Flash back to middle school when your English teacher asked you the definition of the word autonomy and you had no clue.  The teacher gave you the word within a sentence and asked you to use the context clues to help figure out the definition.  “I’m going to give you full autonomy on the project, so you can do what you want.”

Ah yes, context clues.  I found myself thinking about context clues recently while looking through pages and pages of marketing metrics.  Metrics give us great insight, but when we don’t understand the story around the numbers, metrics can actually hurt us. 

Metrics tell us a story about what is going on with our website; online and offline advertisements, customer behavior, and so on.  To really understand what these numbers are saying, it is important to read the entire story.  I’ve seen people get obsessed with one or two metrics and completely ignore everything else that is going on.   There are also many times when more than one person looks at the raw data and reads an entirely different story. 

Before the start of any great analytics program, you need to take the time to go through the metrics that are available to you and learn what is actually being measured.  Look at the popular example of hits verses page views.  I’ve heard people brag about the thousands of hits to their website and yet I have a feeling they don’t fully understand what a “hit” really is.  Do they know that it might be better for them to look at page views, since one view can actually contribute to multiple hits? 

Once you know what is available and understand how the numbers are being calculated, your goals must be established.  The goals are what give the metrics context and without these goals, your metrics are meaningless.  Let’s say that a goal of your company is to be known as an expert in the industry.  It is important to look through your arsenal of metrics and pull out the ones that support this goal.  If you have whitepapers on your site and a monthly newsletter on industry topics, track the number of downloads and subscriptions.  These support the goal because people are accessing your company knowledge and have enough interest in what you have to say to request it on a regular basis. 

Now the numbers make sense!  Just think how proud your English teacher would be to know that you are able to use context clues for more than just figuring out the definitions of words. Not only that, but you’re using them to make confident decisions from worthy metrics.