Rule #1 for Digital Marketing Analytics: Take Them Seriously

Every marketer has heard the mantra "To measure is to know". While that is true, measurement simply to know is largely useless. You measure, not just to know, but to act.

Data, Data Everywhere

Let's be real. The world is drowning in data. That is likely why Forbes identified "data analyst" as the hottest corporate job of 2016. The question is, though, what is all this data doing for your marketing efforts? Possibly not much. According to Hubspot's 2016 State of Inbound report, 46 percent of marketers say that one of the biggest challenges their companies face is proving ROI for their marketing activities. As it turns out, you not only have to have the data, you have to use it.

Google and Beyond - All Inclusive Digital Marketing Analytics

Most marketers are familiar with Google Analytics, the ever-popular tool for capturing your website performance metrics. And undeniably, you can learn a lot from Google Analytics.

But consider this. Google Analytics and other website analytic tools give you a wealth of information about your website performance, but they do not necessarily give you everything you need to know about your overall digital marketing efforts. They are, of necessity, website-centric. In other words, you can get information about the "what" from such applications, but you cannot really get the "why".

The same problem holds true for other analytic platforms that are hooked to a specific channel of marketing. For instance, social media platforms contain their own analytics, just like Google. What is needed, then, are digital marketing analytics that integrate all the data from multiple digital channels to give you a clear picture of the numbers pertaining to your campaigns and also the customer behaviors that drive those numbers.

For instance, digital marketing analytics tools like Hotjar combine features like heatmaps, visitor recordings, conversion funnel metrics, form analysis, feedback polls, surveys, and recruited test users to give you an in-depth look at how your target audience is responding to each piece of your digital marketing strategy.

This deeper-dive approach to marketing analytics helps you not only to prove ROI for your overall digital strategy, but to drill down to the ROI of every campaign individually. For instance, advanced digital marketing analytics can reveal:

• How many contacts your blog is generating
• How many contacts are generated by a specific email or social media campaign
• What actions are taken by the majority of your contacts who end up converting
• Which marketing channels are generating the most contacts
• Which marketing channels have the highest contact to conversion ratio

It is easy to see why these metrics matter. For instance, identifying which marketing channel generates the most contacts is a great piece of information to have. But understanding which marketing channel generates the most conversions is even better.

Tying these marketing analytics to your CRM will give you further insight into which campaigns are actually producing the best ROI for your organization.

Working with a Digital Marketing Agency to Understand Your Analytics

The article "Data Analytics: Stop Talking about it and Start Doing It" observes: "Good analysis should tell this story with actionable results (both short- and long-term) to improve performance and drive your business forward. Not only should it provide insights and optimizations based on historical findings, but it should also use trends to predict what will happen in the future. This story is fluid, emphasizing the importance of not only having the right measures in place to access and organize data, but also having a team that can analyze it and make improvements based on it to drive goal-focused results."

A digital marketing agency provides you both with the tools to gather the metrics you need and the experts to analyze those metrics. An agency can glean the important data from your campaigns and even use predictive analytics to design campaigns that will drive conversions and net a positive ROI for your marketing efforts. Start tapping into the power of digital marketing analytics for your company by requesting an assessment of your current campaigns today.