Three ways marketing analytics can benefit your customer experience
For many years, marketers have struggled to prove and improve their impact on revenue. It was the era of marketing as the ‘arts and crafts’ department. With the arrival of digital channels and marketing technology, almost overnight, marketers had data to demonstrate the impact of their work. Today, marketers can prove their ability to drive growth with the right marketing metrics. These very same metrics are also great indicators of your customer’s experience. Let’s take a closer look!
“By using a proper mix of tactical, strategic and operational marketing analytics, marketing can quickly and emphatically evolve into a revenue center” - Ray Coppinger, Head of Marketing EMEA at Marketo, on how he sees and utilises the potential marketing analytics can have on improving company performance.
Studies show marketing analytics can be used to drive performance within a company, a main benefit being the contribution marketing analytics can have on improving customer experience. However, a study conducted by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services found that only half of companies interviewed recognised customer experience as one of their top-two performance determinants. Only a further half of those reported performing well within customer experience.
When considering why companies struggle to use marketing analytics to benefit customer experience, it’s clear that there are two main inhibitors. The first is organisational silo, which refers to department reluctance to share information with other departments. The second is due to the way companies share and analyse data.
In addition to recognising the benefits to be reaped from sharing data across departments, it is vital for companies to learn what types of data to look at. Companies must learn to move away from focusing on metrics that only look at costs, to look instead at outcomes and revenue contribution. When looking at marketing department performance, companies should take into account return on investment (ROI) data and key performance indicators (KPIs) to truly understand marketing performance.
KPIs help you to understand the success of activities by allowing you to map customer journeys. They highlight which activities you should be focusing your attention on according to ROI and create a gateway to improving customer experience. There are three types of marketing KPIs companies should consider: tactical, strategic and operating.
- Tactical
Tactical KPIs typically look at behaviours such as opens, clicks, visits, downloads and submissions. They are best utilised for analysing performance of specific channels, as the measurement is usually performed through buyer behaviour.
Tactical KPIs should be used to identify which channels are best performing, allowing marketers to optimise their programs and initiatives accordingly. Understanding which channel is best for each stage of the buying process can help companies better interact with their customers, simplify customer journey, and enrich customer experience.
2. Strategic
Strategic KPIs are generated by looking at the results of tactical reporting. Here, the focus is on the results driven by consumer behaviour to help determine marketing performance, rather than the measure of specific behaviours.
These types of KPIs will provide insight into how many new opportunities are created as a result of performance over a certain time frame, quantifying ROI and increasing top-of the funnel numbers. Quantifying ROI also allows you to highlight where marketing is impacting upsells and cross sells.
This insight allows marketing departments to identify which activities are most beneficial in terms of ROI, allowing them to decrease resources spent on those providing lower ROI and focus on those providing quality leads.
3. Operational
Operational indicators are the most beneficial in highlighting where cross-functional teams are failing or succeeding at pinpointing bottlenecks in the sales funnel. They can be used to help align teams, accelerating lead throughput and improving customer experience.
An example of an operating KPI would be a kickback report, which includes the number of leads rejected by sales and the reasons for rejection. This can help you understand if you are generating the right types of leads and, if not, where your strategy should be changed. Appealing to the right customers will allow you to improve customer experience.
Great customer experience is generated through constant delivery of what customers want at the right times. Successfully doing this can separate your company from competition within the industry. The most successful companies know how to compile the right data from multiple points, integrating them across multiple channels to provide a single customer view.
Looking at KPIs will help you connect marketing programs and tactics, and your contribution to top line growth, allowing you to optimise your efforts and improve customer experience.