KACHARAGADLA

Unless you’re a statistician at heart, tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) isn’t the sexiest part of a marketer’s job, but it is one of the most important. KPIs use data and analytics to show you how well you’re meeting your target goals, what things you’re doing that work, and what doesn’t. KPI metrics are particularly helpful as reference tools when creating or refining marketing strategies. After all, you can’t tell where you’re going if you don’t know where you’ve been. Of course you’ll want to measure leads, sales revenue, and growth, but what other data should you consider? As we head into a new year, here are five marketing KPIs you need to track in 2015. 1. Inbound marketing ROI.  Track the return on investment for inbound marketing efforts like blogging, videos, and social media activity to make sure you’re spending your budget dollars wisely. If you’re not seeing the results you hope for with an inbound marketing tactic, divert some of the money into different

Gross profit. Sales revenue. Cash on hand. All of these are important metrics, but they may not be the most important metrics for your business. When I start working with a new client, I always ask which metrics they track on a frequent basis. I’m often surprised that most people only track a handful, such as revenue (not profit), new customers and sales leads in their pipeline. When I inquire as to why they track those specific metrics, most people simply say, “That’s what I was told to track.” Not surprisingly, these folks often have a big problem in their businesses because they haven’t identified the metrics that really matter -- the ones that strongly correlate to success. While there’s nothing that makes one metric better or worse than any other, it’s important to keep in mind that the most important metrics in your business will change over time, depending on the company’s stage of development and market conditions. For example, if business is booming and you’re land