Marketing KPIs for Mr. Right Now
There is a Mr. Right Now at every company. They aren't in marketing. Nor, have they ever taken a marketing class or held a marketing role.
But, they know what they want from marketing. And they want them right now.
Every experienced marketer has worked with Mr. Right Now. It could be your CEO, Sales Executive, or a well-meaning, yet ill-informed, up-and-comer.
Mr. Right Now isn't invested in the long-term success of a brand. He also may not care about your customers. For Mr. Right Now, the only thing that matters is metrics - KPIs, OKRs, MQLs, whether they are real or not.
This creates a challenging situation for marketers -- do you do what's right or what's right now?
KPIS NOW IN TECHNICOLOR
The appeal for Mr. Right Now is that digital marketing is fast. It provides instant gratification. Combine that with a bevy of automated analytical tools and you can create all the reports you desire. Marketing reporting, now in technicolor.
Mr. Right Now is seeking El Dorado. That fictional city of gold -- data mined -- arising from the desert. The golden aura is blinding to the reality that the road to results is paved in years of building a traditional marketing foundation.
Marketing reporting is helpful for marketers to make informed decisions. The tools we have today get us deeper into when and what. But, our tools still can't tell us the most important part of marketing: why. Why does a customer buy? What moves them? Why would they choose you over another?
But, Mr. Right Now doesn't care about that. He wants the data, the numbers, the metrics, or else.
Managing Mr. Right Now
I had a wise colleague who used to remind everyone to not forget classical marketing in a digital right now world.
Classical, or traditional marketing, is defined as the marketing strategies rooted in centuries of research about consumer behavior. Digital marketing is the strategic execution of those tactics via channels connected through the internet.
It isn't one or the other. All marketing is built upon the same foundation: human behavior.
Consumer choices may change over time, but what doesn't is our humanity.
So, how do you manage Mr. Right Now? You can't. He/She/They aren't 'ready' to learn.
But, you can take him/her/them through the customer journey via storytelling. Walk through a day of a customer:
Who are they?
What do they do?
What do they encounter?
How do they feel?
What makes them frustrated? Happy?
How do they hear about your solution?
Why would it matter to them?
What would get them to understand that their problem and our solution meet?
If you can bring empathy into the conversation, Mr. Right Now will see that making a decision to purchase takes more steps than one. It ranges on a host of factors that go well beyond finance or convenience.
It takes a series of events, imprints, and feelings to get that Insta-click to feed their report. Right now, could be years in the making.
