August 24, 2018
With so many platforms and tools, it’s easier than ever to go down the rabbit hole of marketing metrics. So is everything important…or nothing? Gregory Hart (Marketing Director at PSMJ Resources) and Linda Vassily (VP of Marketing, Cabot Wealth Network) have crunched a data stat or two and have guidance on KPIs that matter in this week’s Friday Four.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of course vary by each company, but are there a top 2 or top 3 that EVERYONE should be tracking?
Greg: “I really like unique website visits because this is such a broad indicator of market visibility. I also like measuring the number of new organic (opt-in) contacts we acquire each month because this drills down from overall market visibility to overall market engagement.”
Linda: “I like those too. I’d add customer lifetime value, to help guide spend on lead acquisition.”
Flip side: is there a severely overused or misunderstood KPI?
Greg: “Email open rates are really overrated in the world of bots and spam filters. The actual open rate can be much lower than the reported rate. Social likes is another one that has very little correlation to actual sales and revenue growth.”
Linda: “Impressions. They are not totally useless—people need to see you to engage with you—but what is referred to as an “impression” often isn’t. How many of the banner ads that were displayed on pages you visited today did you actually see?”
With so many tools and marketing channels, how can audience marketers create coherent reporting that is more than just data crunching for the sake of data crunching?
Greg: “Keep it simple! You can still run a very effective and successful (and even large) brand on a small number of KPIs. Focus first on the end business goals and work backwards from there to identify the right KPIs…rather than finding all the stuff you can measure first (regardless of whether they correlate to your goals).”
Linda: “Also, consider the audience for your reporting. The report you prepare for your CEO will be different from the one you create for your sales team. (And if you haven’t read Avinash Kaushik’s Occam’s Razor blog, go do that.)”
#FridayFavorites: So what are you doing when you’re not crunching KPIs?
Greg: “Skiing, hiking, biking, running, or kayaking in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.”
Linda: “I got tired just reading Greg’s list. You can find me with a good book in my hand, someplace warm and off the beaten path. Extra points if it involves late 18th century British naval history.”
Greg and Linda will take all your KPI questions in their session KPIs that Count: Marketing Performance Benchmarks at the AAMP Conference (Oct 18, downtown Los Angeles). See you there!
