Capture. Convince. Convert.
Has your company mastered the three C’s of digital marketing?
So your latest marketing campaign had excellent results. Don’t start a round robin of high-fives in the conference room quite yet. Small businesses need to delve into the data to stay ahead of the competition.
The amount of data available from the multitude of digital marketing metrics is overwhelming, so how do you know what to look for?
The key is to discover the journey your customer took before they clicked on the “BUY NOW” button.
Pay attention to these five reliable digital marketing metrics to understand your customers and effectively compete in the vast digital marketing arena.
1. Channel-Specific Traffic
In the customer journey, this answers the question: Where were they before they got to me?
Knowing the entrance point of a potential customer helps in the analysis of three important marketing efforts you’ve probably been focusing on:
Direct Visits:
Your website address is typed directly into a browser
This number indicates how well brand recognition campaigns work. If publicity from traditional ad space (print, TV, radio), business cards, promotional material and word-of-mouth are getting the job done, customers go directly to your site.
Referral Traffic:
A customer gets to you from a link on another website
This is the Quality Control department for your content. If other companies and bloggers are linking to pages on your website, this means your content is good enough to share. A+ from QC. Give those writers a raise!
Organic Traffic:
Traffic generated from search engines
There is a direct correlation between these digital marketing metrics and the effectiveness of your SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Check keyword data to find out how you rank for different keywords. You’ll be amazed at how high your site can jump in rankings with just a little tweaking.
2. Traffic from Content
The Content Marketing Institute provides a concise definition: “Content marketing is the marketing and business process for creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”
Here are two digital marketing metrics to pay attention to:
Page Views by Page
While the total number of page views is important (although it borders on the “vanity metric” side), monitoring which pages receive the most views is where to focus your attention.
Look for spikes in activity. This helps identify trends, as well as customer interest. Your response is to create more of the same.
Tip: Add calls-to-action on popular pages.
Bounce Rate
Do people leave your site immediately, or never get past the home page? Of all digital marketing metrics, this number, when high, is a tell-tale sign it’s time to make changes.
The suggested benchmark for bounce rate is below 40%. This infographic from Kissmetrics details industry specific standards.
3. Traffic by Type of User
Digital marketing metrics provide a snapshot of your ideal customer. This is key to creating your company’s buyer persona.
Demographics such as age, gender, city, state are available at the click of a mouse. You can also follow the path customers take as they navigate through your site.
Digital marketing specialist, Dallas McLaughlin breaks it down and offers valuable advice on using Google Analytics to drill deeper.
4. Traffic by Social Media Channel
Through the miracle of digital marketing metrics, you can now take the guesswork out of how new customers heard about your business.
Tracking social media channels can level the playing field for small businesses. Fine tune your content to achieve credibility and high-level engagement.
Be wary of giving too much weight to “likes.” These also fall under the category of vanity metrics. Pay more attention to “shares.” If a reader found your content valuable enough to share, you’re on the right track.
5. The Holy Grail of Digital Marketing Metrics: Conversion Rate
Do new visitors return to your website? Do they dig deeper into your site every time they revisit? Do they take action (sign-up for a newsletter, download an eBook, leave a comment)?
Low conversion rates may indicate you aren’t placing calls-to-action on the right pages of your site (revisit your page views by page stats). Maybe your CTAs are illogical or not user-friendly. Do you have multiple options for actions a customer can take?
Of all digital marketing metrics (besides ROI), knowing your conversion rates offers insight on changes you need to make to convert potential customers into buyers.
Add another “C” to the equation
The ultimate measure of marketing success comes in the form of the final C: C-notes. If a customer pulls out a credit card, logs into PayPal, or signs a contract you’ve accomplished a clear-cut goal.
Take advantage of the many digital marketing metrics tools available (many are free) to reach your ultimate objective. The information provided above will help you choose the right one for your company.
If you’re ready to get serious about your content marketing strategies but aren’t sure where to start, we’re available to help get you on the right track.