Data-Driven Digital Marketing Success

Many business owners, start-ups and established, struggle to find digital marketing success. It’s as though there is a big hidden secret to unlock online marketing magic, but… there isn’t. All the answers you need are in plain sight. If this sounds familiar, “I’m doing so much stuff on the web—but I can’t tell if it’s working.” This blog is for you.

Improving Future Online Marketing Results: Looking Back To Move Forward

In life, sometimes you have to look back to move forward. More so in digital marketing. Actually, it guarantees better results!

Your data holds the answers to overcome your online marketing challenges, make better business decisions and eliminate unnecessary advertising spend.

Getting Started: What You’ll Need

Goals

You can’t tell if something is working if you don’t know what you’re working towards. “More leads” won’t do. That’s like running to “get fit”, how do you know when you’re there? Is it when you can run to the end of the street without a lung collapsing, or when you can complete a marathon?

Set some SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-bound) objectives. Then devise Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for each.

Pro Tip: The process of creating a marketing strategy (even if it’s a basic one) is a beneficial way to identify your objectives.

Tools

Next, you’ll need to get tools in place to track [follow], monitor [watch], and gather data from your online marketing activities.

Minimum

• Google Analytics set up on your website.
• Cookies set up on your website (and publish a cookie policy for your and your users’ protection).
• A business profile on your chosen social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn). A standard profile won’t provide the insights you need.

Advantageous

• Ad-tracking or link tracking software
• Facebook pixel (if relevant)
• LinkedIn insight tag (if relevant)

Quality over quantity

Don’t go overboard, though, you don’t have to drown yourself in data. Just because everything is measurable does not mean that you have to measure everything—only what’s relevant to your goals.

“The better your data, the better your decisions.”

The Metrics That Matter: What to Track

If you have a new business, your first priorities should be establishing and expanding your online presence to increase brand exposure and consumer awareness.

200 visitors to your website in one day is not important. It feels nice, but it’s called a vanity metric because it doesn’t tell you anything.

Instead, look at which channels were responsible for that traffic. Like how Google Ads brought in 150 of those visitors but, the expensive banner ads didn’t bring in any. Oh, that’s interesting, that 1 boosted post on Facebook brought the rest.

This is where the magic happens! Now you can stop wasteful spend and build on the things that you know yield returns.

Let’s say that your business is established online with a good social media following. For some reason, your latest sales drive campaign is not making sales.

Likes don’t matter, click-throughs do. If people are clicking through (showing interest) but not converting when they hit the landing page, you’re one step closer to solving the problem.

a) Leaving the page almost as it loads. Ah-ha! Something is wrong with your headline, it doesn’t follow on from the ad.

b) Adequate time on page, but navigating to other pages instead of converting. It means they aren’t finding what they wanted. Another mismatched advertising message, or not enough product info to make a purchasing decision? Follow where on your site they go and, again, analytics will reveal all.

Optimisation is everything

Analytics show you what’s working, what is not, and—most importantly—where you can improve.[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]

• No one gets it right first time, even though thorough market research, a sound strategy and best practice set-up will get you very far. Analytics helps you to refine your efforts continually.
• Customers expect a seamless online experience. The more you optimise the journey, the easier you make it for them to buy from you.
• Needs, preferences and technology constantly evolve. Keeping your finger on the data pulse helps you to spot (and thus react to) changing trends faster, improving competitiveness.
• Finally, optimising your marketing equates to optimised spending. Your money and energy focused on activities that generate more business.

Key take out: Reporting lets you review your results, refine your marketing, reduces risks and reap higher returns. Want to make the most of your data? Take a look at our digital marketing measurement and reporting offer.