Are you Measuring your Marketing Efforts?

Tamara Rosenblum — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 07:00:54 +0000

Once upon a time, there was a marketing executive who said that half of his advertising was a waste. The problem was, which half? He didn’t know, so he kept on spending the same amount in the same way, year in year out, hoping that his shotgun approach would continue to work. In his mind, some would, and some wouldn’t and continued to believe that half of his efforts were a total waste of time and money.

With today’s tools, it no longer has to be that way. Measuring the success of a marketing strategy is your feedback loop to success. In fact, there’s so much access to data these days that the more important questions to ask are what, when, and how should I measure.

Are you trying to measure perceptions/opinions?

A good way to measure mind shifts is to do some benchmark research and then repeat that exact same research after a given period of time. Compare the results for your measurement – does the marketplace see you differently than they did when you did the benchmark. (Depending on your size, budget etc. you should probably repeat the research every 2-3 years to get accurate results.)

Are you trying to measure a change in traffic (initial interest) either in your location or online?

Online is easy — track hits and unique visits with a tool like Google Analytics. Drive them to a specific landing page and simply monitor change/activity.

Offline is a little less scientific. You can guestimate foot traffic. Or you can ask people (as they check out or you engage with them) how they heard of your business.

You can also use a unique phone number or e-mail address in your marketing and track the number of inquiries that way as well.

Are you trying to measure inquiries or trials?

Again, this will differ on and offline. Online, you can track things like e-newsletter sign ups, downloads of coupons or e-books and requests for more information.

Offline, you might monitor phone calls and requests for proposals, bids or initial meetings. If you’re a retailer, you could also count redeemed coupons or how many samples you give out.

Are you trying to measure sales (new or residual)?

This should be pretty easy — just track sales. You’ll need some historical data so you have something to measure against. Be sure you divide up the data so you can track new versus repeat customers. For our purposes — you don’t need to boil down to the nitty gritty. That someone came in and spend $42.37 is enough. You don’t need to record that they bought a hammer, a box of nails and a garden hose.

Of course… the key to effective measurement in marketing is understanding why you’re doing it in the first place. Measurement isn’t an afterthought. It should be built into your marketing plan’s strategy.

Knowing what you are trying to accomplish will tell you what you should measure. But…it’s a what, not an if.

Facebook vs. Google+ for Businesses

Kari Siegfried — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 00:00:48 +0000

With Google+ launching itself as “THE” new social media platform, this leaves many companies wondering where they should be marketing their business…Facebook or Google+?
Having done extensive social media campaigns for a variety of clients over the last 2 years loaded with facebook marketing, I was excited to try the much anticipated google+ a few weeks ago.
Although the premise of these two sites might be close to the same, some of the functionalities that they offer are different but could both benefit your company.

Starting with Facebook Pages, which offers a great way to promote your business, connect with potential clients and advertise through targeting. The pages for your brand allows you to customize a landing page or even put your entire website on your facebook page, for example here is how we did it for Century Park . Customizable tabs allow you to add as much customized content as you wish well keeping your fans in one place. You can upload imagery, post polls, contests and videos (as we did on RedMoon) using facebook as a great way to remain interactive with your fans while keeping them up to date. There are very few limits to what you can do with your Facebook fan page. Another great example of a well done fan page, and one of my personal favorite is the page for the new Muppet Movie. They offer a great deal of ways for their fans to be part of the hype. I highly recommend checking this page out (especially the tabs on the side) http://www.facebook.com/muppets

One of the features that really impressed me on Google+ is the hangout feature. You can now “hangout” with up to 9 friends in a live chat – basically a little mini online “house gathering”. This feature is accessible on your computer and on your mobile phone. Going back to The Muppet Movie social media campaign, they took advantage of this feature by hosting a “hangout” session with Miss Piggy. Feedback from this was super positive as fans of the iconic character got to hang out with her for almost 30 minutes and ask her questions about the movie and even her fashion. See more of the Muppets Google+ page

Like Facebook, Google+ allows you to share pictures, videos and instant message your friends (or fans). As a business application, you could host meetings, share presentations, images, videos and all the while have live chats with your board for example.

So why use both? While facebook is more established and well known giving you a larger fan base, Google+ offers advancements in SEO and is more geared toward businesses – it also has more applicable communication applications that are not necessarily marketing related. By promoting your brand on both websites you will expand your audience base.

Check out these other great campaigns using both platforms

Pepsi

Macy’s

Good Morning America

Mantaray Creative » Google+

Are you Measuring your Marketing Efforts?

Facebook vs. Google+ for Businesses