Nothing is spookier than marketing without measurement
It’s that time of year again: when ghosts and ghouls descend upon the earth and several businesses prepare for seasonal splurges alongside their year ends. Whether you have had a relatively successful year or you’re staring down a less-than-impressive set of key performance indicators, you’re meeting the (marketing) maker moment is nigh.
So, as a Marketing Director or the owner of a business, how will you report on whether your marketing efforts were a smashing success or just a monster mash?
Even though we live in a data-driven era, filled to the brim with measurement software, we frequently meet with clients who can’t really answer the question of how effective their marketing is. This is the case for anyone or several of the following reasons:
- There are a ton of pokers in the marketing fire, so it’s difficult to narrow down which ones are hot and which ones are not
- Businesses do not proactively determine their marketing key performance indicators, so they have nothing to measure success or failure against
- Inadequate (or nonexistent) measurement tools/software are in place or used irregularly so only anecdotal data is available
- The company has trusted their marketing to a person (internal or external) who just does stuff that seems right, but is never held accountable for reporting back
- A monopoly of traditional marketing tactics makes it very difficult to measure how leads are coming in
Marketing that is not measured is like a house that turns off its lights to avoid trick-or-treaters: practically useless & wildly unpopular
Regardless of what is stopping you from measuring, reporting on and adapting your marketing, we’re here to tell you that needs to stop. Why? Because you may very well be throwing money into an extraordinarily ineffective abyss.
Too often businesses approach marketing from a he said, she said type of strategy. They use certain platforms because someone said that avenue worked well for them. Then, these crapshoot tactics become habitual. Time goes on and no one ever digs deeper into the catacombs of their approach to unearth what could be the potential to make more brand fans and more money.
Even those who are “measuring” their marketing, may still be doing themselves a disservice.
Instead of creating colourful charts that show Insta likes and website traffic, you need to be getting into the nitty gritty of marketing measurement. Stop relying on vanity metrics to make your marketing look good and start doing good marketing. To achieve this, consider the following:
- Instead of web traffic, look at online engagement metrics: where are people going on your site, why and for how long?
- Is your website designed like a conversion funnel or a free-for-all passive viewing experience?
- People liking you does not matter if the affection doesn’t translate into commitment: Rather than looking at the size of your social followership, analyze if those likes are translating into conversions
- If you leverage traditional marketing tactics, you can still measure their results. Purchase a billboard? Use a specialized link to track its usefulness. Send out a direct mail piece? Do the same thing by customizing the follow up so it’s perfectly trackable.
Think of your proactive marketing measurement strategy like you would the protagonist of a horror movie: You need tools (preferably sharp, heavy-hitting ones) to tackle Michael Meyers (aka your extremely oversaturated competitive market). With more than 100 million new businesses opening each year, you cannot afford to bring a plastic spoon to a Myers’ kitchen knife fight.
Our marketing strategists can show you how to direct your promotional budget towards tactics that actually work. By understanding exactly what you are trying to achieve (be it more sales, enhanced client retention or promoting a seasonal sale), we can help articulate the KPIs that will determine your success and implement the metrics to enhance ongoing tracking. From there, you will have access to reports that inform how to evolve in response to your consumers’ actions. The result will be more successful marketing campaigns and a more sustainable business.
Don’t be the ditz who dies in the first scene of Halloween because she goes into the dark basement without a baseball bat. Reach out to CR Creative today and let us transform your marketing strategy from a scream into a business owner’s dream.
