13 Apr Focusing Your Agency on the Numbers
Four Questions Marketers Should Ask Their Agency
Most companies are trying to make limited funds go further to support marketing and sales. That’s understandable. It’s all in the numbers – cost versus return. Focusing your agency on the numbers is the key to a greater return on your marketing and sales spend. Here are four questions to ask that can help get you there.
1. What specific data supports the marketing strategies your agency is recommending?
Most marketing services vendors believe they’re good at strategy. The real question is how they arrived at the strategy. For example, what econometric data was used? What sources were accessed? Did they find this information themselves or did you provide it? At Axiom, we use a variety of market analysis data points, including total market and available market, CAGR (compounded annual growth rate), market share, and known-sales trend lines for your company and your competitors. Our in-house market research group sources information from a variety of outlets to develop custom reports for our clients to answer the burning questions our clients say are their most challenging.
2. What specific expected outcomes will result from the recommended strategies and suggested tactics?
If your marketing partners are not expressing outcomes in numbers, they ought to be. When you challenge your marketing vendors to commit to results using numbers, outcomes will be better. Many marketing vendors don’t want accountability that comes along with this approach because they believe that they are not in control of the entire marketing and sales customer journey. That may be true, but they can and should commit to numbers, or a range of success, for which they do have control. We believe success lies in “beginning with the end in mind.” In other words, consider what success looks like, then design and work a plan capable of achieving it.
3. How will the outcomes be measured and how frequently?
It’s impossible to assess success if outcomes are not measured throughout. How can you optimize a program without maintaining a pulse in the midst of changing conditions? We typically use a variety of measurement tools including, market research, scanner data, shipment data, and so on. Our team typically measures and reports on a quarterly basis so that we can modify programming to take advantage of changing market conditions.
4. What is the marketing ROI?
Most marketing firms are not concerned with how many products you need to sell to pay for their programs. Instead, they focus on how many hours it will take to complete the program, the expenses they’ll incur and the cost of the people executing the program. Clarity around your marketing ROI helps focus your marketing agency teams on the same metrics to which your internal department is committed. To that end, what kind of ROI expectations are your CEO and CFO expecting to support the investment? A recent Forbes article rightly states that it’s more than sales, but a myriad of data analytics contributing to sales that mark the success of a program. We look at market share growth, increased trial, SEO, customer journey success, increased profitability, etc.
Focusing Our Agency on the Numbers
Since Axiom was founded in 1993, we’ve always focused on the numbers. Why? Our cross-functional team of engineers, data scientists and marketing and sales professionals know from working at Fortune 500 enterprises that numbers are critical to our clients’ success. What’s your number? Let’s talk, mreiber@axiomcom.com.
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