Avoid tunnel vision of marketing metrics

Marketing companies and especially digital marketing companies are focused on cultivating a data-driven culture. With digital media famously being the most measurable channel available to brands and marketers today, it’s no surprise that agencies have become a bit obsessed with metrics. When it comes to email marketing, open and click rates are the most important, while lead acquisition and website analytics also become factors in other forms of digital media. While metrics can provide extremely valuable insights into campaign performance and keep marketers accountable and aware of company goals, there is a danger in overemphasizing the importance of metrics.

The Unfortunate Appearance of Metrics Tunnel Vision

Metrics ‘tunnel vision’ is an unfortunate side effect of overemphasizing metrics, statistics, and numbers. Marketing teams can become so concerned with their metrics that they could end up losing sight of the big marketing picture. This can negatively influence any strategic planning that needs to focus on more holistic ideas.

Using metrics as an excuse to follow poor marketing rules

Another major problem that could develop due to tunnel vision of metrics is some lapses in good judgment. When brands and marketers start thinking only about improving one metric or hitting a particular goal, many ethical and even logical tactics fly out the window as the hunger for metric perfection takes hold. Suddenly devices that normally wouldn’t even have been considered are called for the sake of the metric. For example, a social media manager who becomes enthralled in the process of gaining new followers or ‘likes’ on Facebook. Now imagine if that social media manager started breaking Facebook’s rules of engagement to get more likes. It’s not ideal, and it’s not going to reflect well on the brand that has to live with the aftermath of the campaign.

Avoid metric tunnel vision and let creativity flow

One of the best ways to prevent the onset of tunnel vision when it comes to statistics, marketing metrics, and analytics is to allow brands to trust and experiment with their own creativity. By focusing on creating campaigns that target people, subscribers, consumers, rather than numbers, chances are you’ll hit your metric goals anyway. Innovative campaigns are often seen as risks that can affect the stated goals of a given campaign in terms of metrics. But innovative and exciting campaigns are what keep people interested in a brand and get people talking.

Finding a balance between being a slave to statistics and letting everything happen as it does is really the key to creating successful campaigns that benefit the overall goal of the company.