According to SiriusDecisions (among other sources), the sales cycle has become 22% longer over the past five years. An upshot of this is that in order to stay at the forefront of a prospect’s mind until they are ready to buy, you need to nurture them with multiple touches via multiple channels over a longer period. Each time you make contact with a lead you need to show thought leadership, empathy and a potential solution to their pain points.
This is now a process that most B2B marketers have come to accept as the norm. But, what appears to be less typical is their ability to measure the ROI of all of these different marketing communications and channels.
Only 6% of B2B leaders can calculate ROI all of the time - ‘B2B Leaders Report 2013’ produced by B2B Marketing and Circle Research
As more and more channels become popular amongst prospects, organisations need to branch out into these areas in order to communicate with potential customers, and this is when it becomes more difficult to keep up with the measurements needed to prove ROI.
There are over 200 well-known active social networking sites - Howmanyarethere.net
Is it such a big deal that marketers can’t measure the ROI of every marketing channel? Yes, of course it is. In today’s world of austerity measures and tighter corporate purse strings, companies are only committing budget to the activities that are capable of showing cost-cutting measures and clear ROI. So, if marketers want to see their budgets increase over the next twelve months, they better start measuring the right metrics and focusing on the right results.
If you want to find out more about reducing costs, increasing revenue and effectively measuring the ROI of your marketing activities...
