Unless your marketing dollars grow on trees, a big part of your job as a marketing professional is about validating your budget to your superiors – especially in an economy such as this one.
As a savvy marketer, you need to align your activities and successes with those of your organization. We at MindFire Communications have very strong feelings about measurable marketing. So strong, in fact, that we’ve put together this (tongue twisting) MindFire Measurable Marketing Manifesto.
In today’s world, you can’t afford to be wrong. It’s all about communicating the right message to the right person in the right place at the right time. Instead of a shotgun approach, use research to make sure you are spending smart. You’ll take the guesswork out of your marketing and end up becoming more measurable, too.
Without a goal, you might as well be throwing your marketing dollars into a black (burning!) hole. You must determine what it is you are working towards. Align your goals with those of your business development team. That way, the success of your organization can be traced back to your marketing efforts.
Develop marketing plans with measurable checkpoints. Many companies do not create a plan that can be measured and monitored, and in turn are not considered successful by management.
What are your parameters for measurement? Are you basing your success on sales? Click-throughs? Calls? If you don’t set these expectations at the beginning, you’ll never know if your campaign was a success.
Incorporate unique URLs or jump pages into your materials so you can monitor traffic using web site analytics tools. There are many analytics tools available that are completely free, such as Google Analytics.
This may seem like a no brainer, but many campaigns are missing a call to action. A clear directive makes it easy to determine if your customers sought you out because of a specific service. Tell them how to contact you – by mail, telephone, email or a unique URL.
Next time you launch a new campaign, stop and think about whether you will be able to measure the success of your efforts. Give us a call if you need some help applying some of these ideas…
Download the MindFire Measurable Marketing Manifesto.
- Inga Rundquist
Content marketing is changing how consumers make buying decisions, how brands tell their stories and the way marketers execute marketing plans. If you haven’t dabbled in this form of marketing yet, it’s HIGH time. With a smart contenting marketing strategy, creating and distributing valuable content to attract your target audience will be effortless and more efficient.
