One of the most critical steps in managing marketing performance is to identify performance gaps and the measurements that best capture the incremental impact of marketing. This information is often captured and communicated via a dashboard. In Stephen Few’s book, Information Dashboard Design (2006) he defined a dashboard as “a visual display of the most important information needed to achieve one or more objectives; consolidated and arranged on a single screen so the information can be monitored at a glance. In order for your dashboard to be an effective tool it should help determine the impact marketing is having, provide insight into the value of marketing to the organization, speed decision making and facilitate alignment. One of the biggest challenges marketers face when developing their dashboard is choosing the metrics to use. It’s very likely you are measuring many things but not every metric needs to be included on the executive dashboard. Some will be integrated into your operations dashboard, others into your tactical/functional dashboards, and others may not be on a dashboard at all. The metrics you select should be relevant to the audience making decisions from them.
Here are two important things to consider as you select metrics for any dashboard:
1. What is the purpose of the dashboard, who will be seeing it, using it?
2. What decisions may need to be made as a result of the information being presented?
For the executive level dashboard you will want to add the following considerations:
1. Are the metrics tied to critical business outcomes marketing is expected to impact?
2. Do the metrics provide insight into how marketing is impacting these outcomes?
3. Do the metrics help demonstrate marketing’s effectiveness, efficiency and financial value?
4. Does the dashboard provide insight into what is and isn’t working?
By understanding your organization’s critical business outcomes and how marketing is expected to impact these, you will be in a better position to define your metrics. For example if your company is focused on rapid growth and new customers are key, then marketing metrics that show how it is affecting the rate of customer acquisition and growth compared to the industry will be needed. If growing top line revenue is a critical outcome then marketing will need metrics related to pipeline contribution, qualified leads, etc. If growth is going to come from new product innovation and adoption, then the metrics will need to tie marketing to these outcomes. The message here is – the right metrics on your dashboard are those that connect marketing to what matters to the business.
VisionEdge Marketing, Inc, is a leading data-driven metrics-based strategic and product marketing firm located in Austin, Texas. The company specializes in consulting and learning services that help organizations use data to make fact based decisions to address market, customer, and product opportunities and to improve and measure marketing performance. For more information, go to www.visionedgemarketing.com.
About Nathan Kaiser
