Meaningful Marketing Data Workshop

A big THANK YOU to everyone who came out for the Meaningful Marketing Data workshop on August 27, 2019. This workshop was co-sponsored by The Steamboat Chamber and Yampa Valley Bank.

When it comes to the creative side of things, I THRIVE, but data… not so much! Each month at Mtn. Dog Media we compile comprehensive End of the Month Reports for our clients looking at website traffic volume, sources, and engagement stats. Honestly, this is a task I used to DREAD! UGH! NUMBERS! GRAPHS!! MATH!!!

Then one day, I was sitting at my computer scrutinizing a client’s Google Analytics numbers compiling an End of the Month Report, and it occurred to me, I don’t hate this anymore! In fact, it’s kind of fun! It’s like cracking a code. Now the data whispers to me! And that’s what I’m here to share with you today! How to crack the Google Analytics code and use the most meaningful metrics to make decisions about your marketing strategy.

Website Traffic Volume

Why should business owners should care about the volume of traffic on our websites? In the business world, MORE is MORE, right? We want more people walking through the door. More people talking about our brands. More people on our website! More website traffic volume = more leads and ultimately more sales conversions.

Website Traffic Sources

We looked at our website traffic volume, which is going to give us a general impression of whether or not our campaigns are driving more traffic back to our website. Now, let’s look at our website traffic sources to determine WHERE that traffic is coming from. This will help us determine which aspects of our digital marketing efforts have been the most successful.

Social Media Engagement Statistics

This is really important information to collect on a monthly basis if you’re doing any social media marketing. The number of followers on each platform and the number of engagements (likes/comments/shares). These are the success metrics for your social media campaign.

To learn more about how to improve your campaign, review your top posts by likes, comments, and shares. What type of content is your audience most engaged by? How does photo quality differentiate engagement? Do you clients engage better with certain subjects? Do your clients engage well with posts that feature text overlays or graphics? Do they respond better to seeing faces in the campaign imagery? If you ask a question do users reply in the comments? Do you users respond well to promotions? What effect do boosted posts have on your campaign? What posts generated clicks through to your website? What posts generated the BEST clicks through to your website? These are the types of posts that you’ll want to emulate in the future.

Newsletter Engagement Stats

How many subscribers did your campaign send to? If the number of subscribers is going down not up, that indicates that your audiences is unsubscribers faster than you’re accumulating new audience members. Consider launching a campaign with a newsletter signup incentive to increase subscribers. Monitor how your subject line affects your open rate, because I PROMISE YOU that it will! You can also monitor how the day of the week and time of the day affect your open rate.

Next, look at the number of link clicks and WHICH LINKS were clicked the most. If no one is clicking on your blog links it could indicate that your content isn’t authentically engaging to your audience. If people never click your promotional links, ask yourself how compelling your call-to-actions are. Do you need to change the design of your promotions? Do you need to create strong call-to-action buttons? Do you need to include more authentic text to communicate your brand values?

Recording Small Business Marketing Data

Now that you know what marketing data is the most meaningful, it’s time to start collecting it! Click here to download our meaningful marketing data template! Set a calendar reminder that goes off once a month to remind you to populate your spreadsheet with data; consistently.