In an increasingly data-driven world, how do you determine which data points are key performance indicators for your clients or organizations?
The answer isn’t always as obvious as it seems.
If the point of measuring communications performance is to demonstrate that your outreach efforts are positively impacting the bottom line, the fact is that the so-called bottom line and its relationship to marketing will vary to some degree from one organization or vertical to the next.
For example: the relationship between marketing performance for an eCommerce or SaaS operation will vary to some meaningful degree from that of a destination marketing organization, even if all three client profiles ultimately want to see some kind of consumer transaction take place.
As you work with clients or get started in-house, make sure to ask the right questions about organizational goals and take those insights into the process of plotting out your communications tactics and strategy.
Get clear about how various functions of marketing are tied to the outcomes the organizations you service are trying to achieve, and prepare to articulate this. Show relationships between data points and outcomes. If you can, leave “vanity metrics” out of the conversation unless they provide insights that can help you improve your campaigns and better approach your organizational goals.
This should save help you to sharpen your communications acumen—and save you a lot of needless confusion and heartache.
A Language of Being 