For those of us who hate numbers and percentages, analytics can be a daunting part of your inbound marketing strategy. However, it is just as vital as the content and the promotion because it is the only way to track which parts of your strategy are succeeding and which need improvement. In fact, without analytics, you'll be posting blindly, wishing upon the stars that the content you post and promote achieves success. One of the most important aspects of inbound marketing, and the analytics in particular, to remember is that the process takes time. A few good posts in the span of a couple weeks isn’t going to produce the results you’re looking for anymore than going to the gym a couple times is going to magically shed those extra fifteen pounds. That’s why analyzing your data to ensure that you’re not wasting your time is so important.

Before you create and post your content, you should set specific, measurable, and attainable goals so that you can properly judge how your content strategy is performing through the use of analytics. 

Top 10 Inbound Marketing Metrics

1. Overall Traffic:
This is the most common metric and one of the easiest to track. It also provides an easy way to begin your inbound marketing strategy because the goals are easy to measure. Almost all website platforms can track the number of visitors, and you can always use Google Analytics for free among a number of other tools. An easy goal to start with would be to increase web traffic month-over-month by 50%. This provides a specific, measurable, and attainable goal.

2. Bounce Rate:
Tracking the flow of the traffic on your site is just as important as the amount of traffic. This can tell you where a visitor entered your site, what other pages they visited, and where they left. If a high volume of visitors are leaving on a certain page, maybe that page needs to be redesigned or rewritten. This can also tell you how long visitors are staying on your site, and on a particular page, telling you whether or not visitors find your content helpful.

3. Email Address Collection:
Another easily tracked metric, the number of email addresses you obtain through your blog posts and website will tell you whether visitors find your content worthy of receiving emails from you. If lots of people are signing up on one page, but not another, it may be time to restructure the design and copy of the unsuccessful page to mimic the more successful one.

4. Recurring Visitors:
This demographic is just as important as the email address collection because it shows you how successful the content on your website is performing. If you’re getting a high percentage of repeat visitors, it means that your strategy is working, and the content you and your team are providing is appreciated by visitors.

5. Blog Statistics:
Your blogs are the blood that continuously pumps traffic into your site. Blogs help your SEO by providing you with more links and it gives you something to promote on social media. That is, unless no one likes your blogs. Your content has to be useful, especially to create email subscribers, social media shares, and repeat visitors, driving them to become leads and customers.

Read the rest of the article Top 10 Inbound Marketing Metrics to Analyze.

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Michael O'Brien combines his creativity and storytelling skills with business acumen to tell your company's unique story and position you as an authority in your industry. To get updates on inbound marketing strategies, follow him on Twitter @mikedobrien or visit his site mikedobrien.com.