Digital marketers are swimming in data. Even the simplest digital campaigns come with data such as Facebook reach, website pageviews, email open rates, click-through and conversion rates, web page bounce rates, retweets, cost per click, social engagement, and much more.
Perhaps it’s more accurate, then, to say that digital marketers are actually drowning in data.
Data Everywhere and Not a Drop To Drink
Many agencies, however, are reporting little outside of summary stats like the ones listed above. What brand marketers need is context, in order to draw any kind of actionable insight from the data and gain digital marketing intelligence (DMI). As a brand manager, you need to know what happened, if the campaign worked, what you got out of it, and what to do next.
The digital marketing industry is relatively new, so many managers and brands are still happy with reporting on simple metrics like these:
Campaign Performance:
500,000 visitors
50,000 contest entrants
Conversion Rate: 10%
$100,000 media spend
Cost per entrant: $2.00
Manager: Great. So, I guess the campaign worked?
Marketer: Yep. Look, we got 50,000 contest sign-ups! (doesn’t have anything more to say)
Manager: Ok, thanks. (doesn’t know what further questions to ask)
But it can be so much better than this.
Land, ho! There’s Hope
We’ve posted recently about 4 levels of digital marketing intelligence. The conversation above characterizes a DMI Level 1-type report; simply a report of what occurred, with little context or insight.
If a brand or digital agency has standardized their campaign tracking and data cataloging, they’re able to have a more fruitful conversation. Here’s what this meeting looks like with DMI Level 2-type intelligence:
Campaign Performance:
500,000 visitors
50,000 contest entrants
Conversion Rate: 10%
$100,000 media spend
Cost per entrant: $2.00
Historical Campaign Performance:
450,000 visitors per campaign
40,000 contest entrants
Conversion Rate: 8.9%
$100,000 media spend
Cost per entrant: $2.50
Manager: Great. So, I guess the campaign worked?
Marketer: Yep. Look, we got 50,000 contest sign-ups! This is a 20% improvement over your average historical cost per entrant!
Manager: Sweet. Can we spend 20% less next time and get the same results? What was different between the two campaigns that might have affected the conversion rate and number of visitors?
Mapping & Navigating the Digital Landscape
By purposefully tracking campaign data in a standardized way, you can compare campaigns to one another in a relevant way. For example, segmentation of digital coupon campaigns based on the redemption mechanics (one-time use, print at home, etc.) allows you to define and compare conversion rates accurately. On the other hand, simply comparing two or more coupon offers without standardizing their mechanics will lead to skewed benchmarks – even slight differences in mechanics can have major effects on engagement rates and conversion rates.
It’s not a huge commitment, but it’s amazing how often agencies and brands don’t even get this far up the digital marketing intelligence scale. With standardized digital marketing metrics (what we call DMI Level 2: performance measurement), we can begin to analyze campaign performance over time, putting your marketing efforts into an historical context.
The analysis of your standardized data and the generation of actionable insights points to what we’re calling DMI Level 3: internal benchmarking. The benefit to the brand or client is better campaign planning in the future; better budgeting, improved performance, and more attributable ROI. There is simply more intelligence to draw from. Brands and agencies operating at DMI Level 3 are are no longer drowning in data. They are managing and directing the flow of data and leveraging that power to improve their brand marketing over time.
Charting A Course For Success
The top of the DMI scale is Level 4: competitive benchmarking. Imagine seeing your own brand’s historical benchmarks in context against industry-wide benchmarks. With competitive benchmarking you can leverage intelligence from campaigns that you haven’t run. You’re able to see a whole new level of DMI, such as how effectiveness and ROI are changing over time for different campaign types and through different media channels.
Rather than drowning in digital marketing data, at digital marketing intelligence (DMI) Level 4 you’ll be chartering cruises on the open waters of the future of digital marketing.