But what can you measure? There are several different aspects of marketing that you can measure, then analyze and in turn prove that your efforts are successful or are in need of some change. With analytics you can make realistic goals while spending money more effectively. Below are the different stages of your potential customers that you should be measuring. If you measure these, you can then strategize how to better implement a plan to strengthen your marketing.
What is the purpose of having amazing content on your website if you don’t have traffic coming to read it? Measuring your website traffic is important to determine if the content is relevant to your potential customers and using the right terms people are searching for. When you create campaigns for your content, measuring the change in traffic to your website is a way to track the performance of that campaign.
Prospects are people who have taken interest in your product or service. This is when your potential customers are still in search of the answers to their problems and are contemplating buying your product or service. Knowing the number of prospects that you are generating will give you insight on where you lose them in the buyer's decision process.
Qualified leads are closer to becoming customers than prospects. By monitoring the number of qualified leads that you have, you are able to calculate if your marketing efforts are attracting the right leads to your product. Measuring leads is the second most common part of marketing that businesses measure.
If you are lucky to have customers, tracking them will give proof that your marketing efforts are successful and let you know what you are doing right. A common analytic is comparing the number of current customers to previous months. You can set goals to have a certain amount of customers in a certain period of time and try to meet them.
Why would you need to track your returning customers? One of the best ways to know if your product or service is helpful is if your customers keep on coming back to you. This can also help you gauge if your customer service is on point. If you have few returning customers then you know that changes are in your business’s future.
If you have extremely happy customers they will be more apt to tell their family and friends about their great experience with your product or service! Tracking your referrals can help you decide if it would be financially beneficial for you to implement referral programs to your customers.
Wow, I know that tracking all of the things above can take time and money. We use HubSpot to help with our analytics to help save both time and money. If you start using analytics in your marketing strategy then you can use that data to have targeted action that takes the abstract nature out of marketing.
Does this sound like something that you want to implement in your marketing strategy? Maybe you don’t know where to start or just don’t want to maintain it yourself. Then Half a Bubble Out can help you take the next steps to having a successful small business.
Since 2002, Half a Bubble Out has been dedicated to providing marketing, advertising and small business consulting that meet the needs of our clients. We specialize in powerfully telling stories through Inbound Marketing to grow your business filled with more passion and provision. Based in Chico California, we serve clients throughout Northern California and across the country to New York.