They presented the results from a survey that asked marketers to rank their confidence on their companies' digital marketing measurement capabilities. As you can see from the results below marketers find Mobile and social media metrics the hardest to measure, with 12% of respondents saying that they felt their organizations did a poor job tracking mobile marketing activities, and 19% felt the same about social marketing efforts.
Check out the results:
source: AdWeek
This causes problems for marketers when they try to prove the ROI of digital marketing efforts to C-Suite execs. That's a big issue especially when many see social media as the future of customer service. To address these issues McGwire suggested, "...marketers measure the impact of mobile and social investment against three social media ROI tenets: revenue generation, cost reduction and risk." The team also provided a handy script that marketers can use to help find objectives that make sense for them to help address this measurement gap. They can fill in the blanks in the following with things that matter most to them to clarify their efforts:
"Through our efforts to engage ____(name of customer or prospect group)____ on ____(network)____using content like ____(white papers/videos/discussion groups)____, we will be able to _____(anticipated result)____, which will be indicated by a change in ____(metric)____."
As I mentioned in my CMSWire interview, marketers need to focus on reach and engagement metrics instead of vanity metrics today and use them to tell larger stories that support organizational goals, not just provide discrete social media numbers. Using a simple "ad-lib-style" script like the one above can make creating these stories much easier while avoiding the analysis paralysis that mobile and social marketers can fall prey to.
What do you think? Do you agree with the results of this survey?