Vanity Metrics: What They Are and Why You Should Avoid Them

Futility of vanity metrics

As a marketer, you probably use various metrics to measure and evaluate your marketing performance and success. Metrics such as website traffic, social media followers, email subscribers, and video views can help you understand how your marketing efforts are reaching and engaging your target audience. However, not all metrics are equally useful and meaningful. Some metrics may look impressive and flattering, but they may not actually reflect the true value and impact of your marketing activities or that of your business. These metrics are known as vanity metrics.

What are vanity metrics?

Vanity metrics are metrics that make you look good to others, but do not help you understand your own performance in a way that informs future strategies. These metrics are often easy to measure and manipulate, but they do not indicate any real return on investment (ROI) or customer behavior. Examples of vanity metrics include:

  • Website traffic: The number of visitors or sessions on your website may seem like an important indicator of your website’s popularity and reach, but it does not tell you anything about the quality and relevance of your traffic, or how your traffic converts into leads or customers.
  • Social media followers: The number of followers or fans on your social media accounts may seem like a measure of your social media influence and authority, but it does not tell you anything about the engagement and loyalty of your followers, or how your followers interact with your brand or products.
  • Email subscribers: The number of subscribers on your email list may seem like a measure of your email marketing potential and growth, but it does not tell you anything about the deliverability and open rate of your emails, or how your subscribers respond to your email campaigns.
  • Video views: The number of views on your videos may seem like a measure of your video marketing reach and impact, but it does not tell you anything about the retention and completion rate of your videos, or how your viewers take action after watching your videos.

Why you should avoid vanity metrics

Vanity metrics may be tempting and satisfying to track and report, but they can be misleading and harmful for your marketing strategy and goals. Here are some reasons why you should avoid vanity metrics:

  • They do not help you make data-driven decisions: Vanity metrics do not provide any actionable insights or feedback that can help you improve your marketing performance and outcomes. They do not tell you what works and what does not work, what to do more of and what to do less of, or what to change and what to keep. They do not help you optimize your marketing tactics and channels, or allocate your marketing resources and budget effectively.
  • They do not help you align with your business objectives: Vanity metrics do not align with your business objectives, such as increasing sales, revenue, or profit. They do not show you how your marketing activities contribute to your bottom line, or how they generate value for your business and your customers. They do not help you demonstrate your marketing ROI, or justify your marketing spend and efforts.
  • They do not help you build trust and credibility: Vanity metrics do not build trust and credibility with your stakeholders, such as your management, your team, your partners, or your customers. They do not reflect the true quality and impact of your marketing work, or the real needs and preferences of your target audience. They may even damage your reputation and credibility, if your stakeholders discover that your metrics are inflated, manipulated, or irrelevant.
  • They can be open to subjective interpretations: Vanity metrics can be interpreted in a variety of methods, thus creating confusion instead of giving a clear direction towards efforts.

How to avoid vanity metrics

To avoid vanity metrics, you need to focus on metrics that are relevant, meaningful, and actionable for your marketing strategy and goals. These metrics are often called actionable metrics, as they help you take action and make decisions that improve your marketing performance and success. Here are some tips on how to avoid vanity metrics and use actionable metrics instead:

  • Define your marketing goals and objectives: Before you start measuring and evaluating your marketing performance, you need to define your marketing goals and objectives, and align them with your business goals and objectives. Your marketing goals and objectives should be SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. For example, instead of having a vague goal of increasing website traffic, you can have a SMART goal of increasing website traffic by 10% in the next quarter, by targeting a specific segment of your audience, using a specific channel or tactic, and measuring a specific metric or outcome.
  • Choose your key performance indicators (KPIs): Based on your marketing goals and objectives, you need to choose your key performance indicators (KPIs), which are the metrics that indicate whether you are achieving your goals and objectives, or not. Your KPIs should be relevant, meaningful, and actionable for your marketing strategy and goals. For example, instead of using website traffic as a KPI, you can use website conversion rate, which measures the percentage of your website visitors who take a desired action, such as signing up for a newsletter, downloading a white paper, or making a purchase.
  • Track and analyze your data: Once you have chosen your KPIs, you need to track and analyze your data, using various tools and methods, such as Google Analytics, dashboards, reports, and experiments. You need to track and analyze your data regularly and consistently, to monitor your marketing performance and progress, and to identify any trends, patterns, or anomalies. You also need to track and analyze your data in context, by comparing it with your benchmarks, targets, or competitors, and by segmenting it by various dimensions, such as source, channel, device, or audience.
  • Take action and improve: Based on your data analysis, you need to take action and improve your marketing performance and outcomes. You need to use your data to make data-driven decisions, such as what to do more of and what to do less of, what to change and what to keep, or what to test and what to implement. You also need to use your data to optimize your marketing tactics and channels, and to allocate your marketing resources and budget effectively. You also need to measure and evaluate the impact of your actions and improvements, and to iterate and refine your marketing strategy and goals accordingly.

Conclusion

Vanity metrics are metrics that make you look good to others, but do not help you understand your own performance in a way that informs future strategies. They are often easy to measure and manipulate, but they do not indicate any real return on investment or customer behavior. Examples of vanity metrics include website traffic, social media followers, email subscribers, and video views.

To avoid vanity metrics, you need to focus on metrics that are relevant, meaningful, and actionable for your marketing strategy and goals. These metrics are often called actionable metrics, as they help you take action and make decisions that improve your marketing performance and success. To avoid vanity metrics and use actionable metrics instead, you need to define your marketing goals and objectives, choose your key performance indicators, track and analyze your data, and take action and improve.

By avoiding vanity metrics and using actionable metrics, you can improve your marketing performance and outcomes, align with your business objectives, and build trust and credibility with your stakeholders.

मराठी भाषेची विस्मृती

हा लेख जेव्हा मी लिहायला बसलो तेव्हा विचार केला होता कि ईंग्रजीमधे लिहीन. पण जसे मी ह्या लेखाबद्दल विचार करायला लागलो तसतसे ठरवले कि इंग्रजी सोडून मराठी भाषेत हा लेख लिहीन. अशी प्रयत्नांची पराकाष्ठा मी पहिल्यांदा करतोय, त्या मुळे जर काही चूकभूल झाली तर माफी असावी असे अस्वीकरण घेऊन तुम्हा लोकांशी माझी हि नम्र विनंती आहे कि चुकांना कसे सुधारू हे लेखाच्या टिपण्यांतून कळवावे.

अजिंक्य परिवारात सद्ध्या दोन मस्तीखोर कार्टी आहेत. मोठीचे नाव आहे अनसूया आणि छोट्याचे नाव आहे मल्हार. दोघेही शाळेत जातात. मी विचार केला की त्यांना माझ्याच शाळेत म्हणजे पार्ले टिळक विद्यालय मध्ये भरती कारेन. देवाचा आशिर्वादानी आणि बरोबर “जॅक ” लावून त्यांची ऍडमिशन झाली. मी इंग्रजी माध्यमात शिकलो आहे, म्हणून विचार केला कि मुलांनाही इंग्रजी माध्यमात टाकावे. ते पण आय से एस सी बोर्ड मध्ये. जेव्हा आम्ही हा निर्णय घेतला तेव्हा मुलांच्या शिक्षणाचा विचार घेऊनच तो केला होता.

भाषा हि एक संपर्काचे माध्यम आहे. जर तुमच्याशी कोणीही त्या भाषेत संपर्क साधणार नाही, तर तुम्ही ती भाषा वापरणार नाही. हळू हळू, तुम्ही ती भाषा विसरायला लागणार.

सकाळी उठल्यापासून रात्री झोपण्यापर्यंत जी भाषा आपण वापरतो तीच आपली मातृभाषा, असे म्हणायला काहीच हरकत नाही. मग तर माझ्या मुलांची भाषा इंग्रजी आहे. त्यांना गप्प करायचे असेल तर मी त्यांना म्हणतो “मुलांनो आता मराठीचा तास!”

घरी आम्ही मराठी फार क्वचित वापरतो. अर्थात संध्याकाळी मराठी टीव्ही चालू असतो, पण तो तर आजी आणि आजोबांसाठी असतो. एक तर घरी भाषेचा वापर कमी, शाळेत पण फक्त मराठीचा तासात भाषेचा वापर होतो. बाकी सगळा वेळ मोबाईल आणि टीव्ही मध्ये जातो. ह्या दोन माध्यमामध्ये इंग्रजीचा वापर जास्त होतो.

मुद्दा हा, कि दिवसात मराठीचा वापर होताच नाही.

कारणीभूत कोण?

खरंतर हि माझीचं चूक आहे.

भाषेचा वापर कसा करावा हे जर दिसले नाही तर मग ती भाषा कशी वापरायची ते कसे कळणार? मान्य आहे कि मी काही मराठीचा पापड नाही. पण, प्रयत्न नाही केला तर आता जसा माकड आहे तसाच माकड राहीन. आणि जेव्हा माझी पोरं मराठी भाषेची चिरफाड करतील तेव्हा मी फक्त “हूप हूप ” करिन!

एक रामबाण उपाय

मराठीत जास्तीत जास्त संचार करून भाषेचा वापर वाढवा.

All human beings are equal

For the West and East, it is common to have different value systems and beliefs. However, this video by Arnold Schwarzenegger on the recent issues faced by the US just goes to show that there are some universal values that everyone identifies with and stands by. This stance is similar to the one that Swami Vivkenanda took when he addressed the Chicago convention.

Treating everyone as equal instead of bringing in our perceived values and judgement when speaking to different people is one such value.

RJ Malishka, the BMC and the underlying breach of our freedom

If you have been listening to Red FM channel in Mumbai, then one of the celebrity RJs they have is Malishka. As part of a radio jingle, she made up this video –

Everyone knows that in Mumbai, rains wreck everything. This year, in fact we have yet to see a day where the entire city has come to a stand still. Having said that, there are a lot of gaps that BMC needs to address. The video was made as a satire, since then, it has had more than 3M views.

So what’s the big deal?

Instead of acting on this creative complaint, what BMC officials chose to do was extremely childish. They organized a “raid” on RJ Malishka’s place and supposedly “found” dengue mosquito larvae.

Then the local Shiv Sena team created a spoof video of this song and BMC went on to file a 500 Cr INR defamation case against the RJ.

All this over a silly jingle that was created. Yes, it was aired, and many people heard it and saw the video.

The big deal is that an individual’s freedom of expression, and the freedom of press is being trampled with here. I don’t know whether I would classify this video under press or under entertainment, but what I do know – is that there is more than a grain of truth to the song.

By reacting like a bully, the BMC has shown how it takes feedback. The next time Shiv Sena talks about giving the marathi manus a voice, think again. It’s all talk.