Over the years, I’ve found that there’s a common misconception that marketing is not as tactical as one in the field knows it can be. When I’ve told people that I’m a content marketer, they think that I’m all over social media (which is a whole other role, btw) or that I just do arts and crafts with no real merit. Sure, marketing is more creative than many other fields, but that doesn’t mean that the impact cannot be measured. In fact, I’d argue that there’s even more pressure for marketers to prove the business impact of their campaigns and initiatives than for those in roles in sales, where the numbers are easier to correlate to revenue outcomes.
If you think you’re going to get out of using math and spreadsheets if you get into marketing, you’re mistaken. I’m saying this because I’ve spent more time in Excel/Google Sheets than I thought possible over the course of the last seven years. But instead of seeing this as a negative, take it as a learning opportunity. I’d even go so far as to say that you should aim to be mildly obsessed with the relevant numbers. I’m talking about things like traffic, session time, bounce rates, conversion rates, time on page, etc.
Every organization will want to look at different key metrics, but understand early which ones you need to be paying attention to. In every role, I’ve made it a habit to look at the numbers at least twice a week; once at the start, and once at the end. Sure, very little might change in a week, but it gives you a benchmark to keep top of mind when you’re thinking about trends. One team I was on worked very closely with Sales, and the CRO (Chief Revenue Officer) instilled that whether we’re in sales or marketing, if somebody came up to our desk and asked us (exec or otherwise), we should be prepared to give an answer on numbers that are attached to our roles. Ever since then, I made sure to have an idea should I be asked.
Once you get into the habit of checking the numbers, you can make a plan to better understand them and use them to your advantage. If you can see bounce rates increasing on a blog series, you can take the necessary steps to understand the cause and make amendments to the content. Maybe you need to add more engaging calls-to-action (CTAs), or maybe you need to use more inclusive or casual language. Likewise, if a blog is yielding a strong time on page or contributing to increase in overall session time for your company’s website, then you can use that as a guide for future content.
Either way, don’t be afraid to engage with the numbers. You can even use these outcomes to highlight your impact on a business’s revenue when you go for a promotion or when you choose to interview for your next position. Start building the habits today that will help you tomorrow.
Khadijah Plummer Consulting 