If you follow us on LinkedIn, or Chris, our President, and Founder, you may have seen Chris’ viral post on a KPIs by Content Type matrix.
We had no idea that sharing a simple KPI matrix from Content Marketing Institute would lead to so much engagement and so many comments, but it did. And more importantly, it gave us some unexpected feedback from our followers around the B2B marketing KPIs that are important to them.
B2B marketing requires different social media
The first feedback topic was related to the social media KPIs in the matrix. While we are big fans of Content Marketing Institute, sometimes their content is a better fit for a B2C audience.
Our B2B agency works with healthcare tech, biotech, and IT companies, and most of our followers on LinkedIn are people who have questions about or need B2B marketing. So, some of the B2C-focused KPIs in the original matrix are not an excellent fit for our followers.
They have different needs and should be tracking other social media KPIs for their business. For example, for our client’s social media, we’ll track KPIs like sessions, engagement (clicks, shares, likes), conversion rate, and landing page conversion rate.
See our updated matrix below for the complete list of KPIs.
Emerging channels are important
You’ve probably been hearing about and seeing chatbots for a while now. Slowly but surely, websites have started adding chatbots to help marketing free up sales teams, interact with potential customers, and deliver leads.
While they can be beneficial, they are still treated as a nice to have but not an absolute must-have for marketing. Maybe this is why KPIs for these channels weren’t a part of the matrix we shared.
Our LinkedIn audience saw no category for chatbots and argued that the team who created the matrix should include chatbot KPIs in a comprehensive matrix. Our followers made a fair point since chatbots aren’t going away and can be helpful for both B2B and B2C companies, as long as they are a part of a strategic marketing plan designed to help you reach your business goals.
It’s a similar story for voice apps.
They weren’t in the matrix because their usage is less widespread than other channels. Our audience still wanted to see KPI recommendations for these platforms because they feel it’s meaningful to think about the voice app experience KPIs you would gather for B2B marketing.
Some KPIs aren’t easy to track
As marketers, we’re lucky that we live in an era where technology makes it easy to collect and report on KPIs. But, one of our followers brought up the unfortunate fact that, yes, some KPIs are still hard to track.
And they have a point. Some channels are very impactful but don’t plug into your marketing automation system, so gathering accurate data on KPIs can be challenging. Podcast appearances and other hard-to-measure mediums have a place in your strategy, but these formats aren’t able to spit out marketing KPIs for your analytics dashboard.
While you may be unable to track these channels easily, you should still think about how they can help you get your message across to prospects with pain points.
What we did with the feedback we received
After reading all of the comments and feedback, we decided to create our own KPIs by Content-Type matrix for our audience. Our version came from the feedback from our followers and the data they would include in a KPIs matrix.
Here it is.
Our thinking around the KPIs we added
For B2B social media, we kept some and added some of our own KPIs. Things like conversion rate and followers/fans are still important, while social traffic to your website and engagement (clicks, shares, likes) are more valuable indicators than some of the things listed in the original version.
For chatbots and voice apps, we researched to get an idea of what KPIs are important for measuring chatbot and voice app performance with a B2B audience. We added two new columns to the chart that shows what we think are the most important KPIs to look at when measuring progress towards objectives.
And for the KPIs that aren’t easy to track, we thought about channels that can give you good results and get you in front of the right people but don’t plug into an analytics or marketing automation system.
Some marketing still takes place through channels where you can’t track the entire process digitally from your sales funnel’s first and last stage. And that’s why we added a column for indirect channels.
What do your followers want to see?
On LinkedIn, one of your goals should be to find out what kind of content your followers want to see. If you can find out what your audience wants, the content should perform well and can play a crucial role in achieving your business goals.
Between all the talk about recruiting trends or the future of remote work, there are insights to be gained on LinkedIn that can be useful for your business.
We were surprised that our followers wanted to talk about perfecting a marketing KPIs matrix to be more practical and even more surprised when the post’s reach was extended and seen by people outside our network.
But that’s marketing. You should spend time doing lots of planning and strategy, but you also have to be ready for opportunities you weren’t expecting.
Let us do your marketing planning, KPIs, and execution of your unexpected opportunities.
