More Does Not Always Mean Better

Of course we have all had those moments where we think, Yes! More is always better… It has to be, right? In some cases, more can be better- but when analyzing certain marketing metrics sometimes more does not necessarily mean better… As a matter of fact there are metrics you really don’t need to tracking at all that you might think are important to measuring the success of your business, but in reality that is not the case. Here are a few!

• Email Open Rates- These rates seem like a great metric to track, we can see the percentage of individuals that actually opened our emails compared to how many have been sent but be careful because this statistic can be misleading. Be you didn’t realize that an “Open” is considered an “Open” when images load in the received email…What does this mean for metrics? If the recipient’s email only reads in the text version or chooses to not have images open by default, these individuals will not even be included in your open rate. Also, just because someone actually opens your email, does not even mean that they read it. As an alternative, try taking a look at the click-through rates on your emails. These rates correlate your opens with who is actually going a step further and engaging enough to click through to your website and find more information on your business.
• Facebook “LIKES”- We are all guilty of wanting our Facebook LIKES, whether they are page or post to increase dramatically with a snap of a finger. Obviously it looks better when your business page has 1,000’s of LIKES as opposed to 25 or even with a post but that does not always mean that you’re driving traffic to your website or that you are generating business for yourself. The whole point of posts on any social network is to create engagement for your visitors that make them want to go one step further and click through to your website to find more information on what you can offer them, just because you have a page LIKE or someone LIKES your post doesn’t necessarily mean it drove traffic or became a legitimate lead. Awareness is always important which created by LIKE-ing but we are talking real-time leads that turn into profit for you… When you are planning your content strategy, be sure when you are creating posts that you think about what will hook readers and drive traffic to click through to your website.
• Blog Comments- Oh, blogs… Businesses blog for several reasons. They blog to gain credibility in a specific industry, for search engine optimization reasons/rankings and also helps to generate leads. It’s pretty standard to encourage engagement through commenting and continuing the conversation but these comments don’t always line up with your business goals of driving traffic one step further to maximize visits to your website. Just because someone comments on your blog post does not mean it is generating a lead or bringing traffic through to your website—leads are what matter, here. The actual number of leads and visits that are generated from an actual post are what you should be watching… Yes, engage with comments but also pay close attention to whether or not your traffic is coming from these posts (track links) and if they are turning into leads.

With so many social networks and online marketing tactics it is important to be able to measure only the most important metrics. After all, we only have so many hours in the day and they cannot be wasted paying attention to metrics that don’t really mean anything to us! There are so many ways to measure the success of various channels of marketing and although all metrics seem like they matter, you have to weed out the less-important ones. Unsure of how to do that? Our team of marketing experts can help you to understand which metrics are crucial to keep an eye on and which ones you might be watching that are actually a waste of time. Call us today for more information on how we can help grow your business and show you what’s working and what’s not.