In a recent blog article, we discussed the difference between full funnel marketing and closed loop marketing. One of the main differences is the reports marketers and sales people can generate, as closed loop marketing gives you data from your CRM that you otherwise wouldn't have. Closed loop marketing serves up tons of data you can use to better your marketing, business and brand. Here are the top seven reports to track when you close the loop on your inbound marketing.
For closed loop reporting to work, everything must be tracked, from the first touch to your website to first form conversion to marking when a lead became a customer. This is why our team works with all-in-one automation software HubSpot that allows us to integrate with CRMs like HubSpot CRM, NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics and SalesForce. With the integration, sales and marketing teams will have information that tells them:
1. Source that Delivers the Most Customers
Measuring your most popular customer acquisition source lets you determine the percentage of visitors that come from various sources (organic, direct, social media, referrals, paid media, specific campaign, etc). Once you see which source is leading the pack, you can focus more of your budget, efforts and enact new strategies for the highest performing source.
2. Cost Per Customer by Source
This metric lets you see which acquisition sources are the most and least expensive. This helps you determine if you’re indeed dedicating your budget, time and resources to the player that brings in the most significant ROI.
3. User Behavior on Your Site
Once you attach cookies to your visitors, you can track the exact pages they visit and actions they take when on those pages. Measurements here include the average number of pages visited, downloads or emails a person needs before transforming into a customer. These metrics can help you develop a strong content and lead nurturing game plan.
4. Units per Transaction
Units per transaction (UPT) looks at the number of units visitors purchase with each transaction. Calculate the average UPT by dividing the overall number of units purchased by the number of transactions within a given period. If 10 units were sold in two transactions, for instance, the average UPT would be five.
This metric can provide deeper insights into customer purchasing behavior, allowing you to fine-tune the shopping experience to best support their behavior.
See Also: The 6 Marketing Metrics Your Boss Actually Cares About
5. Purchase Frequency
Purchase frequency (PF) refers to the average amount of orders a customer makes over a set time period. Calculate this average by dividing the number of orders within a specific timeframe by the number of unique customers within that same time frame. This metric can shed light on how receptive your customers are to your marketing emails, campaigns and website.
6. Customer Retention Rate
Customer retention rate (CRR) gives you the number of customers you have at the end of a set timeframe as compared to the number you had at the beginning. Calculate CRR by first subtracting the number of new customers you acquired over the timeframe from the number you had at the end of the timeframe. Divide the results by the number of customers at the beginning of the time frame, and then multiply by 100.
Let’s say you acquired 10 new customers over the past year, had 30 customers at the end of the year, and started with 40 at the beginning of the year. You’d first subtract 10 from 30, giving you 20. You’d then divide 20 by 40, giving you .5. Multiply .5 by 100, and your CRR is 50 percent.
Here you’ll see how successful you are keeping customers hanging around and if you need to boost your strategies to retain more of them.
See Also: What We Learned After Completing 14 HubSpot Audits
7. Your Ideal Customer’s Buyer Journey
Tracking your visitors’ activity lets you measure the average length of time it takes people to make the journey from visitor to lead to customer. This allows you to review the average time you’ll spend on lead nurturing efforts, helping you determine when to send campaigns and enact other methods that may contribute to expediting the process.
These metrics can also assist with setting goals and timelines for your marketing plans.
Why You Need to Track Metrics
In addition to the perks mentioned above, closed loop marketing metrics provide a host of additional benefits. They allow marketers to:
- Focus efforts on the most powerful channels and offers
- Support marketing decisions with evidence of what works
- Deliver hard numbers to your boss to build authority and emphasize value
- Develop more accurate personas from insights gained on your audience
- Shorten your sales cycle with smarter marketing and communication methods
- Establish goals and expectations that are attainable
- Maintain a lower cost-per-lead, thanks to insights on the channels and efforts that net the highest ROI
Closed loop marketing can provide you with mountains of metrics you can use to enhance your overall business and brand. You’ll be treated to metrics that can help improve your marketing efforts, while your visitors can be treated to an enhanced user experience that gives them exactly what they need.
