Digital has always been measurable, with accessible metrics for analysing performance that makes it easier to attribute than traditional marketing methods, such as print. For a long time, measurement was relatively straightforward but with the advent of mobile everything changed - measurement became more complex and more important than ever. Mobile meant that digital exploded. You could access the internet anywhere at anytime as long as your had a 3G connection. Micro moments online have become much more prevalent, digital has become part of our daily routines - when waiting for the bus, on the way to the shops, a passenger in the car or just lounging at home. As a result, fractured journeys have become the norm. Stop, start, stop, start is a much more common interaction than before and our ability to measure the impact of these step by step has become increasingly more difficult.
To drive growth in the mobile-first world of 2017, it is important to evolve our measurement strategies and KPIs to ensure their relevancy to the user journey. As marketeers we've evolved our approach to measurement to prioritise the long-term value (LTV) of a customer, we encourage all our clients to also adopt this approach in their performance metrics of their own customers. This mindset shift can help to drive sustainable growth.
1. Customers not clicks
This mindset moves away from the linear and last click attribution models, which is a narrower view of measurement that worked well when fractured journeys weren't the norm. Now, with cross-channel and cross-device behaviours more prevalant, these metrics fall short. They fail to communicate the real results. Individual sales are great, the real value is the long-term value of the customer, or group of customers.
Test and learn is much more relevant than forecasting, with the shift away from individual channel per click metrics or per acquisition to an overall business KPI that considers all channels. Utilising CRM has become essential in this, only then will we be able to understand real time performance in the macro of business results, as well as adjusting strategy in real time for optimum impact.
2. Business outcomes not media metrics
Media metrics are still a useful way of reporting precise performance data but the focus should be on business impact on figures, like profit. Again, a custom CRM tailored to your business could be highly beneficial in attributing sales to clicks, and also the long term value of that customer, or Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). So instead of a wait and see approach, you can fill out the gaps in your measurement plan by using a CRM to determine the most influential channels.
By building campaigns, testing and using real-time metrics e.g. store visits, cost per acquisition etc. to business outcomes e.g. profit, revenue, CLV, marketeers can make smarter and faster decisions.
3. Experiments not optimisation
We excel at optimisation, and we encourage any business to challenge us to optimise their own website. That being said, optimisation is not the only or best formula to success. For any business wanting to achieve much greater returns we adopt a strategy that also involves investing in untested or unproven strategies. This "strategic testing" - not just incremental adjustments - is what causes forward leaps, rather than mere steps.
We encourage all our clients to dedicate some budgets, time and resources to building a process and pipeline for strategic experimentation. Fresh experiences can deliver incredible value that standalone optimisation won't accomplish. Prepare to fail, again and again, but also expect great success as it will come.
In summary, it's an exciting time to be a marketeer. Customer value is becoming the priority metric in measurement, gaps are being eliminated by CRM technology and we're fostering a culture of marketing experimentation that can result in big wins. This is how 2017 is closing. We'll give our thoughts on 2018 toward the end of the year - but expect more and watch this space!