Brands are doing all they can through social media and the blogosphere to ensure they’re reaching a wide audience and relating to their customers like never before. To measure their success and keep their profit margins rising, companies use key performance indicators, or KPIs, which help them track their success and identify performance trends. While no two brands are alike, there are several key metrics used to determine success based on the desired marketing campaigns.
What is a KPI?
In short, KPIs are values which are quantifiable and relate to a brand’s marketing strategy. There are several categories of KPIs which will be explored in this guide. Whichever category is being discussed, however, each KPI serves a specific purpose and should be evaluated for its marketing value.
Even though each campaign is unique to the KPIs that determine its success, there are some ground rules for what any KPI should fulfill for your marketing efforts.
- Provide insight or recognize trends so it can be used to determine future marketing decisions.
- Quantifiable so you can directly measure and compare results.
- Align with the brand’s overall strategic roadmap to show progress towards a specified goal.
MARKETING KPIS
Let’s take a look at marketing KPIs. These tenets may seem basic, but they provide the foundation for decisions made by some of the largest companies in the world. Sales revenue, or Return on Investment (ROI), is one of the core values when it comes to marketing KPIs. Sales marketing refers specifically to revenue drawn from your inbound marketing techniques, not just total revenue.
Another common but very important KPI is Cost per Lead (CPL), which tells you how much you’re spending to acquire new customers. This provides a benchmark for your marketing budget vs. total revenue.
Another often overlooked KPI is Traffic-to-Lead Ratio, which is a measurement of the total traffic on your website compared to the number of new leads you’re generating in the same timeframe. This value can vary depending on your industry but should maintain above 4% overall.
Probably the most important KPI is Conversions, though they can be difficult to track accurately. There are several tools available to help track conversions such as a CRM, Google Analytics or old school link codes. Whatever your conversion metric, it’s imperative to set up proper conversion tracking for the growth of any business.
organic KPIS
There are a few organic KPIs that marketers cannot live without. The first of these is engagement, which is a measure of how intimate your customers are with your products and brand. There are several KPI metrics that measure engagement and they vary based on your brand’s goals and the platform where you are tracking. For your website engagement you can look at the time spent on your site, the number of visits and page views, and one of the more important engagement indicators, bounce rate. For social media platforms important KPIs often revolve around likes, shares and comments.
BRAND AWARNESS KPIS
Of course, there is no more important component to a great marketing strategy than brand awareness. The customer journey and purchasing process all begins with the customer being aware of your brand and its benefits.
It’s good practice to frequently review your social media strategy to determine maximum reach opportunities for your products or services. Take advantage of social listening tools to get a picture for how often your brand is mentioned, both online and by customers in their day-to-day lives. Social media is often overlooked as a trend and brand performance analysis tool to help guide the business into the black.
CONTENT KPIS
In the age of the internet, content is king. More than eighty-eight percent of marketers are integrating content into their strategies and there’s good reason for this. When customers spend more time on your website or social pages, they’re far more likely to buy from your company. It can also increase your reach through organic brand ambassadorship or word of mouth marketing.
In addition to views, you want to grow your subscriber base, using both organic and artificial methods, while engaging your customers on social media platforms and through more indirect media channels such as television ads.
EMAIL MARKETING KPIS
Email is still one of the best performing marketing strategies today. Successful email campaigns have quickly become a sign of top brands, as consumers respond positively to email marketing at an astounding rate. To know just how well your email marketing strategy is working, a key KPI to follow is your open rate, which tells you how many people are opening and engaging with your emails. Additional KPIs for email performance are click-through and unsubscribe rates.
These metrics will tell you if people trust your emails and are using them as a solid and consistent source of information or purchasing funnel for your company.
customer satisfaction KPIS
Last but certainly not least of our top KPI considerations is customer satisfaction. Acquiring new customers is extremely difficult today, which is why customer retention is so important. To ensure your customers are fully satisfied with your brand, consider using indicators such as net promoter score.
Net promoter score tells you how likely customers are to recommend your brand to friends, family, and coworkers. Essentially it’s a measurable organic brand ambassadorship. This KPI could be considered priceless since it’s technically free, requires little to no direct marketing involvement and is likely one of the highest converting tactics in all of marketing.
GET STARTED
Need help finding and implementing your KPIs? Visit www.vanquishmediagroup.com for our hands on expertise to help identify, track, and optimize critical campaigns for your brand and business. Check our portfolio and see for yourself some of our top performing campaigns.
