Time for IT marketers to be accountable as times get tougher, says AIIA

Peter Dinham
Monday, 23 March 2009 15:40

IT Industry - Deals

Other key findings from the survey include:

• Senior executives need to experience positive exposure to marketing’s contribution to overall  revenue goals; marketing’s interaction with this audience is minimal with only 2% of marketing  respondents in the study interfacing with the CEO or equivalent.
• Basic marketing activities such as data cleansing and data quality checks are being neglected.   56% of respondents indicated a poor rating when it came to data quality checks.  Good data  management results in measurable campaign management, resulting in effective marketing management.
• Marketing professionals rated customer satisfaction and loyalty as healthy and the understanding  of business drivers behind growth was also rated very favourably.

The study also revealed seven crucial marketing tactics that have poor to no metrics in place, threatening ICT marketer’s ability to protect and win appropriate budgets for the future.  These tactics were all rated in the AIIA’s report:

• Sales & Marketing: poor measurable marketing programs
• Sales Alignment: lack of marketing metrics in place
• Data Management: poor return on investment on data both external and internal due to lack of  metrics
• Marketing Processes: lack of regular benchmarking
• Brand Metrics: poor level of branding surveys
• Budget: lack of return on investment measurements in place
• Growth and Profit: poor growth metrics

The AIIA says that in a concerted effort to assist ICT marketing professionals to overcome the challenges highlighted in the survey, it has organised the first marketing forum for marketers to be held in Sydney on 27 March 27, 2009.  Details of the event are available from www.aiia.com.au.