I’ve just completed my second book of the month (20 more to go for the year) – Data Driven Marketing by Mark Jeffery. It was a very detailed book describing “15 metrics everyone in marketing should know”. There were many take-aways from the book so I’ll just share a few here that really resonated with me.
In the software world (or anytime you engineer or build anything) the best practice is to create a detailed specification which describes what you’re building. Call it a blueprint or design specification; you’re most successful when all the details are defined up front BEFORE you start building. Jeffery drives this same point home with regard to marketing campaigns…
- Define both success and failure criteria before starting a marketing campaign
- How many leads?
- How much traffic?
- How many visits?
- What are the goals?
- Design decision points into the campaign execution plan – be prepared to act at these stage gates
- What will we do if the campaign doesn’t succeed?
- What will we do if it does succeed?
Here’s a great quote from the book:
“For example, if you planned a 12 week campaign to deliver 1,000 qualified leads per week to the sales force and it delivers only 100, you can ask whether these leads are worth the cost of the campaign. If not, then review how you might improve performance…”
Being data-driven allows you to make better decisions and planning your campaign in advance allows you to make those decisions within a solid framework.
