What does successful marketing look like?

There isn't a universal definition of what successful marketing looks like.

And you would be very wrong to assume that how you see success in marketing is the same as how somebody else (like your client / CEO / CMO / CFO) sees it.

For some, the definition of 'successful marketing' is the maintenance of a company cost centre that is assigned a decreasing amount of budget every year. TICK.

For others, successful marketing is an investment that can be accurately tracked for conversion. TICK.

And then there are those that value the outsized margins that good marketing work can unlock - market share growth, sales volumes, brand salience may all fall within this particular paradigm. TICK, TICK, TICK.

The point is that definitions of success, even within the same organisation, are nuanced and a lot of time and frustration can be spent speaking different languages, while using the same words.

To get some clarity as to how different people see the same thing, here are few questions to ask of the people that matter:

• What does successful marketing look like to you?
• Is it clear where the differences lie?
• How might we settle on a definition that is more equitably shared?
• Where might our shared definition lead us to in the future?