Following best practices for KPIs (key performance indicators) is an essential start for any marketing initiative, but it’s often an overlooked step. Let’s look and why KPIs are so important and some practical advice that can help you incorporate, and get value from, your KPIs.
What is a KPI?
KPIs and goals often get muddled in the heat of a project. In essence, goals are broad and tied into your overall business goals. For example, an example goal might be ”Increase in lead form submissions.” When we think of the overall goals that a marketing team might have, it’s easy to see how this particular goal would fit into a larger bucket of “Increase website leads” or “Increase top-of-funnel activity.”
But the goal doesn’t give us any insight into the details. And that’s where KPIs come into play. In this scenario, we might set our KPI as “Increase leads from the Learn More landing page by 20% from July through December 2024.” Now that’s a KPI we can get behind. However, we still have a loose end — how will we track it?
Back to our scenario, we can easily track this KPI by tracking the number of submissions from this webpage over the time period selected. We can also benchmark the leads we brought in during the period of January to June 2024 as our baseline. We could also look at our performance year over year by benchmarking using July to December 2023’s results. Either way, now you know how to track, and you know when you’ve been successful.
Best practices for KPIs
Now that we’re speaking the same language on goals, KPIs, and tracking, let’s look at some best practices to help you make the most of your KPIs.
Make sure your KPIs are aligned to your business goals
Sure, this feels like a no-brainer. But you’d be surprised how many organizations don’t make the link. If you have a KPI that doesn’t move one of your goals forward, it’s time to reevaluate that KPI (or even the goal itself).
Know your audience
You likely have KPIs that are meaningful to you. Those KPIs may be different from those of your boss, their boss, or others around the organization. Make sure you’re aware of what different folks need to know. And work those into both your KPIs and tracking.
Prioritize what KPIs you will track
This is another “gotcha” for some organizations. More KPIs are just … more. A smaller list of key KPIs that are meaningful to you and the organization is more workable. And as you optimize based on your results, you can bring in additional KPIs to track. This may require some education for others within your organization. But you’ll have more success if you track what matters most — and do something with that data!
Benchmark your KPIs
What does success look like to your organization? Perhaps you can look at past data to set a solid benchmark. Or, in some cases, you may not have previous data and need to estimate benchmarks. Either way, having a baseline is key. You can always adjust that baseline if you need to as you begin to get data and learn from it.
Track your KPIs consistently
Are you tracking by day, week, month, quarter, or year? The answer likely is “Yes,” but you’re looking at different metrics during those periods. Create a plan for your KPI tracking, and make sure that you are thinking about what you want to know and when you want to know it.
Have a plan for what you’ll do with the data
Data is most powerful when it leads to optimization! Don’t ”set and forget” tracking. Create opportunities for the team to review the data and follow where it leads you. When will you take the opportunity to pivot based on the data? Who will do that work? As you are planning for how you track, plan for how you will optimize as well.
Our Digital Healthcare Strategy team helps healthcare and life sciences organizations better understand their audiences and create digital experiences that educate, resonate, and drive action. Contact us today for more information.
