NASA used math to send rockets into space and to land people on the moon. Analytics is the math behind successful marketing launches.
In marketing analytics, you capture and analyze data to understand the results and the impact of activities, maximize ROI to bolster business strategy, and ideally learn to identify areas of improvement.
Analytics can accurately gauge the success of campaigns and drive data-based decisions. Marketing analytics can inform new product features, services, branding, customer support, upsells, and more.
Analytics also can tell a lot about your consumers. In addition to understanding customers, analytics ensure they see messaging tailored to their needs rather than annoying mass messaging.
I love this insight from Cindy Alvarez:
“You don’t need to learn what customers say they want; you need to learn how customers behave and what they need. In other words, focus on their problem, not their suggested solution.”
So how do you consider all the variables and generate the right equation?
Choose Specifics. Select keywords and images carefully to learn more about your current and potential customers. Engagement with these elements reveal what they need in real time. Start by asking your team and supplement your findings with industry lists. This process reinforces working relationships with the team by understanding and defining what resonates with clients.
Predict Results. Plan campaigns to consider both what items to include and what results to expect. Look in terms of actions (e.g. viewers responses in impressions, likes, and shares) and outcomes (e.g. viewers take meetings and sales). Predicting the future then analyzing your accuracy improves learning. Avoid vanity metrics which seem satisfying but actually have no impact on the funnel or the topline.
Share Metrics. Depending on the complexity of your business and marketing, you may end up using multiple tools across numerous channels. Force all your meaningful metrics into a central dashboard shared with company leaders. Creating a dashboard forces you to define priorities, show progress, and receive valuable feedback to continuously learn and improve.
Compare Channels. Apply similar metrics across channels to standardize comparison. For instance, you can look at quarterly percentage growth to broadly compare change. While attribution (which channel has the most impact on buyer behavior) and crossover effects (success in one channel may impact another channel) are thorny, push yourself to keep learning. Attribution in marketing can be incredibly complex and hard to define but keep striving to understand.
Some channels you should consider measuring:
Website. Sessions, Users, Page Views, Session Duration, Bounce Rate (percentage of visitors who leave the site after viewing only one page), Conversion Rate (people performing desired actions on your site), and SEO (finding your site organically)
Blog. The same as Website metrics.
Paid Advertising. Click-Through Rate (percentage of users that clicked on your ad compared to the number of times it was viewed), Cost per Click, and the Cost per Conversion (money spent for a desired action to occur).
Social Media. Engagement (likes, comments, and shares are arguably valuable but show if you resonate with the target audience), Audience Growth, Traffic (people heading to your website).
Email Marketing. Delivery Rate (percentage of recipients who received your email), Open Rate, Click-Through Rate (users who clicked on at least one link), Conversion Rate (people performing desired actions), Unsubscribes (people who opt out).
Face your challenges. Know what challenges you may encounter to better defeat them:
- There is a disconnect between business strategy and marketing campaigns. The analytics may be exceptional, but also useless if they do not tie into company goals.
- The data quantity is too small. You may not have enough information to make decisions, even though you are tempted to react to one or two data points.
- The data quantity is too large. You may spend all your effort organizing and formatting data with no time left to think strategically and to apply your learning
- The data quality is too unreliable. Not matter how much date you have, if it’s wrong then it will not help you.
People and trends are constantly shifting. You will want to challenge your own assumptions which may have been right yesterday but wrong today. Research regularly and incorporate the latest thinking on buyer needs, competitive solutions, and macro changes which may impact your industry and your business.
If math opened us to outer space, it certainly could help your business launch. Marketing analytics can be the fuel blasting great ideas into strong revenue growth. It just adds up.
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Photo by Chuk Yong who also can be found here: https://bit.ly/3dnG2fA