Almost 80% of marketers have some form of marketing analytics. In fact, almost 40% claim to have vast or significant qualtities of marketing data, according to MarketingSherpa in their publication, The 2013 Marketing Analytics Benchmarking Report.

But...and it's a huge but...only just over a third of marketers are able to use all this beautiful, juicy data to gain any insight into the effectiveness of their marketing and a further 46% of respondents claim they only get occasional insights from their marketing analytics. What a waste! This really sucks!

Genuine insight into marketing effectiveness is tantalisingly close, so what's holding marketers back?

• 23% lack appropriate or integrated systems
• 21% have a lack of resources to execute
• 20% cite a lack of time
• 17% simply don't know how to analyse the data
• 15% claim a lack of funds

• ...with the balance claiming "other reasons"

The vast majority of the survey respondents are tracking engagement based metrics such as open, click through, unsubscribe rates, rather than those metrics that are likely to result in an increase in revenue such as traffic to lead and lead to sale conversion rates and ROI.

There is a strong determination on behalf of respondents to do something about this parlous state of affairs. Two thirds of respondents plan to act on the data they are collecting to improve marketing performance and 53% are planning to increase spending on analytics.

Key Takeaways

1. Start capturing data

In the vast majority of cases your competitiors are already capturing data on their marketing. If you aren't you need to start doing something about this NOW. Without data to analyse your marketing investments you are likely to get left in your competitors' dust. They will be generating more leads and revenue for the same dollars invested.

2. Review your marketing systems

Think carefully about the marketing systems you use to collect and manage data. Multiple, disparate systems introduce exponentially greater complexity and time and create significant barriers to generating real insight. Consider marketing automation packages that include marketing analytics built right into the software. This is why there is such a strong upswing in preference for all-in-one marketing automation packages.

3. Hire data-driven people

Look to hire, or retrain staff, who understand how marketing analytics work and know how to build a systematic measurement capability. Moreover they know how to analyse the data and make recommendations for improvement...and then do it all over again. If this task is beyond you financially, hiring smart inbound marketing agencies who get digital marketing and the measurement piece in particular is a great alternative option. 

4. Look at the big picture

"Spot" analytics, that analyse single points of your marketing are not going to enable you to connect the dots and you will be unable to see how marketing activity directly leads to revenue...and let's face it that's the ultimate goal. So you need to build a systematic, linked, measurement process across your entire funnel.

5. Instill a measurement culture

Marketing chiefs need to introduce or reinforce a culture of measurement in their team, that measuring, analysing, remeasuring is an ongoing process of improvement and change. In many marketing teams there is little history of being held accountable for their work.

Marketing anaytics forms part of a broader digital or inbound marketing approach to lead generation. If you're interested in reading more why not download this free eBook?