Technology is the Key!

What are the Right Metrics to Continuously Improve?

This is an ever demanding question that organizations face when trying to determine the effectiveness of the marketing team.  Furthermore, this question can be used when researching conversion rates of the company.  After researching this topic, I have found that there are three very important steps companies can take to help conversion rates and increase the marketing team's effectiveness.

Three Steps to Increase Effectiveness

1. Real time tracking!  Companies must be willing to invest in technology that allows for real time tracking in order to respond to consumers needs as they come about.  Using real time tracking allows the company to know what is needed at that moment versus having to wait to hear the news through the 'old school' chain of communication.
2. Find the right customers!  The are different behaviors that consumers follow which allows companies to turn these behaviors into leads, thus boosting the conversion rates of the company.  For example, if there is a segment of customers that use email as a main source of communication the company needs to focus on this group in that aspect.
3. Analytical tools!  These tools can help companies take attainable data and turn it into viable leads.

Invest in Technology

Investment in technology is the key to success for companies who want to convert leads into customers.  When it comes to conversion of leads companies cannot be afraid to 'take the leap'.  Technology allows for companies to connect and communicate better with consumers because they are both looking at data at the same time.  Tools such as Customer Interaction Manager (CIM) allow for marketing teams to pull predictive reports.  Marketing teams are able to use the tool to generate predictions for future outreach. The predictions allow for the marketing team to respond in a more timely manor that waiting for an IT team to pull the necessary data and generate the reports to turn into the marketing team.

Finding the right customers might sound simple in theory but many companies have a tendency to overlook this aspect. Different customers use different channels and companies need to realize this. Today's society does revolve around social media, the internet and email but all consumers will not use the same. Learning how to segment consumers into groups allows for marketing groups to better target the right consumer thus increasing conversion rates.

CIM is only one type of analytical tool that can help companies increase the number of leads that are turned into customers but it is an excellent example.  As society becomes more and more dependent on technology companies need to continuously make the necessary improvements to stay ahead of consumers.  If companies do not choose the right metric and continuously improve those metrics, the company could fall to far behind the rest of the field and be eliminated from the competition.

(All accolades and credit for this tremendous blog post are for Alison Ross who is the author and content creator.)