For marketing analytics to be beneficial they need to be measured and tracked online.
By not analysing and measuring your efforts online you’re going to be spending more time and effort on your online presence. Your audience is already telling you what kinds of content they like and what themes, you just need to check the feedback they’re already giving you.
“Beyond the obvious sales and lead generation applications, marketing analytics can offer profound insights into customer preferences and trends.” ¹
Setting Goals
You can’t measure what you don’t track. The first thing that you have to do to measure your online success is to set goals that are easy to track online. Once you set the goals you can then see what you need to measure.
Setting SMART goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound, helps you not only set goals that have clear actions, but are also easier for you to track.
Image is taken from the GHCC, Atlanta, Georgia.
What You Should Track Based on Goals
Once you set your goals you need to choose what you need to track based on them.
For example, if you are launching a new campaign that you want the most amount of eyes on, measure your reach first.
If you want more conversion, measure your website clicks from specific pieces of content or various platforms.
If you want to boost brand engagement, track how many likes, shares, and comments per post, and monitor mentions and replies to see what people are saying about your brand.
If you want to get more leads track how many times someone has started a conversation or asked you questions in your messages or how many people have signed up to your email list or freebie, if you offer one.
Analysing
It’s estimated that 74% of marketers can’t measure or report how their efforts impact their business. ²
We recommend setting monthly and quarterly SMART goals, but this varies on your business pursuits. One thing that really works is setting longer goals and breaking them down into quarterly, and then monthly SMART goals. Then you can track your progress and see what needs to be adjusted to reach your goals, or if they are even realistic.
By measuring your analytics and goals over a longer period of time, you’ll be able to see trends and compare them to previous quarters, and years.
You can find your analytics on each platform individually, or if you invest in a third-party source such as Hubspot, Buffer, or Hootsuite, they can help track all your efforts and filter through and compare your analytics easily.
Next Steps
If you’re meeting your goals, great, if you’re falling short this is the time to reanalyze and pivot. By setting out SMART goals for your online content, you’ll be able to better track your online efforts.
Tracking and analysing your content is a good marketing practice and your insights will tell you what content your audience resonates with and what’s working… and even more importantly, what isn’t.