Connected CRM: Implementing a Data-Driven, Customer-Centric Business Strategy

Chapter 7 Financial Management

You Can't Optimize What You Can't Measure

I can't stress enough the importance of measurement in Connected Customer Relationship Marketing (cCRM). You simply cannot, even under the best of circumstances, do without it. The fundamental question, whose answer continues to be elusive to marketers, is “What value do marketing and sales efforts drive within our business?” The question is so simple, its importance so obvious, and the challenge so overwhelming. The proliferation of data, the advancement in computing power, the increasing focus on analytics, and the sea of metrics we study every day somehow have not translated into significant progress toward fixing our measurement problem.

The fragmentation of touchpoints, brought about in large part by the digital revolution, presents distinct challenges for the marketer. With the ever-growing number of media and channels at our disposal, measurement is complex at best. Consumers are exposed to a plethora of competing messages from offline and online media. Further complicating matters, they are reaching out to brands through an equally staggering number of channels. In fact, the days when an organization defined its brand and pushed it to consumers is over. Consumers have just as much control over what your brand represents as you do. This is not to say that creating a brand or mass media vehicles is no longer important. In fact, when you consider how much influence friends, online reviews, and social ...