Don’t get caught up in the numbers when it comes to marketing—true growth lies in the mixture of qualitative and quantitative data.

Imagine you’re the marketing director of a large financial services firm. You set a quarterly marketing budget of $10,000, which, based on your averages this year, should help you acquire 1,000 new leads. At the end of the quarter, you review the results of your campaign and find that you were only able to add 300 quality leads. Do you drop the messaging and tactics of that campaign because it missed the mark? Or do you stay the course and see if its performance picks up?

If this scenario sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Many marketing campaigns have been squashed after seemingly unsuccessful runs. However, what a lot of marketers (even seasoned ones) fail to look at are the messages beyond the numbers. If you want to determine why and how your messaging fell short with your intended audience, you need to look at the qualitative data points, not just the quantitative results. This kind of data can help you make more strategic adjustments instead of abandoning ship altogether.

Here we’ll explore the differences between quantitative and qualitative data and the importance of measuring both to establish successful marketing that sticks with your audience.

Quantitative versus qualitative

Most marketing campaigns are created with specific numeric KPIs in mind, KPIs such as a total budget, conversion rate, or close ratio. These are all types of quantitative data points because they hold numerical value and thus can be measured. With quantitative data, you can get a clear picture of where your money is going, how many people are seeing your marketing, and how many are responding to it. These numbers are essential for measuring ROI and can help you stay on budget, which is why they’re often the preferred metric of successful campaigns.

Qualitative data is measured differently; rather than numbers, it looks at descriptions and feelings to understand how people are responding to your messaging. This information is critical not only for establishing successful campaigns that strike a chord with your audience but also for revealing previously unknown information about your customers, such as how much they’re willing to pay and which social media platforms they frequent.

Because it’s less straightforward than quantitative data, qualitative data tends to be overlooked when analyzing campaigns. However, especially when measured with the numbers, it can improve the flexibility of your campaigns and help you better adapt to the needs and wants of your customers.

Qualitative data points to consider

The goal of qualitative data is to uncover information about your audience that numbers won’t reveal. For example, if the quantitative data shows that thirty people clicked on your ad but only 10 percent of those people converted, qualitative data could analyze the positive and negative responses to your ad to allow you to make adjustments and improve your conversion rate. There are four main ways you’ll want to measure qualitative data.

Segment

You’ll find through trial and error that not all marketing campaigns garner the same response from the people in your audience. An ad highlighting a sharp drop in the price point for your services may attract a buyer who was holding out for a discount, but another buyer may be put off by the same discount, fearing a decline in value. Qualitative data can expose these subsets in your audience, helping you to create hypertargeted and more effective campaigns.

Find out what motivates the different groups within your target audience, and direct specific messages to them that will drive them to convert. For example, customers motivated by personalized service might respond well to walk-through calls or emails explaining the range of services you offer, people with limited budgets may be impressed by a multiservice package at a singular price point, and individuals looking for ease of use could benefit from a simple and direct sign-up process.

Socialize

Social media is probably most reliable way to target your marketing down to the individual, but its value goes far beyond that. It’s not enough to focus on what you post and when—you must also pay attention to who is reacting to your posts and how.

The comments section of your posts is a great place to drum up engagement and learn more about how people perceive and respond to your brand. You might find that they’re responding well to your marketing, leaving unprompted, positive reviews. More likely than not, though, you’ll find a mixture of high praise and harsh criticism. You should be mindful to respond to both and take note of the kind of critiques you receive so you can tailor your marketing in the future. Reading through and responding to comments also shows you to be an active and thoughtful leader, which can be highly beneficial for brand recognition. 

Inspire

Inspiring your audience is a surefire way to get them to like and trust you, and qualitative data can tell you all you need to know about how well you’re succeeding in this area. If you have a well-established personal brand, it should be relatively easy to see what people think of you and your business. You might notice your follower count increasing or a flood of comments on posts where you’d expected just a few likes. You could also receive recognition from other like-minded leaders or people in your industry looking to work with you. Perhaps most tellingly, you may start to gather referrals from current clients touting your services to their friends and family. These are all telltale qualitative signs that your marketing is successfully establishing brand recognition.

Survey

Questionnaires and polls are some of the most effective tools for getting direct feedback from your target audience. There are a variety of ways you can survey people, including conducting polls on social media, sending survey links via email, or asking for comments in webinars or on other content marketing platforms. Surveys should be straightforward and garner honest answers, so avoid leading questions like Did you enjoy the webinar? or What do you dislike about our products? Instead, provide respondents with multiple-choice answers or an opportunity to describe what they’d like to see more or less of in your services.

You could also use surveys as a method for collecting valuable information from clients and prospects. Consider asking for personal details (e.g., full names, email addresses, and phone numbers) before getting their feedback. By collecting this information, you’ll be able to retarget these individuals with marketing specific to the responses they provided in the rest of the survey.

Quality and quantity in harmony

Most marketers are all about the numbers. They set clear, measurable goals and want to make sure their marketing efforts are worth their time and money. But to focus solely on conversion rates and clicks is a missed opportunity. Before you launch any new marketing campaign, be sure to establish both numeric KPIs and qualitative measurements to ensure the best results.

TAKE ACTION:
Analyze your current marketing campaigns. Set at least five qualitative data points for each that you can use to learn more about your target audience.