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There’s only one marketing metric you really need to care about: “cost per income.” Everything else you measure really rolls up to this one number, which tells you how much you have to spend in order to reach a particular profit. This all might seem a tad obvious, but few are managing to this approach.

Instead, IT solution providers often look only at the cost of marketing, eschewing the overall result in favor of near-term expense management. Even holding on to your cash comes at a cost … which is equivalent to future returns. Think in terms of what it costs you to make money, and your marketing efforts will become more targeted, more powerful and more substantial.

Piecemeal marketing doesn’t work — and that’s what you get when you look strictly at cost. Change your perspective: measure by cost of income, and you’ll be committed to generating ROI.

What social media marketing metrics are you using?

The latest research from MarketingSherpa indicates that businesses using social media to promote their products and services — and fill their lead streams — are employing a variety of measures to gauge the effectiveness of their initiatives. Of course, the metrics you’d expect have been most widely adopted, but there are some important stats being watched by a small group of companies that signal where social media marketing is headed.

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When should the handoff from marketing to sales occur? The trend has been to gather ever more intelligence about your targets before unleashing the sales force on an opportunity, in the hopes that a more refined view of the prospect will lead to a shorter and more successful sales cycle. With more metrics brought to bear on the situation, the conventional wisdom goes, the sales team will be better equipped to communicate with the prospect, understand his needs and close the deal.

There is some truth to this thinking, but it has led sales and marketing departments astray with over-analysis. Analytics and market and prospect intelligence are undoubtedly crucial to the effective progression of a sales opportunity from early marketing efforts through the sales cycle and ultimately through implementation, as well. But, data has become a crutch, preventing sales and marketing teams from moving swiftly to take advantage of clear opportunities.

IT marketers and sales forces need to regain a sense of balance.

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The biggest mistake you can make is to evaluate success exclusively on a campaign-by-campaign basis: it costs you a view of the whole (and some ROI). Don’t misunderstand: metrics for every campaign should be scrutinized; you can learn a lot from them. Your principal measure of success, however, should be much broader.

To help clarify this point, take a look at the admittedly oversimplified case studies below. Adjust for the realities of your business, and you’ll still see how you could get more out of your marketing budget.

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In every business, one fundamental constraint always exists: resources. I’ve never met anyone who couldn’t use more budget, bodies or time. More, more, more! You can get more, but it starts with making the most of what you have now. Resources don’t materialize out of thin air; you have to earn them. You can do this by maximizing the value of what’s already at your disposal, driving more sales and increasing the budget available to invest in marketing as a result.

The key is optimization. Take a look at your team and your budget. Then, measure everything. How much does it cost to get a lead? How about a sale? Which techniques are most effective? Figure out where your winners are – and note the gaps. The second part, in particular, is where enter:marketing differs from the rest of the IT marketing community. We’ll help you build a marketing program that plays to your capabilities and addresses your needs, all within your budget.

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