April 16, 2023

Get smarter marketing with analytics

Are you ready to look into the world of marketing measurement and analytics?

I love this stuff. It's such an important aspect of marketing that is often overlooked.

So, let's talk about why this stuff is sooooo important.

Starting with…what exactly is marketing measurement and analytics?

Basically, it's collecting any data that is available and related to your marketing, choosing what is the right data for your business that you need, understanding what that data means, and using the information to make better marketing decisions. And that helps to guide your marketing to help you achieve your marketing and business goals.

Now the data I'm referring to can include things like website traffic, social media engagement, email open rates, and more.

By looking at the right data, you can get a better understanding of what's working and what's not, and then make more informed decisions about your marketing strategies.

So, why is this important?

Importance of Marketing Measurement and Analytics

You're probably spending a lot of time and money on marketing your business – at least I hope you are because marketing is an essential part of running a successful business.

And whatever marketing you're doing, you want to make sure that you're getting a return on your investment.

And here comes the marketing spaghetti analogy.

You don't want to be throwing marketing spaghetti against the wall and just hoping some of it sticks. You want to know why that spaghetti sticks and what type of spaghetti sticks best so you can invest in that spaghetti and not in the spaghetti on the floor.

By measuring and analysing your marketing data, you can determine what spaghetti will stick and what won't (aka what marketing is working and what's not), and adjust your strategies accordingly.

Marketing that gets you the best return on investment (sticky spaghetti) means you are more likely to achieve your marketing goals – whatever those goals are.

Now, how do you go about implementing and using marketing measurement and analytics?

Making Data-Driven Decisions

Here are some tips for using analytics to help you understand how your marketing is performing so you can make better marketing decisions.

Set goals and track your progress

Before you can start using analytics to understand and improve your marketing decisions, you need to know what you're trying to achieve.

Are you looking to:

increase website traffic
boost social media engagement
generate more leads
drive sales

Setting goals is key, because how do you know what you've achieved if you don't know what you're aiming for? In fact, how do you even know how to measure something if you haven't identified what you want to measure?

By working out what you want to measure, aka, what your goals are – then you know you're collecting the relevant data to help you understand how well your marketing is working.

For example, if you have an online store and you want to increase your website traffic. Your goal might be to increase your monthly traffic by 20% over the next three months.

Notice how this is a SMART goal.

Specific: a clear target of a 20% increase in website traffic.
Measurable: as a percentage increase in website traffic.
Achievable: 20% increase in website traffic over three months is challenging but realistic.
Relevant: relevant to a business objective of increasing online sales, as more website traffic typically results in more potential customers and sales.
Time-bound: increasing traffic within the next three months provides a clear timeline for achieving the goal

In this example, using an analytics tool like Google Analytics, means you can track your traffic over time and see if you're making progress towards your goal.

And if you're not on track, then you can look at understanding where your traffic is (or isn't) coming from and adjust your marketing strategies to better target the platforms/locations that are driving traffic to your site.

Work out trends and patterns

Once you start collecting information (data), you can use analytics to identify any trends and patterns. And that can help you make more informed marketing decisions.

For example, if we look at the example above, let's say one social media platform, Pinterest, is driving more traffic to your website than the other social media platform you are using, Instagram.

If so, what type of content on Pinterest appears to be driving the traffic? Is there a trend or a pattern there? Is the more successful content of one particular product? Or is it the layout of the visuals? Are videos performing better than still images?

By identifying these trends, you can focus your efforts on where they're most effective and you can use this information to create more content that's going to drive even more traffic to your website.

Test and improve

One of the great things about analytics is that it allows you to test different marketing strategies and see what works best. By testing and improving, you can continually enhance your marketing efforts and achieve better results over time.

Using the same example of the online store. Let's say you're trying to boost your email open rates. You might test different subject lines or calls to action to see what gets the best response from your audience. By analysing the results of these tests, you can identify the marketing strategies that work best and use them to improve your future email campaigns.

Use data to make better decisions

Finally, it's important to use the data you collect to make informed decisions about your marketing strategies. By looking at the numbers, you can avoid making decisions based on guesswork or gut feelings, and instead make decisions based on solid evidence.

Again using the same example of the online store, let's say you're trying to decide whether to invest in social media advertising to drive more traffic to your website. By looking at your analytics, you might see that your website traffic has increased by 7% since you started posting more on social media. And you also see that the breakdown of traffic from social media shows that 80% is from Pinterest, 10% from Instagram, 5% from TikTok, 3% from Facebook, and 2% from Linkedin.

Armed with this information, you can make a better, more informed decision about whether to invest more in social media advertising and even which platform to invest in.

Now, I know what you're thinking. “But all of this sounds like a lot of work!”

Using analytics can be overwhelming, especially if you're not used to working with all the information available. But don't worry, here are some tips to help make life a bit easier for you.

Tips to get smarter marketing with Analytics

Here are a few tips to help you get smarter marketing with analytics.

Choose the right tools

Choosing the right tools is crucial to getting smarter marketing with analytics. And there are many tools available that can help you track and analyse website traffic, social media engagement, and other key metrics.

What's important is make sure to choose tools that are easy to use, provide the metrics you need (aka able to measure your goals), and fit within your budget.

Some popular and easy-to-use examples of social media and marketing analytics tools include:

Google Analytics – a free tool that tracks website traffic and user behaviour
Meta Insights – provides data on audience demographics, engagement, and reach on Facebook and Instagram pages
Ubersuggest – an analytics tool that provides website and keyword analysis, competitor research, and SEO insights

Most social media scheduling and digital platforms include analytics, often provided in simple visual formats, making it easy for you to analyse and understand.

Focus on what's important

Once you have your analytics tools in place, think about what information is important to you and your business.

That means focusing on the information that helps you understand if your marketing is successful or not.

Go back to your goals and work out what information is most important to measure the success of your marketing strategies. And then focus on looking at that information first.

Set up automated reports

When you've identified the key information you want to keep track of, then it's time to set up automated reporting.

Having automated reporting means you can easily access the information you need without having to manually review the data each time. It also means you're looking at the same type of information or data each time, so you're comparing apples to apples.

Having automated reports save time, and that means you can quickly and easily access the information you need to make decisions about your marketing.

Keep learning and adapting

By continuing to track your data and staying up to date on industry trends, you can make informed decisions about your marketing strategy and adapt your approach as needed.

Additionally, by staying up to date on industry trends, you can identify new marketing channels or tactics to try out and stay ahead of the competition.

Keeping an eye on your data and adapting your marketing based on the most recent and relevant information means you make sure you're getting the most out of your marketing and achieving your business goals.