No matter what type of marketing you do, or what level that is, there will always be some numbers that you will have to pay attention to. The type of key performance metrics that a business follows differs depending on the company.
Often businesses follow vanity metrics, however these often do not mean much and can sometimes not be worth being too concerned over. These include:
- Views
- Likes
- Shares
- Follows
It's a good idea to know where your company should be in terms of this and to set goals, but don’t worry too much. There are other metrics that are more important and are better to base success off.
It's crucial to understand which statistics are truly going to highlight what the ROI of your marketing efforts are. Other metrics include; conversion rate, cost per acquisition, cost per lead, bounce rate and click through rate.
The link between marketing and sales
Marketing and sales must work together, with all sales activities often then being a reflection on the output that marketing produces, from pricing to content and messaging. When we mention campaigns and variations of content that come from the sales team, this refers to for example conversations with customers, so anything that is learnt through sales.
If sales uncover that a persona continuously deals with a pain point, but there is no marketing to support this and help them solve that issue, then this is where the teams work together. The marketing team can respond to that information and potentially create a campaign or messaging around that.
What is the most important marketing metric?
There are many important metrics however, we believe that revenue is up there with one of the most important. Often some metrics are simply noise, but revenue is a statistic that can be relied upon. As a marketer, the aim is to help consumers better understand a problem or issue they may be facing and offer a solution to this problem, in the form of a good or service.
If this is done effectively, then a loyal and long-lasting relationship can be formed between the customer and the business.
You may question that conversion rate could be more important than revenue, because the main aim of striking up a conversation with a prospect is to then convert them into a lead. However, conversion rate can be measured differently depending on your business. For example, this could be the number of downloads for an eBook, or how many users request a free trial.
With a lot of metrics, they are not completely guaranteed to fully sustain your company, however with revenue this is a very good indication of how well your business is doing. As a marketer, do you aim to drive revenue? If not, you may need to adapt your tactics.
Whilst focusing on revenue, it is still important to focus on your customers and truly understand their wants and needs. Doing so will often drive business growth and lead to success.
Inbound marketing is proven end-to-end inbound marketing lead generation campaigns work to attract, engage and convert more leads into customers, combining creative content, clever automation and strategic optimisation. Do you want to find out more how you can increase revenue and grow your business? Book a call with us today.
