In this Issue:

Articles

Six Approaches to Spend or Cut Marketing in Tight      Economies
How to Build a Great Business (From a Good One)
Understanding Strategic and Tactical Marketing      Analytics

Events

Greetings readers,

Before I give you highlights on this issue’s articles, I want to call your attention to some live events happening this Wednesday, October 22nd. First, I will be a guest on the American Marketing Association’s “Marketing News Live” radio program starting at noon Eastern U.S. time (4:00 p.m. GMT) discussing the secrets to highly effective and efficient marketing. Shortly after that at 2:00pm EDT (6:00 p.m. GMT), you can join me in a Better Management Webinar on “7 Steps to Manage and Deliver Highly Effective, Highly Efficient, and High-ROI Marketing” where we get into more details on the same topic. Both of those events will be recorded for on-demand playback at your convenience.

In this issue, our articles cover three strategic topics that are critical for managing and improving performance. My article, “Six Approaches to Spend or Cut Marketing in Tight Economies”, addresses marketing in tough economic times from a different perspective than the “spend more in a recession” articles you may have been reading throughout the year. Don Holtz is back as our guest columnist, providing new insights in his article “Understanding Strategic and Tactical Marketing Analytics.” And our regular columnist Hugh Macfarlane is offering great advice in his article “How to Build a Great Business (from a Good One).”

For those of you that will end your fiscal year along with the end of the calendar year, just remember to keep spending smart. Instead of wasting any extra budget to avoid losing it, try to invest in infrastructure, analytics, or measurements that will make next year’s marketing investments more productive.

Sincerely,

As many global economies become tighter and revenue streams shrink, marketing executives must strategically assess their opportunities to profitably win their share of that smaller revenue pie. Marketing pundits have advocated throughout this year that tough economic times are the right time to build brands and grow share of voice. But this will not work for every company. If you can’t make a smart strategic case for how your spending is going to add value to the company, you won’t convince CEOs and CFOs to fund marketing budgets when revenues are down. I’m going to outline the six approaches available and share the key criteria around financial dynamics, competitive environment, and customer behavior patterns that can help you determine whether spending more or less is right for your business. (continued online)

How to Build a Great Business (From a Good One)
By Hugh Macfarlane of MathMarketing

Standing out from the crowd is tough when your competitors are also working towards the same end. Occasionally, though, a business that has been going 'fine' suddenly starts doing better than fine. In fact, it goes from being good to great. For some, this success is temporary and they soon slink back into the pack. A select few make a significant shift and go on to achieve sustained greatness.

How does a good business become a great one? Following his broundbreaking work with co-author Jerry Porras on the bestselling management book Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, researcher and author Jim Collins sets out to answer this question. As a result, he produced an even better book, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap ... And Others Don't. (continued online)

Hugh Macfarlane is the author of "The Leaky Funnel" and his company MathMarketing is our strategic partner. We're pleased to feature Hugh as an ongoing contributor, bringing excellent insight for improving B2B marketing profitability.

For information on Funnel Camps, click here.

Understanding Strategic and Tactical Marketing Analytics
by Don Holtz

There are many different ways to classify different types of marketing analytics that are employed to improve marketing performance. One of the easiest is to differentiate between strategic and tactical analytics that each offer different perspectives to help maximize marketing performance. Tactical analytics focus on assessing and improving the effectiveness of specific marketing initiatives while strategic analytics focus on guiding all marketing investments in a direction that improves all marketing programs.

It is important to understand the difference between the two types of analytics. Far more companies employ the use of tactical marketing analytics to improve their marketing performance. These analytics are used to improve marketing performance in the short term in very specific circumstances. Strategic analytics are typically more advanced and have the potential to have a much greater impact on marketing performance. These analytics are not limited to the marketing already in place, but instead look broader at what marketing should be in place. (continued online)

Don Holtz is President of Interlocking Analytics, our strategic partner for business-driven modeling, analysis and data-mining integrated with advanced ROI processes to assess and guide more profitable marketing decisions. You can reach Don at dholtz@ultraia.com.

(c) Lenskold Group 2008. All rights reserved. Funnel Vision published with permission from MathMarketing.

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American Marketing Association's Marketing News Live
The Secrets to Highly Effective, Highly Efficient, and High ROI Marketing

October 22, 2008
12:00 Noon Eastern Time

Jim Lenskold will share insights from the Lenskold Group/Kneebone 2008 Marketing ROI and Measurements Study and discuss the secrets to success in driving profitable marketing performance.

To hear a recorded version following the event, click here after October 29, 2008.

Upcoming BetterManagment.com Webinar
7 Steps to Manage and Deliver Highly Effective, Highly Efficient, and High-ROI Marketing

October 22, 2008
2:00 p.m. Eastern Time

Based on findings from The Lenskold Group / Kneebone 2008 Marketing ROI & Measurements Study, Jim Lenskold has outlined 7 critical steps that every company can take to improve their effectiveness, efficiency, and ROI performance. He’ll discuss key challenges of marketing measurements, how to establish initial success and momentum, and how to overcome cultural barriers.

AMA: New Jersey Chapter
Maximizing Marketing Performance: Put Marketing ROI to Use In Your Business

November 20, 2008
6:00 p.m.
Basking Ridge Country Club
Basking Ridge, NJ

AMA: ROI Techniques Workshops

2-day interactive workshops open for individual enrollment. Marketing ROI Techniques: Improving Campaign Strategies, Analytics, and Profitability.

SanFrancisco, CA
January 27-28, 2009

Atlanta, GA
February 17-18, 2009

New York, NY
March 11-12, 2009

Taproot Marketing & Communications Presents:
Maximizing Returns on Marketing Investment

January 15-16, 2009
Barbados

2-day interactive workshop. Learn how Marketing ROI supports campaign planning and effectiveness. (Discounts through October 31.)