KPI Tips and Tricks
Identifying Key Performance Indicators (KPI) are so vital, we felt it necessary to add one more article to help you keep pace throughout the year. In our latest article, Anatomy of a KPI, we broke down how to write out a KPI. Now, we have a few additional tips that may help you in your KPI journey.
As you develop your KPIs, remember to prioritize the end result. Again, if you do not know where you are seeking to go, you may never know when you have reached it.
For KPIs, focus on the outcomes (i.e. sales conversion, contracts, etc. – people who are purchasing your products/services) and not the top of the funnel activity (i.e. awareness and consideration – people who are learning about your brand).
For example, if a KPI is the percentage of social media followers on a specific platform (say, Instagram or Facebook) converting to sales per month, set a goal that by the end of each month, quarter, year, etc. you want to convert 10% of social media followers to actual paying customers. This means that if you have 400 followers on Instagram, 40 of them have purchased your product at least once in the time frame you specified.
It is important to know what you want so you don’t just aim or shoot in the dark. Establishing realistic, clear goals is key to KPIs.
Another tip is to ask yourself consistently, “what do I need to track or do better in order to help me achieve my goal?”. How many followers have you had each month? How many call-to-actions did you include to drive each post into the sales funnel? What is your overall social media post engagement look like every week? These are all questions you would ask yourself to continue to help determine how you can improve what you are doing today to get yourself closer to your set objective.
Tracking metrics and measures weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annually allow you to see how you are performing and grant you time to make quick pivots. This makes the KPI work for you and becomes a true key business metric and actionable insight rather than just a vanity metric.
Quick Recap
Focus on the outcome
Do regular and consistent check-ins to see if there is something else you need to track, learn, or improve upon to help you achieve your goal
Track everything regularly (weekly, monthly, quarterly, and/or annually) based on your business
So there you have it, a few more tips to help you ensure that you are building your business with clearer objectives and strong key performance indicators. Now it is your turn and remember, we are always here to help.