One of the biggest challenges I face as a measurable marketing professional isn’t, believe it or not, getting qualified prospects and clients alike to spend money. Rather, it’s convincing them to invest their marketing spend so it has a more meaningful — testable and measurable outcome. Yes, you read that correctly. It’s a topic I touch on in a recent piece I did for Direct Magazine.

While things are tight almost ubiquitously, marketing HAS to prove a positive ROI; that means forsaking some of the more “sexy” media like TV and sports sponsorships and tying ALL marketing communication efforts back to a response, one that can be tracked, measured and improved upon. It also means measuring the right things — like sales — as opposed to clicks on a website, microsite or social media outlet. PR is a very powerful tool when tied back to measurement. Trust me, I know from real life case studies I’ve done — experience.

It’s a shame, and an incredible waste of money, to do advertising and marketing communications that does not produce measurable results — sales that impact your bottom line and move it North. Relevancy is critical in this tough economy and I’m sad to say that too much advertising & marketing is still spent not understanding that it’s about the customer, not the company. Burger King, prime example. I actually saw a blog post lauding their advertising. I was going to chime in, but figured they guy who wrote the post is a lost cause and didn’t bother. What about the new Gatorade campaign. Or the new BMW diesel campaign. How about, well, you get the point. Have a success story or great marketing story to share? Let’s hear it.

Grant A. Johnson
Johnson Direct LLC
1-800-710-2750