The Way Companies’ Measure Growth Has Changed. Industry Veterans Share How to Gauge Evolving Growth Metrics

Growth marketers love metrics! Customer acquisition, customer retention, customer win-backs; are all fit terms to be concerned about. However, the true test of whether your strategy is working will depend on what you want to achieve and the nature of your business. We spoke to thought leaders at the Growth Marketing Conference to understand what metrics they keep track of and which ones are no longer relevant. Here’s what they said;

Ada Chen Rekhi – Founder & COO at Notejoy: For my company Notejoy, which provides a real-time document collaboration for teams, we are laser focused on driving engaged, retained usage of the product in each cohort of customers we onboard. To track that, we are looking at customer feedback and funnel conversion from new signups and how it’s changing over time. We are not at all focused on vanity metrics like traffic, signups, and visits. Also, at this early stage (customers need to request access to onboard to our product), we’re also more focused on the qualitative “why?” learnings from feedback as we iterate.

Brandon Redlinger – Director of Growth at Engagio: There’s no one metric or set of metrics that is right for all companies. You have to determine which metrics are the most relevant to your business and its goals. I’m a big believer in simplicity. Sure, you should track as much as you can, but you don’t need to maniacally focus on controlling every single one of them. Focus on what matters most. Identify the actions that correlate most directly to the outcome that you’re trying to influence. A metric is worthwhile when it’s comparative, a ratio or changes behavior.

Also Read: What Does It Take to Be a Growth Hacker?

Tian Lee – Senior Communications Manager at Zendesk: Each customer journey is unique, so metrics will vary. But the most important thing for growth marketers to focus on is the changes in critical changes in conversion rates between steps in the customer journey. Many marketers who are not well trained in growth marketing will look only at the actual numbers in an experiment, which can be misleading, particularly if the test cells of different sizes — learnings are often found in analyzing changes in the rate of conversion from one step of the customer journey to the next.

Oli Gardner – Co-founder of Unbounce: Customer lifetime value (LTV) is the #1 metric we look at, at Unbounce. I’d take 100 of our ideal customer over 300 that don’t stick around long, don’t use the product to its full potential, and aren’t realizing the ROI that you should when using it fully. At the end of the day, you only have a business if your customers are happy.

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