It may not be sexy, but driving your marketing decision-making with data is one of the best, actionable ways to track your progress and measure success. Some marketing gurus are in the camp of “the more, the better” when it comes to marketing metrics, while others think that simply having metrics is enough. Here at LMI360, we look at things a little differently.
We’re breaking down four key marketing metrics and why they’re so important to the success of your website, social media and email strategies. These data-specific metrics are easily measurable and help manage performance so you can create and implement quality deliverables in the future – without hindering that process by recording metrics just because you can!
Marketing Metrics: Staples
Website Traffic – Analytics
Measuring your website traffic helps you track the total number of people who visited or engaged with your site. This information gives you an overall view of where you stand and can be used as a benchmark to see patterns over time. Google Analytics is one free tool that works well and comes with easy-to-use dashboard metrics. The goal, of course, is that your traffic should steadily increase over time.
Bounce Rate – Website
An often-underutilized metric, your website’s bounce rate is the average number of visitors who land on your website and then immediately leave. Each page of your website has its own bounce rate. If a high percentage of people are leaving your site quickly and without any engagement or other interaction, you might want to consider changing up your website design.
Number of Comments – Social Media
Social shares are a good way to indicate engagement on any given post, but more studies are showing that people often share content without even reading or watching it. According to Hubspot, comments are a more reliable indicator of quality engagement on your post. If someone is taking the time to comment on your content, they most likely read it in full.
Bounce Rate – Emails
Bounced emails can be frustrating – a bounce indicates your reader didn’t receive the information you sent to them. That’s valuable information you wanted them to see! Campaign Monitor says that the lower the email bounce rate, the better. While a small bounce rate is okay (email addresses can change, or job roles are updated), a great benchmark is to keep your bounce rate under 2%.
Don’t Let the Numbers Speak for Themselves
Are marketing metrics important? Yes! Are they valuable to decision-making across your social, website or email strategies? We think so! However, don’t get stuck in a rut of thinking marketing metrics are the end-all-be-all. Yes, these numbers are extremely important to the success of your campaigns. But assuming that these numbers tell the whole story is a dangerous notion. Instead, look at your marketing metrics as clues that can alert you. Don’t be afraid to dig into the metrics so you can discover the real root of problems (or success!) within your overall marketing efforts.
