About the Author: Bruce McDuffee's been on the ground in manufacturing marketing and sales growth strategy for manufacturers for three decades. As global marketing director of an electronics manufacturing company, he tested and proved his strategies and tactics in the real world of global manufacturing. When Bruce speaks about marketing, manufacturers listen. His team is made up of manufacturers with more than 50 years of combined manufacturing sales and marketing experience. He knows what you're up against. We've asked Bruce to share his tested and proven marketing strategies, tactics, and technology with other companies facing manufacturing challenges.
A company can employ any and all marketing techniques and still not find value in them. This comes from a lack of assessing which parts are working — and which ones are not. Many companies use vanity metrics or metrics where the only purpose is to help you and your marketing team feel better about yourselves.
An example of a vanity metric could be Facebook 'Likes'. When you use these KPIs, you'll amaze your co-workers and your stakeholders by knowing which marketing tactics are working and which ones are not working. It's not as hard as it used to be with modern tools like marketing automation integrated to CRM, the ubiquitous spreadsheet with pivot tables, etc.
These are my top marketing KPIs that are perfect for manufacturing companies. Use these KPIs to evaluate the performance of marketing strategy and tactics.
There are two sets of metrics. The first set is meant to be used internally with the marketing team in evaluating activities, promotions, events, campaigns, etc. The second set is the most important set. These five (5) are meant to be the metrics you use when presenting results to the external (i.e., external to the marketing team) stakeholders or your leadership team. The C-suite metrics can make or break your marketing career!
Eventually, as you become more sophisticated with tracking marketing KPIs, you will use technology to support your discussions. Set a goal for yourself and your team that the next time you get an audience with the CEO, you will be ready to share at least one statistic about how marketing contributed to revenue.
These 10 KPIs help when it comes to deciding how to attribute a closed opportunity. If the last touch before a closed opportunity was a trade show, does that mean the revenue should be associated with the trade show?
In this modern age of buying behavior, we can never really know, nor should we try, to attribute revenue to one particular source. Instead, if we use these KPIs, we can clarify which parts of our marketing strategy are working — and drop the parts that are not — to improve our return on marketing investment (ROMI).
As John Wanamaker, the merchant and marketing pioneer (who opened his first store in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1861 before the American Civil War broke out) said more than 90 years ago, "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half."
Naturally, your particular manufacturing (or distribution) business or organization may require different metrics depending on what you are selling. For example, those firms that are selling subscription, rental or repair / replacement part services may track also annual contract value and churn rate.
Not sure how to get started with KPIs? Sign up for Bruce's free Marketing Plan Evaluation for a KPI review.
Learn more about manufacturing challenges and growth strategy for manufacturers.
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