”On the TWELFTH Day of Planning, your boss will ask of you: 12 Analytics to Track . . .”
We want conversions, positive growth, AND engagement. Here are the top track-able marketing analytics we’re paying attention to now . . .
1. Number of Unique Visitors to the Website
Each month, we review our website analytics and compute the number of conversions divided by unique visitors. If you’re tasked with generating leads, you want to see strong website traffic, a steadily improving (or a good) conversion percentage, and a steady stream of conversions that is meeting your lead generation goals
2. First Time Visitors to the Website
In our particular case, our website serves primarily as a lead generation device. So it’s important for us to track the number of first-time visitors to the website each month.
3. Traffic Sources Referring Prospects to theWebsite
We spend a great deal of time creating blog posts and connecting with contacts on LinkedIn. And we continue to focus on our SEO efforts each month. So we expect to see strong traffic from our blog, LinkedIn, and Google.
4. Keywords Driving Traffic to the Website
Every SEO pro pays attention to the Keywords that actually drove traffic to the website during the month. Content Strategists and Copywriters should review top keywords searched to find your website as well, to identify potential areas for additional Content development.
5. Growth in Prospect Database
We’re in a services industry, and to sell services, you need to sell your expertise. A growing prospect database gives us an audience to communicate with on a regular basis and share recent articles, reports, and blog posts that illustrate our thinking and prove our expertise.
6. Email Click-Throughs
We include a “continue” link on our article summaries in our email newsletters. We compute the number of individuals who clicked on at least one article, divided by the number of email addresses reached (total emails sent out minus any returned as undeliverable). This gives us a “Monthly Engagement” percentage that we try to continue to improve.
7. Email Click Topics by Individual Name on the Database
We keep track of which articles in our email messages were clicked by each individual name. We can then review our prospect and customer email database to determine:
Which names have been “engaged” with us over the last 90 days
Which names haven’t been “engaged” with us (over the last 3 months, 6 months, 12 months, never)
Which topics generate the most interest
For the non-engaged, we may send more tightly-focused email messages that discuss one particular topic. We may focus more on those topics that generate the most click-throughs. We have also sent “customized” email messages to our audience, based on the topics they’ve clicked on in the past — and the customized email messages tend to generate 3x the click-through of non-customized emails.
8. Number of Blog Subscribers
We keep track of number of subscribers through Feedburner, to gage how effective our posts and our choice of topics for the blog have been. We think a growing list of subscribers is a good sign the blog is being perceived as having value.
9. Number of Blog Comments
What percentage of blog posts have received comments? Is this number increasing monthly? What’s the average number of comments per post? We brainstorm ideas for generating more engagement from each post.
Which topics received comments, and which received the most comments? Which topics haven’t received any comments? All useful measures to review as we plan blog topics in our Editorial Calendar each month.
10. Twitter Retweets
We regularly check the “@ResponseCoach” link on our Twitter home page (just below the box where you enter your tweet). This link shows you all RT and other mentions you’ve received from other Twitter followers. We track the number of retweets of our Twitter content monthly, and review which topics generated the most interest.
10. Contact with LinkedIn Connections
We keep track of the percentage of our LinkedIn connections with which we’ve had contact during each month. Our goal is to make contact with every connection at least once every 3-4 months. So based on the total number of Connections we have, we have a goal of number of Connections we want to make contact with each week.
12. Facebook Fans
Although we’re not really looking for quantity over quality here, we still want a healthy fan base to reach “critical mass” on Facebook. A healthy fan base can help keep conversations going on your Fan Page Wall. (We post the latest Response Stats on www.facebook.com/Responsecoach. Stop by and LIKE our page to receive the latest updates.)
In 2012, our first task is to add a Google+ company page — which will, no doubt, add another item to our marketing analytics list . . .
Are there other critical measures of engagement that you’re planning to use in 2012?
Karen,
This is a great post. I work with business owners in growing their businesses, within their marketing and sales systems.
They always want to know what kind of results to expect, but they have never tracked any key metrics to know what’s doing what.
These are some nice one’s to encourage them to look at, or look at for them.
Thanks for sharing,
AJ
Thanks AJ. These are the metrics we’ve found make sense for our business as well. They help us track growth progress, as well as how engaged and interested our audience is in what we’re saying on the blog and social media sites. Your clients might also be interested in our Response Stats pages at http://www.facebook.com/Responsecoach. We’ve started to compile response statistics by different media on our Facebook page. What types of businesses are you working with?
Karen,
I consider myself a generalist who works with small business owners who do not have anyone wearing the marketing hat in their business.
I work in the Ag field, Insurance, Software, Investments, High End Audio Retail, Group Insurance, Crop Insurance, Construction, Construction Equipment Sales, these are some of my current clients.
I have been in almost every other industry in the past 6-years.
How about yourself?
-AJ
I’ve done a lot of financial services, tech/software, and various online-only membership and e-commerce websites. I tend to work with smaller businesses or start-up divisions of larger businesses. We will sometimes become the “Marketing Department on Call” for a business, creating the marketing plan, developing or enhancing the website, doing SEO, PPC, creating the email conversion series, etc. Any particular areas you address in sales and marketing?
That is so true Karen. As an author and business man, I can relate to how you said “We compute the number of individuals who clicked on at least one article, divided by the number of email addresses reached”.I hope more people discover your blog because you really know what you’re talking about. Can’t wait to read more from you!
Thanks for your comment, Daniel. Do you use an e-newsletter to communicate with your audience, or individual email messages? Do you track topics clicked on by individual?
Karin,
I wold like to add something to point #5… It states that we’re a “service industry”.. I would like to add that any business that provides or applies marketing content should also be in the “result services” as well…. just a thought
Hi Michael,
Thanks for your comment. Can you tell me more about what you mean by “result services”?
Karen,
I am like AJ, I help a lot of small businesses plan their marketing strategies. Admittedly, I am only 2 years into the social media and content marketing game. I am still learning and appreciate all of the guidance you are offering. I am trying to educate my clients into understanding the benefits of social media.
Sadly, they thought that social media would be easy and free. They also expect a quick growth and response right from the start. How do you manage your client’s expectations in this matter?
David
Hi David,
With social media and content marketing, it’s best to set realistic objectives for each effort as part of your social media marketing plan and your content marketing plan. If clients are hoping to generate 100 new customers from social media, work backwards from that goal to ensure everyone understands how that goal might be achieved.
For example, if their normal conversion rate from leads is 20%, that means they’ll need to generate 500 new leads from social media. To generate 500 new leads, how many suspects are you going to need to reach with your social media effort? Let’s say 1% of everyone you reach may become a lead. That means you need to reach 50,000 suspects. If you don’t have 50,000 LinkedIn Contacts, or Twitter Followers, or Facebook Likes, how are you going to reach 50,000 suspects?
Here’s where your Content Marketing plan comes in. What topics and special reports and proprietary research and online tools, etc. are you going to offer that will attract attention among your small initial audience — and that might get shared among THEIR contacts and followers?
Realistically, for most small businesses, social media will build traffic and leads (and SEO benefits) slowly. So start with very specific objectives, and talk with your clients about the very real numbers they’re likely to see.