Lose The Marketing Love Handles Without Lifting A Finger

by Pat LaPointe, Feb 16, 2010, 3:30 PM

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I got an email the other day from a marketing technology company trumpeting its software's ability to help me "improve marketing ROI without lifting a finger." Wow. Incredible. Can't be true, can it? 

I asked for a demonstration copy to see if I could realize the incredible benefit, but no luck. They wouldn't send me one. So to test the validity of the claim, I went to the center of all things factual  -- the Internet -- to see what else I could do without lifting a finger. The options are amazing.  I can:

 Lose 20 pounds

 Find a high-paying new job

 Earn a college degree

 Write a book (someone else will do it for me)

 Drive more traffic to my Web site

 Be healthier

Look better

 Attract more members of the opposite sex

 And, my personal favorite, grow more hair.

I feel stupid.  I've been spending so much time at the gym, writing my own books, taking my own college exams, choosing my own food carefully, and fretting over my hair. I could have spent all that time goofing off and gotten better results.

And I'm really pissed off about the effort I've wasted on measuring and improving marketing ROI. For seven years now, I've been working on improving marketing ROI all day every day; working with hundreds of marketing, finance, and sales managers in dozens of companies; overcoming obstacles of technical, structural, cultural, and political dimensions; making slow and steady progress.

NOW I discover that, had I just purchased the right software, I could have achieved much more with virtually NO effort. If my clients ever find out, I'm screwed.

On the whole, I think this magic ROI elixir software is really a good thing. It will:

        Reinforce CMOs' desire to believe that they can and should delegate ROI efforts even further down the org chart. After all, they have many more important things to worry about.

        Give marketing managers something more tangible to point to when asked, "What are you doing to improve the return on our marketing investment?"  Their answer: "Of course, we've bought some software to fix that."

       Postpone the question another year while the software winds its way through the procurement process and then gets passed around the IT department -- all the while allowing the marketers to keep doing things the way they have been doing them.

        Befuddle the finance department and get them off marketing's back. You know how those finance guys love data. They'll gladly wait awhile if they think there's some data coming.

So forget all that phooey about aligning on metrics, implementing smart experiments, and methodically improving analytics. Don't waste time on smarter marketing research. Just cut the shrink wrap on the software box, hit "install," and off you go.

Then wait for the Easter Bunny to deliver your bonus check.

Hyperbole is a dangerous tool in the hands of marketers -- particularly when it comes to measuring marketing ROI. It undermines our credibility with the more serious financial types who often are key influencers on how much we get in the way of resources and what we can do with it. It reinforces their perceptions of marketers as wild-eyed optimists willing to try anything new to deflect the gravity of the questions being asked. Besides, if there WERE a magic marketing ROI software, do you really think your progressively minded organization would be among the very first to find it?

Bad news. There is still no substitute for diligent, disciplined work when it comes to measuring the payback on marketing. Technology enables, but vision and persistence win every time. Show me a company with the will to work at it, and I'll show you the company that will get clear insights into their ROI long before the software buyers ever realize they've been misled.

Measuring and improving ROI is much more like going to the gym every day; watching what you eat; taking classes to earn a degree; and (take it from one who's done it) writing a book yourself. Persistent, methodical effort is rewarded with great benefits.

So let's get after those spending love handles and the marketing muffin top.

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0 comments on "Lose The Marketing Love Handles Without Lifting A Finger".

1. Paula Lynn from Who Else Unlimited
   

   commented on: February 16, 2010 at 3:43 p.m.

   Another in the list of it's too good to be true......

2. Bert Shlensky from stretchandcover
   

   commented on: February 16, 2010 at 3:43 p.m.

   this is great .
   I am so tired of internet presentations that promise the world with no facts, no understadning of your business and no real examples of success . That is why Google is so succesful . They give you the tools to fgure most things out unlike any of the social marketing GURUS.

3. Anna Talerico
   

   commented on: February 16, 2010 at 4:04 p.m.

   My first reaction was "oh, please let it not be my marketing technology company that he's talking about". Once that panic had passed (no, not us!), I read the article. And read it again. And want the world to read it. WELL DONE!

4. Nelson Yuen from Stereotypical Mid Sized Services Corp.
   

   commented on: February 16, 2010 at 4:19 p.m.

   ... i wanna work for the author LOL

5. Cynthia Holladay from UpRight Marketing
   

   commented on: February 16, 2010 at 5:39 p.m.

   Amen. Unfortunately, we see this type of messaging (and method) everywhere. But it must work. We get the marketing we deserve... However, we train and coach our clients how to create great messaging. It's amazing when we see how powerful it is to apply truth and logic.

6. David Shor from Placements Media LLC
   

   commented on: February 16, 2010 at 10:33 p.m.

   Welll....there are technologies that can predict and find opportunities for improvement and, in fact, optimize. Take, for example, tools like TrackSimple. Automated optimization, no humans needed, but it ultimately frees us up to do more valuable things with our time than mining data for patterns.

   To your point, however, software will not get in a boardroom and make a presentation about where to go next or secure itself the next $10 million budget.

   But face it, marketing tech is making HUGE strides, especially this year with DSP and audience-targeting. You just have to have a knack for precisely how to use these tools. I've spent my career viewing my role as a Marketing Chief Technology Officer, so to speak. And it's paying off nicely.

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