What Inbound Marketing metrics would I have to analyze and take into account to know if my strategy is working as it should?
This is one of the big questions for companies that decide to bet on this methodology and invest in it, and it is very valid because it is known that in marketing, what is not measured does not exist.
To help you answer, I’m going to show you and explain what the most important inbound marketing metrics are so you can start considering and analyzing them.
How to choose which inbound marketing metrics to analyze?
The inbound marketing metrics to analyze will always depend on the objectives you pursue with your strategy.
Remember that they will vary depending on the stage of the conversion funnel in which your potential customers are.
For example…
In the attraction phase , the most important thing is to generate quality traffic to our website, so the ideal is to focus on metrics such as:
- visits
- Page Views
- bounce rate
- traffic sources
In the consideration stage , it is relevant that you start working so that visitors become leads; therefore, you should focus on:
- Click-through rate on CTAs (calls to action)
- Landing Page Performance
- leads generated
Finally, in the conversion phase , the most important thing is in sales, so you should focus your attention on:
- Lead to sales conversion rate
- average sales ticket
- Conversion Attribution
Considering this, it becomes a bit easier for you to know what to pay more attention to, right? If you still have questions about which inbound marketing metrics are important, don’t worry. I list and explain them below.
Keep in mind that it is also essential that you know through which tools or methods you are going to measure them and how often so that you have control and follow up on your results.
Main inbound marketing metrics
There are many inbound marketing metrics that are important, so I am going to focus on those that are considered most important according to their usefulness within the strategies.
Consider them in case you are thinking of implementing this methodology or are already doing it, but you are not measuring anything yet due to ignorance.
1. Web traffic
One of the key elements for the success of this methodology is to analyze the number of users who visit our website .
To calculate this inbound marketing metric you have to take into account:
- Total number of users
- unique visitors
- traffic sources
- Number of sessions
Ideally, according to experts, visits to your website should increase by 5-10% each month, if your strategy is working.
2.Engagement
Knowing the level of interaction of your audience with your posts on social networks is very important to know if your campaign is working or not.
You have to analyze different indicators depending on the social network in question. Take into account the following:
- Impressions
- clicks
- likes
- shares
- reactions
- Scope
- followers
- Retweets
- likes
Youtube
- reproductions
- interactions
- display time
- Subscribers
3.Lead
Leads are the cornerstone of any inbound strategy .
These are people who show interest in our products or services, but have not yet made a purchase.
To take this inbound marketing metric into account, you have to study:
- traffic quality
- conversion rate
4. Conversion rate
This is one of the most important metrics in Inbound because it allows you to know how many leads or customers have taken the desired action.
This can be found in blog posts, landing pages, emails, and paid marketing efforts.
In addition, it allows you to know how effective your calls to action are and to know if you are encouraging your visitors to do what you want.
5. Qualified leads
Yes, I already put leads, but you should know that there are different levels of potential customers.
There are people or contacts who give you their information in exchange for a material or resource, but then they realize that what you offer does not match what they need.
On the other hand, there are those who advance through the funnel because your company does provide what they require and they become qualified prospects.
You have to qualify leads based on various factors that you determine with your teams. They are generally classified as:
- Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs)
- Sales Qualified Leads (SQL)
6. Bounce rate
The bounce rate indicates the percentage of abandonment of the visitors who enter our website.
Broadly speaking, it allows us to know if the content we provide is interesting to visitors or not, which makes it a relevant inbound marketing metric.
Some elements that can impact the bounce rate are:
- web design
- The navigability of the site
- SEO (search engine positioning)
7. Keyword Ranking
SEO is one of the most important ingredients in any inbound marketing strategy.
This is because it allows you to attract constant traffic to the company’s website, so you should be monitoring the number of keywords that are positioned and follow up on the competition.
8. Backlinks
Making inbound links or generating links from other high-quality websites within our sector or area is a key element in improving our positioning in search engines .
With this inbound marketing metric, we can know if it is being achieved or not and take actions to boost these numbers.
A good entry link:
- It comes from an authoritative website
- Use a suitable anchor text. This refers to the text that is used to define the link that links to the two web pages. It has to be as natural as possible.
9. Email open rate
Email marketing is key within inbound strategies, especially when you are nurturing leads to convert them into customers.
In this sense, the email opening rate helps us to know if subscribers are truly interested in our company and the content or if we are offering material that is not attractive or worth viewing.
According to Campaign Monitor, the average open rate in 2021 was 21.5%, but nothing is absolute and it will always depend on the type of business, the region, and many other factors.
If it’s too low, consider making adjustments like:
- Improve email subject
- Perform A/B tests
- Clean up your contact base
- Make changes to CTAs
10. Email click rate
Another important inbound marketing metric that relates to email marketing is click-through rate.
This indicator allows us to know how effective the content of our emails is when it comes to getting senders to perform an action (or not), such as visiting a page, viewing a demo, etc.
To calculate the click rate you just have to apply this formula:
Number of users who clicked on a link / number of email opens x 100.
It is essential to monitor this metric because it will allow you to evaluate and improve your campaigns.
11. Landing Page Conversion Rate
To do inbound marketing, it is important that you have landing pages.
Therefore, you must monitor its conversion rate. On average, the conversion rate should be between 3 and 6%, according to WordStream data.
Keep in mind that this percentage can vary according to your industry, your audience and the supply or demand.
12. Blog Subscribers
Content marketing is key in Inbound, which is why you should consider monitoring inbound marketing metrics that target blog subscribers.
It is not only about positioning well in Google with your content; you can achieve more if you create a community of readers who are interested in your blog updates.
This way many more people will know about your company and you will begin to build followers with potential to be customers.
13. Competitor metrics
Last but not least, you have to keep a close eye on your competition.
Stay on top of how they are ranking, what keywords they rank for, what topics they write about, how they post that content, what results they get, and much more.
It is not for you to become a copy of them, but it does help you guide some steps and know what you can do better than them to rank higher or attract more public to your company.
14. Average Time on Page
This inbound marketing metric is not do-or-die, but it does let you know how engaging your website content is to your visitors.
For example, long content with an average time of less than a minute may indicate that the material is not well worked out or that something in it prevents it from being fully read.
It may be a lack of quality, a bad writing or structure, that it does not answer the key questions of the topic or other factors that you will have to analyze.
Keep in mind that it is also a very important indicator to rank on Google.
How to Analyze Inbound Marketing Metrics
All these inbound marketing metrics are important, but you have to know how to analyze them to really get results.
To do this, focus on two elements:
1. Your goals
Monitoring each of these metrics takes time and effort, so it’s imperative that you set goals first so you know exactly which inbound marketing metrics are key to you.
Ask yourself what your strategy needs, what it is focused on and, based on that information, you can decide which indicators to pay more attention to to improve results.
It is not necessary to study each of the metrics that we tell you here.
2. Track key metrics
Once you set goals and determine the inbound marketing metrics to track, it’s important to track them.
Only if you follow up will you be able to know if the efforts you are making are redirecting your strategy towards the right path.
Once you check this, you should not stop working. It’s good to always monitor that everything is going according to plan, so follow up every so often.
Conclusion
When you decide to implement inbound, you have at your mercy a large number of metrics that will allow you to know in quality and quantity how well your strategy works.
However, it is very important that you do not get overwhelmed and focus only on those indicators that align with your main objective, leaving the rest a little to one side, without forgetting them completely.
Remember that the most important thing is always that you manage to convert a large part of your visitors into leads and, later, into customers, so you have to dedicate efforts to it and measure it so that your company grows.
If you don’t know how to start analyzing the inbound marketing metrics of your current strategy, contact us!
At Media Source we are experts in inbound and we can help you detect if your strategy is well aligned with your objectives and, if not, help you to do so.
It will be a pleasure to serve as a guide on this path, so do not hesitate to contact us.
