Hardwood Flooring February March 2018

Marketing Metrics that Matter (Continued)

marketing only partially impacts sales; sales are also affected by product selection, pricing, sales staff, customer service, merchandising, and much more. So which metrics matter to marketing?The short answer: the ones that are tied to your goals, based on the company’s business goals and marketing plan. Example: tracking leads as a metric Assume that one of marketing’s goals is to generate leads, specifically marketing qualified leads (MQL) from the company website. To track those leads, the website includes a number of free downloads like quizzes (e.g., how to choose the right wood floor), checklists (e.g., questions to ask when buying wood flooring), cleaning and maintenance tips (e.g., what you need to know before buying). When someone downloads a piece of content, they must complete a formwith their name, email, and address. The formmight even include a question like, “How soon do you plan to buy?”This lead is now an MQL because they have expressed an interest in a company’s products or services. These prospects are then monitored to see if they request a quote, visit the store, or make a purchase. The company can now track metrics like website visitor to MQL ratio, MQL to quote ratio, and MQL to sales ratio. As an intermediate step, MQLs may be handed off to the sales team and become sales qualified leads (SQLs). SQLs are those leads that the sales team considers worthy of personal contact because there is some indication the lead is ready to buy. The MQL to SQL ratio can be tracked as an indication of how well the marketing and sales teams work together. If communication between sales and marketing is good, this ratio will be high. If not, the number will be lower and indicate an area for improvement. How to choose the right ones The right metrics are those that provide an accurate picture of how you’re progressing toward your marketing goals. With so many metrics now available through Google analytics, digital and social media, and third-party platforms, there are plenty of options. Just be sure that the ones you choose: • align with the core of the business; • can be predicted;

• indicate the possible action to be taken; • have the potential to be achieved; • can be tracked over time; and

• are comparable to peers or industry standards. The most important of these attributes are likely the first and the last – aligned with the core of the business and comparable to others. If it’s not important to the business, why measure it? And if it can be compared to others, it provides an opportunity to learn about how to improve your business or compete more successfully. Digital and social media metrics Today, the top three channels that buyers are using to learn about and compare products and services are email, social media, and websites. That’s also where they’ll form their first impression of your company and decide whether they’ll further engage with it. Brand awareness What’s important to you? For a new business, the goal might be brand awareness or how people hear about the brand. This can be measured by: • Twitter followers of the company • Facebook posts by others about the company • Facebook fans of the company • Brand mentions on social media • Referring links (links a visitor clicked to get to your site) • New links to the company’s social media accounts • Branded searches (searches including the name of your brand or a variation of it) Facebook’s Page Insights tool provides a wealth of information about page likes over time, number and source of visits, and demographics about those who view your page. To see Twitter analytics, simply click on the image left of the red “Tweet” oval and select “Tweets” to see performance by month and “Audience” to learn about followers’ demographics. Use the Twitter search bar to find mentions of your company or brand. To monitor mentions of your company on social media, check out free tools like IceRocket.com,

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