Focus On These Metrics To Achieve Your Business Goals
Too often, decision-makers in businesses are swept up in vanity metrics: numbers that look good on paper but are not significant. To an extent, vanity metrics, such as the number of followers, hold some value for companies. For instance, a professional-looking brand that has a lot of followers might appear to have higher brand authority than a competitor, and they may have a better chance to secure influencer partnerships. While you should not dismiss vanity metrics entirely, you want to focus most of your time and energy on measurable metrics AKA actional metrics.
Actionable metrics help businesses build a well-formed marketing strategy, increase their ROI, and establish legitimate brand authority. Here are a few actionable metrics you should take into consideration.
Conversion Metrics: The number of people that go to your site and follow-through with a specific action, such as a purchase or newsletter sign-up.
New Members Metrics: This is how new members got to your website (i.e., social media, Google search). New members metrics also include new members' interests, buying patterns, etc.
A/B Testing Metrics: This is a method used to compare two versions of a landing page, campaign, or other application with the same end goal. The results will help you determine which factors drive people to your desired action. ROI Metrics: ROI, Return on Investment, will show you how much money you are spending on a marketing initiative and how much you accumulate from that investment. This metric will help you determine where you should and should not invest in your marketing campaigns. Website Page Speed: One of the most crucial measurements is page speed on your website. According to Maile Ohye, from Google “two seconds is the threshold for e-commerce website acceptability." If a page on your site is over two seconds, you want to minimize that time to maximize results.
Order Value: Order value is the average dollar amount spent each time a customer places an order. Determine order value to understand buying trends on your website.
Goals will differ from business to business, and you might think of some measurable goals that are not on this list. A well-established company will not have the same goals as a new business. For example, a new business might start by measuring new subscriptions. Take some time to consider your business goals, decide which metrics you want to focus on, then implement a strategy to optimize those numbers.
