The New Business KPI's of

Marketing ROI

BEYOND SALES:

THE TOP PRIORITY

OF MARKETING

should be to create

customers for the

business

As a marketer, you live in a world that is adding channels on seemingly a

daily basis, while at the same time the consumers’ attention are being drawn

in a hundred different directions making it increasingly difficult for any brand

(especially those without an endless budget) to stand out.

IN THE END THE MISSION IS SALES But are there key performance indicators (KPI’s) that should be

attached to marketing and social media efforts that span beyond just

customer acquisition and sales?

THE SHORT ANSWER IS YES

They measure different aspects of a business that are

equally, if not more important, for long term performance

than their traditional counterparts.

In the vastly evolving landscape of marketing, the new

KPI’s must also reflect the following:

CUSTOMER RETENTION

How successful are we in

keeping customers and building

repeat business?

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

Are our customers happy? How

well are we doing in getting them

to share their satisfaction?

EMPLOYEE PRODUCTIVITYDoes the company adequately

equip and empower employees to

succeed?

EMPLOYEE RETENTIONAre we creating a brand that

employees are proud of and a

place of work where they can grow

personally and professionally?

PRODUCT

IMPROVEMENTS/OPTIMIZATI

ONIs our community driving ideas to

help foster innovation? Whether

products or services, do we have

our finger on the pulse and how

much are our customers helping us

accomplish this?

If you look at the numerous studies that have shown the value of a

satisfied customer or the return on stronger employee morale, you would

have to be crazy to dismiss these items when determining the success of

a marketing program.

The challenge that remains is how, or perhaps if it is possible to

MEASURE THE DIRECT VALUE OF INVESTING IN CUSTOMER

SATISFACTION

For instance, Zappos, from their

earliest days, have set out to

build the ultimate customer

experience. With almost a

“Never-say-no-to-a-reasonable

(or unreasonable) customer

demand,” their customer

experience teams will

do whatever it takes to

maintain a happy customer!

I suppose a marketer may

say “Customer Satisfaction

is a customer service

expense.” but…

I would beg to differ!

When an unhappy customers’

situation is flipped on its head

by a small expense approved

by an empowered customer

service professional what you

have is an investment in your

customer; to create and keep

them, and that is without a

doubt a marketing investment.

The cost of replacing a

customer is 6x the cost of

retention, so why wouldn’t we

want to keep our customers

happy?

ANOTHER GREAT EXAMPLE IS

the way companies such as Dell and

Starbucks use online communities to

drive product development and

innovation.

While one company is a technology

company and the other is a beverage

company, both have invested

substantially in building their brand

evangelists by making their most loyal

customers ideas and input feel welcome

and sometimes even utilized in their

product optimization.

While Steve Jobs may have been known for never putting his ear to

the street and just “knowing” what his customers want, he was the

exception and not the rule.

Companies that can find ways to listen and adapt to their customer

feedback can build a new type of loyalty that translates into dollar returns.

The challenge again is how do you attribute that to a campaign? Is it

even possible?

WHERE

MARKETING ROI IS

HEADING

Marketing ROI will move beyond

just customer creation and

measurable dollar value returns.

The creation and continued

evolution of metrics that measure

the baseline value of more

satisfied customers, the

involvement of a brand’s

community in product

development and the investment

in more satisfied employees will

all become anchor points in the

process of building a marketing

strategy.

PERHAPS THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE WILL BE

the way smarter businesses will apply the new marketing

KPI’s to enhance their marketing 24/7/365, rather than

placing a hyperawareness on the peaks and valleys created

by a traditional marketing strategy, which is dependent on

campaigns that do little to build loyalty within the brands’

stakeholders.

Dan Newman is the president of Broadsuite where he works side by side with brands big and small to help them be found, seen and heard in a cluttered digital world. A regular contributor to Forbes, Entrepreneur and Huffington Post, he is also the author of two books, a business professor and a huge fan of watching his daughters play soccer.

Dan NewmanPresident of Broadsuite

@danielnewmanuv dnewman@broadsuite.com