The number of people working with B2B marketers has drastically reduced, according to IDC. The database that computes the overheads of staff in ratio to the program as it regards to marketing is at an all-time high of 65.35.

In those periods, the downtime overhead on each employee increased or went up to $302,400 in 2006. It is 10 percent on the high side from last year. (Averaging both figures put the total money spent on each staff to about $162,292. It also includes all their benefits, pay check, promotions and purchases)

Contrast the fortune of the market productivity with the total US labor productivity, which increased by a mere 1.4% in 2006 (an abysmal showing in a decade). What it is showing is a 7-time increase in marketing productivity in contrast to overall work productivity! It also highlights the growing frustration by marketers of doing more, only to get less.

Let’s explain this

Marketing digitization fuel productivity

The henchman of global productivity growth is the desire that everything has to do with tech. If things like the numbers for overall US productivity is going down, it means the latest crop of business solutions (SFA, ERP) are underutilized. In the other case, talent might just be what is fueling marketing productivity and driving value through digital marketing technology.

The ups and downs of agency outsourcing

The pattern is to consistently give marketing agencies work to close the ratio of people to program gap in relation to marketing. After the transfer of dollars, a benchmark shouldn’t get crossed if an outsourced work requires extra supervision from in-house staff. Outsourcing PPC to outsiders doesn’t motivate the way it does for the in-house team. Such a strategic function should get done in-house.

Be bold to say marketing is an asset.

At some point, there will always be a downward slide between marketing and overall productivity as marketers do more for less much longer. In the long term, those who view marketing as ” milking the puppy” will drop their performance if the milk/cost doesn’t continue to flow. Only those marketers stationed to take up the rails when business is down will be used consistently to help grow a business.