The Marketing Organization That Didn’t Need Metrics Until They Did

Metrics are a critical part of a marketing team’s ability to be proactive, understand what’s working and what’s not working, and adjust accordingly. Sadly, spending time, expertise, and resources in pursuit of metrics sinks to the bottom of the priority list until someone else in the organization needs it.

The reality for marketing teams is that their priorities get set by other parts of the company. There’s never enough time, money, or people to do everything on the list. And because marketing organizations are traditionally measured by the results they’re producing for other teams, such as sales and customer service, those results drive the priorities.

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When Metrics Suddenly Become Important

It’s no surprise that marketing teams often don’t prioritize metrics when they aren’t pressed for them. However, this can change quickly. When budgets tighten or markets shift, strategies must adapt. In response, companies may hire new leaders or massively focus on revenue-generating activities. Such changes push metrics to the top of the marketing priority list.

If your team isn’t already equipped to handle this, it’s a great time to engage an external resource. One of our clients faced this situation. They wanted metrics and understood their importance, but they never prioritized them until a leadership change was imminent. The company created a new leadership role, and the marketing team realized they needed to provide metrics as top information for the new leader.

How We Helped This Client Focus on Metrics

We engaged with them to understand their definition of success, both internally within their team and externally for leadership. Through strategic consultations, we helped the team first understand their data sources. Next, we defined their success metrics. Finally, we created dashboards and reports to facilitate better internal decisions, while showcasing value and success across the organization.

In this process, we outlined a set of clearly defined metrics. We matched these metrics with available data sources. This enabled us to create dashboards that were easy to update. They could be used for quick discussions or more in-depth monthly reviews with the team to guide decision-making.

The team considered hiring someone to manage analytics, but increasing headcount was challenging. They were unsure if they needed a permanent role. Instead, they wanted each team member to improve their skills and understanding of defining and discussing metrics. The team was enhancing their abilities in response to changes in company priorities.

Our Solution

As a result of these efforts, the team could proactively position themselves in the organization, share information with other departments, and have a process to keep refining their metrics as priorities change. The solution for them was to hire consulting help to find the metrics, get training and exposure to grow their awareness and skills around articulating understanding the data sources and metrics, and then have ongoing help with implementing analytics and dashboards without needing to add a dedicated resource on the team.

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And be sure to tune in next time to get a shortcut to gaining effectiveness and efficiencies in your marketing organization.