Albert Einstein is often credited with the saying: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
But for many organizations, that’s exactly what happens with their marketing. They keep to their same budgets, running the same ads or sending the same emails, and then they keep wondering why they’re not seeing returns. But marketing is not passive; you don’t “start it” and then “let it sit” forever. Consider this question:
When was the last time you looked closely at the results of your marketing? Have you checked up on social media engagement, reviewed email clickthrough rates, or listed out your top-performing web pages?
If your answer was “I don’t know” or “a long time ago,” or even “what are those things you just listed?,” then your marketing is falling short. But it’s never too late to turn it around. The secret to marketing that “wows” is analytics.
What are analytics?
“Analytics” is a fancy business term that refers to a two part process:
Part 1
You collect data about something—such as your Instagram likes, where your readers click on a website, or what products your customers buy most often.
Part 2
You use that data to find out what’s working well and apply it to make improvements to your strategy.
In other words, analytics means using data to make smarter decisions about your marketing.
What data should I collect?
If you have to start out by collecting data, how do you know what to pay attention to? A comprehensive list of marketing data would take more time than either of us have, so here’s our quickstart list of data you can track:
- • Open rate → how many people look at your email, even for a second?
- • Click rate → how many viewers click a button in your email?
- • Impressions → how many users are seeing your posts?
- • Engagement → do people like your posts, or do they just scroll past?
- • Visit length → how long do your customers spend on each page?
- • Frequent pages → which pages are visited the most often?
- • Click rate → do people click buttons and explore further?
- • Conversions → when customers land on your page, do they buy?
How do I know what to look for?
Congratulations, you’ve collected your data! So...now what?
The easiest way to start strategizing and applying your analytics is by finding the best and the worst performing content in each category.
- • Posts with the most likes and comments
- • Emails that have lots of clicks
- • Digital ads that generated lots of conversions
- • Posts that nobody engages with
- • Emails that people leave on "unread"
- • Webpages that people bounce right off
Once you’ve collected those best and worst marketing materials, think about what is similar or different between them! Do photo posts do well but designed posts flop? Do you only get traction when you announce a sale? Is that neon orange in your brand colors turning people away? Compile a short list (even as small as 2-3 items) of what your customers seem to like, and what they don’t.
Am I doing well?
Now the question you REALLY want to ask: how do I stack up? Am I leading the pack, or am I the slowest around? Are my marketing efforts bringing me success?
That’s a hard question to answer (and we’re still figuring it out ourselves), but the easiest way to give your marketing a litmus test is to research industry averages for common analytics.
Oftentimes, email or social media marketing platforms will share average engagement information, and you can compare your rates to see where you fall. If you’re above average, great! Keep up the good work, and keep looking ahead to what’s next. If you’re below average, consider how you might apply your analysis to make improvements. Which brings you to the final step...
I’ve analyzed…now what?
Congratulations, you have collected data and understand what you’re doing well and what could improve. Now, you get to take action! Remember those 2-3 things your customers do or don’t like? (Hint: you listed them out above.)
To grow your marketing, you need to apply them!
- • If something doesn't work, stop doing it
- • If something works well, do more of it!
Giving your audience more of what they want will keep them coming back again, and again, and again, until they buy (or until they become devoted, lifelong customers)!
Finally—success!
You’re doing amazing, from discovering what your audience wants to improving your processes and materials to meet customer needs. You must be done, right? Not exactly.
Now, we’ll let you in on a little secret: success is a journey, not a destination.
You’ll have to repeat this process—collecting data, understanding where you can grow, and then changing your strategy—again and again (and again) as long as you’re in business. Your organization will change, your audience will change, the world will change, and so your strategy will have to change too. Analysis is a cycle, but it’s a virtuous one that will reward hard work that puts your customers and their needs first.
Need some backup?
If you need some help getting your marketing to the speed of light, book a free Discovery Call with TwoTone Creative for more insight for collecting data and making improvements. After all, E = mc² can also stand for Excellence = marketing creativity to the power of Two(Tone)!
