Measuring your marketing

“How do I measure my marketing?” It’s one of the questions we’re asked most often. So we thought we’d put together our advice, based on industry best practice, to help you get started.

Set your campaign objectives

The first step of any marketing plan should involve setting SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound) objectives. There’s no point in measuring things just for the sake of it. So by understanding what you want your campaign to achieve, you can determine what success will look like, and therefore what to measure.

Decide what to measure

Your objectives will determine what you’ll measure throughout your campaign. Below we’ve listed some common metrics for the most common marketing tactics:

• PR: amount of coverage, publication circulation figures, brand awareness
• Email marketing: open rates, click-through rates, conversion rate from click to prospect, number of subscribers
• Website: search engine rankings, number of visitors, number of enquiries
• Advertising: visits to a dedicated landing page, uses of promotional codes, number of sales
• Social media: ‘Likes’/fans/followers, level of engagement, traffic to website
• Webinars: registered delegates, conversion rate from delegate to customer, delegate engagement
• Events: number of leads, brand awareness, speaking opportunities

Choose who to involve

You may decide to measure just tactical things, such as web traffic or email open rates. Alternatively, you could decide to involve the stakeholders in your business – such as employees, journalists, customers, prospects and suppliers – and measure employee satisfaction and brand awareness as well, to see the amplified impact that your campaign is having.

Take regular measurements

Before you start the campaign, you should take baseline metrics. This gives you something to compare your results against so you can see the effect your activities are having. Then regularly measure the results throughout the campaign. This enables you to see what tactics and messages are working, so you can adjust the campaign accordingly.

Practicing what we preach

We regularly measure the impact our activity is having for our clients; so regardless of whether our clients want business growth, awards, or great coverage, we ensure we’re always delivering real business results.

If you would like to talk to us about your next campaign, why not contact us? We’d love to hear from you.

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