Trends Report

B2B Marketing Measurement Needs An MBA

Marketing Data Is Key To B2B Business Decisions, But Top Execs Don't Take It Seriously

August 27th, 2013
Laura Ramos, Vice President, Principal Analyst
Laura Ramos Vice President, Principal Analyst
With contributors:
Alexandra Hayes , David Cooperstein

Summary

Business-to-business (B2B) chief marketing officers (CMOs) can no longer rely on soft measures like brand awareness or disconnected stats like trade show scans or website traffic to demonstrate how marketing returns value to the business. Those who do will be swept aside as changing economic and market conditions, coupled with digitally empowered buyers and channels, raise the bar on business accountability and force marketing to show how its investments deliver measurable returns on business objectives, not just marketing goals. Forrester teamed up with the IT Services Marketing Association (ITSMA) and VisionEdge Marketing (VEM) to survey 174 marketing leaders about the challenges they face in demonstrating marketing's impact on the business. We found that the most successful CMOs use marketing analytics and dashboards to connect marketing metrics to cross-functional outcomes, increase decision-making agility, and show business peers where the market is heading.

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