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New research from Walker Sands shows that some marketers are putting the cart before the horse when it comes to the relationship between marketing channels and business outcomes.
“Despite the fact that management claims to understand the importance of business outcomes,” said Walker Sands co-CEO Dave Palo. They are working backwards to connect the dots between his channel-based KPIs and performance, and struggle to meet executive expectations. ”
The study says communications professionals need to strategize what they want to accomplish before turning their attention to channel-driven goals such as media coverage, website traffic, and audio shares.
To do that, you need to understand “why?” What's behind your communication efforts? According to Walker-Sands, B2B brands primarily do one of four things: strengthen their position, accelerate growth, build reputation, and foster relationships and interactions between the brand and its target audience. Use marketing to achieve.
To achieve these goals, the study authors emphasize ensuring that messages remain a major focus in the channels through which they are delivered.
In a group of 150 marketing leaders and 50 non-marketing executives surveyed by Walker Sands, there was near unanimous agreement that 98% of these overall marketing objectives are becoming more important. compared to 2019, 50 non-marketing executives said they were more aligned with their marketing goals. Management is “more focused on marketing success based on its contribution to key business outcomes.”
However, there is a disconnect between how executives and marketing teams view these goals. Almost three-quarters of leaders surveyed said they “struggle to understand the business outcomes” expected by marketers. Additionally, more than half (58%) of marketers surveyed also said they have difficulty understanding the outcomes their bosses want them to achieve.
Although the importance of outcomes is generally recognized, the appeal of focusing on channels remains strong. Only about a quarter of marketers (27%) say they start by prioritizing results before shifting their attention to specific channels or their KPIs.
To overcome this problem, Walker Sands proposes what they call “outcome-based marketing.”
The study concludes, “Once we understand the fundamental problem of channel-first bias, we can begin to abandon inefficient habits and shift to an results-first mindset.”
