When it comes to analyzing the performance of your marketing and sales force, there is no better way to probe through massive amounts of data and find out the net effect of your efforts than through the use of business analytics.
The task of extrapolating useful information from large amounts of complex data is one of the biggest bottlenecks that organizations face. However, a successful evaluation of each channel of operations using analytics can help top management identify deficiencies, make adjustments, and exploit strengths.
When most leaders hear the word ‘analytics’, they jump to the conclusion that we are speaking of technical performance in regards to page views per visit, time on site, and page load times. While web analytics can be highly useful for improving Internet presence, the bulk of ROI comes from marketing efforts.
In addition to web analytics – bounce rate, unique visitors, traffic, etc. – there are a number of metrics, namely marketing analytics, which CEOs can use to improve their bottom line in even the most volatile of environments.
Most CEOs recognize the invaluableness of analytics but do not fully understand what the data is telling them. From a top leadership perspective, the most important thing that we are concerned with is the overall story. What can we do with the given metrics? What will we do with the data? Is it good or is it bad?
The metrics that truly matter are database growth, conversion rates, qualified lead volumes, pipeline growth, and marketing attributed revenue. With this information, you can better understand how your database is evolving over time as well as the effectiveness of your marketing efforts in stimulating consumer interest. These metrics also analyze how successful your marketing team is at sustaining engagement and interest.
As a CEO, we are concerned with taking a look at the big picture. With the ability to measure revenue contributed by each product or service and trace the strength of marketing qualified leads, we can gain a better understanding of revenue drivers as well as activities that support sales.
Three Factors that Make Marketing Analytics Invaluable to Your Organization
The true power of marketing analytics lies in its ability to integrate the performance of multiple channels (e.g. email marketing, social media, SEO, blogging, etc.). Making direct relationships across marketing channels allows CEOs to measure the impact of individual efforts in conjunction with other marketing initiatives.
For example, say you sent an email to a particular segment of your leads. With marketing analytics you can trace pipeline growth as customers travel from the email to your website and measure the number of consumers that converted into business leads. This information can then be compared with the number of leads generated by your social presence or recent blog activity.
Marketing analytics also presents people-centric data about the customer lifecycle. This information highlights the interaction of leads and prospects among various initiatives. People-centric data is crucial because it guides CEOs in prioritizing leads and implementing efficient lead management processes.
One of the most attractive functions of marketing analytics is present closed-loop data. Closed loop data essentially ties sales to marketing activities. With these analytics, you can accurately identify the amount that individual marketing efforts contribute to the bottom line.
Both web based and marketing analytics are invaluable to understanding the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that your organization faces. Effectively learning, measuring and analyzing this information is essential to understanding the big picture and increasing your return on income.
About the Author: Gerad is an Internet Marketing Director as well as a consultant working with high speed internet provider Satellite Informant – Check out their site here
