As a marketer, you know the importance of monitoring your brand's progress as the pandemic continues. Some great ways to achieve this are by using key performance indicators (KPIs) in brand new and highly effective ways.
Freshen up your goal-hitting strategy by looking at your KPIs through a brand-new lens — or put them to use for the very first time. Whichever way you choose to use them, it's crucial to recognize that KPIs can be an amazing growth tool for your brand.
How should you be using them right now, to stabilize your profits short-term, as well as post-COVID-19? Take these essential, profit-building steps.
Define the ways KPIs can specially work best for your business model.
Smart Insights defines KPIs as "quantifiable goals which help you to track and measure success." KPIs offer you a crystal-clear way to reset your brand focus as a whole. Think of how they can benefit you best now by breaking down both your brand's long- and short-term goals while taking COVID-19 conditions into account and adjusting accordingly and realistically.
Incorporate feedback from your customers to streamline and simplify your KPIs as much as possible.
This is not only the time to get granular and clear about exactly what you want to accomplish, but also to get realistic about what kind of growth is truly possible. Listen to what your customers want and are willing to spend, and you'll get there. Godfrey finds that proper selection of your KPIs can help you understand your demographics better.
No one wants any negative surprises profit-wise at a tough time like this. Wise use of your KPIs can prevent that from happening, and help you shore up your resources more effectively.
Use smart technology to strongly enhance your KPIs.
Key metrics are essential to helping you do as well as possible. Digilant explains that "impressions" are the amount of times your ad has been served to a potential or current customer online. First, you need to determine the volume of your impressions on a continual basis so you can use this metric to keep your demographic thinking positively about your brand and products.
Then, it's key to link this info with your conversion rate — the measurement of how many people land on your pages versus how many people actually buy something from you once they land. You can then compare your purchase rate to your impressions to get further insight on how well your messaging translates into dollars.
Other metrics to mine includes your CPC, or cost per click, to determine how much money to spend when you divide your marketing costs by the number of clicks a campaign racks up; your cost per action, which shows you how well your investment pays off per individual consumer actions, such as scoring each individual sale; and your ROA, or return on advertising, which shows you the actual profit you're making per marketing dollar spent. Putting all of this information together in an overall analysis creates an invaluable snapshot of what is working for you and what needs improvement.
Fix mistakes through KPI resets.
Take the time now to redirect a business plan that is not firing on all cylinders by tweaking it toward a KPI goal that's achievable and cost-efficient in the current economic climate. KPIs provide you with accuracy and transparency in a way that may be a little jolting right now. But don't let dips in your revenue hold you back; face the music and consider this tough period to be a boon to your business by using your KPI data to pivot as needed.
Predict future trends through KPI analysis.
The goals you hit today can serve as a barometer for how well your brand will grow and expand its profile after the pandemic is over. Use your KPI data to update customer profile snapshots, trim more fat that you ever thought possible, and brainstorm better ad copy that will truly resonate with your base.
When you apply your KPIs as broadly as possible, your brand's possibilities immediately multiply. And the sky can ultimately be the limit for your profits!
