Analytics are hugely important when it comes to digital marketing and understanding your customers. However, sometimes it can be difficult to decipher the massive amount of data available. In this blog post, I’m going to walk you through the different types of data available and how you can use them effectively to understand your customers. We’ll also look at some examples of great practices you can use straight away!

Why digital marketing analytics are important

You’ve likely heard the phrase “what gets measured gets managed” before. It’s an adage used by marketers and managers alike, to remind us that if we don’t measure our progress, we’ll never know if we’re making progress.

The same is true of digital marketing analytics; if we don’t measure what’s going on with our digital marketing efforts, we have no way of knowing whether or not they’re working.

Gathering and analysing data is only useful if it helps you improve your business. You need to know what your objective is before you can evaluate how well you’re achieving it. If you’re not clear about what you want from your digital marketing efforts, don’t be afraid to experiment with different analytics tools until you find one that provides what you need.

Once you’ve got a good handle on the data coming in, it’s time to start evaluating the various metrics and begin tying them back to the work that’s being done in your organisation. Measurement is only valuable if it helps move your organisation forward.

You can use analytics to:

• Understand how customers interact with your brand, products, and services
• Find out who are your best customers, and which ones are most likely to give you repeat business or referrals
• Identify opportunities for improving conversion rates and increasing customer satisfaction
• Measure the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns, so you know what’s working and what’s not

What types of digital marketing data do you have available to you

There are so many potential digital marketing data points to choose from and it can be challenging to know where to start.

Rather than group them by type (eg. Social media marketing, website etc.) instead it can be useful based on where they sit in the customer journey. Identifying some key measurable metrics at each stage of the buyer journey helps you more clearly make digital marketing decisions.

Awareness Marketing Metrics

• Social Impressions
• Social Followers
• Website rankings
• Website backlinks
• Website visitors
• CPM
• CPC

Consideration Marketing Metrics

• Lead Magnet Downloads
• Landing page conversion rates
• Cost Per Lead from paid traffic
• Email Sign Ups
• Email Click Through Rate

Decision Marketing Metrics

• Conversion Rate
• Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)
• Average Order Value (AOV)
• Average shopping cart abandonment rate

Delight Marketing Metrics

• Net Promoter Score (NPS)
• Lifetime Customer Value (LTCV)
• Repeat Purchasing Frequency
• Positive social reviews / ratings

How mapping analytics to your customer’s journey can help your business

The customer journey is a concept that all marketers understand.

It’s a visual representation of how your customer interacts with your product or brand. The journey begins when the customer first becomes aware of who you are and what you do, continues with their decision-making process, and ends with them receiving value from your product or service.

Mapping analytics to the customer’s journey is a powerful way to ensure you are putting the right effort into the right channel at the right time. This is why every well-designed marketing strategy should have a clear understanding of how leads and customers interact with your brand and your website over time.

Marketing attribution models are designed to help marketers understand this journey by tracking customer interactions from awareness, through consideration and decision stages, until ultimately resulting in delight – when a customer becomes invested in your brand and continues to engage and purchase.

In Conclusion

By mapping analytics to your customer journey you can fine tune your digital marketing strategy, giving you a more focused approach at achieving your goals and improving customer retention. A good strategy guided by consistent analytics will work hard towards improving your marketing performance.