Optimising your performance indicators for 2017 - Business Works
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Optimising your performance indicators for 2017

by Phil Foster, Managing Director, Love Energy Savings The sense of uncertainty caused by the British 'Brexit' vote (to leave the EU) earlier this year will not necessarily translate into economic turmoil, says Phil Foster, MD of Love Energy Savings. In fact, according to a report from the British Chambers of Commerce, 2017 is set to be a period of steady growth.

The report, which quotes the Bank of England's own growth forecast, paints an unexpectedly positive picture of the economy. This is also backed up by the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics, which confirmed that the UK's economy expanded by 0.5% in the July-to-September period in 2016.

For business owners, their visions won't have changed that much. The goals remain the same and, for better or worse, profit remains paramount.

The question is: how do you maximise said profits? What tools can be used to monitor growth? You might know that your net profit for this year is a little more than last - but how did you get there?

Tracking business growth requires precision and a sharp eye for detail. With this in mind, here are some ways you can refresh your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in time for a fresh start in 2017.

Maximise the use of data from tools like Google Analytics

As businesses become increasingly reliant on digital technology, there are a whole range of tools at your disposal, and you'll want to make use of them.

"One of the most powerful tools for our business is Google Analytics, which allows us to monitor our goals, website traffic, the devices our customers use and much more," said Craig Rutherford, Director of Refused Car Finance.

"Google Analytics has paved the way for new and accessible ways of tracking performance and, as we have over 80% of our traffic browsing our site on a mobile device, it is important for us to monitor it to ensure that it is fully mobile optimised."

Such tools are tailor-made to help you set tangible KPIs. If you've launched a batch of new products online, for example, you can set clear sales targets based on your current website traffic trends.

Get to grips with your online advertising metrics

Advertising has moved online, not just through Google, but social media too.

"Many of our clients have seen great success through Facebook advertising," says Melissa Lang at Smarter Digital Marketing. "With Facebook advertising, you will be spending money when someone views or clicks on your ad. The more relevant your advertising is; the less money you will be wasting."

"Facebook has recently launched a feature in its advertising platform that gives your [campaigns] a rating. Facebook has taken notice of other platforms (such as Google AdWords) and now rates your ads and gives you a relevance score."

"We recommend that our customers are Facebook friendly. The more relevant your ad image, ad copy, and destination page is to your audience, the more favourable you will be to Facebook. Facebook have picked up on the desire to have analytics and by enhancing their strategy, we are sure to see businesses investing more in their social media advertising."

Online advertising campaigns can drive huge amounts of business, but they can also fail spectacularly, costing you significant sums of money in the process.

ROI is key, and it is vital that you learn lessons quickly. Trial and error is all well and good, but not when your ad tests are costing you hundreds of pounds at a time! If you know what works and what doesn't, you can set much clearer KPIs, giving you the best chance of running cost-effective campaigns.

Set individual KPIs - but make sure they are positively weighted

It is a delicate balancing act. One that every business needs to master.

We are great believers in teamwork at Love Energy and know that a great customer experience means impressing at every stage and level of the business. This is not just an individual responsibility, we always ensure that, while individuals are recognised for outstanding work and hitting their KPIs, teams are also encouraged to work together to reach collective goals. It is important for both employee engagement and a seamless customer journey that all members of our family have visibility of our company mission - to save as many businesses as possible as much money as we can on their business energy bills.

Specific KPIs are important for focusing energies in the right direction but it is also vital that we ensure there is no 'blame culture'. We work as a team to provide the best possible customer service and if even one customer is let down, we take that as a team and work as a collective to make sure mistakes don’t happen twice!

So, you're selling well? Don't stop there!

It may seem like a 'job well done' when you see your sales rates improve. And it is, of course.

However, there is more you can be doing. Many businesses are almost blind to where their successes come from. What department is responsible? Who deserves a pay rise?

"As an online business, we probably measure commercial success slightly differently to other companies in our industry," says Sam Williamson, CEO of Ace Work Gear. "Because we spend a significant portion of our marketing budget on online advertising through search engines and social media, we like to make sure that it is worth our investment by tracking the customers that have found us through our online adverts and those that have found us through other means.

"We can use this data to assess our commercial success and whether it is worth increasing our online advertising budget.

Getting to the root of your success will help you to set budgets accordingly heading into 2017.

Understanding your Key Performance Indicators will not only give you a clearer idea of how your business is growing, it also helps you to devise future strategies that build on your strengths and improve on your weaknesses.



For more information, please visit: www.loveenergysavings.com



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