Are Good Metrics Hurting Creativity?

Quick thought...

Marketers - more specifically B2B marketers - have made tremendous steps over the past few years with regard to measuring the results of their campaigns, attributing every dollar of revenue to the source (or sources) that touched it on its way to you. But is that having an impact on creativity? Are we becoming hesitant to try new things if we are unable to immediately and accurately measure the impact on revenue?

Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section.

Comments

[Rick Burnes]

Creativity is an independent variable. If you're creative great metrics won't restrict you -- you'll be constantly searching for new ways to push beyond your status quo. If you don't have it, you'll be stuck w/ the status quo, w/ or w/o good metrics.

We had an interesting conversation about this (in the context of ROI) here in Cambridge earlier this week: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/4405/How-Do-You-Measure-the-ROI-of-Social-Media-You-Don-t.aspx

[Jason Stewart]

Rick...that post (and my subsequent comment on it) is what got me thinking about this. Specifically marketing to social networks. I think that it's a cop-out to say we *can't* measure ROI of marketing to social networks (where there's a will there is a way), but is the lack of clear cut measurement metrics hindering the creative process? Not just with regard to social network marketing, either.

[Rick Burnes]

Jason, sorry not to make the connection between your comment and your post. I agree w/ you -- social media marketing is as essential and as hard to measure as good PR.

That said, I don't think the state of measurement will affect people's creativity. Rather, I think people's creativity will determine how they deal with the state of measurement. If marketers do as McAfee suggests and "measure what you can," they can find creative ways to determine/demonstrate the effectiveness of new techniques.

[Justin King]

I think anytime one thing is overemphasized beyond its value it hurts all the other aspects. That's why I think it's dangerous to overemphasize things like conversion. Conversion is a good thing to concentrate on, but not at the expense of other things like other relevant content (and even brand).

[Jason Stewart]

That's a good point too, Justin. For example, if the open rates and click-through are the metrics you focus on to measure email campaign success, you might be missing a part of the picture. Like, did that campaign drive revenue? Decide what your goals are so you can accurately measure success. If conversion is your goal, so be it. If web traffic is your goal, go for it. Etc.

[Dave deBronkart]

Wow, comments in reverse chronological order?? Never seen that. I'll cope.

Thoughts -

- If all people focus on is what's measurable, they tend to end up doing meaningless things just because they can be measured.

- Otoh, I strongly agree that you can't manage what you can't measure.

- Otooh, I *hate* people who focus on a metric and obstinately disregard that it doesn't signify what it used to. Perfect example: opens. If that's measured as "they hit my server to get the graphic" all it might signify is that they previewed the email. (If I wanted to drum up the world's best-open-rate email list, I'd figure out what recipients are too clueless to turn off previews and images.)

- The new becomes old quickly these days, so what shows up as a new eye-catching tactic today (e.g. Sherpa's recent "Hey, short subject lines get more opens!") aren't likely to be effective 3-6 months from now.

All this leaves me increasingly agreeing with Avinash Kaushik's persistent recommendation http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/ to stick with a few key metrics. Do a lot of things to generate those metrics but don't even bother trying to micromeasure how those things happen.

I think the only solution is to be in the game, know the habits and evolving behaviors of the audience you care about, etc. Bottom line, for cripe's sake don't be freakin' clueless.

[Jason Stewart]

Thinking a bit about Rick's comments re how "I don't think the state of measurement will affect people's creativity. Rather, I think people's creativity will determine how they deal with the state of measurement."

I like this idea in principle, but the overall question I have is about how creativity can be constrained by upper management?

[Peter]

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[mlm success tips]

i dont htink its stifling creativity, on the contrary, we must be even more creative to think of ways to market and then know how to track our advertising for the best yield on investment.
branding is a thing of the past for the majoirty of businesses, so trying new things is the only way to stay competitive in our fast paced busienss world.
matty patterson.

[R. Kontantkort]

I have been in the B2B business for several years now, and yes, It is really important for us to measure our results. Business customers is usually easier to sell several products to when they first become a customer. That's a general advice I can give. - Ray K.

[Business Loans]

As a lender many of my small business owner clients have the same issue. A monthly evaluation of their business was necessary specially when they needed my service for business loans.

[James]

very true! I was thinkin about trying some new and untouched field but am worried the network will be scared away from it just becouse it has never been done!

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