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Checklist for 2020: Data-Driven Digital Marketing

As we’re kicking off a new year, it’s a good opportunity to review your organization’s marketing goals and optimization strategies. If you’re still struggling with knowing how to prioritize the transition to becoming a data-driven marketer, here are six basic steps you should aim to accomplish this year:

  1. Review your business goals – do you have tracking tools in place to match marketing tactics to goals?
    • Consider web form submission, phone calls or online chat as possible conversion points. Each marketing tactic should lead to a measurable call-to-action tied to it so you can understand if it’s working or not. 
      • Goal: Ensure your 2020 reports include conversion rates for all marketing tactics. 
  2. If you’re already tracking all of your marketing tactics, consider how you can take measurement to the next level.
    • Perhaps adding call-tracking to understand the source of phone calls, adding third-party tags from Facebook or advanced tagging using Google Analytics or Tag Manager to understand a user’s journey on your website. 
      • Goal: Make your conversion data more accurate and in-depth to understand a visitor’s journey.
  3. Review how you’re preparing and presenting your marketing reports.
    • Who is your audience? What do they really care about? Remove lower-level data (click-through or bounce rates) and focus on the metrics that matter. Print your reports and look at them through your manager’s eyes – do they make sense? Is it easy to understand the key messages you’re trying to communicate? 
      • Goal: Ensure your management meetings are focused on continuously improving results and driving revenue. 
  4. Evaluate which reports you can automate.
    • Automating the generation of standardized, repeatable reports (think monthly performance reports) will allow you to spend your time focusing on analyzing the data and thinking about optimization tactics. Spend a morning reviewing all of your reports and automate the creation and delivery of those where possible.
      • Goal: Shave valuable time from your to-do list so you can spend it where it matters. 
  5. Delegate resources/time for Conversion Rate Optimization.
    • If you’re actively running paid media campaigns, you need to be testing ad copy, calls-to-action, and imagery regularly to continue to improve your campaigns. Now that you’re confident all of your tactics are being tracked accurately, create a regular testing cadence with dedicated resources to ensure you’re running enough campaigns each month to move the needle. 
      • Goal: Improve your campaigns’ conversion rates and drive higher ROI.
  6. Find time for ongoing training to deepen your analytics confidence. 
    • Marketing analytics is a very technical area and to be proficient, ongoing training is necessary. Google Analytics certification is a great place to start (and it’s free!).
      • Goal: Continue to build your technical knowledge and confidence in analytics throughout 2020. 

Here’s to a productive and measurable 2020!

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About the Author

Jenny Bristow is the CEO and Co-Founder of Hedy & Hopp. Prior to starting Hedy & Hopp, Jenny launched, grew and sold a digital agency in Seattle, Washington and worked at Amazon.com. She was named one of St. Louis Business Journal’s 30 under 30, won a Stevie Award for Female Entrepreneur of the Year in 2018 and speaks regularly at industry and local events.

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