Vanity Metrics

What you focus on grows

In a digital world we collect a lot of data and have huge amounts of information readily available to us.

Unfortunately sometimes we get false hope by focusing on the wrong ones.

Good metrics guide our decisions.

What works. What doesn’t.

Here’s some that can be dangerous.

Pageviews

Unless you are selling advertising views then the total amount of pageviews your website generates is irrelevant in isolation. I have had many people proudly tell me how many ‘hits’ their website generates but when asked how many prospects/leads/sales it generates they don’t have an answer. Having a high number of pageviews is an opportunity you need to be leveraging. They are all people. On it’s own, having a website with lots of traffic is not enough.

Email Open Rates

The likelihood of opening an email has more relation to who it’s from rather than what it’s about. Think about it. What is the open rate of emails from your Mum? I would estimate 100%…

Unless you’re looking at your interaction rate and the behaviour of people who have opened your email then your looking at the wrong thing.

Facebook Likes

Facebook have been reducing the organic reach of page posts for a while. They wan’t to sell more advertising and deliver a better experience to their audience. Who can blame them.

This means having a big audience of Facebook does not equal you being able to communicate with the audience.

Take 5 minutes today to check what metrics you’re focusing on.

Do they help you make better decisions and contribute to the bottom line or do they just make you feel better?