Last week, I was invited to speak to MBA students on the topic of digital metrics, at my alma mater, the Schulich School of Business. This is the third year in a row that I have spoken to MBA students taking marketing courses.

Here are a few of the key takeaways from the presentation:

• The digital channel has great ability for measurement
• On the flip side of the coin, it is also really easy to get lost in the sea of data
• The key is to define metrics based on an understanding of your customers
• Finally, successful measurements are based on an integrated metrics grounded on an understanding of your customer and measured using financial indicators.

Using a technique like the digital customer journey, I demonstrated to the class how understanding your customers and the trigger points in the sales funnel—from product research through to conversion and advocacy—can help organizations maximize the power of the digital channel. Through understanding the customer and what triggers the customer, companies can then design the right experiences and measure the right things to enable better business decisions.

During the guest lecture, I also cautioned against the common errors, including:

• Action without clear objectives
• Measuring the wrong things (often due to a lack of clarity about customers’ digital behaviours and needs)
• Data without insights (due to siloed views or being lost in a sea of data)
• Insights without action
• Stopping at launch (rather than continuing the cycle of using the insights to further refine)

The discussion during the Q&A led me to believe that my message around understanding the customer as being core to digital strategy and measurement resonated with the group. I left the lecture hall feeling accomplished; having shared a smarter way to measure and make business decisions with the next generation of business leaders.