Understanding Your Business Statistics

Do those posts on Facebook with the chipper ONLY 3 FRIDAYS TILL CHRISTMAS graphics make you want to scream? As if we could forget the end of the year is hurtling towards us. It’s a time for family and togetherness, perhaps a spot of relaxing, but it’s also the perfect time to reflect on the year you’ve just worked through. It’s time to scroll through your numbers and check in with your figures – and I’m not just talking about the accounts.

There are three fabulous Review Habits you absolutely must add to your tracking processes:

Social Media Statistics.

If you’re not already doing this, now is a great time to start. Once a week, note down new followers through all your social media channels – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. This is the growth rate of your audience and important to keep an eye on so you know when you had a growth spurt, where you’re growing most effectively and ensuring your stats keep on the up and up. Unless you want to download an app or metric to keep track of these numbers (if you are interested in this, email me and I’ll give you a recommendation) you can simply plug these numbers into a spreadsheet. The other thing it’s good for? A bit of a boost on the days you feel like you’re talking to yourself… it’s always helpful of that visual reminder you are heading in an upwards curve. (If this kind of thing really tickles you, put it in a graph!) We all know true fans are better than followers. After all; 1000 followers who rarely engage with our content aren’t worth much to our business. However, 100 true fans who are actually buying from you on a regular basis and engaging regularly are worth their weight in gold. So tracking engagement is also important. Keep an eye on which posts get the best engagement and try to replicate them regularly. This kind of tracking ensures you’re always giving those precious fans what they’re looking for. Engagement includes comments, likes, shares and click through to a secondary site.

Blog Love

In the vein of giving people what they want, what blogs do people absolutely love? What resonates with people? Could you show a little more of yourself in your blogs, giving people a quicker response time to feel like they have a connection with you? All the research shows that although there are many ways to get your goods in front of a potential client or customer, content is the key. What you are looking for is: Engagement Interest (bounce rates and number of visits) Relationship (conversions from visitors to subscribers) then SALES” There are some pretty awesome ways to measure your blog success. Keep an eye out for an upcoming blog with my recommendations and tell me how you go.

Conversions

Keeping a track of which marketing avenue is creating the most conversions for you will mean you can tell what’s working. It also gives you an idea of where to spend more and what you can afford to hack back the budget. Converting visitors to subscribers means that you’ve got new friends. These guys are your lifeblood. By signing up to your blog, they’re offering you the opportunity to keep a conversation going. If you’re not reviewing your numbers on a regular basis, you’re running a business that’s a little bit like singing on a stage without knowing if there’s people in the audience. After all, wouldn’t it be nice to know where to invest your hard earn dollars, advertising wise? If you knew that your audience loved certain types of blogs, really interacted with them and found them insanely helpful, wouldn’t you write more of those? How much easier would your blog planning be if you knew what your readers wanted? I know, numbers and statistics are not everyone’s cup of tea. However, as the memes keep pointing out, THERE’S ONLY A TINY TIME ‘TILL CHRISTMAS, so perhaps it’s time.