It’s not hard to see how marketing is changing. It’s harder to see what parts of marketing are staying the same. 2016 will be a year where marketing will become more relevant and real time. Marketers will find a new use for the voice (and words) of the customer. Content marketing will take on new roles and marketers will learn some new acronyms. Most importantly, in 2016 successful marketers will start to decode the role of behavior in marketing, something that direct and data-driven marketers discovered decades ago.

Marketing communications and marketing channels are changing rapidly. Not all business-to-business (B2B) marketers are keeping up. Too many B2B marketers base their decisions on results gleaned in a marketing landscape that doesn’t resemble today’s – one where marketing communications were focused on products and brands, not on the customers who purchased them. That may have been acceptable in the past, but not in a time where personalized, relevant data-driven communications have become the norm.

I recently awoke after a long weekend to learn that many of the marketing tactics I have been recommending to clients no longer work. Had I awakened in some dystopian alternative universe? Was I in an episode of Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone? Or was it all just a dream?

In the first part of this blog post, I mentioned a direct mail package from a roofing services company that I received many times before, but never opened. I described how I look at the outer envelope for clues, details and “tells” about what may be inside.

In the first part of this blog post, I described how I look at the promotional direct mail that arrives in my mailbox. I mentioned a direct mail package from a roofing services company I received many times before but never opened. I described how I look at the outer envelope for clues, details and “tells” about what may be inside.

I get a lot of direct mail in my home and office mailboxes. I try to open up my mail and look at it like a prospect or customer might. I look for clues, details and “tells” about what may be inside. And, I ask myself what would the prospect, receiving this mail for the first time, see? That may not be a fair question, because I am not the average prospect or customer. Nonetheless, I do my best to look at each new piece of direct mail that I receive as a fresh, original experience.

I am often asked why I still hang on to the idea that I am a direct marketer. The words “direct marketing” seem to have fallen out of vogue. As co-author of Successful Direct Marketing Methods, now in its eighth edition, it would be impossible for me to hide this fact. The more I think about it, the more I realize that direct marketing should be celebrated, not looked upon as a discipline out of the early 20th century. The tools and techniques of direct marketing are the underlying principles that modern marketing is built on. Click here to purchase the book.

I was on a call recently with my friend Laura Patterson of VisionEdge Marketing. Laura consults with top companies on marketing performance, measurement and metrics. Each year, Laura partners with ITSMA, a research-based membership organization that works with the world’s leading professional services, technology and communications providers, to do a research survey on Marketing Performance Management (MPM). This is the 13th year of the MPM survey. If you haven’t already seen or responded to this survey, I am going to ask your patience to read on.

When times get tough, businesses often shift their focus from creating new customers to creating the greatest amount of revenue from their existing customers. Most of us know that creating customers costs money. And we have seen the math that describes how marketing to customers can contribute anywhere from five to 10 times the profit of marketing to prospects. So, if profits are an organization’s goal, then organizations should invest more money on marketing to customers than on customer acquisition, right?

Part 1 of this article explored what Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs, are and how they help marketers measure the success of their programs and prove how they contribute to the success of organizations. In Part 2, we will drill down into the process of creating KPIs based on the marketing program’s objectives and how to effectively use them to achieve those objectives.