Inbound Marketing Goal Setting: The Metrics That Keep You On Track

Marketers and business owners who are armed with the the most accurate and conclusive data are also those that are shaping and changing inbound marketing, much to their own advantage.

If it weren't for data, then marketers wouldn't be able to suggest immediate and effective solutions for online businesses.  Business owners would be left making poor or ill-informed decisions that can have a negative impact on their business.  Without data, no one would be able to uncover hidden opportunities in new marketing channels that can help them drive up lead numbers and customer conversions.

As an inbound marketing agency, we live and breathe metrics. It's ingrained in the methodology to both track and measure the success of your campaign in order to make smarter, more targeted improvements. Apart from keeping a close eye on studies and statistics released from other companies (check out our free guide, “44 Incredible Social Media Statistics” for global social media metrics that can help you plan a more powerful social strategy), we're also constantly tracking and measuring our own metrics in order to make more informed decisions.

It's the new year, so we want to make sure that businesses and marketers are all tracking the right metrics when it comes to the initial marketing phase:  goal setting and progress measurement.

If you're interested in learning more about seeing significant improvement in 2013, check out our new ebook, "26 Ways to Generate More Inbound Customers in 2013."

Inbound Marketing Goal Setting: How to Stay on Track

What Metrics Should You Be Measuring?

We're starting with goal setting and progress measurement because both are what should be the foundation of every marketing decision that you make.  By having solid metrics on hand, you'll be able to not only fulfill your marketing goals, but you'll likely be able to keep ahead of them as well.

If you're considering using HubSpot software, or if you're already using it, check out our free ebook “The Essential Guide For Mastering HubSpot” for further tips and tricks on how to really make this software work for you.

Leads and Traffic Waterfall Graphs

Everyone likes graphs, and a leads waterfall graph is one that makes it easy for you to see whether or not you've attained your lead goals for that month.  You plot your daily lead generation goals and track your progress every single day.  The benefit?  You can quickly and easily see when you're falling behind on your goals.

So if you have a few days where you see that your lead or traffic numbers may be gradually tapering off, you can then start looking at ways to heat up your marketing campaign immediately. Try combating the dip in numbers with proven traffic generators:

• Send a segmented email promoting a new ebook or your most popular blog articles

• Try using a redesigned CTA on your most popular pages

• Temporarily increase your volume of your blog posts and social media engagement

• Host a contest

A lot of businesses also find traffic waterfall graphs pretty useful, and for those who are just starting out or have made changes to their website, this graph will help give you a good idea of what you can expect if you're trying to reach a certain lead goal.  Just as with the leads waterfall graph, as soon as you start to fall behind your traffic goal, you can change your marketing campaign on the fly to help maintain your traffic numbers.

Average Lead Close Rate

This metric is an important but often seldom followed metric that can have a huge impact on your bottom line.

When you follow your average lead close rate, you'll be able to monitor the quality of leads that you're attracting.  So if you have a high average lead close rate, then you know that you've done a pretty darn good job with your targeted marketing campaign. Your marketing team is sending more personalized content, featuring more targeted content, and effectively reaching the ideal prospect you've set forth in your company buyer personas.

If your numbers are low or they begin to drop, then you know that you may not be hitting the right market.  Keep an eye on this metric at least once a week so that you can make any campaign changes before you begin missing out on some serious business. Either your marketing team needs to alter the content, or your sales team is having trouble locating the good leads from the bad.

If this is the case, implementing a lead scoring strategy will allow your sales team to identify the qualified leads much quicker.

Average Leads Per Business Day With Month Over Month Growth

You may already be following your month over month growth, but a lot of businesses aren't keeping an eye on their lead per business day month over month growth.  Here's why this is beneficial: not all months are the same length (i.e. comparing this month, which has only 28 days, with May that has 31 days would produce skewed results).

By following leads per business day, you're able to see how much you're able to produce in any one given business day.  This will help you properly meet you goals and maintain your quotas.

Another consideration that you'll have to make is what sort of software you'll use to get this information.  Though there are a number of options out there, our personal favorite is the HubSpot Marketing software.  This closed-loop marketing software has all of the metrics that we've found necessary to make the best online business decisions possible.