Kate Gingold / Monday, February 29, 2016

Try These 5 Measurable Marketing Tips

The Sprocket Report

We started writing this post three weeks ago. Then Jim Davis’ recent article in The Daily Herald serendipitously dropped. It’s official news, folks! Everyone should measure their marketing!

Davis wrote about how newborns in knitted red hats are too cute not to go viral and he reminds us that “it’s pretty easy to see a particular story’s popularity” because you can measure the page views. That leads us right to Measurable Marketing Tip #1:

Use a Landing Page
The Daily Herald article about red hats for newborns has its own landing page and you should do the same for news you want to share. If you post a list of events or a series of short articles on a single page, not only will you never know which of those items your visitors like best, but you will probably lose their attention by making them scroll around.

News and events on their own landing pages are also easier to share since they have specific information and graphics. Today’s website technology makes it a snap to do this. If you’ve ever clicked on a title from a series of blog entries so that the full post opens – that’s one kind of landing page.

Looking at your Google Analytics reports will tell you how many people looked at which pages, but there are other ways to measure, too, which brings us to Measurable Marketing Tip #2:

Work your Email List

Email is still a viable marketing option – heck, Facebook even emails you. Even if folks only store your email to “read later,” it helps you stay top-of-mind. Email services also make it simple for you to try A-B testing such as changing the subject line or the time of day when your message is delivered.

Whatever service you use, there’s bound to be a report available that tells you how many times your email was opened and what links in your email were clicked. Don’t forget to use the link to the specific landing page you want them to see.

Encourage Social Sharing
Measurable Marketing Tip #3 includes all kinds of social sharing because people use all kinds of social platforms. It helps to know the tricks for each one to make it easy for folks to share your news in an attractive way so that the graphics look good and the links work.

Individual platforms like Facebook and Twitter have their own analytical reports and there are third party services that aggregate all the platforms in one place so you can see which posts are getting the most attention. One way to get more attention is Measurable Marketing Tip #4:

Tag Intelligently
Davis hit the nail on the head when he said “We also can move the process along when we ‘tag’ someone or some institution if we think they're likely to share the story.” You probably already do this in your private social media use when you say things like “had a great dinner @TheRestaurant!”

Do the same for your business by thanking a colleague, by giving a shout-out to a complementary business or maybe even by quoting a local news director!

The final Measurable Marketing Tip is:

Read – and Act On– Your Google Analytics
Why wouldn’t you want to reproduce successful marketing campaigns and stop wasting time on unsuccessful ones? It’s absolutely true that never before has such an impressive array of statistics been available to even the smallest businesses – for free.

Find out which social media platforms your website visitors are coming from and whether they used their mobile phone or desk top computer to do so. Now you know where to put your next efforts. There are many more reports available, but this is a logical place to start.

It’s tough to predict what will “go viral,” but measuring your marketing – and then acting on the results – will help enormously. The fact that so many businesses still go with their gut-feeling instead of actual numbers is astounding. And also good for the competition! Take a tip from Jim Davis and start measuring today. Looking for some social media assistance? Just give us a call because we’re happy to help.

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Tags: Website Marketing SEO Small Business Social Media Marketing Analytics Google Analytics Business Strategy

Kate GingoldKate Gingold

I have been writing a blog with web marketing tips and techniques every other week since 2003. In addition to blogging and client content writing, I write books and a blog on local history.

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I have been writing a blog with web marketing tips and techniques every other week since 2003. In addition to blogging and client content writing, I write books and a blog on local history.

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