How do I know if my marketing is working?
It’s the question everyone asks themselves. You’ve got followers, impressions and new leads, but what is actually driving them? And are you getting value from your marketing effort and spend?
The answer isn’t simply about how many people are seeing or engaging with your marketing. Your marketing is working when it is helping you achieve the objectives you’ve set. So, before looking at the numbers, the first step is understanding what you’re trying to achieve and making sure you’re measuring the things that matter.
Objectives come first
The good news is you don’t need a complicated dashboard or endless spreadsheets to get to the bottom of it. You just need to know what you’re trying to achieve and measure the right things.
At E10 Events and Marketing, we always spend the initial session with a client understanding what they want to achieve. Often, it’s a mix of things, but starting with the right proposition and clear objectives is key.
This is also hugely important when it comes to reviewing performance. If things aren’t going the way you expected, having clear objectives and measures allows you to pivot and make changes rather than continuing to spend time and money on something that may only need a small tweak.
Know your audience
It’s an old saying, but you need to fish where the fish are.
Social and search platforms make it increasingly easy to put your budget behind paid advertising, and paid activity can absolutely drive results. But before committing your budget, you need to really understand who you’re trying to reach.
Persona mapping is a good place to start. Think about who you’re trying to sell to, or get the attention of. What do they need? What are their interests? How old are they? Where do they spend their time online? What might influence their decision to buy?
Create three to five fictional customer profiles and map out the channels and platforms they are most likely to use.
Then use your organic content to test and learn. Which topics and formats generate the most engagement? Which audiences are responding? Once you have some insight into what is working, you can use paid activity to put more budget behind the content and audiences showing the most potential.
Analyse the data
And there’s a lot of it! The data you need will depend on your objectives, but it could include:
Website visits
Enquiries and contact form submissions
Phone calls
Email enquiries
Downloads or sign-ups
Sales or bookings
Engagement from your target audience
Search traffic
The important thing is not just collecting the data, but making sure you can use it.
Set up your tracking properly and use unique campaign URLs and tracking tags where appropriate. This allows you to understand where your traffic, enquiries and conversions are coming from and which campaigns are contributing to results.
Give it time – then be ready to make changes
Marketing doesn't always produce an immediate sale. But giving it time shouldn't mean do the same thing forever.
Regularly review what's working, what's not, and what could be improved.
If a campaign isn't generating the results you expected, look at the data and consider whether you need to adjust the message, audience, channel, creative or budget.
Sometimes the answer isn't to stop. It might simply be to tweak what's already there.
Measure against your objectives, not others
There will always be another business with more followers, higher engagement or more website traffic. That doesn't necessarily mean their marketing is working better.
Your marketing should be measured against your objectives and your results.
If you're generating the right enquiries, reaching the right customers and contributing to business growth, that's far more meaningful than simply having more followers on Instagram.
Marketing doesn't need to be complicated, but it does need direction.
At E10, we help businesses look at the bigger picture, making sure marketing activity is aligned with what the business actually wants to achieve.
Want to make sure your marketing is working? Get in touch today.
