If you’re anything like me, it’s easy to become obsessed with checking website and social media analytics. After all, this is your business, and you want to know how it’s performing up to the minute, right?
Numbers signify the direction your efforts are headed. If you posted your blog to a variety of social media sites, you want to know that people are clicking through and reading your work.
Marketing your business can feel like a high-stakes game of Monopoly, and Your Platforms Are The Banker.
Those dashboards, emails and analytics? They’re the game board. The outcome of this game may be a little more important, however. After all, it is your business.
Roll the dice by trying something new with your marketing. Maybe it’s a new post, or new platform. Sometimes we land on the space we want and score big, and sometimes we land on someone else’s hotel. It just depends.
When we score big, its for ranking high on Google, and the company pays you in focused traffic. Or maybe you just raked in another sale via Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook.
Don’t Narrow Your Focus to Boardwalk and Park Place
OK, stay with me for just a little further on this metaphor. We all know the Monopoly players whose sole focus became owning Boardwalk and Park Place, right? They’d end up with only a couple of other crappy properties, and try to win the game solely on this alone.
Well, I’m here to tell you to snap out of it, and keep your eyes on the whole board. Don’t get too focused on any one metric.
Winning The Game
Nobody likes the guy who flips the board in frustration and walks away once the writing’s on the wall.
Remember that it is people who will ultimately make or break the success of your business. A website that has less traffic, but a high rate of conversion can still succeed. Just like a Facebook page or Twitter feed with 100 vs. 1,000 can still win, if there’s a focus on engagement.
All of those other things are just metrics. They’re a good start to a sales funnel, but it takes lasting relationships, and a loyal customer base to win. Traffic, friends, followers and fans are just an abstraction if they’re not leading to sales.
Think about that next time you’re staring at the board, and developing your strategy.
What are your thoughts?
Matt Brennan is a Chicago-area marketing writer and copy editor. He is also the author of Write Right-Sell Now.
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