Turning Marketing Data into Decisions

Published On: July 4, 20223.3 min read

Marketing professionals across the globe rely on accurate data to make the best decisions for their company and clients. This concept is nothing new or particularly complex – marketers have been working for centuries to increase brand awareness based on what they know about their customers and the market itself. However, the rate of innovation in data analytics has increased dramatically in the last twenty-five years and we are living in a golden age of business intelligence. Using KPIs (key performance indicators) to set goals and track progress will focus your marketing efforts and exponentially grow your return on investment. Here’s how:

What is a Key Performance Indicator?

A KPI measures how your team is performing at achieving a certain goal or objective. They are measurable metrics that track performance over time. If my goal is to reach 10,000 total customers, a great KPI to track would be Number of Current Customers.

Why do I need marketing KPIs?

Setting goals and using KPIs to measure progress towards goals will help you create a clear and efficient marketing strategy. You will make decisions and take actions that directly impact your KPIs, driving overall success in the areas you have identified as most critical. Save time and money by making data-informed decisions. Fine tune your efforts and maximize your value.

How can I use KPIs to improve my marketing strategy and performance?

Marketing teams pay attention to KPIs that reflect customer behavior and interests. For example, social media engagement and website conversion rate both are powerful KPIs for understanding what type of content is useful and popular with your customers. 

KPIs are useful for examining your team’s business practices as well. Two common marketing KPIs for tracking performance are Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) and Return on Ad Spend (ROAS). Customer acquisition cost calculates the amount of money it takes to convert a potential lead into a customer. Knowing your CAC will help you decide how much money to spend on attracting customers, and when to increase or decrease your customer acquisition efforts to best fit your budget. Your ROAS compares the cost of creating and running an ad to the revenue it generated. It will show in black and white just how successful your ad campaign was at driving revenue. 

Track KPIs with the Right Tools

Deciding to measure KPIs is one thing, but actually analyzing them and synthesizing outcomes is another. Align’s KPI Dashboard is a convenient visualization of your team’s key performance indicators. Quickly get a snapshot of your progress across multiple fields and goals all in one easy-to-read scorecard directly on your Align dashboard. Your Align KPI scorecard seamlessly connects your overall strategic plan to your day-to-day work. Break down information silos by sharing scorecards in huddles and improve accountability by empowering team members to own and update different KPIs. Align supports multiple KPI scorecards across our system so you and your team can focus on what matters most. Set up a marketing-specific scorecard to dive deep on performance KPIs and a team-wide scorecard for KPIs that other departments will benefit from seeing as well. 

Integrate your KPI Scorecard for ultimate connectivity and speed

Marketing is fast-paced and you need tools that won’t slow you down. Align’s KPI Scorecard can leverage a direct integration with Salesforce to automatically update your KPI’s and keep your team on track. Align also supports Zapier, a third party integration connector. Through Zapier, Align is compatible with over 5000 apps and softwares so you always have the most up-to-date information 24/7 in one location. 

What else can I do with marketing KPIs?

With useful marketing KPI data in hand, you can impact almost any sector of your business. Improve the overall customer or user experience, plan new marketing and community outreach strategies, or develop a new product or feature based on customer feedback. Align can help you turn data into priorities, and priorities into results. To learn more or schedule a demo, click here.

You are hitting your revenue ceiling.

But this doesn’t have to be the case. With Align you can get the whole company on the same page, remove shiny object syndrome and focus on the tasks that need to get done to grow your company. Fast.