Direct Marketing Metrics

March 2, 2011 by Tim
Filed under: Direct Marketing Strategy

Measurement

.. is everything in direct marketing without accounting you will become are throwing dollars away.

Direct marketers have always been measurement-oriented and in this economy this is even more important. We helped to evolve metrics and the now popular term ROI. We set up all our campaigns to be measurable, and we test incessantly—at least on the consumer side.

Business to business direct marketers have more trouble with measurement, for many reasons maybe sales people don’t want to be bothered reporting back to marketing about sales results.

The high maintenance of direct response

The challenges of a series of contacts with business prospects and the pain in the ass testing involved. A campaign might involved 5 emails, 3 letters, a webinar, an executive conference invitation, a golf outing and 4 sales calls. How can you ever determine which touches were essential to the sale? Or which were most impactful? It’s a rare firm that has the patience and discipline to set up controlled experiments to test all the variables involved.

Metrics is the answer

A few key metrics that are fairly simple to gather and analyze. Well, not simple, exactly. But at least straightforward. Let’s review the essential metrics for B-to-B direct marketers.

Response rate
For direct marketers, response rates are fairly easy to capture through a variety of media, by using a key code, or a unique landing page or toll free number.

The problem with response rate as a metric is that it doesn’t tell you much about campaign effectiveness. There are simply too many variables involved: the list, the offer, the creative—you know the drill.

Cost per lead
Perhaps the most fundamental metric in business marketing communications, cost per lead is calculated by dividing campaign cost by the number of leads resulting from the campaign. Sounds simple, right? If only. The conundrum with this metric is the denominator: Should you divide by campaign inquiries or by qualified leads?

lead generation

the true test of a marketing campaign’s worth is its ability to provide the sales organization with qualified leads. It’s these leads that improve sales force productivity, reduce cold calling, and increase the amount of time sales people can spend in front of prospects who are actually in the market.

Direct marketers assess campaign results on the “front end.” To understand your ability to get prospects to raise their hands and express initial interest in your product or service.

Inquiry-to-lead conversion rate
The qualification criteria are developed in concert with sales management, and define the characteristics of a prospect that will allow the sales force to work the lead effectively.

Lead-to-sales conversion rates
Try to determine at what rates will they do so If the lead-to-sales rate declines, who’s responsible? Is sales falling down on the job? Or did marketing deliver inferior leads? This metric can shed some light on this age-old debate.

Expense-to-revenue ratio
To summarize campaign effectiveness, marketers need some kind of conclusive metric, such as ROI. But in B-to-B environments, when campaign revenues are often sizable compared to campaign expense, ROI is problematic. The lead generation campaign is often a very small part of the entire cost of sales.

EXPERTISE

Ability to perform all list brokerage duties for clients, including providing thorough list research and recommendations
Back-end analysis, marketing metrics Google Analytics, Market Samuria generates revenue & interest via email marketing, SEO, SEM and social media
Can target local business landing pages on Twitter, Facebook, Google Places, Google AdWords and other social networks and track results from coupon offers
Accelerates sales by tying email campaign and website tracking to CRM system data
Creates and executes marketing strategies that support business goals
Lead generation and capture and marketing plan development

LIST BROKER

What I do is help technical services businesses increase sales, keep more customers, and generate more qualified leads. Specializing in complex business-to-business environments.

WordPress Direct Response Website management

Internet marketing, SEO
PPC, Joint Venture, Event marketing,
Customer retention campaigns,
Marketing automation and optimization,

Telephone: Call (888) 889-0552 Ask about my Website and Facebook client portfolio

Email address: Tim G. Little

References and Project Portfolio will be Provided on Request

More Articles on Direct Marketing Metrics

Direct Marketing Metrics Dashboard | Dashboards By Example – Note: Dashboards By Example readers can get these interesting business intelligence dashboard white papers discussing the latest approaches to enterprise dashboards. Want to connect with the Dashboard Spy? Visit the About The Dashboard Spy page to learn how to connect via LinkedIn. From a simple excel dashboard to a fully integrated enterprise reporting suite, the Business Dashboard is being quickly adopted as the new face of Business Intelligence.
marketing tools, marketing return on investment, marketing metrics – Recommended by Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge, Northwestern University’s Journal of Integrated Marketing Communications, Fast Company. Click here to recommend Marketing Today to your colleagues. Internet marketing and integrating offline and online marketing.
Most Used Direct Marketing Metrics – The general rule for any marketing program is that it must generate leads and eventually sales. And businesses engaged in direct selling will utilize direct marketing metrics, which are practically the same metrics used by other businesses, to measure the effectiveness of their marketing activities. They will have cost per head, lifetime value, average, and others.
ROI – The Leading Authority on Email Marketing Metrics … – – DMA (2009) Nearly a third of survey respondents (32%) said they have stopped doing business with at least one company altogether as a result of its poor email practices – Merkle (Feb. 2009) 42% percent of email marketers do not know their return on investment from email marketing. and Canada, more than 20% of commercial, permission-based email doesn’t reach the inboxes of intended subscribers.