Yes You Can! Measure Marketing Impact
Even in an era where no- and low-cost marketing options abound, it pays to know what's working and what's not. At Strategic Communications, we use a combination of both process (media placement) and outcome (inquiries, leads, sales) metrics to measure results.
- Process measures are easier to get at. We can track media placements through both online search - Google Alerts, etc. - as well as through organic search results to client websites.
- But outcome measures are, ultimately, what's most important. Here, we can track inquiries and leads received, but tracking actual sales, or other business results can be more challenging in terms of identifying a 1:1 correlation between a PR effort and sales results, for instance.
It's not a perfect science, but we can make some credible assumptions. For instance, if a client has historically generated 50 new leads a month, and we find that monthly leads climb to 100 a month after the implementation of a campaign (with no other potential intervening variables), we can surmise that there has been some positive impact.
At the same time, though, we want to manage client expectations, so we need them to know that there is a wide range of variables--in addition to marketing--that could impact their success. They include: - The strength of their product or service
- Competition
- Seasonality
- Type of product
- The purchase process of potential customers
- Short process or long process
- One-, two- or three-step process
- Simple offer vs. complex offer
- The responsiveness of their customer service staff to inquiries or orders received
All of these factors impact the ability to generate sales and customers. Yet, these factors can be controlled for to some extent. They represent challenges, but not absolute impediments. So, whether you're a marketing executive or a small business owner, don't be intimidated by the seemingly tangential connection between your marketing efforts and the bottom line. The connection is very real and can be measured! How do you measure your marketing results?
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