Marketing teams come in all shapes and sizes, but one thing is for certain – all teams need to grow KPIs if they want to succeed. This can be a daunting task for small marketing teams who may feel limited in resources and (wo)manpower. But with the right focus and approach, you can definitely make progress and reach your goals. In this blog post, we will discuss five ways that small marketing teams can successfully grow their KPIs. Let’s get started:

BE PART OF THE CONVERSATION

Time is of the essence and it’s easy to skip straight into building a plan or execution before laying some groundwork first but then you’re skipping a very important piece to driving success quickly.

Have regular conversations with internal teams (sales, product, customer service, etc.) to gain insight into prospects and customers. By spending one hour a week with internal teams, you will gain knowledge of how your audience is responding to your marketing efforts or new information, like pain points, that are coming up in conversations.

You’ll be able to react more quickly if you have a clear picture of what’s going on across your company and the entire marketplace. You can also use this information to be proactive vs. reactive in your marketing efforts since you’ll know what’s ahead before it becomes an issue. Finally, this is an opportunity for you to develop relationships with others in your organization.

Additionally, make an effort to interact with consumers directly in order to obtain their feedback and information. Surveys, ongoing interviews, and social media community management are all examples of this. Questions can include the benefits of the product/service, what pain points they were experiencing before, how they would improve the product/service, and of course, continuing to measure net promoter score across the customer base.

By being part of the conversation, you will have a wealth of information at your disposal that you can use to make better decisions for your marketing team – and in turn, grow your KPIs.

DIVIDE AND CONQUER

Being part of a small marketing team means getting really good at dividing and conquering (but also coming back together again). Dividing clear responsibilities across employees is important to identify roles, but cross-training is essential to keep making progress when workloads get unbalanced.

HIRING FREELANCERS AND CONTRACTORS

This is a great solution to support your team when workloads get heavy, before or during large campaign launches, or to provide additional resources when hiring isn’t an option at the moment.

When you’re working on a specific project or initiative, it can be helpful to create smaller teams to keep everyone focused and accountable. For example, if you’re working on a campaign launch, create a team of three people who are solely responsible for that project. Assign someone as the project manager, someone to handle content, and someone to manage design.

By dividing up projects and initiatives into manageable chunks, you can make sure that they stay on track while also ensuring that your entire team is still able to work together effectively.

USE DATA (AND MORE DATA)

In order to grow KPIs, small marketing teams need to focus on using data regularly reporting on marketing performance across channels. Data should be used to inform every decision that is made, from which channels to focus on to what content to create.

There are a few different ways that data can be collected and used:

• Google Analytics can be used to track website traffic and see how users are interacting with the site. This information can then be used to optimize the website for conversion or adjust the content strategy.
• Social media analytics tools can be used to track engagement across social media platforms and see which types of content perform best. This information can then be used to inform future social media posts.
• A/B testing can be used to test different versions of emails, landing pages, or ads in order to see which one performs better. The winning version can then be used going forward.

Data should be collected on a regular basis and analyzed in order to make sure that the marketing team is on track and meeting its goals. This can be a team effort with each member pulling reports from different channels and analyzing performance together to identify opportunities.

KEEP COMMUNICATION FLOWING

The backbone of any marketing team isn’t the leader (which does affect team performance but more on that in a later post), it’s a healthy flow of communication, clear processes, and well-planned project management.

There are a few different ways to keep communication flowing:

• Use a project management tool like Asana or Jira to assign tasks and track progress on projects. This is especially helpful for larger initiatives that require multiple people to work on different parts.
• Have regular team meetings (weekly or bi-weekly) to go over progress on projects, brainstorm new ideas, and give updates on changes that need to be made. I’m a big fan of short 15-minute stand-ups daily.
• Create a shared document (like a Google Doc or Trello board) where everyone can add their ideas and thoughts. This can be used in lieu of or in addition to team meetings.

By keeping communication open and flowing, everyone on the team will be able to stay up-to-date on what’s going on and offer their own insights and ideas.

What’s next?
Now that you know a few ways to grow KPIs for your small marketing team, it’s time to put some of these into action! Pick one or two of the suggestions above and start implementing them today. Then, track your progress and see how your KPIs improve over time. Remember, even small changes can make a big difference when it comes to growing your business.

By being open to change and utilizing all of the resources at your disposal, small marketing teams can successfully grow their KPIs – and succeed in today’s competitive landscape. What matters most is that you are always learning and evolving as a team, so that you can continue to meet (and exceed) your goals.

So there you have it – five ways to grow KPIs for your small marketing team. Do you have any other suggestions?