Here at Leap Clixx, we focus on success — which is why most of our blog posts highlight best practices, top strategies, insights and tips, and so on.
However…
Every now and then, we like trading in our optimist suit for a pair of pessimist glasses; not because we like being dreary and miserable, but because, well, the digital marketing landscape isn’t all (virtual) sunshine and roses. There are storms and thorns out there, too, and part of our job is ensuring that our clients are suitably stressed and properly protected.
With that in mind, here’s a rundown — or make that a call-out — of the 3 worst tools for managing your marketing analytics:
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Spreadsheets
Now, hold on a second: we have nothing personal against spreadsheets. In fact, we use them internally as a project management tool (among several others), and in some cases we also use them to create clear, easy-to-access reports for our clients. So, if you’re expecting us to go on an anti-spreadsheet rant — which is kind of the trend these days — then sorry, but that’s not going to happen.
But (yeah, we all knew this was coming!), using spreadsheets as an exclusive or even a primary tool to manage marketing analytics is a bad idea. Instead of clarity, businesses get bogged down with confusion and chaos. And we won’t even bring up the tragic topic of version control (sorry, I guess we just did!).
Again: spreadsheets are fine for some parts of the puzzle. But they can’t and will never be ready to drive the marketing analytics bus.
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Tools that Focus on “Vanity Metrics”
In a word: ugh!
In more words (and less grunting): there’s an unwholesome trend in the world of marketing analytics tools, and it’s driven by vendors who supply businesses with all kinds of “vanity metrics.”
Basically, vanity metrics are the equivalent of fast food: they’re edible and tasty, but they’re not nutritious. That is, they seem to be delivering actionable intelligence, but in truth, they’re just pushing out what amounts to useless information. For example, while it’s nice to know how many “likes” a piece of content gets, if the goal is to achieve conversions then this so-called metric is useless.
The problem through, is that tools with all kinds of vanity metrics seem to be useful; just like a triple bacon mushroom melt burger seems nourishing. In truth, however, both of them are bad news: one for your budget, and the other for your body.
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No Tool Whatsoever
A surprising number of businesses — especially smaller firms — can’t honestly claim that they have ANY marketing analytics tools in their rotation (alas, not even spreadsheets or vanity metric-happy apps).
What’s behind this error and omission? It’s a combination of two things: a lack of awareness about how much opportunity is being wasted, and a lack of resources to do anything about it.
However, on today’s insanely competitive digital marketplace — where the barrier to entry in most fields is someone new putting up a website — waiting for the right time to (finally) focus on marketing analytics tools doesn’t work. The right time was about a decade ago.
With this being said, it’s definitely not too late to go from suffering from a lack of marketing analytics tools, to becoming an industry leader that keeps competitors awake at night. What’s more, it’s not nearly as time consuming, complicated or costly as many business owners imagine. It’s actually quite easy — and it’s fun (really, we’re not kidding!).
Learn More
If your business is afflicted with any of the above marketing analytics tools (or in the case of the last one, non-tools), then please don’t panic: we will help. Contact us today, and we’ll take you out of the shadows and into the spotlight, so that you can reap the rewards of your digital marketing investment vs. brace for impact.
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Topics: Inbound Marketing
