Natasha Kesaji is VP-client services at Jacobs Agency. She spoke with BtoB about the challenges of measuring integrated marketing campaigns.

BtoB: What do you consider the biggest barriers to developing an integrated metrics system that goes across all media channels?

Natasha Kesaji: There's a lack of integration across a lot of marketing organizations. We've seen brand groups owning channels like the Web and then demand generation groups owning aspects of email marketing, and not everyone having a full 360-degree view of customer touch points, even across their existing platforms. Another barrier is a lack of measurement, particularly in the b2b marketing space, around traditional media. I don't think a lot of companies make the investment to really capture the effect of some of the more traditional marketing activities.

BtoB: Why is it so difficult for marketers to understand all of the influencing factors on the path to purchase?

Kesaji: B2b marketers rarely talk to their customers and ask them what are some of the channels that they're using to arrive at their decisions. Marketers feel pressure to be in all of these growing and emerging channels, but they are not necessarily sure of where people are aggregating or how certain segments are behaving versus others, so they don't have a very clear picture of what is the buying cycle and what are all the decisive factors

BtoB: You refer to the importance of b2b marketers being able to “rinse and repeat” when it comes to the ability to target customers at the right time. What do you mean by that?

Kesaji: If you had a better understanding of which is the right content that would help to sway the decision to get your company on that RFP (request for proposal), then wouldn't you want to know if it was that particular white paper or that particular podcast that really was the tipping point for someone? You want to be able to “"rinse and repeat”' that experience versus just publishing something that came out last week because you have it. —M.S.