Let’s Talk Metrics: Why Not Measuring Business Activities is a Huge Mistake

Social Media and Email Marketing Measurement Tips

It’s also worth measuring your marketing efforts — which if done online are easily quantifiable — such as social media following and email newsletter subscriber growth.

For instance, it’s important to track your company’s growth on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. Are you tracking your fan base growth each month? How many followers do you have each calendar year (January 1, to December 31)?

Two twitter tools I’ve recently found that are helpful include Twitter Grader and Twitter Counter. Both Twitter analytic tools can help small business owners gain a better idea of how they’re accruing followers.

Also when it comes to growing your email list, both AWeber and MailChimp provide spreadsheets and/or dashboards that detail subscriber growth, unsubscribes and other useful email metrics.

The Most Important Business Measures

While measuring your sales and online marketing activities are important, there’s more to your business than that. I don’t exclusively fall into the camp of, “It’s all about money!” or in contrast “I’m doing this because it’s my calling.” I trust that if you want to grow a sustainable business that you are someone who wants to do both — follow your calling and turn that into a livelihood.

That said, there are other things you can and should measure in business.

1. Measure the love.

Measure the number of emails you receive from people who can testify that something you created was exactly what they needed. If you don’t already have a “Love folder” in your inbox, create one as soon as you finish reading this. It’s just as important as a profit and loss statement, especially on days you feel like quitting.

I’ll never forget a particularly slow time in my coaching practice when I was ready to throw in the towel. I received a thank you email from a Client who shared that I had helped her forgive her mother. She said she’d spent years trying to do this, but a few months of working with me made it happen. That one email lit up my entire life.