5 Ways to Use Metrics to Deliver Exactly What Your Customers Want
Marketing and sales are creative fields. They require you to think outside the box and come up with fresh new ways to capture the attention of your prospects. No two days are the same. No two sales are the same. You need to get creative if you want to reach the people who will buy. Still, with as much forward, out-of-the-box thinking as you do, it’s nice to have cold, hard data to back up your ideas. Numbers can often be a catalyst to help you discover the type of fresh campaigns your customers want from you. It’s not often that numbers and creativity align, but when it comes to metrics, they do.
Analyzing Your Website
Chances are, you’re already tracking your website analytics. You monitor data, such as:
- How much traffic you receive
- How people found you
- Where people enter and exit your site
- How long people spend looking at your pages
This data paints a picture of what people are interested in on your website and where you’re losing your customers. That’s where the info gathered stops. You still need to draw out hypothesis about what your customers want based on this telling, but limited, data.
Dig Into The CRM
Another source of data you probably use to design and reshape your marketing and sales campaigns is your CRM. Data you gather here includes:
- New leads
- Pipelines
- Won/Lost sales
A CRM with customer service metrics allows you to take what you learned from each customer and compile it into one report. Although helpful, it still might not tell enough of the story needed to shape new campaigns.
Combining Data To Enhance Customer Experience
Aligning these two data sets is essential for giving your customers the experience they want from your business. Here are 5 metrics that tell you exactly what your customers want:
- The quality of prospects referred by various websites. You might get a lot of traffic from one website, but is the traffic converting into actual business? By monitoring your website referral sources with the actions from those visitors, you can see how much you’re earning from these lead sources. Then, you can reallocate marketing resources to attract more high quality leads.
- The way your customers research before buying. Most of the sales process is finished before a customer ever talks to a sales representative. By understanding how your customers research your product before engaging your sales team, you get a better understanding of the type of information you need to provide.
- The number of times a lead visited the website before making contact. How often are your high quality leads lurking around your website before they make a move? Knowing this will help you identify new ways to capture the prospect’s information faster.
- The specific area that prompted the lead to give his information. What was the tipping point for your lead to make contact with your business? Knowing the page where your leads most often hand over information will tell you.
- The type of web page that converts the best. Do you see the bulk of your quality leads from landing pages driven by specific campaigns? Blog Posts? Knowing this will help you understand the best use of your marketing resources.
By gathering information about your website and about the quality of leads you’re bringing in, you’re better equipped to refine your customer’s experience and pull out inspiration for your next campaign. Megan Totka is the Chief Editor for ChamberofCommerce.com. ChamberofCommerce.com helps small businesses grow their business on the web and facilitates connectivity between local businesses and more than 7,000 Chambers of Commerce worldwide. She specializes on the topic of small business tips and resources and business news. Megan has several years of experience on the topics of small business marketing, copywriting, SEO, online conversions and social media. Megan spends much of her time establishing new relationships for ChamberofCommerce.com, publishing weekly newsletters educating small business on the importance of web presence, and contributing to a number of publications on the web. Megan can be reached at megan@chamberofcommerce.com.
