Focus on the Goals

The phrase "focus on the goals, not on the metrics alone" jumped out in last week's class. Over and over again I see companies intent on building website traffic, increasing ad impressions or boosting their number of facebook fans, with little understanding of why these activities might (or might not) be important.

Getting millions of people to your website is only valuable if they are qualified leads -- people who you might convert to customers, donors or advocates. If they are there for a reason that isn't core to your business, they might be a waste of resources.

The misalignment of goals and metrics isn't new (see this piece from Bain for a great non-digital example), but because digital marketing is so unfamiliar to many institutions, the possibility of misalignment is greater. Corporate executives are likely to see social media as an inexpensive "experiment" rather than a marketing strategy that is core to their business goals. Companies build digital operations, but approach them with less rigor and lower standards of accountability than other marketing plans.

Of course there are complications in the digital world. It's far more likely that a media mix will be responsible for a boost in sales than any one channel, and tracking back the "why" of success is often impossible. But the digital world offers tremendous opportunity as well. Right now, Facebook and Google allow information-gathering that have tremendous marketing implications.

Even more exciting, as convergence becomes a greater reality, there is opportunity for better conversion metrics on all media platforms -- particularly television. A "clickable commercial" or product placement would offer previously unheard of data directly related to placement, timing and quality of particular ads.

If marketers can remember that creating cool new stuff and attracting eyeballs are not goals unto themselves, there will be unprecedented opportunity to capitalize on new technologies.