Measuring marketing performance continues to be a big hurdle for most organizations, according to new research conducted by the marketing automation consultancy LeadMD. The research shows that only 18% say that they are able to track leads through the funnel from opportunity to revenue.
The study analyzed the marketing automation maturity of more than 2,000 companies based on the size of their marketing teams, the size of their budgets and the level of success with their marketing initiatives. A notable finding was that close to one-third (29%) of companies are not tracking marketing performance at all, highlighting a gap that can be limiting overall company success.
The findings also show that as teams struggle to create measurement models that highlight funnel performance, that struggle is having a significant impact on sales performance as well. Only 6% of respondents believe their sales teams would classify their leads as “great.” Close to three-quarters (73%) stated their leads would be graded as “below average.”
Additional findings from the report include:
- 73% stated that they do not have a revenue cycle model in place for complete pipeline reporting; and
- 81% of respondents expect their marketing budget to increase in the coming year.
“The technology that we’ve been relying on isn’t getting the job done,” said Justin Gray, CEO of LeadMD, in an interview with Demand Gen Report. “These results point to a true marketing skills gap, but just as important is the complete absence of processes. Marketers have an overabundance of technology, but what we really need is hyper-personalized communication and to double down on people and processes.”