Like it or not, modern marketing is all about numbers. Sure, your agency or marketing team will bang on about design, ad copy and awards. But all that really matters are the key numbers in your marketing equation.

How many people did your various marketing channels and tactics reach last week? How many prospects responded to your marketing last week? How many leads did you speak with last week? How many sales did you make? What was the conversion rate at each stage?

Great marketers know these numbers immediately. They measure them consistently and look to improve their metrics at every level.

If you don’t know these numbers for your business, you’re flying blind. Study them immediately. Reach. Prospects. Leads. Sales.

The wonderful thing about modern marketing is that it has never been easier to measure and manage. There is data for just about anything you can imagine.

It means you can achieve less budget wastage and higher conversions. It alerts you when campaigns or offers are losing their impact. It tells you which messages are effective and which are missing the mark. It allows you to refine and optimise for best results.

Once you know which channel is delivering the greatest returns, which messages convert best and what your average conversion rate is, you are in a position to achieve the holy grail of marketing: clients on demand.

The best marketing allows you to set a budget knowing how many prospects, leads and sales it will deliver – week in, week out.

A reliable and predictable return on your marketing investment allows you to grow and scale in a measurable way, giving you all the clients you need.

They’re the numbers that really matter.

Craig Wilson, managing director of Sticky.Digital.