Dust off that pocket protector and fire up those spreadsheets! It is time to analyze your efforts and outcomes. This is also a pivotal moment to take a pause and closely examine your efforts. Business is a grand experiment, and it’s necessary to scrutinize what is driving your ROI and what is potentially holding you back.

“What gets measured gets improved.” – Peter Drucker

KPIs

Oh god, here we go with more acronyms! This one is handy, so grab a pen and paper or your favorite spreadsheet software.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are marketing buzzwords for sure and one of the least understood terms in business development. They have an ambiguous meaning that can include any advertising metric or data used to measure performance, making them more difficult than they need be for businesses looking to grow their customer base.

For me, the whole goal of defining your KPIs is to have a common trackable metric and figuring out how to optimize it so that we can make more money!

Here are some examples of some general KPIs:

• Shorten the sales cycle by half
• Generate 50% more leads
• Create a new usage occasion
• Get loyal customers to buy 30% or more

So, what are some of your key metrics that you can identify in your business that once you see them improve it will reflect that your business is getting healthier? Dude, seriously, stop reading, and jot down a few ideas!

It’s Time to Track. Compare. Repeat.

In my best McConaughey, “Well, Alright, Alright, Alright.” as I pull a long strand of hay from out of the corner of my mouth. “Now we are getting down to where the rubber meets the road.” (You could hear the subtle whistle in my voice too, couldn’t you?!) It is time to face the light and see how all of our work has been performing in the market. It’s time to Track. Compare. And Repeat.

Track

Marketing is a complex process, but it all boils down to one question: what are the drivers behind your success? Marketing encompasses so many elements that you’ll want to track – campaigns, emails, social media posts and ads. However, if things aren’t going as planned with sales or costs starting to pile up on balance sheets then something needs attention. The first thing I would do after identifying an issue in my marketing efforts was ask myself “What caused this?”

Compare

What was the cost-to-profit ratio of that campaign? Sure, you might have sold 100 more units and made $20,000 but how much did it cost to make those sales? Was it worth an additional $25,000 on top of your initial investment just so you can sell a hundred extra pieces.

This may seem like a good idea at first glance because the additional revenue would outweigh any losses by quite a bit. However this is not always true as well-intentioned campaigns often end up costing their owners money instead through wasted time or investments in marketing efforts which do not produce results.

Analysis paralysis

If God has granted me one superpower, it is the gift of overthinking data to the point of being incapacitated. My mom and dad are so proud of their little Bear! But here is my advice: work with a team. If you can surround yourself with other nerds who love to crunch data, it can be REALLY fun to try and learn more through your numbers.

Try and gamify your data

Don’t burn yourself out by capturing ALL of the data, or being too granular. Stick to the macro as a business owner and see the big picture of what is working and what isn’t. Make it fun! Respect the data! (I feel like I should print t-shirts with that on it.)

As you close out your data analysis session consider: What exciting things can I do next to bring value to my audience?

Repeat

This is why it’s important to create a routine that will help you be more disciplined. If you block out time every month, quarter or year on your calendar for analyzing the results of what works and learning from mistakes then this can give you confidence in how well your plan has been working – no excuses!

After you analyze individually on a macro level, take time to work with your team to analyze together on a more micro level. This allows you and your team to stay in sync and unified in your ongoing efforts.

Make a list of your successes

Make a list with your team to celebrate what campaigns, ads, and marketing initiatives made a splash (and a profit). After you’ve made your list, do an in-depth analysis to figure out what worked within the initiative and why. Next are just a few examples of questions to get you started.

Biggest successes

Did you have great visuals that caught people’s attention?

Was it good timing due to seasonality in your field?

Was the call-to-action easy to convert a sale?

Was it your irresistible offer?

Was it from one big order or many small orders?

How many new customers did you acquire vs. previous customers?

How are you stewarding new customer relationships?

How can we reproduce this campaign with repeated results?

What was the overall ROI (in percentage form) of the campaign?

Scrutinize what went wrong

What were the biggest busts of your marketing efforts? Don’t dwell on who is to blame or beat yourself up for something that didn’t work, but you should DEFINITELY take a moment and label what didn’t work and possible causes to try and mitigate them in the future! You know what they say about the definition of insanity – you can’t keep doing the same thing over and over and expect a different outcome. Try to not get bogged down by the “down” side to your campaign, use it as a springboard for new amazing ideas.

Why didn’t your campaign succeed?

Were your creative assets not eye-catching enough? (Messaging, photography, video, graphic design)

Bad timing in the market?

Poor call-to-action? How would I know it is a bad CTA?

Poor ad spend?

Not a good enough offer?

Just not the right solution for your market’s problem?

Feeling a bit like a human punching bag after that exercise? Take a breather, take a walk, do a little yoga. Realize that anything you’ve analyzed and realized isn’t working isn’t a reflection on you doing a terrible job, in fact, your analysis proves your aptitude and energy to do things “right.”

Define your action plan moving forward

Take a moment with your team and end on a high note. Circle back around and name a few things that you want to do coming up in the future that you know worked. Get your energy back up, focus on some of the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that were successes and align with your team to get ready to take what you’ve all learned and evolve it into the next iteration of your marketing strategy. You got this!

Download a copy of our free team marketing worksheets here. Want to learn even more? Check out our book and video course, Unify Your Marketing.