Finding the right KPIs to show the full value of your marketing and loyalty programs can be a challenge. The good news is, there are a lot to choose from. The bad news? There are a lot to choose from.
As hard as it might be for marketers to hear, campaign-level stats have limited value. Specific, granular data will be the most actionable in the long run and that means you need to focus more on customer-level statistics. And while you’re the only one who can determine the right KPIs for your business, you shouldn’t ignore important metrics like these:
Customer lifetime value
Hands down, customer lifetime value (CLV) is the most important customer-level data point. Although it’s often confused with customer profit (i.e., what a customer has already spent), CLV tells you what customers are likely to spend in the future. It’s both future-looking and a prediction of expected future value.
CLV allows you to focus your time and energy on your most valuable customers and can be measured a number of ways. Yet most programs don’t account for it at all. Marketers who fully capitalize on this critical KPI will be leaps and bounds ahead (literally) of those who only track purchase history.
Tenure
Most declines in loyalty and marketing program activity can be explained by the same thing: an “aging” audience. We don’t mean that in the generational sense of the word; instead, it refers to the amount of time they’ve been in the program. On average, customers naturally become less valuable over time. So you must find specific ways to keep them interested.
That’s why tenure is such an important KPI. It allows you to find ways to re-engage bored customers before they walk away. And since attracting new customers can be five times as expensive than nurturing existing ones, this is a problem you definitely want to get ahead of.
Open rate and delivery rate
When it comes to email, delivery rate and open rate are the only things that matter. Although many marketers spend a lot of time on click-to-open rate (an often flawed ratio of clickthrough and open rates), delivery rate and open rate reveal the only thing that really matters where email is concerned — exposure.
So, stop tearing your hair out over low clickthrough and click-to-open rates and shift your focus to where it will have the most impact. After all, nothing else matters if your emails aren’t delivered or opened. If your value proposition and content are strong, customers will find their way to your site. (Plus, CLV will always be there to tell you how valuable your programs actually are.)
KPIs are how marketers showcase the value of all their efforts. If you’re ready to start hitting the right marks, contact Cheetah Digital by Marigold here.
