DIGITALA STRATEGIER, PULL MARKETING, REFERENSER & CASE | LÄSTID: 3 MINUTER | 27 SEPTEMBER
The top indicator of marketing performance: increased sales
Marketing must not be seen as an expense, it must be treated as an investment, both in terms of budget and how much it contributes to increased sales and profitability.
Traditionally, marketing has been the first thing that is cut back on in a crisis, especially in organizations that don’t use data-driven marketing and can report accurate results. They rely on luck, or on the whims of their CMO. If sales increase the marketing department takes credit, if it decreases it’s due to forces outside their control.
Fortunately, there are few organizations that work just like this slightly extreme example, but it is more accurate than we would prefer.
Measure marketing impact
Digital marketing brings great opportunities to measure the performance of marketing initiatives. It is possible to see how many people are shown an ad, how your web visitors behave, or what search terms your potential customers use when searching for your products. Most importantly, it is possible to see how many sales can be attributed to the digital channels.
Data-driven pull marketing gives tangible results that show on the income statement and are felt by the sales department. A McKinsey report shows that companies implementing data-driven marketing can become 30% more effective in their marketing, and increase revenue by 10% – all without increasing the marketing budget.
With an increasing amount of measurable parameters, it is increasingly important to know where to focus, and what the different points of data can be used for. In the early stages of marketing efforts, indicative measurements, such as the number of visitors to the website or search engine advertising impression rates, can provide companies with important insights into whether they have the right marketing strategy.
Such metrics are important for top-funnel campaigns. They imply future results, but they are not worth anything in and of themselves. Of course, branding activities are valuable in the long run, but they are usually less useful in the short term – especially when an investment needs to be justified.
The most important measurement should be the actual tangible value of the marketing: increased sales and/or the number of sales meetings.
Key indicators for all parts of the customer journey
Being a data-driven digital marketing agency, measurability and reporting is a cornerstone of GO MO’s offering. Below, we list some of the most important indicators featured in our monthly reports, from top-funnel indicators to the KPIs related to sales.
Keyword Ranking
Ranking high on search engines is fundamental for online exposure. Being visible for keywords relevant to your business means you get an incredibly strong platform for communicating to a relevant audience. Being “chosen by Google” is strongly linked to trust, and is essential to becoming a thought leader.
Traffic
A high rank on Google means more people will find your website.
How many visits your website gets – its traffic – is measured in sessions. In addition to the number of visits, the ratio of new/returning visitors can give important insights. Other indicators of interest are how long visitors stay on a page, how many leave immediately (the bounce rate), or what channel the traffic comes from.
Organic traffic from search engines is a key indicator of how well your SEO is performing. Direct traffic is when someone enters your website directly by typing in the URL or using a bookmark. There is also traffic from social media and paid traffic from your online ads.
Conversion rate
Someone visiting your website and converting can mean many things. For some businesses, it means a purchase, but in B2B marketing it is more common to talk about other goal completions.
For instance, the number of people filling out a contact form, or requesting a quote are common goals. These sales-qualified leads move on to the next step in your funnel autonomously.
Measure – and adjust
Measuring the results of marketing is just one part of a successful digital marketing strategy. Marketing must be based on data from the outset, and be adjusted according to how it performs.
By continuously measuring the performance using real-time data, and updating the strategy accordingly, it is possible to respond to shifts in buying behavior or to tweak the communication to meet your target audience more effectively.
Measurable results from your marketing
By using data, it is possible to know and show which marketing strategies will give results. The strategies we create together with our clients are always based on data. An important part of our offering is the frequent reporting of results.
Are you interested in how your organization can implement data-driven marketing? Contact us to book an exploratory meeting to start formulating a measurable marketing strategy.
