If you’re a serious competitor, your performance on game day is all that really matters.  You can be a good athlete or play well in practice, but if you can’t get it done during the game when it really counts, you’ll never be considered a great player.

For those of us who lay awake at night thinking about marketing, the performance of our campaigns is what matters most.

Your marketing can have a beautiful design and great copy, but if you target the wrong people or you can’t measure the results, then I have to ask, what’s the point of spending a lot of company resources making sure it looks pretty?

At Least Put Data In Your Starting Lineup

What role does data play on your marketing team?   Is it the focus of your offense or just a role player?

Now more than ever before, CEOs and Board of Directors are now requiring a new level of accountability from marketing departments.  According to a recent report by Aberdeen Group, “job security is directly correlated with data driven marketing.”

As the rules of the game continue to change, marketing departments will need to adapt to the how fouls are called.  The days of going with your gut and not putting a focus on data are quickly becoming like showing up on game day with a leather helmet on.

The following are a few types of analysis that best-in-class marketing organizations labeled as extremely important:

• Measuring marketing ROI
• Customer segmentation
• Data cleansing
• Cost per customer
• Customer profiling
• Profitability analysis

Having Better Equipment Doesn’t Mean You’ll Win

Nearly every marketer we meet is aware of the importance of quality data and has made data purchases in the past.  Most also use a number of tools and have some ability to measure.

Purchasing data and the latest tools can be costly.  It also won’t guarantee you great marketing results.  What you purchase, and more importantly, how you use it, will make all the difference.

According to Aberdeen Group, the majority (55%) of best-in-class marketing organizations stated that data quality was their number one challenge.  Data decays rapidly so ongoing hygiene and regular maintenance will be required for those with a data driven focus.

Get Yourself A Coach And Get To Work

Ask any athlete (or maybe I should say, any honest athlete) and they’ll tell you that good coaching always plays a role in their performance.

If you’re looking to change up your playbook to a more data focused scheme, make sure to get an experienced coach who can teach you how to execute the plays.  Having someone with experience that can expose you to new ideas and show you that there might be a better way can make all the difference.

“Identifying ROMI (return on marketing investment)” and “linking sales to marketing for ROI analysis” was the top challenge for 49% of marketers surveyed by Aberdeen Group.   The majority of marketers do not lack data but lack the insights necessary to gather quality business intelligence from their data.

For many marketers, this means that it makes sense to look at bringing in an outside expert who can assist with marketing data analysis and creating data driven marketing programs.

It Starts In Practice And It Pays Off During The Game

Making the change to a data focused marketing department doesn’t happen overnight.  When an athlete decides to alter their running style or change their shooting mechanics, it takes time and repetition, but eventually it feels natural.

When quality data and measuring the results becomes part of everything your marketing department does, you create a culture focused on winning and your team will continue to improve over the life of your career.

Whatever role you play in your marketing department, it’s never too late to start bringing data off the bench.  Just remember, there is always a younger, more athletic marketer who is hungry to get some playing time.