Marketing and Metrics

Marketing metrics are a quantitative technique to gauge how successfully marketing initiatives are tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) over the course of a given time. Without KPIs, marketing teams would be unable to determine whether their marketing plan is effective. KPIs are a crucial tool for measuring the performance of a campaign.

Competences addressed/ learning outcomes expand_more

After completing this Learning resource participants will be improving:  
Marketing operation competencies, such as:
• Strategy 
• Channel management
• Analytics
• Reporting

Objectivesexpand_more

The objectives of this learning resource can be summarised as below:
•  to introduce marketing metrics;
•  to demonstrate how to use design thinking to the marketing; 
•  to explore the range of design thinking in the field of marketing metrics;
•  to propose ideas of innovative marketing metrics in contemporary businesses;
•  to keep marketing accountable.

Theoretical background expand_more

1.  What are marketing metrics?
For companies, marketing refers to all activities done to promote and sell products or services to consumers, making use of the so-called "marketing mix” (the four Ps: product, price, place/distribution channels, and promotion). Marketing metrics are a quantitative  technique to gauge how successfully marketing initiatives are tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) over the course of a given time. Without KPIs, marketing teams would be unable to determine whether their marketing plan is effective. KPIs are a crucial tool for measuring the performance of a campaign. Additionally, marketing KPIs might affect the marketing division's performance (raise form completions on your landing page by 50%) or the performance of the entire firm (like boosting revenue).

2. Why marketing metrics are important for contemporary businesses? 
Marketing metrics are crucial because they give brands information about the performance of campaigns and allow them to make informed adjustments to future initiatives. They support decisions for optimizing campaigns and marketing channels by assisting marketers in understanding how their efforts are contributing to their corporate objectives. A marketing team can use this data to determine whether its objectives have been met. These digital analytics can assist in making wise decisions to modify marketing efforts in real time and act as an early warning system if marketing initiatives aren't operating as anticipated. The main means by which marketers may demonstrate the contribution that marketing and advertising make to their business or organization is through marketing KPIs. Beyond continual measurement and campaign planning, this can help inform annual budgets and headcount.

3. What are some examples of marketing metrics?
Which of the various metrics is available to marketers to evaluate the effectiveness of a campaign will depend on the strategy being employed. Different measures might teach you different things. For instance, email openings and clicks can indicate how engaged your audience is, and the unsubscribe rate can show how interesting and relevant your content is to them. Ad impressions and video views can be used to gauge the reach of your campaign. Using cost-per-action, you can keep an eye on how well your campaign is working. Marketers are experimenting with novel approaches to engage audiences that are primarily online and changing quickly. This encourages them to use a larger variety of measures to assess the performance of their marketing initiatives. The most common metrics continue to be those related to revenue, funnel performance, and customer satisfaction. However, KPI-conscious indicators like customer referrals, acquisition expenses, content engagement, etc., are also being monitored more and more. There are many intelligent marketing tools available now that are assisting marketers in being more effective and targeted in their approach because marketing is now more strategic and its KPIs must be in line with overall corporate goals. Here are some examples of KPIs for various marketing channels that marketers may use to determine how to use their budgets most effectively.
For example:  
· Impression share
· Click-through rate (CTR)
· Lead generation metrics
· Marketing qualified lead (MQL) to sales qualified lead (SQL) ratio
· Cost per lead (CPL)
· Sales qualified leads
· Lead-to-customer conversion rate
· Cost per acquisition (CPA)
· Customer lifetime value (CLV)
· Return on investment (ROI)
· Unique visitors
· Market share
· Net Promoter Score (NPS)
· Action completion
· Multiple touchpoint attribution
· Social media engagement


4. How to set your key marketing metrics?
Objectives and focus are the two key concepts that underpin everything.
Select marketing KPIs that are closely related to the intended result.
Don't forget to consider strategy as well. It's important to consider your strategy when outlining your objectives.
Which marketing KPIs are best will depend on the plan you adopt. As much as it is natural to want to know what is happening in every part of your organization, it is frequently time-consuming and counterproductive to pursue every indicator just because you think you must. Instead, concentrate on the metrics that are important to you.

5. How to use design thinking to transform your marketing strategy? 
Design thinking may be the ideal technique for marketers to better understand their clients' demands, unearth novel insights, and develop successful campaigns.
It's a strategy that calls for active listening, inventiveness, and empathy - three qualities that all excellent marketers must possess.
By promoting experimentation and iteration, design thinking promotes innovation. By approaching marketing from the perspective of the user, you can swiftly test and iterate on your concepts based on actual audience input. In a market that is rapidly evolving, this can help you remain flexible and adaptable, which will eventually result in more successful campaigns that connect with your target audience. 

Consider these 6 steps of design thinking for marketing
  Understand
  Observe
  Define
  Ideate
  Prototype
  Test.

Step-by-step implementation expand_more

The implementation of this learning resource is aimed at women entrepreneurs who have already consolidated their social business idea and seek to measure marketing impact, using design thinking tools. 

1. Get to know your audience.
Request a report from your learners just for your group. Therefore, "Who is this report for?" should be the first marketing report question you ask your students.
Your learners should focus on the audience. If it's for their own benefit, they'll want to examine each channel they employ at least once a month, if not more frequently, to gauge its efficiency and guide future choices. For instance, they might be interested in the number of Twitter shares their blog post received or the open rates of their emails (although different businesses would value different metrics differently). For executives who only want to see the bigger picture, this information will be too detailed. As trainer you must mention that if their report is meant for other teams, they should make sure to adjust their language and include an explanation for the terms, if necessary.

2. Work backwards.
It can be beneficial to start with the goals of their social enterprise and work backwards from there when compiling their report to make sure they include all the important indicators that demonstrate the value you are adding to modern business. You are the trainer, who should explain that staying focused in the goals is especially important for digital marketing reporting because of the massive amount of data that is available in minute detail.
- How many additional clients are needed to reach the monthly income goal?
- How many marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) must be produced to achieve that many conversions?
After that with the help of your contribution, and they can concentrate on the metrics that will most clearly demonstrate how customers are progressing through the marketing metrics journey.
For instance, their monthly website traffic would be a crucial indicator of awareness, and you could further break it down by source to see which marketing strategies are the most successful.

3. Set SMART goals.
The learners have already chosen the KPIs they will use to gauge their marketing success in this step, the next stage is to base SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Timely) goals on the data once they have it.
- What is effective, and how can they expand on that achievement?
- What isn't working, and how can their marketing plan be modified to produce better results?
Consider the scenario when your sponsored search campaign isn't quite bringing in the desired amount of website visitors. In that situation, a target could be to shift spending from underperforming keywords to high-performing ones to gain greater visibility. Then, in the subsequent report, it should be discussed whether these SMART goals were accomplished. They can track their success and stay focused on their marketing approach thanks to this.

4. Keep a relentless focus on ROI
A little over 75% of marketers report that their efforts have a direct impact on revenue, according to HubSpot's State of Marketing study. Only 35% of respondents felt it was very or extremely important to understand the return on investment (ROI) of their initiatives. Here your role is to properly direct your students to check their operating margins with the C-Suite to find out what they really need and be sure to support them in trying to model the lifetime value of a customer to see that number to increase over time. ROI not only demonstrates the importance of marketing to the company, but it also gives them a new metric to use as they hone their marketing plan. For instance, are they overusing social media only to discover that their efforts are not producing high-quality leads? In that situation, they might wish to refocus their efforts on the areas where they can achieve the greatest return on their investment.

5. Rince and repeat
This point is the most important, although it's likely that your learners will neglect to mention it when marketers are overwhelmed with campaigns, content production, and a multitude of other tasks that demand their time. However, it is important that you inspire them to continue producing marketing reports often and that you can continue to help them achieve their marketing goals. This entails ensuring that a proper reporting process is an integral part of their day-to-day operations. It’s the moment to speak about free online templates that they can use to standardizing marketing reporting. 
For example:
· Google Ads dashboard
· Facebook Ads dashboard
· LinkedIn Ads dashboard
· YouTube Channel Overview dashboard

Time needed and group sizeexpand_more

TIME:  4 teaching hours in TOTAL, broken down as follows:
1.      Get to know your audience: 30 minutes
2.      Work backwards: 30 minutes
3.      Set SMART goals: 45 minutes
4.      Keep a relentless focus in ROI: 45 minutes
5.      Rince and repeat: 30 minutes
GROUP SIZE: A group of 10 students that they will work together with the support of 1 -2 trainer. 

Materials needed for implementationexpand_more

For the implementation of this activity, you will need:
·  Whiteboard or paper board
·  Post-it
·  Marker
·  Papers
·  Pens

Further resources: Videos and/or useful linksexpand_more

Referencesexpand_more

Amazon Ads (2021). The importance of marketing metrics in digital advertising. https://advertising.amazon.com/blog/marketing-metrics 
Brand Chemistry (n.d.). 5 marketing reporting best practices.
https://www.brandchemistry.com.au/blog/marketing-reporting-best-practices 
Bright (n.d.). How to use design thinking to transform your marketing strategy.
https://www.brightinnovation.co.uk/design-thinking-to-transform-your-marketing-strategy 
Olga Cheban (2023), Marketing Reporting: Everything You Need to Know.
https://blog.coupler.io/marketing-reporting/ 
SalesForce (2021). Marketing Metrics: What they are, and how to use them to measure the success of your outreach. https://www.salesforce.com/in/blog/2021/11/marketing-metrics.html 
Twin, A. (2023). Marketing in Business: Strategies and Types Explained. Investopedia (updated 9 May). https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/marketing.asp
Waida, M. (2022). A complete Guide to Marketings Metrics, WRIKE
https://www.wrike.com/blog/the-key-marketing-metrics-your-cmo-actually-cares-about
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