You know that tracking your marketing data is important. And you know HOW to do it. That’s great! Those are two super important pieces of the puzzle.
Once you have clarity around both of those things, you’re probably wondering… “What exactly do I do with all of these numbers?!”
Great question, I’m so glad that you asked! (in my Elyse voice)
(And P.S. if you don’t know why tracking your marketing data is important and you don’t know HOW to do it, click here and here for the full scoop.)
If marketing data means “the facts collected for reference that you use to improve your marketing plans”, then marketing metrics are simply “the values collected for reference that you use to improve your marketing plans.”
Let me explain. ⬇️
Two Types of Marketing Values You Can Collect
One is an important marketing metric to track, the other we could probably just toss in the trash.
At this point maybe you can tell how much I love a good definition, so here we go…
Vanity metrics have no significant impact on a return on your investment. (we’re not just talking about money here! Your time and energy are important too.)
Examples:
- Organic impressions: we can’t control these! Even though you might hear “an IG expert” rapping about the algorithm – that’s proprietary info..
- Comments: I knoooooow these feel good, but unless you are using ManyChat to convert these into leads, comments don’t directly correlate with business growth. We all wish Spam Bots would be gone!
These are the ones you can toss in the trash. Most often these give us a muddy picture of what’s happening and make us second guess ourselves.
We don’t need these. Straight to the trash! 🗑️
The important ones? Actionable metrics!
Actionable metrics are directly tied to your return on investment.
Key Marketing Metrics to Track Monthly
You might be wondering which marketing metrics to track monthly?
My answer — the ones that matter to you.
But that’s vague and unhelpful, so let’s unpack it a little bit.
I believe there are 4 categories of metrics that are important to track:
- Visibility
- First touch points
- Booking/sales
- Nurture
Not sure what any of those mean? Check out my blog, “Top 4 Marketing Metrics Every Business Owner Should Start Tracking FIRST”
In order to know what you should look at you’ll need to identify the actionable metrics related to the efforts you are making in each of the four categories in your customer journey.
Actionable metrics related to visibility might be new users that visit your website.
Actionable metrics related to first touch points might be visits to your service page.
Actionable metrics related to booking/sales might be sales calls booked
Actionable metrics related to nurturing might be email open rates.
Now that you have an understanding of what marketing metrics to track you might be wondering…
How do I collect the actionable metrics I’ve selected?
The data collection process can be as simple or as complicated as you choose.
And simple doesn’t have to mean not impactful!
The most important decision you can make when deciding how to collect your actionable metrics is to consider how you best process information.
- Dig a good spreadsheet? Create a simple one to record your actionable metrics.
- Prefer notion? Record your actionable metrics by using a Marketing Experiments Journal
- Need a visually appealing way to look at your data? A Marketing Analytics Dashboard might be for you!
Now that you’ve decided how to collect the marketing metrics you are going to track, it’s time to interpret the patterns you see in your marketing data.
Here’s how to do it. ⬇️
How To Interpret the patterns you see in your marketing data
Once you’ve collected your marketing data, I suggest you look for patterns because our marketing doesn’t happen in a vacuum. We can’t guarantee every piece of marketing collateral gets seen by potential clients.
We’re also much better served by looking at a larger set of data.
What do I mean?
You wouldn’t want to look at your metrics and make a decision about a marketing effort if that effort doesn’t have volume.
I know, so often we’re sold “overnight success” stories in this Amazon prime world we live in.. but don’t be discouraged if you don’t see immediate success.
Most marketing success is backed by silent testing and tweaking that you might not see.
When looking for patterns ask yourself these questions:
- Is there something driving results that is surprising to you?
- What is it?
- How can you leverage it better?
- Is there something that you hoped would be driving results more effectively?
- What is it?
- How can you improve on it and try again?
- Is there anything you haven’t tried yet that you’d like to try?
What To Do With Your Marketing Metrics Once You Have Them
Once you spot some trends, it’s time to lean in (or out) based on what you see.
Ask yourself – What changes do you think you might want (or need) to make?
Let’s walk through a few examples together.
If your actionable metric related to visibility is new users that visit your website – take notice of where your new users are coming from.
- Which marketing effort is directly affecting that number?
- Do you enjoy it?
- How could you do it better?
If your actionable metric related to first touch points is visits to your service page – take note of what marketing effort is resulting in service page visits.
- Do you enjoy it?
- How could you do it better?
- Is there an effort that you thought would be driving more traffic?
- How can you change that?
If your actionable metric related to booking/sales is sales calls booked – take note of how you are booking those calls
- Are you booking calls from your DMs?
- Are people filling out the form on your website?
- Are these coming from your evergreen lead generating funnels?
- Where should you focus more of your attention? Less of your attention?
If your actionable metric related to nurturing is email open rates – take note of what might be affecting those.
- Do you notice a subject line formula that results in much higher openings?
- Do you notice a day that your emails are more well received?
- Is there a type of email your list seems to enjoy?
- Do you notice a correlation of any of the above with your click thru rates?
- How can you improve your results?
Overall, there are 4 steps to get started tracking your marketing metrics monthly:
- Decide which marketing metrics to track
- Determine how you’d like to collect your actionable metrics
- Interpret the patterns you see in your marketing data
- Take action based on your data
Now it’s your turn to play detective 🕵️ in your own marketing data!
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