Analytics tools mean you can measure anything. Great! So what are you going to measure, when “everything” will just bury you alive. Register now to learn how the mobile marketing expert at Staples avoids analysis paralysis and zeroes in on the KPIs that boost revenue.
There’s a big difference between metrics and KPIs, says Gwen Murray, mobile marketing lead at Staples. Metrics is hard data—a little bit smaller thinking, she explains, versus KPIs which are bigger picture, bigger thinking. These are the metrics that have a strategic role in the organization but it’s easy to get lost in the data.
“If you look at campaigns in a silo it’s very easy to get caught up in metrics,” Murray explains. “In some ways that makes sense. You want to know your cost per install, you want to know your click-through rate, and that’s important at a campaign level. But at an aggregate level, that’s where the KPIs impact overall business strategy and business goals: if it’s increasing MIUs, if it’s increasing downloads overall.”
She adds that as an omnichannel retailer, KPI focus is essential. “It’s really important for us that we think about not just the individual metrics, not just bout revenue and visits and installs,” Murray says, “but think about the influence our mobile properties and other digital properties have across the business.”
It means that metrics are working together to pain pictures of user behavior, user intent, and user wants and needs.
“When it comes to our app, it’s also really important for us to think about who the user is for our app,” Murray says.” So in thinking about KPIs, are we meeting the needs of those loyal customers who use our app more frequently, who spend more, who transact more. Those are the KPIs that we’re trying to strive for, especially with our app.”
Staples measure the transactions that occur across mobile in the app, on mobile web, on the desktop, and in the store, but don’t stop there.
“It’s also measuring that influence,” she says. “How does the mobile app influence cross channel behavior? Are they in the store reading reviews, are they looking up directions to the store, does that yield a visit?”
And with those KPIs in hand, as well as the qualitative data they gather from reading reviews and listening to customers, she says, they optimize. Together, they’re the impetus for the features they build into the app to enable direct revenue and enhance those mobile moments they want to capture—I want to know, I want to go, I want to buy.
And that strategy has led to their mobile-influenced revenue growing to three times their direct revenue in Q1.
In the end, KPI is so much more than just metrics. And marketers, Murray says, need to think big.
“Pulling yourself out of being in the weeds all the time is challenging,” Murray says, “but the more as a marketer you can do that and think, okay, how do these metrics, how do my successes, how do my failures bubble up to these larger strategic initiatives—that 3X is just the tip of the iceberg.”
Don’t miss out!
By registering for this VB Live event you’ll:
- Learn the most widely used mobile marketing KPIs
- Understand KPIs to target for your type of app, goals, and user lifecycle stage
- Learn the unique KPIs you need even if you’re not a mobile-first business
- Get action items that will move the needle for your business
- See how your app stacks up against key industry benchmarks
Speakers:
- Gwen Murray, Mobile Marketing Lead, Staples
- Sheila Bhardwaj, Director of Account Management, TUNE
Moderator:
- Wendy Schuchart, Analyst, VentureBeat
This VB Live event is sponsored by TUNE.