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Meaningful Data Will Lead to a Company's Digital Success

Marketing efforts mean little unless you have credible ways to measure success. That includes data about business results and customer relationships.


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James L Katzaman

2 years ago | 5 min read

Meeting people’s needs creates good and long relationships

Photo by eskay lim on Unsplash

Marketing efforts mean little unless you have credible ways to measure success. That includes a combination of immediate business results and tapping into long-term relationships with customers.

“Digital marketing is using the internet and online tools to reach, engage and convert customers,” said Amanda Webb, the head of Spiderworking. She works with hundreds of businesses worldwide, helping them get results from their online marketing.

In her view, digital marketing includes all the other activities that make these tools work:

  • Social Media
  • Your Website
  • Search Engine Optimization
  • Email Marketing

“Digital Marketing is so much more than just the tools and disciplines,” Webb said. “It’s understanding your online customer journey, sales process and devising content that will help you achieve your business goals.”

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She talked with digital marketing expert Madalyn Sklar about which measurements paint the most accurate picture of business progress.

“Digital marketing allows brands to connect with potential customers online as a way to generate awareness and build relationships,” Sklar said. “This can happen in a variety of ways, such as blogging, search engine optimization and social media.”

Only businesses that have or want to have customers should use digital marketing.

“Most businesses are already doing digital marketing,” Webb said. “If you’re doing Twitter, you’re not just doing social media, you’re doing digital marketing.

“What’s important is having a process for knowing if it is working and what you can do to improve,” she said.

Rope in the Web

Company owners need to know where they will benefit the most.

“Any business can engage in digital marketing if they want to harness the power of the web to reach their target audience,” Sklar said. “No matter what field you’re in, your customers are most likely online and looking for the content you can provide.”

Metrics to measure depend on individual preference. Webb asks these questions based on particular wants:

  • Grow your audience?
  • Increase brand awareness?
  • Attract more leads?
  • Get more sales?

“Choose the metrics that can tell you if you’re getting there,” she said.

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Her favorite metric is conversion rate, which reveals several factors:

  • If your website is working
  • What parts of your sales process work
  • What social networks work best
  • What content works best

Webb’s video explains the process a bit more.

“The metrics you measure will ultimately go back to your goals,” Sklar said. “What are you hoping to achieve with your digital marketing efforts? This will let you know what to track to see if you’re making progress toward your desired end result.

“For your website, you may want to measure things like traffic, traffic sources, top pages and even conversions,” she said. “On social media, you’ll probably be focused on follower growth, engagement rate and click-throughs.”

Weigh Your Vanities

Vanity metrics make you look good, especially to yourself. However, vanity doesn’t translate well into return on investment.

Webb said anything can be a vanity metric:

  • Your audience is vanity if it’s not relevant.
  • Sales are vanity if you spend more money on them than you make.
  • A six-figure turnover is vanity if you are spending eight figures to get it.

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On the other hand, Webb said a vanity metric is not a vanity metric when it’s relevant:

  • Followers who fit your target market aren’t vanity.
  • Website visits that convert aren’t vanity.
  • Sales, when you make a profit, aren’t vanity.

Another Webb video goes into more detail.

“Followers are only important if they have some relevance to your business,” Webb said. “Are they potential customers? Do they have the power to amplify your content to customers?”

Sklar said vanity metrics when well understood are valuable.

“Things like impressions, likes, shares and follower count are typically considered vanity metrics,” she said. “This information can still be helpful for tracking your reach and seeing how well your content resonates with others.”

As Often as Needed

Depending on your activity, you could audit your digital marketing strategy quarterly or semi-annually — for sure once a year. Pay attention to anything that pops up to make tweaks anytime.

“Do a regular, quick metric check on a regular basis,” Webb said. “If you’re launching a campaign, checks will be frequent — once a week or once a day. This will help you get a quick view of what’s working and what’s not so you can tweak as you go.

“Do a more in-depth audit once a month, once a quarter and at the end of a campaign,” she said. “You’ll get more learning from this that you can apply to your next campaign or strategy.”

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Spiderworking has a digital marketing audit worksheet.

“Conducting a quarterly audit is the smart way to go,” Sklar said. “This way, you’ll have plenty of time to implement a new strategy and collect data to see if it’s working. However, it’s a good idea to check in monthly to ensure you’re on the right track.”

Conventional ads as part of digital marketing efforts aren’t necessary, especially if you have a tight budget. Watch for user-generated content, which is free and has the most credibility for your brand.

Move It Along

“It’s not necessary to run ads for your digital marketing but it can help things move quicker,” Webb said. “However, ads aren’t a magic bullet. It’s important to test your idea organically with your target market first to see if it works.

“Think of ads as a part of your overall strategy, not just as a sales tool,” she said, pointing to ways ads can help:

  • Position you in the market.
  • Let customers know what you stand for.
  • Build brand awareness with your target market.
  • Build your audiences.
  • Drive sales.

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“It’s not necessary to run ads,” Sklar said. “You can still see great results organically if you’re consistent and focused on putting out high-quality, valuable content. However, if you want to possibly accelerate your results, ads can be helpful.”

Determining an ideal budget for digital marketing strategies is a delicate balancing act.

“The last thing you want to do is spend more money marketing than you make,” Webb said. “Work out your customer lifetime value. Then you’ll know how much you can afford to spend.”

She made a video to make the subject less complicated.

“To set your budget, it helps to first know what your goals are,” Sklar said. “From there, you can analyze what’s worked in the past so you can put money into the strategies that perform well and any resources you’ll need to keep moving forward.”

Variety of Tools

Certain tools can help measure digital marketing success.

“Make sure you pay attention to your website analytics as well as the built-in analytics for the social media scheduler you’re using,” Sklar said. “These will let you see how your website and social accounts are growing, top content and more.

“I’ve been using Fathom Analytics for my website and absolutely love it,” she said.

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Webb endorses Google Analytics as the best tool to measure digital marketing.

“It can look scary when you log in if you don’t know what you’re looking for, but once you know the metrics you need it becomes easier,” she said.

In addition, Webb has these tool suggestions for starters:

  • Look at social media platform analytics.
  • Look at your email marketing stats.
  • Ask customers.
  • Conduct surveys.
  • Use tools such as Semrush for SEO analysis.

About The Author

Jim Katzaman is a manager at Largo Financial Services and worked in public affairs for the Air Force and federal government. You can connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

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James L Katzaman

Jim Katzaman is a charter member of the Tealfeed Creators' program, focusing on marketing and its benefits for companies and consumers. Connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn as well as subscribing here on Tealfeed.


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