Now that you’ve created your marketing strategy and implemented it into the workings of your business, you want to know if your marketing tactics are right on point or way off the mark. Fortunately, you can compare the data you collect to what’s happening right now in your industry. To do this, you need to have a thorough understanding of benchmarks and key performance indicators:
Understanding Benchmarks & Their Importance
The best way to know how well your company is doing is by comparing it to industry-standard statistics and your competitor’s statistics. This is where benchmarks come into play. Benchmarks are an industry-established statistic on performance. These statistics are virtually unchanging, which creates a solid foundation to evaluate your performance.
For example, the industry standard for a company’s Facebook engagement rate is 1%. An engagement rate measures post likes, link clicks, “view more” clicks, shares, and photo views. Basically, if a post engaged anyone enough to draw their attention, it’s reflected in the engagement rate.
So, if your company’s engagement rate is higher than 1%, you can be confident that what you’re posting about, how often you post, and the images or videos you’re using are exceeding industry standards! But, if your engagement rate is below 1%, this is a sign that your social media tactics need to change.
Analyzing benchmarks allows you to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of your current marketing strategy. Remember, your marketing strategy (and your tactics) should be fluid. It’s healthy to adjust your strategy as the data tells you to so you can optimize your marketing and run laps around your competition. When you don’t know how well the industry is doing, you won’t truly know how well your company is performing, either.
Another very valuable and unique-to-you benchmark are tracking mechanisms. Through call-tracking numbers, landing pages, and specially-tagged contact forms, you can gain better insight into the overall results of your campaign. Once you calculate your conversions based on the lifetime value of a client, you’ll be able to easily evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing spend. When each of these metrics are tracked per campaign, you’ll be equipped to pivot your spend toward the more profitable ad platforms.
Understanding Key Performance Indicators & Their Importance
Now that we understand what benchmarks are, it’s important to have a firm grasp on key performance indicators (KPI’s), as these are unique to each company. Key performance indicators are statistics specific to a business that change over time based upon tactics implemented. Basically, KPI’s outline what you want to achieve and when you want to achieve them by – these will be reflected in statistics specific to your company.
Piggybacking from the example above, if you want your company’s Facebook page to have a 5% engagement rate, implement specific tactics to reach that goal. After a set amount of time, evaluate your engagement rate (your statistics) and you’ll find out if you’ve reached your goal.
Key performance indicators are extremely important for a company to analyze and make decisions based on facts, as these statistics can provide non-biased information concerning how well your company is doing. If you allow KPI’s to drive you toward your overarching goal, your company can be more competitive, cost efficient, and successful.
This was part four in our marketing strategy series. If you missed parts one, two, or three … check them out below:
- Marketing Strategy 101 – Part 1: What is a Marketing Strategy & Why is it So Important?
- Marketing Strategy 101 – Part 2: 3 Factors to Help your Marketing Strategy Thrive
- Marketing Strategy 101 – Part 3: Establish your Marketing Strategy in 5 Steps
How M&R Marketing Can Help
Before you study your industry’s benchmarks and create KPI’s, you need to have a thorough marketing strategy in place. Your marketing strategy will provide a foundation to reach your goals! When you partner with M&R Marketing with your marketing strategy needs, we spend countless hours evaluating these statistics and making changes when necessary (step five of our process)! Do you have questions about how we can help your company find success? Give us a call: 478-621-4491.