The digital revolution means that you can now access more data and insight than ever before to understand the impact of your marketing. With so much being available for free and at a click of a button there are now real opportunities for you to better measure your marketing.
Through our day to day work we still support companies that feel they have no or very little data or insight. For many of these businesses we go on a journey of discovery, helping them to think about their needs. We work with them to identify what data and insight they actually have, what they need as well as how it can be captured and stored – and yes at times that includes uncovering all the data and insight stored in numerous note books, diaries, excel spreadsheets, business card holders and even their own heads.
So if you think you are marketing data and insight poor or want to better measure the performance of your marketing consider some of the following to build your knowledge and understanding:
• Website analytics – many websites have some form of analytics platform linked to them so you can understand where your visitors are coming from and how they interact with your site.
• Social media analytics – these will tell you a lot about the types and levels of engagement you are receiving from your posts. Platforms like Facebook will also give you some demographic data so you can be sure you are reaching the correct people.
• Email – platforms like Mailchimp will tell you how many people open your emails, how high or low your bounce rates are and your click through rate to your website. If you A/B test your emails you’ll also get a much clearer idea of what type of content or subject headlines work better with your audience.
• Voice of the customer – such things as feedback from your customers as well as interviews and survey ratings will give you a clear view of what they think of your product offering or service levels.
• Competitive intelligence – It’s important to monitor the performance of others. For example monitoring the social media engagement that your competitors are gaining can be a useful benchmark for the performance of your own social posts.
• Sales data – understanding what and how frequently your customers are buying from you is key. What channels are they reaching you to make that purchase – is it via your website, retail outlet or exhibition stand?
• Customer churn rate – establish how many customers are cutting ties with you over a given time. Monitoring your churn rate is the first step in understanding how good you are at retaining customers and identifying what actions might result in a higher retention rate.
• Your top customers – sounds simple but identify which customers drive the most profit your business. When you can look at a single list and see your main customers you have the power to identify the unique characteristics of this group and work on attracting more.
• Cost of acquisition – calculate how much you spend in acquiring leads and turning these leads into new clients. How does that differ using different channels? The key here is that the fees you charge need to at least cover your associate costs.
• And finally conversations with customers – always a great place to start
Need some help on where to start with your data and insight gathering?
At e-nexus we undertake marketing audits where we’ll work with you to identify your data and insight needs, what you already have access to and how you can begin to fill the gaps. Just email us at info@e-nexus.co.uk and we’ll organise a time to meet.
