Data. It’s a buzz word these days and something everyone wants.
“Sure, you posted about the event, but did it really do anything?”
Stakeholders of all kinds — we’re talking CEOs, board members, donors — all want to know the impact their investment is making. One of the best ways to show them? Data.
But, the analytics available in the backend of your page might seem overwhelming. We’ve narrowed it down to the analytics that you should absolutely be tracking and why.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Engagement Rate – While calculating your engagement rate will take some mathematics on your end, this is arguably the best way to tell if the content you are publishing is what your audience cares about. A good engagement rate is usually considered between 1% and 5%.
Engagement rate = (Total # of post engagements / # of followers) x 100
Interactions – This metric includes any form of communication between you and a user (likes, comments, direct messages, tags, shares, saves…). Tracking the upward trend of this metric can be an indication that your organization is succeeding on social media since each interaction is an opportunity to share your mission and expand your reach.
Reach & Impressions – These are awareness metrics that can reveal if your content is being seen and how often. Reach indicates how many users saw your content; impressions indicate how many times your content was seen. If you want to know how many eyes are landing on your content, these are the measurements you want to look at.
WEBSITES
Pageviews & Sessions -These two metrics are related and are both essential to tracking website effectiveness. Sessions are groups of interactions that are taken on your website within a given time frame. Pageviews are how many times a page on your website has been viewed. Keeping track of both metrics can help you understand the overall effectiveness of your website and identify places for user improvement.
Traffic sources – Traffic sources are exactly what they sound like: It’s how users are getting to your website. There are three main types: direct (typing your URL into browser), referral (from somewhere else) and search (finding through search like Google). Tracking each of these sources can help you understand where users are coming from and where they aren’t. This can relate to your social media goals, too: Are users clicking on the links I share on social media?
EMAIL MARKETING
Click-through rate – This metric tracks how many people clicked on something in your email (a link, a call to action button or image). Tracking click-through rate (CTR) gives insight to the user engagement with your content. A good CTR is 2-5%.
Open rate – Tracking open rate can define a successful email marketing campaign, since this is the first thing expected of a recipient. This metric indicates the percentage of subscribers who opened a specif email. A good open rate is 17-28%.
Bounce rate – This metric tracks the percentage of email addresses on your list that didn’t receive your message because it was returned by the mail server. For example, an email might bounce if there is a typo in an address or the person has left a role and their account terminated. Your bounce rate should be kept as low as possible; try for 2%.
Looking for a partner to help you set and track your marketing goals? Catalyst Collective can help! Contact us here to learn how.
