How Do You Measure Your Marketing Efforts?
Measuring social media marketing can be a tricky issue for most people. With so much data available, deciphering exactly what it means to your business can seem virtually impossible! As with most problems, the trick is to start at the beginning.
Set Goals
The biggest challenge is figuring out what exactly you are trying to achieve with a digital marketing plan. Are you trying to raise awareness of your brand, convert social media traffic to website traffic, or maybe just increase overall audience engagement? Whatever your goals are, know them before you start trying to make sense of the numbers.
Create Your Metrics
Depending on your goals, what you want to measure will change. For the example, if you want to increase overall awareness then increasing your volume, reach or exposure is the metric to watch. But if increased website traffic is your goal, tracking social media conversions to website hits and URL shares will be the numbers to watch.
Measure
Measurement can be done in a variety of ways. If you only use one or two outlets, then the innate tools are likely perfect. Facebook Insights and Twitter Analytics are great tools for their respective programs. If you have a larger media presence to track, the software you are already using may have tracking included. If not, try SocDir to find the best fit for your company.
One important thing to remember is that most tracking software works best when set up in real time. This means getting your Google Analytics page, HootSuite, or Facebook Insights set up now, before you want to have the data available to analyze. Going back, even just a few days, can be costly or impossible.
Follow Up
The last part of measurement is often the most overlooked. Once you have gotten all of your accounts organized and your metrics designed, don’t forget to check in regularly to find out how your strategies are working! Depending on the nature of your business, this may be a weekly task or perhaps only quarterly. No matter what makes sense for you, be sure you do it.
I can’t stress enough how important it is to measure the effectiveness of your digital marketing. Knowing what works for your audience, how to reach more people, or how to convert traffic into sales, all of these things will make a huge difference in your success! Knowing where you came from is the key to figuring out how to get where you want to go.