How to measure growth contribution of inbound marketing

One of the most effective digital marketing strategies businesses have deployed in the last 5 years is inbound marketing. At a time when people are growing weary of sales tactics, inbound marketing provides businesses with an alternative to wow and woo. As such, it’s an opportunity for businesses to convey their authority and credibility.

However, like every marketing strategy, it has to be worked on. After all, inbound marketing isn’t a magic wand. There are marketing levers you’ll need to push up or down accordingly to achieve the desired results. Knowing which to look at and adjust will be important.

In this post, we’ll focus on your website analytics for guidance to measure the contribution of your inbound marketing to business growth.

1. Source of traffic

Essentially, knowing your sources of traffic answers the question “where are your visitors coming from?” Broadly, there are two main sources you’ll need to look at, namely, direct traffic and organic traffic. The former refers to visitors who landed on your website directly; the latter through links they discovered. It also pays to keep an eye on social media and email marketing if they form part of your inbound strategy.

2. Sessions

This isn’t a feel-good metric. It can reveal the level of engagement visitors with your business, your website, as well as the content you have put out. If the sessions are extremely short, it’ll alert you to potential issues in the user experience. It makes sense for you to address any issues promptly to improve the effectiveness of your inbound marketing.

3. Conversion rate

This refers to the conversion rate of your landing pages. Obviously, you’ll be looking at the highest number possible. But an effective conversion rate is above 2%. When someone fills out a form or shares their contact details associated with your landing pages, they will add to that conversion rate. They are regarded as a marketing qualified lead.

4. Contacts

Is your inbound marketing contributing to the growth of your prospect or customer database? Keeping a close eye on the growth of your contact database is important when it comes to converting leads into customers, and making sure you follow-up with leads at varying stages of the marketing funnel will ensure you can capitalise on your inbound sales enquiries.

Are you looking to start an inbound marketing campaign? Get in touch with us for a free consultation.