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5 Ways to Measure Your Marketing Reach
You can’t force a marketing message to “go viral,” but you can encourage virality – and measure your efforts – by following a few simple tips.
Back in 2016, we wrote about an article in The Daily Herald that went viral. The article was about knitting red hats for newborn babies to wear in the hospital, and Jim Davis reported that it was “pretty easy to see a particular story’s popularity” when looking at the page views. Analytics have come a long way since then, but the basic steps remain the same. Here, then, are some tips to best prepare your news to “go viral.”
Tip #1: Use a Landing Page
The Daily Herald article about red hats for newborns had its own landing page and you should do the same for any news you want to share. If you post a list of events or a series of short articles on a single page, you will never know which of those items your visitors liked best and you will probably also 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.
Your website’s GA4 reports will tell you how many people looked at which pages, but there are other ways to measure, too, which brings us to the next tip.
Tip #2: Encourage Social Sharing
Because people are active on a variety of platforms these days, be sure your news posting schedule includes all kinds of social sharing. Follow the best practices for each platform for the best presentation and to make it easy for folks to share your news appropriately.
Individual platforms like Facebook and X have their own analytical reports and there are third party services that aggregate all the platforms in one place for both efficient posting and to see which posts get the most attention.
Tip #3: Work your Email List
Email is still a viable marketing option so be sure to include this outlet as one of your social platforms. People may not read every email you send, but just seeing your subject line helps your business stay top-of-mind.
Whatever service you use, there’s bound to be a report available to tell 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.
Tip #3: Tag Intelligently
In the “red hats for babies” story, Davis pointed out that “We also can move the process along when we ‘tag’ someone or some institution if we think they're likely to share the story.” Do the same with your business news by thanking a colleague or by giving a shout-out to a complementary business.
Tip #3: Read – and Act On – Your Analytics
Reproduce successful marketing campaigns and stop wasting time on unsuccessful ones by analyzing your traffic reports. It’s absolutely true that never before has such an impressive array of statistics been available to even the smallest businesses, often for free. Find out which social media platforms your website visitors are coming from so you know where to focus your next efforts.
It’s tough to predict what will “go viral,” but measuring your marketing – and then acting on the results – will help enormously. Many businesses still go with their gut feeling rather than actual numbers, which is good for competitors like you who know better!
If you aren’t sure that you have website analytics or need help deciphering them, we can help. Just give us a call!
Photo by Lukas:
This article is an update to “Try These 5 Measurable Marketing Tips” dated 2/16/2016.
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Kate 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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