KPI

I’ll just come right out and say it! All key performance indicators (KPIs) that are meant to drive performance (and all KPIs should do just that) must be linked to goal conversion. If they are not, then your metrics are meaningless or you are measuring the wrong thing! Whether you are talking about a click-through-rate (CTR), or unique visitors or the number of followers or time spent on a page or site, it all boils down to conversion goals.

If you are attracting followers who do not buy your type of product or service, if your followers are not in the right demographic profile or geographic location, if they are not ready to buy, your business will not achieve conversion. If you have unique visitors who visit your page or site because of incorrect keyword combinations, their visits will not result in conversion. If you have misleading content or unappealing or poorly presented content or you have chosen the wrong demographic or geographic targets for your products or services, it doesn’t matter how many ‘clicks’ you get – you will not get conversions.

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The best way to achieve conversions is:

FIRST: The business must define various conversion goals, e.g., you are looking for a person to comment on your site, download a white paper, chat with an online representative, ask for more information, ask for demo of your product, purchase a particular type of product, etc.

NEXT: The business team must link all these conversion goals to KPIs. You can grade or rank conversions based on their importance to your marketing campaign strategy. For example, if you have an eCommerce sites, the most important conversion goal might be for a site visitor to purchase your new product. That goal would carry more weight than someone asking for more information from an online representative, or someone who spent more than five minutes browsing on your site.

Directly linking conversion goals to results will provide the enterprise with more objective metrics and ensure that the business, marketing, sales and advertising team stays on track. By linking KPIs to conversion goals, the enterprise can readily see results and objectively measure success. When KPI results decline, the team must analyze and address the results to ensure business success and sustain results. Furthermore, when internet marketing, social media marketing, search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click programs are established without linking conversion targets and goals, there is no way to accurately assess success or provide objective metrics for management review. It is not enough to increase traffic on your site. When an enterprise fails at conversion, it fails at improving its bottom line, and if it cannot analyze and address conversion problems, it will not succeed.