Measuring your Success Connection
We love taking tests to see how we measure up in various areas of our lives. Sometimes we share, sometimes we hide results from IQ tests; personality tests; romance and chronological age tests but we seek the feedback regardless. It's human nature to want to know how you compare to your fellow man. We should be just as eager to administer tests to the strategies we take when we are building our business connections. We all know the saying, "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it." Measurement is essential to making informed decisions about marketing investments. Every company is different, with different goals, budgets, systems and structures. As in our personal lives, we should identify a specific outcome and then determine measurements against this benchmark.
Avoid paralysis. Use analysis...
Let's look at four areas of marketing and an overview of what can be measured. Always keep in mind that what we are looking for is engagement with the customer.
Blogging:
Blogging is the new kid on the block of internet marketing. The great thing we are learning is that there are numerous metrics that can be evaluated. When you're trying to stand out, try building a blog that focuses on your expertise. Your blog let's people know who you are and what you do and it also provides useful, measureable information:
- Who is reading?
- Where are they coming from?
- What content is most popular?
- What is your bounce rate?
- How are the numbers moving in relation to interaction through comments, quizzes or contests?
- What are you learning from emails initiated by your Blog?
Traditional Off-Line Ads
Some modern marketing strategies have evolved to focus on direct response marketing. Unlike traditional advertising this call-to-action style actually can begin to answer the age-old question, "Is our advertising getting the job done? " Consider these points:
- Always include a feedback loop. This provides critical information and could eliminate waste.
- There are numerous ways to code your ad, and thereby analyze variables:
- Letter or department after your address
- separate 800 numbers
- unique auto-responder e-mail address
- Use these or other tests to customize your classified ads to the specific outcome you are seeking.
- Important Note: Test one variable at a time.
Social Media
Effective marketing depends on knowing your customer. Social Media is the perfect research tool. You can learn what customers, and even competitors, are saying about you and your product. More importantly, you are learning what clients need, their behaviour patterns and decision-making trends. A few metrics to consider are:
- Fans
- Growth rate of fans or followers
- Mentors
- Number of comments
- Ratings
- Contest entries
When your social media presence is metrics driven, you can easily see what is working and what isn't.
Traditional Website
Of course, when your goal is to be found by your customer, you want to be sure that what they find is going to convert to business. Constant review and improvement of the website experience you provide, means more business. It's too easy to let this silent partner become non-productive. Are you gathering these metrics?
- Unique visitors
- Page views per visitor
- Time spent on site
- Total time spent per user
- Frequency of visits
- Dept of visit
- Conversions
None of the above lists are meant to be comprehensive but rather to inspire consideration. As well, there are other areas such as eBooks, free offers and other branding strategies that can be useful.
Don't give up until it adds up.
Effective marketing doesn't happen by remote control. You've got to regularly schedule review of your measurements. Perhaps you can optimize your results by assigning monetary values to your metrics. Never underestimate the potential of marketing. Whether it is potential partners, new customers or satisfied employees your success connection can be made to measure.