For decades, business marketers have waltzed into budgeting meetings not always being able to justify how they spent prior funds or how such spending made a difference in the marketing of the company's product. However, this did not stop them from requesting even more marketing dollars for big-ticket events and flashy television and radio ads to get the message out and build up the brand.

Now those days of blind budgeting are gone and a new mantra is quickly taking their place with accountability and measurement. With progressively sophisticated tools and piles of data, marketers have access to evidence of what is and is not working in their strategy for marketing. With this knowledge, they have the power to take a more scientific approach to finding a marketing strategy that works. These days marketers are able to find out the actual ROI of each dollar. Even better, this information is available to them not just annually, but as often as they require. The marketing methods used today are even able to provide a view of the returns that are likely on campaigns in the future. Marketing is no longer an expense or cost, it is an investment.