KPIs to watch in 2016 and why!
Now that the holiday dust has settled, I'm looking toward 2016 with an "analytical eye." My thoughts turn to a new year of strategic marketing/sales campaigns.
Any rational marketing/sales strategy needs to have a clear goal and be measured. Does it work? Is there a better way?
How do you know if you don't measure?
The right "sales approved" Key Performance Indicators (KPI) sharpen the strategic marketing plan. You probably don't have an actionable marketing plan... if you don't have clear KPI's that the the sales team REALLY aligns with.
Your website should be as effective as your best sales person.
Every business is different. But not THAT different. Here are a few KPI's for the "hub" of most good digital marketing: Your website. Your website should be as effective as your best sales person. Everyone who is interested in your business for any reason will check your site. What should that engagement do for your business?
Unique visitors to the site and specific pages visited
Your website is the front door of your business' house. How well is it attracting visitors? Are visitors sticking around (time on site, pages viewed, actions taken?) How well are you capturing leads from the site? What content is working for you to gain leads? You must understand how well your site is attracting traffic, and how well it's performing at converting visitors into leads. That's the point, right?
CTA performance
Is there great content on your site that is attracting leads? Do you have a Call To Action on every page of the site? Are the CTAs designed to attract that pages target persona? Are they helpful? Do they convert the visitor to lead and customer? If your CTAs are not converting leads, than it's time to replace them with ones that do. If CTAs are working, then figure out what about them works, and offer more.
Lead conversions (MQL-SQL-Customer)
A Sales Qualified Lead (SQL) is a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) that demonstrates their intent to act on their purchase requirements. What is your MQL to SQL conversion rate? How will you improve it in 2016? Are you targeting the most desireable potential customers so that sales doesn't waste its time chasing a bad lead? How will they move this buyer down the conversion path? The rubber meets the road here. This is the most important area of work that your marketing and sales teams must align on.
Cost of a Sales Qualified Lead (SQL)
This takes some educated guessing to put a usable number to it. But it is always worth the excersise because it forces a strategic coversation about what really works. What have you invested in your marketing, tradeshow, advertising, etc. to gain a Sales Qualified Lead? Divide the number of leads you have gotten, by the investment you've made in getting them. There's your cost per lead.
It seems simple but tracking all the campaign costs is an important factor in this. If you haven't done it in the past, this would be a good year to start. This will assist you in developing spending allocations that help you understand the relative costs of leads as an input to marketing plan development.
Further, the website can be an excellent measure of how other "non digital" marketing investments work. For instance, your trade show presence and expense: Does it add qualified prospects to your website's integrated email list or CRM, and in turn, to your website?
Total Customer Acquisition Cost
Closing effectiveness is also a complicated equation, influenced by lead quality, the quality of the products or services you're selling, the reputation your business has in the marketplace, and the competitiveness of your pricing. An improving closing rate tells you your value proposition is attractive, and your sales force is well equipped to deliver and demonstrate the promise. Also, you must have a good idea of your closing rate to calculate your ROI for marketing.
These are the KPIs I will work with my clients on and follow in our business.
Happy New Year! Get planning!
