Measuring results and defining proper KPIs are vital for every business. If you’re running a marketing campaign, you know that measuring your results is the key to success. It’s the only way you can make informed decisions about what works and doesn’t. Without measurement, you’re just guessing. And if you’re making decisions based on guesswork, that can lead to wasted time and money. In the worst-case scenario, it can completely derail your business. If you’re not measuring your marketing results, you’re just running in the dark, hoping for the best.

So how do you measure your marketing results?

Measure your Marketing Results using SMART Goals

The first step is to set your marketing objectives. The best way to do this is to use SMART goals.
SMART stands for:

  • Specific – target a particular area for improvement.
  • Measurable – quantify or at least suggest an indicator of progress.
  • Achievable – Attainable and not impossible to achieve.
  • Realistic – state what results can realistically be achieved, given available resources.
  • Time-related – specify when the result(s) can be achieved.

Let’s explore these in more detail.

Specific 

Your objective should be clear and precise. It should be able to be measured accurately. For example, “increase sales” isn’t a specific objective; it could mean anything from “increase sales by 10%” to “increase sales by 50%”. Instead, you should use a number or percentage target for your objective (e.g., increase sales by 25%).

Measurable

You need to know that your objective is measurable. This means you can measure whether or not the goal has been achieved. For example, if one of your objectives is to increase customer satisfaction, you can easily measure how many customers have rated you as a 9 or 10 out of 10 on a scale of 1-10 (or something similar).

Achievable 

Your objective should be attainable and not impossible to achieve. For example, if you want to increase sales from $1 million to $10 million a year in five years, this is an achievable goal. However, if you want to increase sales from $100 a week to $1 million a week in the next month, this isn’t an achievable goal. You shouldn’t set an objective that is too difficult or too easy to achieve.

Realistic 

Your objective should be realistic. It shouldn’t be too broad, and it shouldn’t be too narrow. For example, if your business is just starting and it has very little capital available for marketing activities, an objective such as “increase sales by 20% by the end of the month” won’t help you much. Instead, focus on more realistic goals such as “hire two new employees this month at the cost of less than $1500 each.Which will help you achieve your broader objective.

Time-bound 

Your objective should specify when the result(s) can be achieved. It should include a target date (or period) by which your objective will be achieved. 

If your marketing objectives aren’t SMART goals, rewrite them!

Defining KPIs

A KPI is a key performance indicator. It’s a metric that will help you to gauge whether you are on track to meeting your objectives. KPIs are important because they allow you to focus on the right things and avoid getting distracted by other things that may be irrelevant to your goals.

KPIs can be quantitative (numerical) or qualitative (non-numerical). Numerical KPIs include sales, profit margins, number of customers, amount of new customers, etc. Qualitative KPIs include customer satisfaction scores, employee satisfaction scores, etc.

If your objective is “to increase sales from $100 a week to $1 million a week in the next five years by implementing a new marketing strategy”, then you want to monitor the number of new customers from month to month. This way, you can check whether your marketing strategy is working or not. A good KPI, in this case, would be the “number of new customers per month.”

An excellent way to determine KPIs for your business is simply by brainstorming and listing down everything that comes into mind as far as possible, even if they don’t seem very relevant at first sight. After brainstorming for some time (at least 30 minutes), look through the list and determine which ones seem appropriate for tracking towards specific objectives and which ones don’t seem relevant at all. Keep the relevant ones; those will be your KPIs.

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