Know-How Exchange : Research/Metrics

I would be more than happy to offer my assistance. Of course, more details are needed in order to give you anything beyond general stabs in the dark. Please feel free to send me an email (click on my name) for further assistance.

Creating a department is varying in nature and specific to each company's needs.

I look forward to hearing from you!

-- Jett Enterprises

Hmmm, as Jett said, a very broad question. Will vary a lot depending on product, market, how you market, etc.

Looking for a "system to help us organize"? Not sure what you mean by this.

On tracking results, you will find this is definitely an area which is hard to fully implement.

The easiest form of marketing ROI is to track the leads gained from each program. Many media already have ways to do this (hits to a web site, bingo cards returned from card packs, requests for info througth a magazine, etc.). There are tricks you can use to track those which don't have a way to track - using extension numbers or made up contact names on phone numbers, having different landing pages for web sites, etc. (NOTE - if you have any questions about the specifics of the terms I used here, ask and I will describe).

But, this only gets you to a cost per lead, to give you an idea about how effective a marketing program is. What you really want is a cost per sale (or ROI of your marketingh program). This requires tracking those leads to sales. This is challenging, as sales people don't like to spend the time to do what is required and you need systems in palce to be able to track this.

Even if you do track the leads to sales, there is still some fluff. For example, this doesn't help you track how when a customer has multiple impressions from different marketing programs - it only ctaches the one they actually bought off of.

I don't know your situation, but before you go much further I think you need to clarify one thing. You say that you are just beginning a marketing department, and that's setting off alarm bells in my head. Assuming for the moment that you are taking direction from your CEO, is that person asking for metrics because they have 20 years marketing experience at Proctor & Gamble, or is it because they are a technical person who doesn't believe in investing in marketing, since the product or service should "sell itself".

Your best plan of action would be very different in the two cases above.

You probably need someone who has experience working with small technical companies. If I were in your situation, I'd take Jett up on his offer. I'd call Jett, give him a bit more info and a link to your web site, and set up a conference call with your manager or CEO.