Like we talked about last week, data and analytics are essential for marketers who want to make purpose central to their message. Carefully developed measurement processes can help you figure out not only how successful your marketing is, but also how closely it aligns with your purpose.
What really is accountability? It’s the ability to monitor, measure and report the commitment a person or group has to delivering a specific outcome or result. You’re probably already aware that your marketing leaders need to be accountable to the overarching strategy that guides your business and the bottom-line results it produces, but as we’ve talked about already on the blog, this isn’t enough. In order to maximize profits, productivity and employee satisfaction, it’s necessary to hold your marketing accountable to your purpose as well.
Marketing is responsible for making people aware of your purpose and getting them excited about being a part of it. One of the best ways to measure whether this is happening is via stakeholder surveys conducted at regular intervals. As soon as you can, circulate a survey to employees, customers, community members and other stakeholders with key questions like “which of these statements do you feel best describes the reason we exist…?” and “how would you describe the purpose behind our company?” Then, once a quarter, or at least once a year, conduct the same survey and see how responses have shifted. Are your stakeholders becoming more aware of your purpose? Are they gaining a better, more accurate understanding of why you do what you do? If so, it’s fair to assume that your purpose-driven marketing is working.
As we’ve discussed on this blog and as Bob wrote in his MarketingProfs article, marketers need to prove the ROI of their work to earn their seat at the C-Suite table. Due to a poor past record of accountability and, until recently, a lack of tools for tracking marketing results, marketers have struggled to gain the influence they deserve among their executive peers. It’s time to change that. Holding marketing accountable to not just business strategy and profit but also to purpose should be part of this effort.
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