You could be checking all the boxes of your marketing strategy — email newsletter with segmentation, quality social media posts, media relations, etc. But if you aren’t measureing those efforts and paying attention to the bottom-line results of your marketing, how do you know it’s working? The answer is you don’t.
Measurement is a key component of a successful marketing campaign. Measuring efforts before (to get a baseline), during, and after a program is a best practice in the field. Here are three ways to use measurement to master a successful marketing campaign:
- If the results aren’t what you hoped, adjust the strategy.
This is where measurement mid-campaign or during execution comes into play. Evaluate your efforts and adjust what isn’t working. Unfortunately, many marketers wait to measure until the end — but then it’s too late. Measuring along the way (weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc., as applicable to the campaign timeframe) allows you to be nimble and improve results vs. just wishing you had.
For example, your email newsletter could be sent to thousands of emails, but is it driving people to visit your website like you thought? If so, which topics or sections are creating the leads? Look into your email performance metrics to determine that information and marry it with info gathered from tracking links like UTM codes and/or Google Analytics to determine what’s resonating with your audience (and then create more!).
All social media channels provide measurement and performance analytics too. They can show you which content (type, specific post(s), day of the week, etc.) creates the most engagement. Analytics show you which posts are far-reaching and which ones are lackluster. If certain messages are performing better, find ways to work those into other content. Determine where you are falling short and adjust.
- Learn more about your target audience. This is helpful when crafting future campaigns.
Identifying your audience should be one of the first steps you take when launching a campaign. Learn what this audience prefers to see from brands they follow or what platform or communication tool they prefer to use. You can learn this by looking at the audience demographics on your channels – overall (who uses Facebook vs. Instagram) and your specific audiences (look into your Facebook page’s audience info) and marrying that with engagement metrics. That will tell you who you’re reaching and what they are most interested in.
Knowing what they want and how they want to receive it will enable you to create the highest-performing campaign possible.
Also — your audience’s preferences could change. That’s okay. As these changes arise, make sure you are taking notes. Pay attention to what they are telling you. This is helpful when crafting future campaigns or adjusting current ones.
- Successful and strategic marketing campaigns should affect the bottom line.
Measuring efforts before, during, and after a campaign will help you generate as much interest, sales, or leads as possible. Adjusting your campaigns will also maximize the results and return on investment. This could be hugely beneficial to your company’s bottom line (sales, leads, etc.). Overall, making adjustments as needed will be all-around strategic marketing.
Constant measurement for improvement and adjustment is necessary for growth. Measure to help your business grow. At PTE, we test and measure everything. If you need help, let us know.