Marketing By the Numbers: Track
There’s a lot of talk and action about marketing analytics. Digital marketing has significantly increased the amount of data we can track and utilize to “market back” to highly targeted audiences. Sophisticated e-commerce companies, such as Amazon, tap into prospect profile databases to custom-serve offers, ads, products and services to you in real time.
Yet, most entrepreneurs, B2B and B2C companies, lag behind when it comes to integrating these advanced approaches. Why?
Many companies simply have not made a business commitment to the right tracking, are generating profits without it, or they have invested in the wrong types. Often, when you get down to the real deal, many businesses are unsure as to what to track…as well as how to best implement the data. This is the biggest roadblock to progress.
Here are a few tips to get started:
Track the right data at the right time
How do you know what that is? The easy answer is to hire an expert to help you…someone who understands direct response marketing in an integrated media environment. The less self-serving answer is this: Work through what variables to track, and understand what will have the most impact on response in specific areas. Tracking everything may render confusion and diversion from the real business drivers. Tracking key variables for the following 4 sales steps is where to begin:
- Engage your Prospects (Stand out. Get their attention in a positive way. Test creative.)
- Connect Prospects to your Brand (Include and test “Calls to Action” for meaningful data, information or related premiums, contests, etc.)
- Build Relationships and Nurture Prospects. Use data to convert people from new leads to qualified prospects. Utilize your new, growing MARKETING DATABASE to send targeted meaningful communications they want. Test and determine the most effective message.
- Convert more Customers: As you track the strongest engagement techniques, “Calls to Action” (connection techniques), and the information prospects really want, you build benchmarks of what works and what does not work. All of these deliver more leads and improved conversions…in a usable, measurable format.
Done correctly, you will set up your analytics to track the variables that have the most impact on your marketing bottom line. You will learn what works best! And, you will be able to strategically adjust or vary these elements to continue to improve tired creative, offers and continually and measurably improve results.
Start at the beginning. It starts with a commitment to track, analyze the key performance measures for each campaign, and act on the results to gradually “roll” out the winners and “kill” the losing tactics.