Mastering data and using the insights to deliver more targeted, effective campaigns is all tied to your company’s digital maturity in marketing.

 A crucial step involves getting decision-makers on board with the fact marketing is not only about having the data, it is about understanding what you want to do with it. Once this mindset is established in the business, the marketing function will be far more effective at collecting, analysing, and using data-driven insights.

Knowing what a seasoned marketing department looks like also helps you analyse you and your team’s expertise and, for managers, hire the right individuals. Looking out for tell-tale signs can go a long way towards revealing whether marketing is on the path to success or requires a detour.

The ‘Blacklist Whiteboard’ check

If you’ve ever been blacklisted, you know the heart-pounding sensation it can cause. Too many blacklist warnings and your email service provider (ESP) or marketing automation platform may be restricted or even terminated.

If you find yourself in an office that has a “blacklist whiteboard,” listing the number of the days you’ve stayed off a blacklist, then you most likely have a battle-tested marketing team. Marketers who keep track of this data are fluent in email deliverability, which is key to your email marketing success, especially when you consider that one in every five emails is blocked from ever reaching your subscribers’ inboxes, according to Return Path.

A targeted marketing strategy not only keeps you off the dread blacklist, but also helps create lasting relationships with your buyers. By taking steps towards keeping your database clean and ‘email sends’ targeted, you can ensure that every send is something that your subscribers want to hear about and not just waiting to hit the unsubscribe or spam button.

Monitoring the metrics

As a marketer, you have to know how to wear an analyst hat and pick the data that will help enrich the customer journey. At first, tracking the right data might be difficult because not everyone defines key metrics in the same way. An email marketer might, for instance, be tracking click-to-open rates and bounce rates, while a digital marketer might care more about cost-per-click, and both might be interested in click-through rates.

The key is to understand your team’s business objectives and what results will drive those outcomes. Then, pinpoint the right set of metrics to track and agree on the definitions of them. Seasoned marketing teams set definitions early and review them often to ensure consistency across teams.

Sharing is caring

Often, reports on key performance indicators (KPIs) are the driving force behind seasoned marketing teams. It’s how they can share measurable results from all of their hard work. By tracking and sharing metrics with the right stakeholders, marketing teams and executives can get a visual pulse check of how each campaign is doing and stay aligned with other cross-functional teams (e.g. customer support, sales, service).

At Marketo, we have a dedicated monitor in the middle of the marketing floor that shows a dashboard of our marketing campaign performance. But even if you don’t have access to television monitors, you can still share reports in effective ways. Whether you send reports or create metric summaries, all options keep everyone on task, and that’s a good thing.

Knowing the tell-tale signs of an experienced marketing team is more than a way to impress your colleagues. It can be used as a benchmarking tool to measure how far you’ve come and can help steer you on the path to success. It also helps you to understand the steps you should take to run your marketing initiatives successfully and hire stellar marketing professionals that understand these signs of excellence. 

There’s no point collecting data for the sake of it, only when it is coupled with the know-how of what to do with it will business achieve great results.

Conor Shaw is the EMEA MD at Marketo.