Marketing is half science and half art, and that's why we love it. Because it's a subjective business area, it can be tricky to know which marketing strategies are working and which ones aren't. This is why data and key performance indicators (or KPIs) become a critical way to measure your plan's effectiveness. There are many that you can use. Here are our favorites (some with formulas!) for every step of the journey your brand offers to people.
Don't feel like reading through these? Click here to watch videos about each of these metrics.
WEBSITE TRAFFIC
Yes, we know that we're starting with the obvious. We could write a separate post or a book) discussing the nuances of web traffic. Even knowing basic information like how many people are coming to your site and where their coming from (i.e., Facebook) will help you learn what's effective. You can track this for free by using Google Analytics or get more accurate information through paid analytics software.
CONVERSION RATE (CR)
Your conversation rate is the percentage of visitors who finish an action that you want them to take. It can be anything from signing up for your email list, scheduling a consultation, or purchasing a product.
Your CR is a great KPI to track because you're measuring how successful you are at converting people who are raising their hands to say I'm interested in you to either become a warmer lead (i.e., sign up for email list) or a customer.
Benchmark: It depends on your industry. The higher percentage, the better your conversion rate. Ideally, you want to shoot for 10%.
LIFETIME VALUE (LTV)
Your customer's LTV is a metric that tells you how much revenue you can expect from a customer throughout the time they do business with you.
Example: Say you own a restaurant, and a couple dines with you three times per year for five years: $150 (revenue per dinner) x 5% (gross margin) x 15 (number of dinners) = $112.50 (lifetime value).
Benchmark: The higher your lifetime value, the better.
CUSTOMER ACQUISITION COST (CAC)
Your CAC tells you how much of your marketing and sales spend it takes to convert a lead to a customer.
When adding up your marketing and sales expenses, you'll want to include everything from advertising, staff salaries, office supplies, software or technology, fulfilling orders, and anything else that you're spending to get new customers.
Benchmark: You'll want to use an LTV to CAC ratio. An effective ratio depends on your industry. Generally, you want to aim for 3:1, or the lifetime value of your customers should be three times the cost of acquiring them.
REPEAT PURCHASE RATIO (RPR)
RPR is the percentage of customers who purchased your product or service again. It's a great way to measure customer loyalty. You can also calculate your RPR for each of your target audiences to see what types of customers are most likely to return.
Benchmark: The higher your repeat purchase ratio, the better.
NET PROMOTER SCORE (NPS)
Businesses use their NPS to gauge how likely a customer is to recommend their product or service to family and friends. It takes a bit more time and effort to calculate this because you'll need to send surveys regularly. Next time you survey people, be sure to:
Ask, "On a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to recommend us to a friend?"
Once the responses are back, categorize them by percentage:
0-6: Detractors (unhappy, likely to spread negative word of mouth)
7-8: Passives (feel indifferent, could become a promoter or stop purchasing from you)
9-10: Promoters (enthusiastic, ready to promote)
Be sure to leave your passive customers out of the equation.
Benchmark: The higher your net promoter score, the better. It all depends on your industry, but the median NPS is 44%.
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