The Significance of Online Marketing for 2020 and Beyond
2020 has truly been an unpredictable year. No one could have foreseen the scale and effect of the Covid-19 pandemic, and how it would change our lives.One aspect of life that has really undergone a transformation is the way businesses are conducted.
Due to physical distancing rules, consumers are turning to online platforms for their needs. They aren’t just looking for everyday necessities either. Consumers are also looking for various types of services and niche products.
Consumers are increasingly turning to online shopping platforms due to Covid-19. Source: Unsplash
For this very reason, Malaysian businesses should consider expanding and improving their online marketing. Online marketing in Malaysia has plenty of room to grow. As long as business owners and entrepreneurs use effective strategies, and target the right demographic, it’s completely possible for them to expand their reach.
Brands are spoilt for choice when it comes to online advertising these days. There are many social media platforms where you can get your name out there. However, to know whether your marketing tactics are performing, there are several key performance indicators (KPI) to pay attention to.
KPIs That You Should Set For Your Business
KPIs are important for any business to measure the effectiveness of their online marketing strategies. Performance marketing should be the main focus, so that you can drive your online advertising in Malaysia towards the right direction.
KPIs can be easily measured, using the right online tools. These are numbers that you can rely on to plan any future online marketing campaign. These include:
- Sales revenue
- Customer lifetime value
- Web traffic source
- Customer engagement
- Cost per lead
- Inbound marketing ROI
- Lead conversion rates
- Online conversion rates
- Click through rates
- Organic traffic rates
- Returning visitors
- First time visitors
- And many more….
Ideally, you should determine several main KPIs to focus on and work on. You want to consolidate your efforts and not try and cover too many bases at once. It helps to pick about 5-10 parameters to begin with. These are the 6 most important KPIs to pay attention to:
1. Web Traffic Sources
Web traffic describes where your traffic is coming from. These sources are categorized as direct traffic, referral traffic,and organic search. Additionally, traffic can also come from paid sources such as ads, campaigns, paid links and so on. Each type of traffic source can be measured differently.
2. Cost per Lead
Cost per lead (CPL) is sometimes called lead generation cost, and measures how many leads and traffic you generate for a specific amount of cost you spend. Of course, the higher the amount of traffic you get for the same cost, the better.
3. Brand Engagement
Brand engagement measures how actively visitors engage with your various marketing platforms. These include the amount of followers you have on your social media pages, and how often your brand is mentioned on these sites. Very simply, it shows how actively people comment, like, follow and interact positively with your page.
4. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
In marketing, customer lifetime value is an estimate of the net profit from a customer’s entire relationship with your brand. The longer a customer stays with you, the more returns you will get for your marketing investments.
CLV is important to a company because it gives a clear picture of the value a customer creates when they return repeatedly to a brand. In general, businesses spend less to keep customers that they do reaching new ones.
5. Lead Conversion Rates
Basically, the lead conversion rate is a measure of how many leads are converted to sales. In essence, how many visitors that come to know your brand through marketing actually buy something or pay for a service in the end.
6. Revenue
Revenue or profit is the easiest and most direct way to measure whether your online marketing is working. One way revenue can serve as a gauge is through marketing ROI ratio ( return of investment ratio) whereby the amount of profit from your marketing is measured against its cost. The higher ROI, the better your marketing is performing.
Why You Should Set Up a KPI Reporting Dashboard
In order to plan your online marketing better, you need to know where you stand. To know your current situation as a business, it’s important to set up a variety of KPIs. This also allows you to measure progress and expansion. Here are some of the benefits of setting marketing KPIs for your brand:
1. They’re a Clear Indicator of Results
KPI dashboards provide valuable information to know whether a certain marketing strategy you’re using is working or not. The data is actionable, and can be reliably used for setting future strategies and goals.
It also allows you to be more effective when deciding where to channel your investments. That is to say, you should focus on strategies that work best and abandon the ones that do not have any positive results.
2. They Point Out Weaknesses
A set of online marketing KPIs don’t just indicate whether your online marketing is working or not. They are also able to bring out any weaknesses or issues you face in terms of your production line, customer service, crisis response SOPs and much more.
KPIs will be able to help you zero in on the exact issues your company is facing, so you can improve on them to achieve a better marketing performance.
3. They Motivates Your Marketing Team
There’s nothing better to encourage your team to perform better than setting a goal for them to achieve. This goal can take the form of a solid number or percentage. Having a clear goal can motivate people much better than a vague objective, so setting clear numbers that are within reasonable means will benefit your team in the long run.
Marketing teams work better when you set solid goals. Source: Unsplash
4. They Can Help Save You Expenses
While running a business, being cost effective is key in maximizing profits. This means you want to focus your investments into strategies that work. Having measurable KPIs will allow you to pinpoint the exact marketing strategies and channels to focus on. That way, you don’t end up wasting expenditure on things that aren’t bringing in much results or revenue.
This is especially important during the Covid-19 pandemic, when many businesses are struggling to keep costs down in light of declining revenue.
Do You Want To Build Your Marketing KPI?
In order to meet the challenges of the new normal, business owners should step up their online marketing. You can start by contacting One Search Pro, and we’ll advise you on the steps needed to bring your brand to the next level.
At One Search Pro marketing agency, we provide a wide variety of services to meet your online marketing needs in Malaysia. We have about 10 plus years of experience in web design, search engine optimization and search engine marketing. We’re also here to provide social media marketing to leverage on social media platforms.
We’re able to analyze your needs and recommend a KPI dashboard that will measure the progress of our online marketing strategies as accurately as possible. This will give you a clear picture of how effective our plans are and give you the confidence you need to grow your business through challenging times.
