Inside “the Best of the Best”

How is a “best-in-class” marketer defined? What makes these companies different? According to the Aberdeen Group, best-in-class marketers are defined as being in the top 20% of industry performance in process, organization, industry knowledge, technology, and sales performance.

To find out what makes these best-in-class marketers so successful, Aberdeen surveyed 160 end-user organizations to learn about their marketing effectiveness. It found that the firms showing best-in-class performance shared several common characteristics. Specifically:

• 86% utilize website visitor tracking.
• 82% track, measure, and report on all marketing campaign results.
• 64% have a process to test the effectiveness of campaign content.

These firms also make a 60% average marketing contribution to the sales pipeline versus 10% for industry average firms and 3% for laggards.
These efforts are intentional and strategic. Not only do nearly two-thirds of best-in-class marketers test the effectiveness of their campaign content (both print and online), but they have a formal process in place to do so. This isn’t something they do only when things aren’t going well. It is something they do build into their planning.

The benefits of these efforts are substantial. Best-in-class marketers not only enjoy best-in-class marketing performance, but they enjoy best-in-class bottom-line results:

• 9.9% average YOY improvement in incremental sales lift resulting from marketing campaigns.
• 9.5% average YOY increase in customer retention rate.

Best-in-class marketing strategies make a difference! So follow the lead of the best: track, measure, report, and invest. You just need to be intentional about it.

Need help? Talk to us about putting these processes in place and reaping the benefits!
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1 “Analytics for the CMO: How Best-in-Class Marketers Use Customer Insights to Drive More Revenue” (Aberdeen Group, 2011)

Linemark is a privately-owned and operated printing communications company headquartered within close proximity of the Washington DC / Baltimore Metro areas (Upper Marlboro, MD). Linemark is one of the fastest growing companies in the region within the communications industry. Operating 24 hours a day from a 90,000sq ft facility, the intensely customer focused company delivers solid and innovative solutions to their client base of associations, corporations and non-profit organizations.