First things first, what does Attribution mean? By definition, Attribution is a set of actions that contribute to a specific desired outcome. Each action is then assigned a value to measure the importance of each as it relates to the desired outcome.
For example, say you run a marketing campaign. Each tactic in that marketing campaign includes scheduling 3 emails, creating and distributing a white paper, and hosting an event that is showcased on your social media accounts. Each of these tactics has to be measured and assigned a value as it relates to the desired outcome, which in this case is a converted lead or customer.
This is referred to as Multi-Touch Marketing Attribution. And so, if we are able to analyze the success rate of each tactic, it can help produce better future marketing campaigns. Keyword “if.” Our main goal as marketers is to improve ROI and increase revenue for the businesses, and yet, being able to track and analyze our marketing tactics is a total gray area for most. It’s not because marketers don’t want to track and analyze their tactics, it’s that they can’t.
Marketers have a hard time analyzing, tracking, and improving their marketing objectives because of four key variables:
- Knowing the Marketing and Sales Process – What happen when a lead is captured through marketing? Do the sales reps know how to work the system that brings these leads in? How is the data uploaded and used to benefit the sales representative? What happens after the first point of contact? Does the marketing department receive feedback? If so, how?
Bottom Line – If Sales and Marketing aren’t able to find common ground everything below is moot point.
- Setting Up A System Architecture – Where does data on our leads and customers come from? Where does it go? How can we organize it?
Bottom Line – You will need to set up a CRM so you can track and increase revenue. Your CRM can have native applications for marketing channels to pull data into your CRM, making it easier to tie Marketing and Sales to one another. Alternatively, you can also have a Marketing Automation System (ie. HubSpot) that helps you manage, organize and track your marketing channels that then pulled into your depository data system (ie. Salesforce).
- Estalbishing A Campaign Taxonomy – Who is your audience? What pain point does your service/product solve? Where does your audience live? What marketing channels to they use? What kind of content speaks to them and how do they like to receive that content? What data is the most important for you to understand about your audience? What can you incorporate into your campaign to find our what you need to know about your audience?
Bottom Line – Listen to your audience before creating a campaign. If you don’t understand your audience, your campaign serves no purpose other than noise.
- Determine Reporting – What are your most important key data points you need to know? How and where will you pull that data? Who has access to that data? Are there different viewpoints needed for your data? How can you organize your data to present it in an effective and actionable way?
Bottom Line – Reverse engineer your desired outcome. If you need leads and customers, measure the conversion rate of each marketing tactic in your campaign. What tactic turned them into a lead? What tactic turned them into a customer? Drill down your campaigns to determine which data points are most important to you and how you are going to be able to pull that data and present it so it’s digestible to everyone.
If all of the above is squared away and you feel confident in your foundation you can begin to solve Multi-Touch Marketing Attribution.
Stay tuned for Part II: Become An Attribution Master
