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As we have talked about in a previous article, we have several marketing strategies so how to know which one exactly has worked?
Strategy is one of those terms that everyone seems to be throwing around these days. As for digital strategy?
And the thing about digital marketing strategies is that every company has one, even if you’re not the one actively controlling it. Even if you’ve never spent a minute on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or any other Web property, customer opinion is forming about your brand, based on mentions of your company’s name by individual users or by your obvious lack of participation.
Because your actual presence on different digital marketing properties matters more than ever, it’s a good idea to take time out of your schedule to regularly evaluate how well your strategy is performing.
And whether you’ve got one in place, or you’re just starting to map one out, it’s crucial that you have a measurement framework in place so you can measure the effectiveness of your marketing strategy.
Because if it’s not working, it’s crucial to identify why and pivot. And if it is working? You need to identify why?
So how do you evaluate a digital marketing strategy in only 5 simple steps?
Great let’s see:
1- It all starts with goals
By: https://dribbble.com/shots/9373114-Goals-and-Wishes-ios-mobile-app
A good digital marketing strategy will always be heavily influenced by business goals which are almost always financial (or ladder up to financial growth).
By the first step in any good digital marketing strategy evaluation is a thorough examination of the specific goals you’ve set for yourself in the past. (Obviously, if you haven’t yet created any goals, this is the first issue you’ll want to tackle!)
Digital marketing goals include items such as:
⦁ The number of social shares for your blog posts
⦁ The size of your fan base on social networking websites
⦁ Mentions of your brand name on social media websites
⦁ The number of positive reviews left about your company on sites as Google Reviews and Yelp
⦁ Website visitors from social networks
⦁ Total number of conversions resulting from social traffic
If you’ve previously set up goals, take the time to determine whether or not you’re hitting your target projections. Also, look to see if the goals you set in the past still make sense for your company based on its current performance. If necessary, revise your goals to accommodate new objectives or to account for changes in product/service offerings.
2- Taking a look at your digital presence
As you examine the types of customers you target again, you’ll also want to periodically assess whether or not you’re actively participating on the right digital properties.
For example, suppose you’re in an industry that targets young women, ages 18-26. If you launched your digital marketing campaign before the advent of the social networking sweetheart, Pinterest, you could be missing out on a potentially tremendous source of traffic if you never took the time to determine whether or not you’re active on the right sites!
3- Messaging strategies measurement
So, if you’re going to evaluate the effectiveness of your digital marketing strategy, you’re going to need to look at numbers.
Truth time? Numbers are just part of being in business.
And look, there is so much data in there, it can be hard to know where to start. So let’s take you through where to look and what metrics matter the ones that relate to your goals and objectives.
So, what are the key things to measure? Basically, your business goals and the marketing objectives that lead to achieving them… which are likely:
⦁ Which types of messages (i.e. text-based status updates, blog posts, videos, podcasts, etc.) are performing best with your audience?
⦁ Do the words you’ve chosen for various messaging pieces seem to clang with your audience?
⦁ How frequently are your marketing materials being shared virally amongst users?
⦁ Number of traffic that completed specific actions
⦁ Sales revenue
⦁ Profit margin
⦁ Sales volume
⦁ Number of traffic that transacted
⦁ Number of Users
The trick is, If your digital marketing message is in line with your customer’s expectations, you’ll see high levels of engagement with your branded materials, as well as a high number of social shares as people pass your content on to others. If you aren’t yet seeing these results, this could indicate a mismatch between your company’s messaging and your customers’ interests.
4- Digital Marketing ROI
But, What’s the ROI: Simple it’s the measure of the profit or loss that you generate on your digital marketing campaigns, based on the amount of money you have invested. In conclusion, this measurement tells you whether you’re getting your money’s worth from your marketing campaigns.
Calculating your exact returns can be difficult, but you’ll ultimately find that the data you’re able to produce are well worth your efforts.
To measure ROI, you’ll need to track two variables:
⦁ The amount you’ve invested into your digital marketing campaigns for both financial investments and time expenditures
⦁ The financial benefit of any conversions you’re tracking.
5- Examining your target customer profiles again
Remember, any good digital marketing plan is founded on a series of well-constructed customer profiles that outline the specific types of people you’d like to reach through your campaigns.
So, shouldn’t launch a new marketing campaign until you have full knowledge of your target customer’s demographics, interests and Web activities, and you have to continually develop this profile based on your newest data.
As an example, if you target young men on Facebook but find that Facebook Insights reports the majority of your “Likes” come from middle-aged women, you may need to change all elements of your marketing campaigns to account for this new customer data.
- Note: if you don’t have a digital marketing strategy yet read our blog on how to create a digital marketing strategy. (Link to our blog)in the end.