamina to work with other stakeholder groups or system owners!) to gather all that historical data. Then look to automate connecting to those other systems as your focus project for a more real-time view of performance where you can start to monitor things and identify patterns and then make quick short tweaks and pivots to course correct early and often. After a year or two with this new view of your data then you’ll be able to look at consistent past performance data that will feed your future view. So, we recommend identifying what approach works best for your org – i.e. starting with past or present data. But ultimately you want to end up over time with a view of both as both of these are core foundations to understanding your future data.
- James setup for Kath: Alright great stuff so know we know an approach, what metrics you want to track and how we want to track them and some considerations for all of this. But how do you go about actually collecting this data now? Kath Let’s first talk about gathering past performance data assuming you have no system of record for all of this today. These are some of the sources you will have to dive into in order to assemble the marketing performance data. Unfortunately, there are some major pitfalls to this process: Simply aggregating data across these manually = messy and time consuming No single source of truth – often the data from each one doesn’t match up Marketing automation systems and CRM don’t always see the world in the same way: E.g. Salesforce is all about Opportunities, Accounts, Leads Vs. Marketo is all about people (Leads) Financial systems and marketing budgets don’t always see the world in the same way: You have G/L focused views vs marketing views like audience and objective If you uncover problems with the data, you have the dilemma of whether to fix it (a whole other project) or proceed with flawed data Reconciling results vs. costs – very difficult to marry up Mapping data takes a “data brain” and this can be difficult to wrap your head around
- James setup for Kath; Ok so there are major challenges to collecting all that historical data Is there another way? Kath: Yes! Many advancements in technology… Now let’s look at getting this data via a systematized methods using technology All about data integration Up-front investment but short, medium and long-term gain This is not to say you won’t experience some of the challenges listed earlier… A the very least you can replace all the manual work to help you with aggregation! And at the very best you have systems to provide you with best-practice data models & mapping
- James setup for Kath: That’s great Kath thanks-now we have an approach. But can we break that down further and look at what exact kind of metrics you track within “Actuals”? Kath Yes for sure. The best way to break things down is to first look at the category of metrics by audience. CMO’s impact, Field Output, Ops Efficiency, Finance spending to plan This is oversimplifying a little because all audiences will (and should!) care about each of these but it’s a starting point as to what’s most important for each audience Let’s look at an example of each: CMO/VP: These will be aligned to overall business objectives: Demand Gen-30% of the pipeline delivered by Marketing: KPI = Pipe generated Awareness-Expand by 25%: KPI = Reach & frequency Sales enablement-Shorten Sales Cycle: KPI = access to content And if these are the overall priorities in order, did we invest proportionally in each? I.e. most in DG-this is alignment score Field & Corporate As we get into more campaign executioners they will care more about campaign level metrics like views, clicks at the top of the funnel through to leads and Opps at the bottoms of the funnel Ops They’re looking at improving efficiencies and this means as a main one ROI. Another way to look at this is “what did it cost us to generate $1 of pipe” Finance What did we actually spend vs our investment target (% over/under) Another way to look at this framework in the context of Demand Generation metrics is to View Impact as bottom of the funnel Output as top of the funnel And efficiency as movement through the funnel James setup for Kath: That’s some great examples -but how does someone go about setting what their key metrics are? Kath: This is where it’s different for every organization. But ultimately marketers need to understand the overall business objectives and your key KPIs will filter down from there. Hopefully now you have a framework for breaking these down at a high-level
- James setup for Kath: That’s great Kath thanks. Now we know “what” metrics to look at and we know to breakdown by audience But “how” do we want to look at these metrics? In other words we know our measures but what are our dimensions? Kath: Yes this is just as important as what metrics to measure If you know BI terminology this is the “how” or the dimensions or groupings with which you view data A way to look at this is top down vs bottoms-up or aggregated vs granular. Top-down is viewing things at the overall # level through to higher-level groupings E.g. Functional groupings like Region and Cost Center or strategic groupings like Objective or Campaign Theme Bottoms-up is viewing things by a tactical level E.g. Campaign or activity level With top-down you are “above the weeds” so to speak You do not need to worry about campaign level attribution which can be very complex (and not to mention very subjective) You only need to worry about large data mappings For e.g. What regions generated what revenue/pipeline and what did they spend Or what revenue/pipeline was generated by our global campaign theme? Note, campaign theme is different than specific campaign The former is strategic the latter is tactical Many analysts now recommend re-defining campaign to be more by theme (and then your traditional campaigns are just activities by channel to support that) With bottoms-up You need to worry about campaign level attribution Because you are starting at the granular tactical or campaign level and using that to aggregate upwards James setup for Kath: Ok so there are two ways to approach groupings your metrics. So who should start where? Kath Let’s break things down first by size of org: If you are a large enterprise organization you have the luxury so to speak to do aggregated views that will be meaningful You have a large enough data set to aggregate and get those generalized views If you are a smaller organization with no regions for e.g. you don’t have this luxury You will still be able to apply a campaign theme or objective level grouping but you can’t do additional typical ones like region or cost center So the very next level down for you is really by campaign or activity And you don’t have as much data to aggregate so it’s harder to generalize So, as a large enterprise you may take advantage of aggregated views. Let’s then look at level of maturity & history & resources: If your org has done multi-touch attribution relatively successfully or discussed multi-touch attribution models and come to a consensus on how to approach Then you could start bottoms-up To note however this takes usually more resources and more time It involves getting different stakeholders together and having people with more data analytics backgrounds You will then have a view of performance for all levels of marketing (field to execs) If your org have attempted multi-touch attribution and failed (many have!) Then recommend starting with top-down to get some momentum and wins Your org may not have the political stamina to embark on this right away The benefit is this approach usually costs less in terms of time and resources The downside is you’ll have a view of performance for execs to start and then you’ll have to wait to give that more granular view to field marketers (or drill-down view to execs) James setup for Kath: So is one way right or wrong? Or do you need both level of groupings? Many analysts will say bottoms-up is a myth and subjective and not worth pursuing at all. I’ve heard from a true data scientists that there is the ultimate “right” answer with multi-touch attribution and this is a custom model that takes into consideration your historical data specific to your org – i.e. it’s machine learning. So in this way, it is possible to get the answer But we also believe in getting a quick yet meaningful view of performance which is the top-down method. Ultimately if you do both you can get an even more complete picture of performance But also ultimately this is up to you to decide what you believe!
- Kath: And to touch on attribution a tiny little deeper here. The “machine learning” model is #3 here. You can start with single touch Or rules-based #2 is what we support
- James setup for Kath: So with all this complexity can you share an approach to looking at measuring past, present and future performance? Because that’s a lot for an organization to get a hold of all at once Kath: Yes it is. Organizations have struggled with simply understanding past performance let alone present and future. Let me first qualify what we mean by past, present and future. Understanding your past data is your best way into the future view (I’ll explain that a bit later but in summary you want to understand and get a hold of past performance data that can feed your model to get a better view of the future. Also we’re talking here about forecasting essentially which is a view of your past + your future plan). Understanding the present is just about getting a real-time view of data through all those data connections we spoke about on P2P So to make progress you need to start somewhere You can really look at tackling either the past data or present data first (but still the “actuals” layer of P2P we just went through) Being able to tackle present first is somewhat enabled by developments in technology today which is giving us more options. To start with past data You need to be able to have had a baseline dependable data source for past investment and returns data. If you can gather this data relatively quickly and easily then do this because as I mentioned just now this will help you feed your future view as well. If you can make just one adjustment or different decision in next year’s plan based on this then that’s a win. Remember your data doesn’t have to be perfect but you have to have some degree of consistency that you can aggregate on To start with present data You have to have made that determination that there’s not really dependable data source(s) or you don’t have the resources or skillsets (and sometimes the political stamina to work with other stakeholder groups or system owners!) to gather all that historical data. Then look to automate connecting to those other systems as your focus project for a more real-time view of performance where you can start to monitor things and identify patterns and then make quick short tweaks and pivots to course correct early and often. After a year or two with this new view of your data then you’ll be able to look at consistent past performance data that will feed your future view. So, we recommend identifying what approach works best for your org – i.e. starting with past or present data. But ultimately you want to end up over time with a view of both as both of these are core foundations to understanding your future data.
- James: Ok so we’ve gone over looking at past, present and future performance. We’ll go over an actual use case of how to get/view this data at the end. Let’s now jump to setting meaningful targets based on that gathered data.
- James: Let’s first start with outlining what makes up a performance targets Kath can you define this a little more for us? Kath: Yes. I think to help us define it let’s look at components overall of performance measurement Goals are: What the org wants to achieve What results in what timeframe. It should be SMART E.g.? We want to generate 100M in net new revenue this FY Targets are Similar but are considered the smaller steps to align to those larger goals E.g. Based on this we have allocated 10% of this total to our marketing budget that we need our organization to spend. And we’ve broken it down by quarterly spend targets A key performance indicator Sets a performance standard for an org, business unit or individual E.g. Our KPI is being Over or Under by 3% to this 25M target. Motivation Is a key component to aligning your organization to achieve those goals E.g. We will reward those business units that achieve this KPI James setup for Kath: This is great but how many should an organization have of each? Can you expand on that? Kath: Yes. A general rule of thumb is to have not more than 3 high level goals 1-3 Targets per goal And 1-3 KPIs per target And always to consider motivation depending on the culture of your organization For e.g. if you have a very metrics driven culture
- James setup Kath: That sounds easy but we know we’ve seen organizations that just build-bottoms-up marketing plans without any targets. Is there a problem with this? Kath: From our perspective yes. There are some benefits to setting targets Alignment: Teams become more efficient/aligned if they set their targets in advance: they are a common definition of success specific to areas of marketing. Accountability: Targets encourage marketers to create strategic plans for their specific areas of responsibility. There are also some challenges: Individual contribution & alignment: It’s hard to say “you’re (individually) responsible for this performance target". Because targets can be horiz/global in nature. It’s about how you are contributing to the target. Customer story: Red Hat — [Katherine] Tracking: most orgs set & measure top-level revenue targets. But the more granular targets are the real challenge. For example tracking performance by product: those are more difficult to track because it’s been historically more difficult to make budget allocations according to these dimensions. How to track alignment when functional areas differ by team. Cross-functional communication. But the benefits far outweigh the challenges. Overall you’re giving your organization a better chance of success by having targets
- James setup for Kath Ok so we see we want to set those targets, how does a marketing team/org go about this exactly? Kath First, you want to understand business goals then align to them. This may sound obvious but why isn’t it done? Kath setup for James James as a CMO maybe you can give insight here-Why don’t marketers do this? James: They’re used to planning by activity. Putting activities into the budget but without considering alignment. Low-hanging fruit is to take what you already know. Kath: Also, it’s important to add here that it’s been difficult for organizations to set more “complex/advanced” targets For e.g. we all know how to allocate marketing budget dollars traditionally and “sending money to where the people are”-this is functional/practical allocation targets But how do you “send money to objectives” and have people spend it? This is difficult with the status quo of today whether it be spreadsheets or other financial management systems There’s been no way to easily set a % allocation by objective and have your teams align to that in real-time. Ultimately you need/want to do both James: It is a risk to have an operational budget when CMO/company is expecting strategic. Setting strategic targets is what is what the CMO will engage with the CEO on and is what will foster alignment there
- James setup for Kath OK so we’ve set our targets now (both functional and strategic) Do we need to do anything else here to ensure they are the right targets? Kath: Yes! Well now you’ve considered if you need to set different targets than last year based on this year’s business goals Next, you now need to look back at your targets from last year and identify if you hit them or not! This is the key element as it relates to looking back to past performance data from our last section You want to see the variance of over/under on both the investment and returns side Remember that you want to set targets that are aiming high but are also achievable You want to identify if there are any incremental changes you need to account for this year For e.g. on the investment side, have agency costs have gone up On the returns side? And identify one-time adjustments that need to be accounted for For e.g. this is the first year your organization will be hosting a new conference On the returns side?
- James setup for Kath OK so we’ve set our targets now, we’ve fine tuned them, anything else? Kath: Yes! You can now compare your targets to industry benchmarks to further validate them 3 ways to look at benchmarks: 1) Your own historical data Best source of data is your own historical data. If you can get it from past years, it sets you up for more accurate targets moving forward. 2) Benchmarks across companies that are similar in size & industry What did other companies do? Look to them to see what’s possible. “Don’t leave any money on the table.” Are we setting targets that are too low. 3) External-sourced data: analysts, competitors (Mention past Allocadia webinars with SiriusDecisions and Ventana group) (In the future, Allocadia will be a source of aggregated benchmark data) Analysts can serve as a “sanity check” on targets Kath setup for James James you’re a CMO do you compare your targets to benchmarks? James: Start with very simple metrics: People vs. programs % … % of revenue spend Channel % split. “What are other companies spending in digital, for example?” Are we falling behind?
- James setup for Kath Ok we’re feeling good about our targets and we think it’s time to communicate them What are some best-practices around this? Kath Ensure your organization can easily access targets at anytime Give them targets in context (i.e. where they’re building their plans) E.g. Schwab mentioned: as marketers build their bottoms up budget and can see target, they can see their target with Allocadia. It’s never easy to communicate a simple target & have visibility into it. Even just knowing they’re working with the right target. James Communicate them early and often, repetition is key Listen to your team for feedback ongoing Course correct quickly if something’s not working
- James setup for Kath OK, we have our targets and we will start to track actuals around it Is there anyway to help organizations to have a better chance at hitting those targets? Kath Yes! To do this, you need to also empower your marketers to build the most strategic plan Remember that a well defined strategic plan is used in combination with actuals to feed a forecasted view. We have a gold medal playbook of marketing planning you can download under resources on our website (we’ll introduce some of our related resources at the end of this webinar)
- Kath: But the gist of it is: You want to enable them to have a plan B Get visibility into strategic targets as a cross-section to functional targets Show them what they can expect to get out of any activity in terms of output and revenue impact
- Kath: Marketers also need to be given the ability to easily revise their plans Here’s some interesting data about how often marketing organizations create, review and revise their marketing plans. It’s interesting to note that nearly one in 3 orgs (31%) revise their marketing plans annually or never! Kath setup for James: Why would we see these results? Why don’t more organizations revise their plans more frequently? James: Not easy to make changes and trust the data with status quo systems No best-practices methodology to that Data makes the difference – drives planning cadences and the length of planning cycles
- THIS A GOOD SLIDE THAT HELPS ILLUSTRATE WHO WE DO IT FOR AND EMPHASIZES OUR BELIEF THAT Marketing Performance Management should be the priority for all Marketers AND Everyone has a seat at the Allocadia table (so to speak) TWO OF OUR key objectives are: to provide visibility into Marketing investments & returns at all levels of the marketing organization and to EMPOWER all Marketers to THINK & PLAN STRATEGICALLY ALLOCADIA isn’t just to give visibility into investments and performance for CMOs and Marketing Execs but also: to help Marketing Ops unify marketing investments with corporate strategies to alleviate that spreadsheet hell experienced by most field and corporate marketers and to facilitate communication between Marketing and Finance
- THIS A GOOD SLIDE THAT HELPS ILLUSTRATE WHO WE DO IT FOR AND EMPHASIZES OUR BELIEF THAT Marketing Performance Management should be the priority for all Marketers AND Everyone has a seat at the Allocadia table (so to speak) TWO OF OUR key objectives are: to provide visibility into Marketing investments & returns at all levels of the marketing organization and to EMPOWER all Marketers to THINK & PLAN STRATEGICALLY ALLOCADIA isn’t just to give visibility into investments and performance for CMOs and Marketing Execs but also: to help Marketing Ops unify marketing investments with corporate strategies to alleviate that spreadsheet hell experienced by most field and corporate marketers and to facilitate communication between Marketing and Finance
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- THIS A GOOD SLIDE THAT HELPS ILLUSTRATE WHO WE DO IT FOR AND EMPHASIZES OUR BELIEF THAT Marketing Performance Management should be the priority for all Marketers AND Everyone has a seat at the Allocadia table (so to speak) TWO OF OUR key objectives are: to provide visibility into Marketing investments & returns at all levels of the marketing organization and to EMPOWER all Marketers to THINK & PLAN STRATEGICALLY ALLOCADIA isn’t just to give visibility into investments and performance for CMOs and Marketing Execs but also: to help Marketing Ops unify marketing investments with corporate strategies to alleviate that spreadsheet hell experienced by most field and corporate marketers and to facilitate communication between Marketing and Finance
- THIS A GOOD SLIDE THAT HELPS ILLUSTRATE WHO WE DO IT FOR AND EMPHASIZES OUR BELIEF THAT Marketing Performance Management should be the priority for all Marketers AND Everyone has a seat at the Allocadia table (so to speak) TWO OF OUR key objectives are: to provide visibility into Marketing investments & returns at all levels of the marketing organization and to EMPOWER all Marketers to THINK & PLAN STRATEGICALLY ALLOCADIA isn’t just to give visibility into investments and performance for CMOs and Marketing Execs but also: to help Marketing Ops unify marketing investments with corporate strategies to alleviate that spreadsheet hell experienced by most field and corporate marketers and to facilitate communication between Marketing and Finance
- THIS A GOOD SLIDE THAT HELPS ILLUSTRATE WHO WE DO IT FOR AND EMPHASIZES OUR BELIEF THAT Marketing Performance Management should be the priority for all Marketers AND Everyone has a seat at the Allocadia table (so to speak) TWO OF OUR key objectives are: to provide visibility into Marketing investments & returns at all levels of the marketing organization and to EMPOWER all Marketers to THINK & PLAN STRATEGICALLY ALLOCADIA isn’t just to give visibility into investments and performance for CMOs and Marketing Execs but also: to help Marketing Ops unify marketing investments with corporate strategies to alleviate that spreadsheet hell experienced by most field and corporate marketers and to facilitate communication between Marketing and Finance