The Only Perfect Marketing Metric

Ahhhh measurement. If there is one area that will make most marketing people look as if they’ve seen a ghost, it’s the mere mention of measurement. I wasn’t one of those people when I started. nike requin I remember in grad school taking an art course taught by a guy named Myron Kozman. He was an important guy in my life. He changed it. So Kozman was a scraggly dude whose 1990’s look consisted of jeans, a ragged shirt, no shoes (in St. Louis, Missouri in January) and a fairly unkempt beard. ugg australia classic Yes, he looked pretty homeless. I’ll never forget my first assignment in his class, a charcoal drawing of a soda can done in cubist style (ala Picasso). I showed him mine and then asked for my grade, my measurement of presumably my time, my investment, my worth, etc. Myron looked at me and said, “I cannot give grades for art. nike femme But what is it worth to you?” I said jokingly, “Well, I think it’s an A” (of course). basket nike tn And he said, and what is an “A?” I said, “It’s really good, almost perfect.” Kozman then said, “So then, you believe in perfect art?” And that’s when it hit me and I understood. Art can’t be measured, even by one of the greats like Kozman. And the part of marketing that is creative and art-based is REALLY hard to measure too. Many have tried and some have partially succeeded. We have dashboards and there are metrics that we can measure — business goals that must be measured. But, honestly, it wasn’t until I became a business owner that I truly understood what counts. The first among equals. Sales. Period. That’s the only number that really means anything. That’s how you know if the business is healthy, growing, dying or pretty much dead. Marketing and PR are reluctant to tie their work to sales and for some very good reasons. But hear my digital voice marketers, the only real metric worth measuring is sales. For example, I got one of my clients on a national TV show (yay, PR!) and he told me that he sold $60K worth of his product immediately after it aired. See, that’s something real. PR work that moves the sales needle… That’s value. Another one of my clients told me that she has brought in more than $80K worth of new accounts just from some b2b blog postings we did. Again, that’s real value. Not impressions, not likes or shares or follows or any of that mumbo-jumbo. Just sales. nike mercurial And I know there are a million variables and reasons NOT to tie marketing work into sales. I’ve seen the pitch and I’ve even participated in that dialogue from time to time. But as a 21st century marketer and business owner, I’ve seen the light.