How do 20% of Marketers Outperform the Rest?

A recent IBM study of global marketers found 20% outperform the rest? Of course, this begs the question of

how do 20% of marketers outperform the rest and

how to I become one of the 20%?

The effective 20%

Let’s start by looking what the 20% do differently from the other 80% of marketers

1. Products and services – functionality, brand, packaging  —- 160% more effective
2. Promotion – advertising, marketing, sales ——————— 130% more effective
3. Place – distribution, logistics, channels ————————- 160% more effective
4. Price – list price, bundling, discounts ————————— 180% more effective

So, maybe you’re asking yourself, why do I care if they’re more effective with the 4Ps, I’m doing OK. Well, hold on to that thought as I share more about the report.

The top 20% of marketers enjoy:

1.  100% higher CLV (customer lifetime value)
2. 30% increased customer retention
3. 80% higher buying intentions
4. 40% increase in brand image
5. and 11% higher net sales!!!!!!

20% of marketers are taking their improved effectiveness TO THE BANK!

What the 20% do differently?

How do 20% of marketers outperform the rest? Simple — they sweat the hard stuff. High achievers are much more likely than the rest of marketers to:

• systematically assess customer satisfaction. They’re laser-focused on improving the customer experience.
• monitor delivery commitments to improve on-time delivery. Superior firms communicate with suppliers and vendors to provide information about customer demand.
• identify up-selling and cross-selling opportunities for sales and other forward-facing staff
• train sales and customer service staff on product lines, capabilities, and promises. Effective brands identify gaps between promises and delivery with an eye toward reducing or eliminating the gap. Effective brands collaborate internally and externally with other brand actors to ensure consistent delivery of brand value. They align and ensure brand understanding throughout the organization to ensure the brand delivers on its value promises and provides satisfaction.
• design marketing offers to the point of purchase. Successful brands create and deliver brand messages at EVERY point in the customer interaction, including at the point of purchase. Similarly, they provide marketing offers and customer care messages during service and support actions after the sale.

Analytics critical for understanding how 20% of marketers outperform the rest

Digging deeper into who 20% of marketers outperform the rest, you see the single factor underpinning their success is analytics — well and a deep commitment to being customer-centric.

Here are just a few examples of how the 20% use analytics to support their effectiveness:

1. Response modeling — if I do X, how will customers/ prospects react. For example, if I add a new benefit to my product, how many more units will I sell?
2. Attribution modeling — what caused customers/ prospects to do X. For instance, if I ran an ad, how many inquiries, product demonstrations, and sales came from the ad?
3. CLV modeling to reflect the net present value of future costs and revenue associated with current customers or classes of customers.
4. Churn — which reflects how many customers will leave over a given time period

How do you apply analytics to be one of the 20%?

Notice, all the analytics identified above that contribute to the improved marketing performance of 20% of marketers are PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS. That means you must go beyond simple descriptive statistics showing how much, how many, how often. According to Forbes, predictive analytics build inferences (models) to predict future behaviors. In the case of marketing, predictive analytics predict responses to marketing campaigns, website elements, and promotional offers base on past behaviors.

Predictive analytics not only requires effective tools to COLLECT meaningful descriptive data but a skilled business intelligence analyst capable of interpreting descriptive analytics and turning it into actionable decisions and building predictive models to further aid in decision-making.

You’ll likely need someone in the C-suite to champion the use of predictive analytics, also according to Forbes.
business.

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