Ever burnt food while cooking before?
The mouth-watering smell of roasted vegetables or meat becoming an unpleasant odor is a warning sign to reduce the heat and avoid ruining your dinner.
Tracking metrics won’t turn you into a master chef overnight, but like how charred food shows you’ve overcooked it, tracking metrics helps you track progress towards business goals and helps you to respond to any issues proactively.
Which key metrics should you track and why? Let’s show you.
Tracking business metrics answer:
Each department has its own most important metrics to measure success. Sales teams rely on net revenue metrics to benchmark future sales revenue targets and measure their contribution to the business bottom line, while an SEO team might look at keyword rankings over time to see if what they’re doing is working.
KPIs measure performance towards a specific strategic goal, whereas metrics track overall department performance.
Think of KPIs as a subset of metrics.
For example, if improving lead generation efforts for the next quarter is a vital part of your quarterly marketing strategy, you might set a KPI to improve the overall conversion rate. Here, landing page views are metrics as they aren't related to the business goal.
Why go through all the trouble to track metrics?
What if we told you that tracking metrics properly helps individuals do their job, promotes teamwork, and helps you get support from senior management?
Here’s how.
Tracking metrics helps you deliver more effective campaigns.
Running a key email marketing campaign for a client? Track how your email sequences are performing. Low click-to-open rate? That might mean your content or email copy isn’t attracting your email list’s attention.
Without tracking metrics to signal potential issues or growth opportunities, you won’t know where to focus your attention or what to answer when the person reviewing your report asks, “why has our open rate been dropping in the last 3 months”.
Source: Hypercontext
Clearly defined goals and metrics to measure progress connect your team to business strategy and organizational needs, helping each employee deliver better work.
Clear expectations and goals ranked the top factor for team productivity, while unproductive employees were 2.8 times more likely not to know their goals, according to a 2022 report by Hypercontext.
Thinking about your goals and how to measure success not only allows you to deliver better work, it also motivates your team to do the best work they can deliver.
Having issues getting an initiative or budget approved?
One reason that may hold you back: a lack of means to track success.
It’s hard to get support if you can’t prove you can generate results, and you can’t show results unless you’re tracking how you are performing.
Contently’s State of Content Marketing 2021 report shows a close relationship between documented goals and KPIs and support for a content marketing initiative.
Source: Contently
So if you’re having trouble getting your campaigns and strategic plans approved by your clients or bosses, look at how you define your marketing goals and the metrics you measure.
Often, something convincing is missing there.
There are a lot of metrics out there, each with its own story to tell.
So how do you pick the right ones?
Use these 2 guidelines when selecting your metrics.
Following these guidelines helps you avoid relying on vanity metrics, metrics that look good on paper, but don’t relate to your core business goals. They also don’t provide any meaningful insights to improve your performance.
For example, if you’re measuring the effectiveness of content towards business revenue, it would be more effective to measure the number of inquiries or conversion rate versus page views.
Countless businesses, from service agencies to e-commerce companies rely on digital channels to drive revenue, brand awareness, and more. Google Analytics metrics measure the performance of your website and give you the insights to optimize these channels.
SEO campaigns take months to see results, and you want to make sure all that work is bringing in results. Track performance and ROI with these essential metrics.
5 metrics to get you started on assessing your sales and customer retention efforts.
Social media is a fantastic tool for building brand awareness and community. But it’s also challenging to measure its contribution to business growth. These metrics might help.
Learn more about specific metrics and KPIs here.
Get 20+ metric tracking templates just like this one with DashThis. Try it with your own data here.
Step 1: Sign up for an account with DashThis. Our free 15-day trial allows you to see if we're the right fit for you.
Step 2: Choose from over 40+ integrations and connect your marketing tools and data sources in seconds.
Step 3: Select the metrics to include in your report from DashThis’ preset widgets.
Step 4: Add as many data points as you need to set up your report. Once done, save your completed report as a template so you can reuse the template for future reports - saving even more time!
Step 5: View and share your dashboard. Share your dashboard with your client, internal teams, and project stakeholders with a click!
Ready? Start tracking your business performance with DashThis today.
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