Want to boost marketing performance? Convert more leads? Help drive revenue? Learn how Microsoft Partners can use marketing analytics to get results.
Originally published in The Partner Channel Magazine - Fall 2018
Want to boost marketing performance? Secure buy-in for more budget? Convert more leads? Help the company drive revenue? Just in time to prepare your 2019 marketing strategy, Amanda Wells, director of marketing for Western Computer, recently participated in a Q&A session where she shared her own experiences and advice on
how Microsoft Partners can use marketing analytics to get results.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO INVEST IN MARKETING METRICS, BENCHMARKS, AND ANALYTICS?
With so many marketing tactics and channels out there to manage, especially today, it’s important that a
business understands what is working, what needs improvement, and what you can eliminate to help prioritize
your marketing objectives and budget. Being able to track and measure analytics is critical for every marketing
team because it gives you insight into the effectiveness of your marketing efforts with your audience and the effects marketing has on the business. Like many Microsoft Partners, I work on a small marketing team, and my time is valuable. Without tracking and analytics, I could potentially waste a lot of time on tactics that would hinder growth and performance.
A few metrics you should be analyzing are:
- Unique visitors, views, and page views help you understand traffic volume and patterns.
- Average session durations and pages per visit help you understand consumption behavior and
engagement. - Goals/events/conversions help you understand what content is converting or on the path to converting.
WHY ARE MARKETING ANALYTICS PARTICULARLY IMPORTANT RIGHT NOW VERSUS A FEW YEARS AGO?
Elaborating on the above question, I think metrics are more important today than a few years ago because:
- The data is there. We have access to a wealth of marketing data that wasn’t looked at years ago.
- The market is saturated. We need to see where/how we are standing out and how we can capitalize on that.
- Marketing tactics continue to grow and evolve. We need to keep up with the trends of user behavior and
consumption. If I didn’t track and measure, I would still be focusing on cold email marketing (I’m not implying
that email marketing is dead, just that it has changed dramatically) and not incorporating video marketing,
which has been the clear winning marketing channel for us over the last two years.
WHEN IS THE BEST TIME TO MEASURE OR ANALYZE MARKETING PERFORMANCE?
I recommend tracking the analytics of each campaign, which allows you to make modifications as needed. As far
as your overall website or marketing strategies, I like to track metrics on a monthly basis so I can clearly spot spikes or dips in traffic and begin to investigate the cause. This allows me to stay ahead of potential issues.
Tracking your marketing efforts for the full year and allowing for a more robust deep dive are extremely important
to effectively and efficiently plan your marketing initiatives and budget for the next year. It’s also good to look at fullyear metrics to make strategic decisions and to account for potential downtime (i.e. summer vacations, holidays, etc.) which isn’t as obvious in this channel as others, but comparing full-year metrics gives you a bigger picture.
At this time, you should be comparing same time last year (STLY) metrics as well as the ROI of your marketing
tech stack. As marketing programs evolve, you may find that functionality that was previously available in multiple programs can be condensed into one. If you’re like me, your tech stack has a huge effect on your budget, and looking at ways to optimize these can help open the door to additional initiatives.
HOW CAN MICROSOFT PARTNERS USE METRICS/ANALYTICS TO DIFFERENTIATE IN A CHANGING AND COMPETITIVE MARKET?
Looking at the prospect’s journey is extremely important. With thousands of pieces of content published every
day, it’s important to know exactly what is engaging your audience as well as when and where they are engaging. This is the key to remaining competitive.
WHAT ABOUT SMALLER PARTNERS WHO HAVE VERY LIMITED MARKETING RESOURCES AND BUDGETS? WHAT CAN THEY DO?
Ensure you are utilizing all free resources. Google Analytics is a fantastic free reporting tool that is a must in my
book. It lets you automate reports and delivers them to your inbox so you can focus on the metrics that matter to
you.
HOW DO PARTNERS KNOW WHICH METRICS THEY SHOULD TRACK?
This will vary based on the company’s marketing goals. At the end of the day, everyone wants marketing to
increase revenue, but the marketing goals to get you to revenue can vary by campaign or channel. Different
marketing goals may include:
- Brand Awareness
- Demand Generation
- MQLs (marketing qualified leads)
- Content Engagement
- New Product Launch
- Nurture Marketing
- Customer Satisfaction
Each of these goals has different metrics associated with them. My advice is to define the marketing goal when
setting up the campaign. This will help you establish CTAs at different stages of the funnel.
ARE THERE COMMON METRICS EVERY PARTNER SHOULD TRACK AS A BASELINE?
If starting from scratch, here are some metrics you should start tracking:
Website
- Unique Visitors
- Page Views
- Sessions
- Pages per Session
- Session Duration
- New Versus Returning User
- Bounce Rate
- Source/Medium
- Conversions
- Open Rate
- Click-through Rate (CTR)
- Unsubscribe
Video Marketing
- Views
- Average View Length
- Subscribers
As you become more advanced in Google Analytics, you should start to implement and track goals/
events, user flow, industry benchmarks, referrals (and all of the above metrics for each referral source), exit
pages, and landing pages.
For marketing in general, you should be tracking your MQLs and leads that are being passed to sales.
Do you know how many of these are disqualified or how many schedule a demo and potentially turn into
revenue?
HOW CAN PARTNERS CAPTURE THE DATA THEY NEED?
Overall, I think Google Analytics is key and a great starting point. In addition to Google Analytics, it depends on
what marketing programs you are using. Each program offers its own analytics and reporting tools that will help
you determine the ROI of the marketing channel and the ROI of the program.
Ensuring you have the correct metrics and tracking set up is the first step. Without these parameters in place,
you will have no data to analyze.
HOW DO PARTNERS WORK THIS INFORMATION INTO THEIR MARKETING PLAN OR USE THE DATA TO BUILD/ADJUST THEIR PLAN?
By evaluating where you currently stand, you can make obtainable goals for the future. If there are marketing
channels that are more effective for you, you can increase your efforts there while reducing them in areas you see little to no interaction.
Partners can focus on the metrics they’d like to improve and work backward from there. For example, if
you want to increase conversions on your website, take a look at the pages with the highest bounce and exit
rates. What is different about this page than the pages that are converting? Do you need to hire a content
writer? Graphic designer? Developer? These are factors that should be considered when planning your overall
marketing budget.
If you have a strict budget, understanding what absolutely needs to be improved is a great place to prioritize
your dollars. Marketing tactics that are performing well can be optimized to further increase your metrics and
conversions.
WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO MEASURE THE ROI OF MARKETING CAMPAIGNS AND PROGRAMS?
This again is based on the objectives of the campaign and the marketing channel. For email campaigns, this will
be the CTR. For inbound marketing, this will be session duration, pages per session, bounce rate, etc. For video
marketing, you should look at the number of views and percentage of video viewed.
HOW CAN PARTNERS USE THIS DATA TO HELP GET EXECUTIVE BUY-IN?
Make sure your marketing goals are tied to the overall business goals. Clearly state what is needed to improve
marketing goals and, therefore, company goals. You can build presentations in Microsoft Power BI, Cyfe, or Google Data Studio to create visuals highlighting your successful channels, as well as highlight those that need more attention.
If you want to compare how your organization performs compared to others in your industry, you can use the
Industry Comparison portion of Google Analytics. If you are trying to get an increase in your Google AdWords
budget and you can show that you are spending 70 percent less than others in your industry, this may be the extra push needed to receive approval to increase your budget.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF INVESTING IN MARKETING ANALYTICS?
Marketing metrics allow you to create for a purpose rather than create to create. With so much content already
out there, marketing analytics will let you clearly see where you fit. You can confidently spend marketing dollars for initiatives that you know are working, and you can prove ROI.
Marketing analytics let you tailor your dollars to where they are most effective to ensure you are spending money
appropriately and contributing to the business objectives.