360 Articles
Measuring Brand Marketing ©Lida Citroën, April 19, 2009
Brand Marketing: Make it Measurable!
In today’s constricted business climate, companies are cutting costs wherever they can. Instead of using an axe to cut marketing expenses, we propose to use a scalpel -- identify what’s working and what’s not and excise the ineffective parts.
As with any measurement initiative, it is important to put a stake in the ground to establish a baseline (benchmark). Doing so gives you something to grow from and track results. Whether your baseline is current number of clients, number of unique visitors to your website, number of inquiries about a product, or referrals from existing clients, setting a benchmark ensures you can track efforts.
Some initiatives you can start measuring today, include:
Brand Equity
Building brand equity is an investment, and the return is measured over a longer period of time, in tangible and intangible ways. Branding metrics can include referrals, pass along rate, share of voice, positioning (as subject matter expert or in thought leadership) and invitations to join the right conversations. All of these factors are influenced by your reputation, integrity and ability to build brand credibility.
Even though the results and ROI is measured over a longer time, business leaders must be concerned with brand stewardship, brand standards and customer loyalty, and drive relevance to the brand from all marketing strategies being measured. Building consistency and integration raises the chance of success of any marketing and communications program.
Call to Action Marketing
As you go to market with promotions, advertising and marketing, include a specific phone number or micro-site (special website set up for a specific campaign) to track traffic being driven based on the campaign. Turning on and off these campaigns can help you measure conversion (from one stage of customer “relationship” to another) and buying if your site has an e-commerce component.
Web traffic
Understand how to read the analytics on your website. Measure, monitor and evaluate activity – where traffic is coming from, what they’re doing on your site, how much time they’re spending, and what they’re buying – enables you to understand market share, brand alignment, customer needs and other metrics.
For instance, we know that about 65% of the traffic to www.LIDA360.com comes from direct sources (they have our URL and type it in), whereas 15% comes from organic Google searches and about 17-19% comes from referral sites (links to our site off other sites, such as Twitter). We also see that the most frequently visited pages (with the longest “linger” rates) are Business Services, Personal Branding and About Us pages. As we mix up content and post new information, we review the positioning and success of grabbing attention from key audiences. (We also track where on the globe our hits come from and whether they refer our site on – and they do!)
Client Satisfaction Surveys
When was the last time you engaged your clients in your marketing? Ask them what works for them – how/when/where do they want to be marketed to? How is your service meeting their needs? Take their feedback and change what makes sense. Then do another survey (same questions) at a later date and see if the responses show progress and improvement.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
As mentioned above, we track the organic Google searches on our site. As you try different keyword “tags” (things people search for on Google/Yahoo) you can see the direct effect on your traffic. If you engage in paid search through a tool like Google, it is critical to track the effectiveness of your paid search results, but give them time to work. Some paid search takes time. The goal is to ensure your target audiences are finding you online. Stay attuned to the search parameters your target clients are using. Measure effectiveness of your website SEO to draw them in.
Leverage multiple SEO touch-points to raise your online presence. Use many Web 2.0 tactics, such as blogging, online conversation forums, social media, websites and online profiles to create and draw attention to your business. Try different strategies and continue doing what works!
Phone Calls Begin asking callers, “How did you hear about us?” to gain insight into what’s driving new traffic. Keep a record of attributions to website, advertising, press, word of mouth and yellow pages traffic.
Share of Wallet We all know that most times, the cost of acquiring a new customer is greater than the cost to keep an existing customer. However, encouraging a current customer to spend more with you is as important as keeping them loyal. Increasing the “share of wallet” existing customer spends with your business reduces marketing costs and investments.
Before you can measure cross-selling of products and services and increased share of wallet, you need a good understanding of the current volume and buying behavior of your customers. Track their purchasing and look for patterns to draw on. Then, as you deploy customer retention and sales programs, measure the increase in spending these customers do with you, and not with your competitors. Your customers’ spending will give you a good indication of what they want to see and how they want to spend.
Email Communications Most email distribution programs have terrific customer relationship management analytics included in the subscription. Use these analytics to see what’s working. For instance, if you typically send a monthly newsletter and your open rate hovers at 15-19%, try changing up your subject line, or placing more informative content and driving the reader to continue reading more by clicking through. You can track the news pieces your reader finds most relevant. Populate your newsletter with more content that fits that bill and see if your open rate increases.
Running test control groups (different subject lines to different audiences, for instance) will also give you insight into relevancy and timeliness of message.
Remember, we are not in a “one size fits all” marketing world anymore. Effective brand marketing is a two-way dialogue and your customer’s input is critical to keeping the conversation going. Test and try different strategies, and understand how to interpret the results. Then, continue doing what works!
Brand Marketing: Make it Measurable!
In today’s constricted business climate, companies are cutting costs wherever they can. Instead of using an axe to cut marketing expenses, we propose to use a scalpel -- identify what’s working and what’s not and excise the ineffective parts.
As with any measurement initiative, it is important to put a stake in the ground to establish a baseline (benchmark). Doing so gives you something to grow from and track results. Whether your baseline is current number of clients, number of unique visitors to your website, number of inquiries about a product, or referrals from existing clients, setting a benchmark ensures you can track efforts.
Some initiatives you can start measuring today, include:
Brand Equity
Building brand equity is an investment, and the return is measured over a longer period of time, in tangible and intangible ways. Branding metrics can include referrals, pass along rate, share of voice, positioning (as subject matter expert or in thought leadership) and invitations to join the right conversations. All of these factors are influenced by your reputation, integrity and ability to build brand credibility.
Even though the results and ROI is measured over a longer time, business leaders must be concerned with brand stewardship, brand standards and customer loyalty, and drive relevance to the brand from all marketing strategies being measured. Building consistency and integration raises the chance of success of any marketing and communications program.
Call to Action Marketing
As you go to market with promotions, advertising and marketing, include a specific phone number or micro-site (special website set up for a specific campaign) to track traffic being driven based on the campaign. Turning on and off these campaigns can help you measure conversion (from one stage of customer “relationship” to another) and buying if your site has an e-commerce component.
Web traffic
Understand how to read the analytics on your website. Measure, monitor and evaluate activity – where traffic is coming from, what they’re doing on your site, how much time they’re spending, and what they’re buying – enables you to understand market share, brand alignment, customer needs and other metrics.
For instance, we know that about 65% of the traffic to www.LIDA360.com comes from direct sources (they have our URL and type it in), whereas 15% comes from organic Google searches and about 17-19% comes from referral sites (links to our site off other sites, such as Twitter). We also see that the most frequently visited pages (with the longest “linger” rates) are Business Services, Personal Branding and About Us pages. As we mix up content and post new information, we review the positioning and success of grabbing attention from key audiences. (We also track where on the globe our hits come from and whether they refer our site on – and they do!)
Client Satisfaction Surveys
When was the last time you engaged your clients in your marketing? Ask them what works for them – how/when/where do they want to be marketed to? How is your service meeting their needs? Take their feedback and change what makes sense. Then do another survey (same questions) at a later date and see if the responses show progress and improvement.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
As mentioned above, we track the organic Google searches on our site. As you try different keyword “tags” (things people search for on Google/Yahoo) you can see the direct effect on your traffic. If you engage in paid search through a tool like Google, it is critical to track the effectiveness of your paid search results, but give them time to work. Some paid search takes time. The goal is to ensure your target audiences are finding you online. Stay attuned to the search parameters your target clients are using. Measure effectiveness of your website SEO to draw them in.
Leverage multiple SEO touch-points to raise your online presence. Use many Web 2.0 tactics, such as blogging, online conversation forums, social media, websites and online profiles to create and draw attention to your business. Try different strategies and continue doing what works!
Phone Calls Begin asking callers, “How did you hear about us?” to gain insight into what’s driving new traffic. Keep a record of attributions to website, advertising, press, word of mouth and yellow pages traffic.
Share of Wallet We all know that most times, the cost of acquiring a new customer is greater than the cost to keep an existing customer. However, encouraging a current customer to spend more with you is as important as keeping them loyal. Increasing the “share of wallet” existing customer spends with your business reduces marketing costs and investments.
Before you can measure cross-selling of products and services and increased share of wallet, you need a good understanding of the current volume and buying behavior of your customers. Track their purchasing and look for patterns to draw on. Then, as you deploy customer retention and sales programs, measure the increase in spending these customers do with you, and not with your competitors. Your customers’ spending will give you a good indication of what they want to see and how they want to spend.
Email Communications Most email distribution programs have terrific customer relationship management analytics included in the subscription. Use these analytics to see what’s working. For instance, if you typically send a monthly newsletter and your open rate hovers at 15-19%, try changing up your subject line, or placing more informative content and driving the reader to continue reading more by clicking through. You can track the news pieces your reader finds most relevant. Populate your newsletter with more content that fits that bill and see if your open rate increases.
Running test control groups (different subject lines to different audiences, for instance) will also give you insight into relevancy and timeliness of message.
Remember, we are not in a “one size fits all” marketing world anymore. Effective brand marketing is a two-way dialogue and your customer’s input is critical to keeping the conversation going. Test and try different strategies, and understand how to interpret the results. Then, continue doing what works!
Building brand equity is an investment, and the return is measured over a longer period of time, in tangible and intangible ways.
