Top KPI's to track when using an inbound marketing strategy

An inbound marketing strategy works best when you use KPI's (key performance indicators) to track your progress and measure your success.

Without this data, you might continue pouring energy and resources into strategies that fail to yield positive results.

If you are interested in making the most of your inbound marketing solutions, turn to these essential KPI's.

Email click rates

In many ways, click rates prove more telling than open rates for your email marketing campaign.

Open rates offer valuable data when it comes to email marketing. You can measure the level of trust in your business and the effectiveness of your subject lines this way. However, there are a few built-in flaws with open rates that could skew your results.

Writing for HubSpot, digital communication specialist Katie Lantukh points out that some email platforms open emails automatically. When the user accesses his or her account, the first (or last, depending on the service) email appears in the window. This means that the actual opening of the email doesn't tell you much about the recipient.

Click rates, on the other hand, demonstrate action. The user has to click on the link in your email and follow it to your desired destination. This KPI can become highly valuable for tailoring your digital marketing strategy to meet your target market's needs.

Traffic related to owned, earned, and paid media

Web traffic can offer considerable insight into the effectiveness of any inbound marketing strategy. According to Dave Orecchio of Bristol Strategy, it's essential to track traffic numbers related to owned and earned media as well as paid media:

• Owned media: The content on your website, blog, and social media platforms.
• Earned media: Inbound links and mentions from other sources, such as satisfied customers or publications that use your content as authoritative sources.
• Paid media: Advertising and custom content that you pay another publication to display.

You'll want to track the web traffic for your own properties, as well as from one property to another, such as social media to your website. Additionally, you want to know when traffic comes from earned or paid media so you understand whether they are having a positive impact.

Keyword ranking

Some say that keywords aren't relevant anymore, but they're wrong. The search engines penalize websites that engage in keyword stuffing and other shady tactics, but without optimizing your site for keywords, you can't attract search engine traffic.

Identifying the right keywords and tracking your performance for them will help you make changes to your SEO (search engine optimization) strategy that will generate positive results for your company.

Cost per lead

Do you know how much you pay for every lead you generate?

Lead generation doesn't have to be expensive, but you'll want to know exactly how much you're paying for this process. From customer relationship management tools to sales professional salaries, figure out what each lead costs and find ways to reduce those expenses while still increasing your success rate. In many cases, it pays to reduce the number of leads you generate by focusing on bringing in qualified, high-revenue leads.

Tracking KPI's can enhance your inbound marketing strategy and illuminate new ways to reach your target market. If you are interesting in learning a couple quick ways to get the most out of your inbound marketing tools, check out our blog article, "2 simple ways to boost your inbound marketing strategy."

Now that you’re familiar with the KPI’s that can guide strategy and improvement in your inbound marketing campaigns, use this free guide to learn more about the metrics that can most effectively demonstrate the value and ROI of your marketing efforts: The Six Marketing Metrics Your Boss Actually Cares About.

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