Finding your North Star Metric

Steve

20 posts
I am a marketing and analytics professional with over 15 years experience in strategic marketing development. I am passionate about working with organisations that want to improve their marketing effectiveness and get more from their data; who wish to use its potential to describe what has happened, prescript operational activity and predict business outcomes.
Finding your North Star Metric

Finding Your North Star Metric

In today's data-intensive environment, clarity is an advantage. This post defines what a North Star Metric truly is, why it's essential in 2025, and how to discover the single metric that best indicates customer value and fuels durable business growth. With real-world examples, an actionable framework, and common mistakes to steer clear of — this is an absolute must-read for any manager who wants to align their team behind what makes the greatest difference.
Agile Marketing Plan

Elements of an Adaptive Marketing Plan

This article unpacks what makes an adaptive marketing plan and why this approach is vital for modern businesses. Learn how to embrace adaptive opportunity management, prepare for performance variability, and explore strategic alternatives to keep your marketing efforts relevant and effective. When change is constant, adaptation is the key to staying ahead.
Agentic AI

The Rise of Agentic AI for Marketing

Agentic AI is set to revolutionise marketing with autonomy at the strategic, planning, execution, and learning levels. It will enable dynamic personalisation, predictive analytics, and end-to-end campaign management, reshaping marketers’ roles in ways unimaginable in the past. While AI will create immense possibilities, human overview remains critical in ensuring creativity is ethical and aligned to strategy. After all, the future is about collaborating with humans, thereby empowering marketers to achieve unimaginable results by retaining control and trust in the process.
Operational Marketing

Operational Marketing: Learning from the Military

Operational marketing is that key bridge between strategy and tactics, though frequently misunderstood or overlooked. Drawing from the concept of operational art in the military, this article shares how marketers can develop operational thinking to align strategy, maximise resources, and respond to changes in the market. More importantly, through real examples and a step-by-step framework, it shows how operational marketing transforms goals into results to ensure your campaigns aren't just practical but also strategically impactful.
Questions Marketing Leaders Should Ask

42 Questions Marketing Leaders Should Ask

Discover 42 essential questions marketing leaders should ask to sharpen strategy, foster innovation, and drive long-term success. This guide challenges conventional thinking - By exploring these questions, marketing leaders can foster transparency, uncover hidden opportunities, and ensure their strategies are aligned with long-term business success.
Customer Journey Analytics

A Guide to Customer Journey Analytics

Here we delve into Customer Journey Analytics, a scientific, data-oriented methodology that offers a profound understanding of customer behaviours and needs. We discuss how this approach is not just about improving sales, but about building enduring relationships and curating experiences that resonate on a personal level. We also explore how implementing Customer Journey Analytics into your strategy can transform your understanding of your customers and drive your business to new heights of success.
Marketing Analytics Growth Strategy

The Ultimate Marketing Analytics Growth Strategy

The article presents a coherent argument for the indispensable role of marketing analytics in modern marketing strategies. It illustrates how a meticulously crafted analytics strategy can unveil crucial insights into consumer behaviour, which is instrumental in making informed marketing decisions. The narrative further explores how analytics can optimise marketing expenditure by ensuring that resources are channelled into the most impactful initiatives.
Mastering Marketing Mix Modelling with AI

Mastering Marketing Mix Modelling with AI

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is playing a revolutionary role in augmenting Marketing Mix Modelling (MMM), a methodology utilised by marketers to analyse the effectiveness of various marketing channels. It highlights the drawbacks of traditional MMM, including its dependency on historical data, linear models, and the subsequent inaccuracies these cause. The rapid growth of digital platforms has further exacerbated the complexity of isolating the impact of individual marketing activities.
How to Leverage Behavioural Economics

How to Leverage Behavioural Economics

The article explains behavioural economics' intersection with marketing, illustrating how understanding cognitive biases like loss aversion and anchoring can significantly enhance marketing strategies. It underscores the practical application of these theories in modern marketing, providing actionable insights for leveraging consumer psychology to drive purchasing decisions.
Propensity Modelling

Unlock the Hidden Value of Propensity Modelling

Propensity modelling utilises advanced data analytics to predict customer behaviour, enabling businesses to optimise marketing strategies and drive growth. By analysing historical data, marketers can identify behavioural patterns and determine customers' likelihood to engage with specific products or services. This article delves into the benefits of propensity modelling, including improved targeting, resource optimisation, and increased customer engagement. Businesses can develop tailored marketing approaches by understanding customer tendencies and enhancing conversion rates and revenue growth. Furthermore, propensity models can identify potential customer churn, enabling organisations to address issues before losing valuable clients.