Friday, May 5, 2017

If you want sales, why are you rewarding engagement instead?



The title of my book - Why Does It Make You Want To Buy Something?  is meant to be a reminder for marketers that good marketing sells stuff.  That is its purpose.  If it doesn't sell stuff then someone gets fired - usually the agency.  Or the company goes under.

So why aren't companies aligning incentives with sales goals?

According to TrackMaven's 2017 Marketing Leadership Survey, despite the fact that 61% of marketers say their top objective is to increase sales, only 23% of compensation is based on revenue.  Instead marketers are being evaluated based on engagement (91%), consumption (82%) and audience growth (78%) despite the inability to show any correlation between these measures and sales growth. (Loechner, 2017)

Yes, that's right.  71% say their top challenge is attributing the revenue impact of social and content marketing.  (Burney, 2017)  So why assume that it is having any positive impact on the bottom line at all? 

It wasn't such a big deal when digital costs were low, but these days a premium Instagram campaign costs $1 million.  For that amount of money you could run a solid month of advertising on network television, which is still the most effective marketing medium.  And since Americans 18-24 are watching 15 hours and 36 minutes of traditional television a week, you won't lack opportunities to reach them. (2017)

No wonder I just saw a commercial for Harry's.

Loechner, J. (2017, May 4)  mediapost.com.  Misalignment Of Incentives With Goals Plagues Marketers.  Retrieved May 5, 2017, from

Burney, K. (2017, April) What Marketing Leaders Think About Strategy, Technology, and Data-Driven Change.  trackmaven.com.  Retrieved May 5, 2017, from

(2017, April 24) The State of Traditional TV: Updated With Q4 2016 Data.  marketingcharts.com.  Retrieved May 5, 2017, from

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