In order to sustain growth for the year 2023, it is crucial for those in digital marketing to stay up to date with the most effective metrics. With an abundance of marketing strategies and metrics available, it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of data and make little headway. Therefore, marketers and business proprietors must familiarize themselves with the key metrics that are most valuable for tracking business growth.
Marketing Metrics for Success in 2023
Achieving success in 2023 can be simplified by utilizing the appropriate metrics. Five metric categories to consider are lead metrics, social media metrics, brand recognition, micro conversions, and metrics aimed at measuring customer satisfaction.
1.Qualified leads
A potential customer who aligns with a seller’s ideal customer profile but has not yet reached out to the company is referred to as a qualified lead or prospect. The definition of a qualified lead varies among businesses, but in all cases, it pertains to an individual with a strong likelihood of making a purchase decision.
Having qualified leads is crucial for any marketing effort since they are the ones who are most likely to make a purchase of your product or service. The number of leads generated by campaigns can be high, but only a few of them may actually qualify. Conversely, some campaigns may yield only a few leads, but they are more likely to be qualified and, therefore, turn into actual sales.
- Create a personalized campaign: Bulk emails can be helpful, but don’t just rely on your email marketing software to convert your list of qualified leads with a mass marketing campaign. Give each of them personal attention with a phone call or face-to-face meeting.
- Spend more time finding them: Rather than spending all your time cold-calling or blasting out marketing emails to large lists, set aside time to go through the list and do some research to qualify them. It could save you a lot of time down the road.
Leads by Source
Categorizing leads based on their origin can provide deeper understanding about your target market. It is important to monitor the sources of your leads in order to identify the most productive channels and those that require improvement.
Average Lead Value by Source
To determine the average lead value according to the source, this measure evaluates the performance of every distinct marketing channel.
To calculate the average lead value, you need to multiply the total revenue with the percentage of profit and divide the result by the number of leads.
Lead Quality
Assessing lead quality and collecting and arranging relevant data is advantageous. Employing CRM software is the most convenient means of monitoring lead quality. Majority of contemporary CRMs can conduct automatic evaluation and measurement of lead quality.
Lead Velocity Rate
This measurement evaluates the increase of eligible prospects on a monthly basis and determines whether you are successfully targeting your ideal customers or if adjustments need to be made in your retargeting strategy.
The Lead Velocity Rate can be calculated by taking the difference between the number of qualified leads from this month and the previous month, dividing it by the number of qualified leads from the previous month, and then multiplying the result by 100.
2. Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
The cost of acquiring customers, or CAC, is the amount of money you need to invest in order to persuade an average customer to purchase a product or service.
The CAC encompasses all the expenses associated with acquiring a customer and guiding them through the sales process. It offers a simple metric that can be compared to the average sale, allowing you to gauge the amount of profit being generated.
Assuming your marketing expenses were $50,000 for the year and you acquired 1,000 new customers, your cost of acquiring each customer (CAC) is $50.
- Use it to impress investors: If you have a low CAC relative to your average sale revenue, show this to investors. They crave stats like this that allow them to quickly calculate a company’s profitability.
- Be aware of the caveats: A company’s CAC may be bad if they are expanding marketing into a new area, or the business is undergoing a reorganization and no results are expected until a later time. CAC should be viewed in context with the company’s overall strategy.
3. Time spent on site
One of the best indicators that prospective clients are intrigued by your product is the duration of time they spend on your website.
When visitors spend a considerable amount of time not just on the specific page you directed them to, but also exploring other pages of the website, it indicates that they have discovered something valuable and are keen on what you are providing.
- Start gathering data: If you aren’t monitoring traffic on your site, you need to start gathering this data right away. Tools like Google Analytics and Clicky allow you to track time spent on site and other metrics, going beyond basic tools that merely track overall traffic and offering KPI reporting to help you make informed decisions.
- Note low-performing pages: If you have pages that are significantly lower than others in terms of visitor time spent, take a look at them and try to figure out why, and then make the necessary adjustments. This will boost traffic not just for this page, but for your entire site.
4. Bounce rate
The bounce rate is connected to the time spent on the site measurement; nevertheless, it is more specific. It pertains to a person who enters your homepage and promptly exits. It can be challenging to discern the motives and opinions of those who visit your webpage, but someone who bounces indicates a lack of interest in your content.
A high bounce rate suggests that either your homepage is inadequately designed or your digital marketing is targeting the incorrect audience, indicating the necessity for a strategy adjustment.
- Tweak your site design: Sometimes, it takes only a simple tweak to improve your bounce rate. Maybe you just need to add a picture with a link, or add some more enticing text. Play around with it and monitor traffic to see if the bounce rate improves.
- Ask yourself if you’re focused on the right customer: If your bounce rate remains stubbornly high, take a look at the customer profile you’re targeting and determine whether it needs adjusting.
5. Return on investment (ROI)
All types of businesses within any industry track the fundamental metric of return on investment (ROI).
Business owners can pinpoint the effective marketing strategies that yield lucrative revenue and discard those that are ineffective. They can then redirect their resources to invest in more favorable marketing tactics, which offer a higher return on investment and greater potential for profit.
- Don’t immediately toss a marketing strategy: If an ROI evaluation shows a couple of low performers among your marketing tactics, don’t immediately toss them. First ask if you can do anything to adjust them in a way that might make them more successful.
- Don’t be married to a marketing strategy: On the flip side, if it’s clear that a marketing strategy is a loser, be ruthless and cut the fat right away, even if it’s something you’ve done for the past 30 years.
6. Customer lifetime value (CLV)
The amount of revenue a customer is expected to generate throughout their lifetime with an organization is known as Customer lifetime value (CLV).
The CLV can be obtained by calculating the average revenue per customer, which varies from a one-time $20 purchase for some customers to regular purchases worth thousands of dollars over several years for others, depending on how much they love the product or service you offer.
- Wow investors with CLV/CAC: You can take your CLV and divide it by your CAC to determine exactly what profit you’re getting on each customer you acquire. This is an incredibly powerful metric to share with investors.
- Examine your CLV: Compare your CLV to your lowest sales and your highest sales. Is the CLV closer to the former? Maybe you need to work on customer loyalty.
7. Conversion rate
The rate of conversion determines the percentage of visitors who become customers after visiting your landing page. Bounce rate is closely associated with this, as landing pages with high bounce rates usually have low conversion rates, though not necessarily always.
If your conversion rate is low, it implies that your expenditure on push marketing to attract visitors to the webpage is not yielding the expected number of sales, which is a clear disadvantage.
- Tweak your landing page: As is the case with bounce rate, sometimes a low conversion rate can be fixed with some tweaks to the landing page. It can be something as simple as changing the color of your call to action, or adding an image or striking headline.
- Sweeten the pot: Consider offering some freebies to entice visitors to sign up. They may not be far enough down the purchasing funnel to be ready to make a decision, but they might be interested enough in your product to take something of value you have to offer and thus build a relationship with your company.
8. Social Media Metrics
Engagement Rate
By comparing the number of engagements your content receives with your audience size, the engagement rate indicates the effectiveness of your brand’s ability to engage with its followers.
To calculate the engagement rate, you need to divide the total number of likes, comments, or shares by the total number of followers, then multiply by 100.
Video Completion Rate
The measure displays the number of individuals who view your videos in their entirety. The video completion rate helps in determining whether your material is unexciting to your audience or if it’s leaving them with an appetite for more.
To calculate the video completion rate, multiply the ratio of completed video views to total video views by 100.
Amplification Rate
The social media metric known as amplification rate determines how often your content is shared by your audience with their followers, providing insights into how shareable your content truly is.
The formula for Amplification Rate is to multiply the quotient of Total post shares divided by Total followers by 100.
Virality Rate
If you’re looking to achieve viral status, the rate of virality is a key metric to track. This metric compares the number of times your content is shared to the number of impressions or views it receives and is expressed as a percentage. It provides an indicator of how successful your content is at reaching viral status.
The formula to calculate Viral Rate involves multiplying the quotient of the Number of Shares divided by the Number of Impressions by 100.
A piece of advice is to utilize Visualping to observe the content and performance of your competitors. This will enable you to steer clear of their errors and seize opportunities to excel.
9. Customer Satisfaction Metrics
Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) Score
The CSAT metric evaluates the level of contentment customers have towards a particular product, service, or enterprise. Knowing your CSAT scores is crucial as it enables you to make necessary improvements for your clients’ satisfaction. Normally, scores are computed from customer surveys and ratings in stars.
To calculate the Customer Satisfaction Score, you need to divide the sum of scores by the total number of respondents and then multiply the result by 100.
Net Promoter Score
The net promoter score gauges customer loyalty towards your brand and enables you to evaluate the success of cultivating a group of brand advocates.
The formula for calculating Net Promoter Score is to divide the difference between the number of Promoters and Detractors by the total number of respondents, then multiply by 100.
Customer Lifetime Value
The CLV score quantifies the complete worth of an individual customer during their tenure as a patron. Marketers sometimes refer to this as their lifespan, and it gauges the efficacy of your brand’s customer retention efforts.
The formula for determining Customer Lifetime Value is the multiplication of the Customer value by the Customer lifespan.
10. Choose the Right Metrics
To assist in selecting suitable metrics for your business objectives, consider answering these uncomplicated questions:
- What kind of business do you have (B2C or B2B)?
- Who is your target audience?
- What kind of pricing model do you use?
Utilize the responses of these inquiries to steer your monitoring of measurements to obtain maximum benefits from your marketing statistics. Keep track of your achievements through metrics that facilitate comprehension of methods to attain and surpass your objectives. Additionally, ensure that your objectives are explicitly defined to make the process of selecting appropriate marketing metrics straightforward this year.
Consistency is an essential element in optimizing your metric data. Fortunately, marketing tools are available to assist in scheduling and conducting measurements, reminding your team to monitor metrics. Auto reminder, text confirmation, and automatic recurring messages are among the features featured in reminder software like Weave, which you should seek out.
Side notes
To achieve business growth, focus on tracking metrics that are effective. In order to enhance brand awareness, it is crucial to monitor key metrics like web traffic, unique visitors, and email CTR.
Using social media metrics can be an effective way to gauge engagement, amplification, and virality. Additionally, if you’re interested in understanding the opinion of your customers about your product or brand, looking into metrics like the net promoter score and customer lifetime value can provide valuable insights.
