Are You Measuring What You Can…or What You Should?

Most of you on this distribution list are numbers people. We live in a world of Big Data, analytics, CRM, BPM, ROI and benchmarking. Even the baseball stat junkies among us have a profession named after them—sabermetrics. So how come it’s so hard for us to determine if our marketing is working, especially our digital marketing, which is supposed to be so measurable? 

As our good friend Stephen D. Rappaport noted in a recent guest article for one of our clients, “The great majority of digital metrics put a number on tactical results—the things that campaigns encourage people to do, such as opening emails, clicking links, reading pages and viewing videos, posting and commenting, sharing, downloading content, installing apps, liking, checking-in, and friending, connecting or following.

But according to Rappaport, who’s been a longtime advisor to our firm, putting a number on tactical results is not the whole story. We’re often measuring data that’s easier to collect, not what’s strategically meaningful. Instead, Steve says you need to:
*  Develop a theory about how digital media should help your firm or organization achieve tangible goals like thought leaders, client retention, recruiting, or new client acquisition.

·     
 * Create a measurement framework based on your theory, such as awareness, engagement, participation and advocacy/evangelism.

·         * Select and fit metrics to the framework.

NOTE: Click here for information about Steve’s new book, The Digital Metrics Field Guide The Definitive Reference for Brands using the Web, Social Media, Mobile Media. Put in on your summer reading list.

Conclusion

If you have the courage to ask what you need to hear--not what you want to hear--about your marketing efforts, then you’ll be well on your way to understanding what metrics really mean and what steps to take next. Steve’s got 197 of his favorite metrics for you just waiting to be explored.

Our blog has more, as does the FREE Resources page of our website.

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TAGS: Steve Rappaport, Digital Metrics Field Guide, sabermetrics, measuring social and mobile media