You’ve probably noticed how it always seems that the marketing budget/staff is one of the first things to get cut during that annual reorganization time of the year or when the corner office says it’s time to tighten up on spending. You may have heard of that crazy world some marketers spend their professional careers, living and dying each day through the victory of surpassing goals or the failure of obtaining the unattainable marketing metrics. Maybe you happen to know one of these marketers. Or perhaps you are one of them. Either way, it should come as no surprise that making drastic cuts in marketing is very shortsighted, and I don’t say this just because it happens to be my profession.
I say this because marketing is the promise a company makes to its customers and potential customers. When no one is left who understands how to communicate with the market and create effective messages to attract new customers, a business can be left with a lot of free time. Marketers create and direct the messages describing what a business can do for its customers.
So get ahead of the game and think about how you can show your boss the marketing value you bring to his or her company before it’s your budget—or staff—seeking opportunities elsewhere.
Use Plain Language To Show Your Boss The Power Of Marketing
People who run businesses (especially entrepreneurs, in particular) may be suspicious of marketing. They understand it is necessary but some harbor a kind of guardedness over the whole messaging process. They know their product or service is the best out there; why wouldn’t a smart customer understand this? Most of the time, a data dump won’t prove your point to them. Instead, show how dollars spent on marketing benefit the business in a language they understand.
The Best Marketing Metrics
I came across an e-book on marketing metrics that offers useful ideas regarding what to showcase in pursuit of that Return on Investment (ROI) into marketing. Try not to use jargon like “metrics” and “acquisition” unless your employer talks like this. Otherwise, you risk inducing eye glaze from the get-go.
This e-book, from a company called Grass Roots Marketing, lists six items to show the boss. Drop the jargon and rename them as I did in this table:
| GRM Term | Brad’s Boss-Friendly Definition |
|---|---|
| Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) | Average cost to get a new customer |
| Marketing % of CAC | How much of this comes from the Marketing Department |
| Ratio of Customer Lifetime Value to CAC (LTV: CAC) | How much the customer is worth versus the CAC |
| Time to Payback CAC | Time to earn back the total CAC |
| Marketing Originated Customer % | % of new customers attracted solely by marketing efforts |
| Marketing Influenced Customer % | New leads who became customers after being exposed to marketing efforts |
The Power Of Plain Speech
One of the reasons your marketing is effective is because you reach out to customers in a language they understand. Some of this might include business jargon they’re used to, but if you’re a B2C outfit, the plainer the speech, the better. So why not do the same with your boss? If you still need more convincing, feel free to use the following quote (and one of my personal favorites) by Simon Sinek for a little inspiration:
If you speak like a scientist, only scientists will understand you. But if you speak like a truck driver, both scientists and truck drivers will understand you. -Simon Sinek
Lastly, here are a few important marketing metrics of your own to consider communicating back to your employer before he or she decides to cut up the marketing department:
- Average amount spent to get a new customer includes salaries for marketing and sales staff and their costs, such as:
- Business travel
- Materials production and printing
- Website-related expenses
- Email blasts
- Advertising
- Training
- Overhead
- Amount used by the marketing department only to get new customers
- The value (in sales) customers bring compared to cost of acquisition; you could also make a point about good press with a particularly influential new customer
- The time it takes to recover the cost for new customers, displayed by yearly or quarterly spend
- The percentage of new business attributed to marketing efforts only
- Leads who became new customers after being exposed to marketing
So, tie it all together with some plain-speak and see if everyone starts to understand the value of what you're doing as a marketer.
