marketing metrics

Three steps to make sure you’re using the right marketing metrics

If you give a speech to a room full of people, but no one attending remembers what you’ve said and leaves feeling disconnected, was the experience successful? Companies often measure online success through superficial metrics. Instead of chasing likes and views, meaningful interaction with people invested in your brand should be the objective. Make sure you’re using the right marketing metrics.

People online are usually interacting with others and you should view this as an opportunity to engage in conversation. Though the medium of communication is digital, consumers are seeking human interaction. Focus on the three steps below in order to increase your marketing transparency, improve consumer engagement, and see better results.

Step 1: Make Sure Your Goals are SMART

It’s easy to throw out goals in business. Revenue needs to double. Marketing Qualified Leads should increase 6x. More people should read your website. But many of these goals call lead to murky marketing plans and poor planning. That’s why the first step is to make sure you’re goals are quantifiable and trackable.

One tried and true way to make sure your goals are headed in the right direction is to use the SMART method.

SMART goals are

Specific

Measurable

Appropriate

Realistic

Timely

What this means — other than being a handy acronym — is that goals should be specific to your role in a company, measurable, appropriate and realistic so that they are achievable, and measurable so that you can know if you’re meeting them.

A SMART goal for me, your author, would be “Increase website traffic 2x over the next quarter.” It’s clear and specific: I want to increase website traffic.  It’s measurable because that’s a quantifiable metric (hello Google Analytics!). It’s appropriate to my role because I run this website and control all your eyeballs with my content. And it’s realistic because it’s attainable. Also, it’s timely because it has a set deadline: one quarter.

If your goals aren’t smart, you’re setting yourself up to fail. If you’re not setting the right goals, you’re not going to have the right marketing metrics.

Step 2: Create The Right Objectives

Creating objectives and goals before the start of a campaign should be one of the first steps when conducting a campaign. Often companies run campaigns and try to review their analytics without knowing where to start or what measures to compare in order to analyze their growth. Establishing good objectives and goals, not generic ones such as “increase likes” is essential to progressing as a brand. Your objectives control your marketing metrics.

Example Objectives:

-increase engagement across all platforms

– interaction with consumers

-Double recommendation rate in the next quarter

Step 3: Establish Consistent & Meaningful KPIs:

Having clear Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and metrics across all platforms will make comparing data easier. However, you need to identify relevant metrics and KPIs in order to calculate the true performance of marketing campaigns.

In the world of marketing, metrics and KPIs are like squares and rectangles. All KPIs are metrics, but not all metrics are KPIs. Metrics are anything you’re measuring in your marketing. Engagement rates, click through rates, bounce rates, website traffic. They’re all metrics. But KPIs are specific metrics that link back to to the business objectives you identified in step one.

In the realm of social marketing, companies have been focusing on the wrong metrics (page views, page likes, etc…). An abundance of page likes that don’t interact with you is like having a lot of friends who never talk to you. You’ll only be pushing your message to disconnected consumers and you don’t want to be that friend who only reaches out when they want something. Instead, focus on metrics that incorporate macro and micro conversions such as conversation, amplification, applause and economic value. These metrics measure actual engagement illustrated through comments, sharing, and vouching between consumers and companies on social media. These metrics also focus on how often consumers interact with your brand, the likelihood of them sharing your brand with others, and how that benefits you financially.

Examples of KPIs:

Increase Marketing Transparency Table

Final Tip: Make a goal to provide value, not drive sales

One of the biggest mistakes companies make in marketing is that they constantly push products and content that consumers don’t want to see. When conducting a campaign (especially a digital campaign), creating authentic content that resonates with consumers is important. Regardless of what platform you’re using, if the content or interaction occurring does not resonate and engage with consumers, it will not succeed. Know what your audience wants and create content that appeals to them. The focus of your posts shouldn’t be to sell something.  Use conversational speech and listen to what your audience wants. Unlike other mediums, digital marketing allows for businesses to track, monitor, analyze, and engage with consumers. Use that to your advantage.

Super Tip Tuesday Marketing Tips




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