Have you heard the saying: you don’t know what you don’t know? Far too often, that’s the case when it comes to marketing. I frequently encounter clients who have never looked at their website, social media, email campaigns and advertising analytics. The good news is that you probably have access to a treasure trove of data—for free!
What analytical tools should you use for your business or nonprofit? If you’re like most organizations, your website is often the initial go-to source for information, so it’s a great place to start. Google Analytics is a service that features robust and easy to navigate website reporting. Once linked to your site, you can analyze valuable information such as the number of visitors, most popular pages, site traffic, and the type of device your visitors are using when they visit your site. You’ll also be able to see how much time the average visitor spends on your site. Once you have a baseline, you’ll then be able to create a plan to improve your site’s performance.
Social media is imperative for businesses of all types, but you may be missing the mark with the types of posts you’re creating. Fortunately, nearly every social media platform provides valuable analytics such as engagement, page views, and other metrics that you can use to see what types of posts resonate the most with your audience and track your efforts to attract more followers.
Most e-mail service companies such as Mail Chimp and Constant Contact also provide a rich array of data including open rate, click rate, and undeliverable emails in your contact list. They even provide benchmarks that will help you see how your company rates in comparison to others.
Marketing analytics take the guesswork out of your marketing decisions and allow you to fine tune your efforts to drive results. One word to the wise: Don’t get overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of data available to you. Pick a few key metrics for each marketing vehicle and be diligent about reviewing the reports on a monthly basis. In no time at all, you’ll be a master of your company’s marketing metrics. After all, you can’t manage what you don’t measure!