Business leader presenting analytics to team
The results of growth marketing campaigns can take a while to surface. Early on, easy-to-digest metrics like ROI and the number of qualified leads may not be too impressive. Initial numbers could prompt growth marketers to abandon their ideas and campaigns. But quantitative measurements aren’t the only way to gauge the effectiveness of online content and other growth marketing tactics.
Qualitative data sources, such as comments on social posts and surveys, can reveal insights the numbers won’t disclose. While percentages and calculations show what’s happening with your growth marketing efforts, subjective data says why. When used alongside quantitative information, qualitative measures help marketers reach their campaign goals. Here are some of the most meaningful measurements to use and why.
Customer and Lead Sentiment
A growth marketing campaign may include webinars, blog posts, product guides and social media posts. The typical objectives of online content are to nurture leads and build customer relationships. However, your posts and content won’t do that as effectively if your audience doesn’t find them helpful and engaging.
Yes, it’s good to create and promote content to reach your target audience. Those guides and posts can remind them why your company can resolve their pain points. But how customers and leads perceive the information you publish will determine whether they’ll take desired actions. Measuring customer and lead sentiment about your digital content can tell you whether it will lead to results, such as conversions.
Surveys asking for feedback about webinars, livestreams and web pages can help measure sentiment. So can asking readers to comment on your blog and social media posts. Some survey and social media platforms provide sentiment analysis tools to streamline and automate the process. You can also send surveys to your email list or newsletter subscribers. Find out what content they enjoy, which pieces don’t resonate and what information gaps you want to fill.
Thought Leadership and Influence
Growth marketing strategies try to boost brand awareness through thought leadership and industry influence. A sign that campaign tactics are working is like-minded influencers asking about potential partnerships. This might include guest bloggers pitching content ideas for a website or blog. It can also involve influencers asking about featuring a company’s products and services in their online posts.
Indicators that you’re building thought leadership and influence may also extend beyond the web. You might get requests to speak or lead discussions at industry conferences. Company leaders and press contacts could receive more invitations to participate in joint press releases, news articles and feature stories. An uptick in professional invites and partnership inquiries shows your brand is increasing its authority and credibility.
Brands that are more authoritative and trustworthy tend to have an easier time converting prospects and upselling to existing clients. Measuring thought leadership and influence can be tricky unless you’re already an industry leader or your brand is a household name. Unlike consumer sentiment analyses, there aren’t always automated tools to do the job. But you can look at indicators such as domain authority, backlink quality and the caliber of potential partnerships.
Conversion Drivers for Audience Segments
Besides increasing awareness, growth marketing strategies focus on other customer funnel stages or steps. These steps are acquisition, activation, retention, revenue and referral. In every funnel stage, various audience segments or buyer personas can exist. One persona might consist of price-sensitive consumers with large households. Another segment could be a group of leads motivated by status symbols.
Each audience segment has a main conversion driver. However, that trigger may vary at different funnel stages. Growth marketers must discover those conversion drivers and deploy them at the correct stages to appeal to target segments. You should also determine what actions you want your different buyer personas to take at those various stages.
For example, the desired action might be for more price-sensitive consumers to sign up for bundled services. Perhaps you believe the conversion driver for this segment is saving money. However, it might not be that simple or obvious. After all, a lower price or bigger discount won’t make you buy something you don’t perceive as valuable.
In this case, streamlined billing statements or services could be the conversion driver. This persona might also see value in getting more household needs met for less. Look at different segments’ behaviors and responses to various triggers to determine and measure what makes them buy. If buyer personas take the desired action, you’ve probably found a successful conversion driver.
Consumer Knowledge
Part of growth marketing entails educating consumers about your brand and its offerings. Examples include explaining how products and services work and ways to troubleshoot common problems. The story of a company’s history and values and what the business does for the communities it serves are other illustrations.
Campaigns that perform well leave little room for consumers to second-guess what a brand or company is and does. Prospects and existing clients should understand a business’s identity and products or services. For example, there’s a gap if consumers don’t know an internet service provider operates fiber networks and what makes fiber internet superior. Also, a gap exists if people don’t understand why that ISP can serve their needs better than the competition.
Online forms, pop-up questionnaires and customer service call logs are some ways to measure consumer knowledge and understanding. Feedback from sales and service staff about client interactions and questions are additional methods. You can group open-ended responses by theme or provide close-ended questions that use aided recall techniques and examine accuracy.
Using Qualitative Measures
Measuring the success of growth marketing campaigns takes more than raw data and statistics. Qualitative measurements, including consumer sentiment and knowledge, should supplement quantitative metrics. With proper use, subjective insights can signal the effectiveness of growth marketing efforts long before more tangible returns do. Most importantly, qualitative data will show what’s driving results that miss the mark and those that knock it out of the park.