Measure your marketing in five steps: to justify your expenses, you must have, at minimum, a formal marketing plan and a measuring system to show how you are achieving the bank's goals.

• Author: Renner, Lisa
• Position: Metrics

Are you spending your marketing dollars on the right things? Do you know what to expect for the money you are spending? When all is said and done, what is your return on investment? These are questions that CEOs as well as bank marketers frequently ask themselves about expenses. Rightfully so, as top-level officials are becoming increasingly responsible for justifying expenditures.

In response to debacles such as Enron and Worldcom, Congress enacted the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. This act was designed to enforce greater responsibility for monitoring, measuring and reporting company financials.

Requirements of the act hold top-level officials more accountable for measuring results of expenditures, and marketing expenses are not exempt. However, by re-evaluating your marketing strategies and measuring return-on-investment, you will not have to worry about reporting and justifying your marketing expenditures each year.

There are five steps that can guarantee your marketing expenses are being measured and your accountability is covered:

1) Align marketing strategies with strategic goals.

Stephen Covey is famous for coining the phrase, "Begin with the end in mind," and that's a great way to think of marketing strategy development. The process begins by analyzing the organization's strategic business goals one at a time and developing individual marketing strategies that answer the question, "How do we achieve this goal through effective, efficient use of the marketing mix?"

For example, if one strategic business goal is to increase your customer base, you must consider tactics that will increase visibility within your community, like a brand or image campaign. Or, if increasing deposits is a goal, you can plan for special promotion of certificates of deposit (CDs) or individual retirement accounts (IRAs).

2) Base your strategies on research.

There are three groups that must be evaluated and researched before planning begins. By researching these key groups, you can base your decision-making and plan your strategies around statistics, rather than rough guesses.

* Staff. Beginning internally, you must determine if your staff supports your marketing. Staff incentives must be kept in mind while planning for future marketing efforts. Your staff is the face of your bank, and they are a huge part of your marketing efforts. They interact with customers daily; use their expertise in your products and services to your advantage.

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