Marketing success with marketing analytics

Nowadays, many different tools are used in marketing. Be it Google Analytics, SISTRIX, a CRM or CMS system, a marketing automation tool, social media portals or Google Ads. Data is created in all of these systems. But how can this data and information be used to make a statement about marketing success and not just about the success and performance of individual tools?

What does success mean in marketing?

Success is a difficult concept to grasp, because success can be defined in very different ways. In the corporate context, the measurability of success has a lot to do with the defined goals. Particularly in marketing, when goals are discussed at the beginning of the year, these usually serve as the basis for developing a corresponding marketing mix with measures that can be evaluated at the end of the year with regard to the goals.

The U.S. economist Peter Ferdinand Drucker put it in a nutshell in his quote: “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” This is precisely the point: only if goals are measurable can they be evaluated at the end of the day to derive appropriate recommendations for action.

Marketing Analytics – what is it and which KPIs are important?

Marketing analytics deals with the analysis of data to evaluate the performance of a marketing activity. Tools and analysis methods are used to evaluate all marketing-related data that is generated.

In B2B marketing, there is a strong focus on two areas of activity in particular, which are scrutinized as part of the analysis in order to determine marketing success:

Content view

Content analysis is critical in marketing – because the saying goes, “Content is King.” This approach focuses on the analysis of mailings, but also campaigns, social media and gated content. A marketing automation system is often used for this, which often already offers its own evaluation option.

Important KPIs include: Page views, impressions, click rates, engagement rates, conversion rates, form submissions, open rates, bounce rates, unsubscribe rates.
Sales perspective

In recent years, the role of marketing has changed significantly. More and more tasks, such as lead management, are no longer the responsibility of sales alone, but also of marketing. Marketing “lands” leads and nurtures them until they become Marketing Qualified Leads and then hands them over to Sales. Here, several KPIs can be derived that make success measurable.

Important KPIs include: Conversion Rate, Number of Leads, MQL vs. SQL, Returning Customers Return on Investment, Leads per Campaign.

Power BI – a powerful tool for marketing analysis

Every marketing employee knows it: When quarterly evaluations are due, the data from the various marketing tools must be analyzed. But this is easier said than done when the data is scattered in different tools and data pots. Some data can be exported, others not. Some are provided as Excel spreadsheets, others only in pdf format. Some tools allow time series comparisons, others do not.

What if all the data collected could be displayed on one interface in a dashboard? That’s exactly what Microsoft Power BI offers. No matter if Google Analytics, LinkedIn, the Marketing Automation System, the CRM or other marketing tools – all data can be connected and prepared in tables, pie charts, bar charts, cards and many other visualization options. Drill-through and drill-down functionalities also allow data to be viewed in further detail and analyzed effectively. Correlations between data that are independent of each other can be identified, providing a complete overview. And best of all: prototypes can be built in a very short time, which you can use to test for yourself the extent to which Power BI can support and optimize your marketing analysis.

Would you like to let your marketing data “speak for themselves”? Feel free to let us talk about your challenges in a short appointment and I am quite sure we will find a good solution. Just book yourself a short appointment slot. I look forward to exchanging ideas with you!

About the author

Robin HartmannHead of Modern Work and Business Intelligence itmX GmbH

As Head of Modern Work and Business Intelligence, Robin is responsible for optimising our customers’ processes and helping them to position themselves for future challenges. As a creative mind, he is primarily driven by innovation topics. Due to his proximity to the customer, he experiences the real business requirements first-hand and enjoys driving them forward together with our customers.