What You Don’t Measure in Digital Marketing…

I’ve been an avid gym goer for many years now.

You could also call me a fitness nerd.

If I had a bit more time at hand, I might also be in this industry in some shape or form.

So I know a thing or two about the whole nutrition and muscle-building world.

And a few weeks ago, I learned that an acquaintance has been training for three months now.

Since I am curious, I asked how things have been going so far and whether he could already notice some tiny progress.

He wasn’t too sure, and told me that he thinks that he has started to make some progress. I already knew what was going on.

So I asked, “So do you take note of the weights you use in each session and see that you can increase them on a weekly or bi-weekly basis?”

Again, he didn’t know, because he didn’t use a training book to write them down.

Then I asked if he weighed himself at the start and measured some of his body parts’ circumferences (arms, chest, etc.).

Again, same answer, because he didn’t.

I had already asked enough. And before things turned into a “fitness-nerd interrogation,” I asked one last question.

It was about how much daily protein he was taking in via supplements or his normal meals.

I already knew the answer because without knowing his body weight, there was no way he could have determined the protein intake.

And yes, he didn’t know either.

Now, How Does This Relate to Lead Generation?

Well, you can translate it pretty much 1:1.

Like my acquaintance, less than half (roughly 40%) of small business owners track their marketing data on a deeper level, such as cost per lead.

We’re not talking about surface-level data like impressions or likes on social media (a.k.a. vanity metrics).

And likewise, they can’t know if they make any progress or what actually works for them.

As Peter Drucker, “the father of modern management”, once said, “What you don’t measure, you can’t manage.”

I would add to that, what you don’t measure, you can’t grow.

Some of the important marketing performance indicators you want to measure, for instance, are: