As marketers, our lives are full of information collection, dissemination and distribution. As inbound marketers, our goal is to attract potential clients and draw them into the sales funnel by offering information that will interest them. Over time, our marketing efforts should produce data collected from a variety of sources such as our social media efforts, content marketing efforts, landing pages, and websites. Yet, how can we measure marketing success based on actionable data rather than just saying “Well, it helped with customer engagement and brought more people into the funnel, so it must work!”
Deciding What Metrics to Use: How to Get Usable, Actionable Data
Can Customer Satisfaction or “Engagement” be a Solid Marketing Metric?
During the conversation on LinkedIn, Shultz mentioned that he has one client that has stayed with his agency for 10 years just based on the results of this survey. However, is this really enough to keep the average client on board for just a couple of years in the age of digital marketing – especially when fickle C-suite execs need answers “yesterday” about marketing efforts and investments? How can these metrics be more clearly defined?
The Solution: Marketing Metrics are All About Context
Consultant Julie Hunt writes that when it comes to measuring customer engagement, marketers need to put everything into context and terms need to be defined. What does your company consider to be engagement? What does your data actually say? What will be most relevant to your company or organization?
She goes on to say that “customer engagement” as we see it today is a subjective topic and that it must be drilled down in the context of your business. These metrics must be drilled down so that real, actionable data can be collected and your marketing strategy can be formulated or changed based on the information you have collected.
It’s not just about context; it’s also about how you are defining these metrics. She cautions that being too general just won’t help anything. She writes:
“Don't over-generalize customer activities as "customer engagement" – call out what each item is and label accordingly (i.e., "visit frequency"). The metrics associated with each item become more meaningful when categorized; the composite of these different digital interaction metrics then convey important quantitative data that provide indicators of customer engagement.”
Unusual metrics might not be popular or even particularly valid in certain cases, but when analyzed properly and in the proper context, the information collected and analyzed can be incredibly powerful in creating or updating your marketing strategy.
Do you have any unusual metrics that you use to measure your marketing effectiveness? What’s worked for you? Let us know in the comments below.