Write KPIs as guardrails (not your scorecard)

Many of us are assessing H1 and looking towards H2 at the moment. We'll be celebrating, head-scratching, late-night data gazing and heaven forbid looking at blog posts like this one for guidance.

When it comes to planning, KPIs are where the situation and diagnosis come together to suggest action. 

KPIs as a “finish line” 

We often talk about marketing KPIs as the "finish line" – the ultimate goal we're sprinting towards. Hit that target, win the race, right? But what if that analogy is actually holding us back? What if, instead of being the end of the race, your KPIs were the guard rails that prevented you from veering off course and wasting precious effort?

KPIs as the Strategic Guardrail

Imagine your marketing journey not as a straight racetrack, but as a dark, rough, winding, often unpredictable road. In this scenario, your KPIs aren't the mile markers; they are the guardrails that keep you on the road and the traction that ensures your wheels aren't spinning.

They don't just tell you if you've arrived; they tell you where not to go and what to focus on to stay on the right path. This shifts the focus from simply achieving a number to using data to inform strategic decisions and optimize every ounce of effort.

Inspired by Good Strategy, Not Just Good Numbers

Richard Rumelt, in Good Strategy/Bad Strategy, argues that good strategy isn't just about setting ambitious goals. It's about identifying critical challenges and concentrating resources on them. 

This is profoundly applicable to how we view our marketing KPIs.

Well-chosen KPIs aren't just measurements; they are indicators of where those critical challenges lie and where your strategic focus should be. They help you define what "not to do" by highlighting areas of inefficiency or misalignment with your core strategy. 

They become the data-driven alarm bells that scream, “YOU ARE WASTING TIME, EFFORT & MONEY.”

Using KPIs to stay on track

I was in a great session last week with Koree Khongphand-Buckman, Chief Marketing & Business Development Officer at Foley & Lardner. Among the golden wisdom nuggets she passed out was a central theme of accountability. 

You are accountable for your KPIs.

That means making the choice to spend energy on them at the cost of other activities. That's the true meaning of KPIs. Dipping outside of them is necessary, but they are a helpful guiderail for you and a useful tool for managing the expectations of others.

Making Time for What Matters: The Future

When your marketing KPIs act as strategic guardrails, they do more than just measure performance – they provide clarity. This clarity frees you from the constant need to react or jump at every single opportunity.

By embracing your KPIs as your strategic guardrails, you gain the invaluable time and mental bandwidth to truly think about, and build for, the future of your marketing. You're not just measuring success; you're strategically shaping it.