Measuring Success With Key Marketing Metrics

The ultimate goal of every for-profit organization is to generate revenue and improve profitability. Dynamic and effective marketing strategies have played an important role in the success of many businesses across the globe, and today, companies invest billions of dollars to develop their marketing plans. In fact, according to Mark Jeffery of Kellogg School of Management, successful companies spend 20 percent more than average on marketing when compared to low-revenue generating businesses which spend less than 4.4 percent of average.

These marketing initiatives involve:

• Identifying target audiences
• Generating curiosity and demand for the product
• Creating awareness about your company and its brand value
• Providing the customers with the ultimate experience while shopping for the product.

Companies invest billions of dollars to generate successful marketing campaigns and they appoint sales personnel and managers to implement these. They also invest in advertising and promotions at various levels. While the final goal is to generate profit and reach the set sales volume, the success of a marketing program can be measured by other criteria as well. Companies develop key marketing metrics to establish these criteria and marketing metrics also guide the sales staff and help them plan their work accordingly.

The marketing metrics of an organization depend on several factors including the type of the organization, scale of activity, and investments. Some common metrics include return on investment, market share, profitability and customer satisfaction, and additional metrics include database growth, number of people who are interested in the product, and people who are actually buying it. Marketing managers spend significant amount of time and money to review their strategies based on the key marketing metrics, and they generate annual or quarterly reports which determine the future course of action.

Key marketing metrics tools are computer software applications which can be downloaded on to your computer. Once you identify your company's marketing metrics, simply add the criteria to the tool along with the data generated. The tool will save your several hours of formatting time. You can understand your results easily, and generate concise and effective reports for your top management and many companies purchase these reasonably priced tools.

Analyzing the success of your marketing strategies using key marketing metrics is crucial to the success of your organization and future planning. The right tools and appropriate criteria can make a huge difference.