There are so many different metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) for a marketing team to track that it can sometimes be downright confusing which ones matter the most. To help clarify the situation, these are the four marketing metrics your B2B company needs to be tracking:
#1: Reach
The first and most important metric is determining how many people you are actually reaching with your marketing messages. You need to keep in mind not only the visitors arriving at your website, but also the ones that are connecting with you via social media. Of all the “counting” statistics, this is perhaps the easiest one to monitor and track. The only challenge is tracking reach across a growing number of platforms and channels.
#2: Engagement
Reach is only part of the story. You also need to be tracking how actively prospects engage with your content. If all they do is see your message and then ignore it, you have a significantly reduced chance of ever making a final sale. That’s why so many B2B companies have embraced a content marketing approach, in which high-quality content becomes the marketing hook.
#3: Awareness
When making the final product evaluation decision, potential customers have to be aware that you are a market leader with a solution that meets their needs. “Awareness” is a lot fuzzier concept to measure than either reach or engagement. One good proxy metric for “awareness” is a number that measures how many people are talking about you online. Conversations matter – you definitely want your B2B company to be part of the conversation.
#4: Impact
There are various ways to think about “impact” – you can either think of “impact” as an overall conversion rate, or as the final bottom-line number: total sales. As a measure of marketing efficiency, conversion rates are the industry standard. Just keep in mind, though, that not all conversions are created equal. In other words, a conversion that results in a $1,000 sale is very different from a conversion that results in a $10,000 or $100,000 sale.
One easy way for an organization to focus on these metrics is to create a metrics dashboard. Using a metrics dashboard from MetricPulse, for example, it’s possible to track all your marketing statistics in one place. That makes it easier to see at a glance where your organization is excelling, and where it still needs more work. Even better, you can designate sections of your metrics dashboard for each of these four key factors: reach, engagement, awareness and impact.
IMAGE: Designed by Freepik
Dane
Dane Cobain is a published author, freelance writer, book blogger, poet and (occasional) musician from High Wycombe, UK. Before going freelance, he worked as a social media marker, now specialising in writing about publishing, technology and marketing.