Marketing combines many different skills and disciplines, including psychology, storytelling, design, and now, data. Marketers use data to understand what is and isn’t working in their marketing approach. However, you can also use data to actively shape your marketing strategies.

Data is Logical, Humans Are Not

One of the best reasons to use data in shaping your marketing endeavors is its objectivity. Data is logical, even when people aren’t. It can tell you which pieces of content or advertisements are performing well, even if it can’t tell you exactly why.

That objective information is critical for a marketer. It’s so easy to get caught up in the content and campaigns you like best, rather than focusing on what your audience will respond to the best. Objective data will help protect you from your blind spots.

It is important to recognize that although data itself can’t be biased, there are ways to look at data from a biased perspective. You see this in research studies all the time — humans can set up data collection and analysis based on their own biases, which can lead to flawed conclusions. It’s also a major problem in artificial intelligence and machine learning, as the machines learn based on the instructions their creators give them.

Raw data is important. Using it properly is the biggest challenge marketers face, however.

Data for Planning and Strategizing

Data-driven marketing has many benefits. But its biggest benefit is being able to precisely target your marketing efforts to reach your ideal customers at the ideal time. By using your own data and market data, you can find out where your customers spend their time online, what time of day they buy, and how much they spend when they’re referred from your content and advertising.

All of this information can be used to plan your marketing strategy in both the short-term and the long term. It will also help you make adjustments as needed. Even with data-driven projections, not all your campaigns will perform as expected. However, data can then help you make adjustments to improve your approach next time.

The end result of data-driven marketing is that your organization is much more likely to stay competitive and capture a larger market share than you would without using data. It doesn’t mean you can’t be creative, but it does mean that relying on gut feelings and instincts should largely be a thing of the past.

Using Data to Allocate Your Budget

Return on investment (ROI) is one of the biggest overall concerns for marketers. Staying within a budget for the marketing department is important for any organization. Your organization’s financial controller will also need to see that your marketing department is generating strong ROI or they will begin to question your efforts.

Data can help you allocate your budget more effectively and maximize your ROI. If you operate on several social media platforms, for instance, you can put more of your marketing dollars toward the platforms that perform best. You can also use data to help you refine your budget over time.

Predicting Future Trends

Marketing is always changing and it’s important for marketers to stay on top of the latest trends so they don’t fall behind. Even better? Predicting trends and preparing for them — or being a trailblazer yourself.

Data can help you “read the future” so to speak. In other industries, like the financial market, data is used to make predictions about where the economy is headed, and other relevant information for the industry. Although marketing isn’t as clear-cut as some industries, data can still be helpful for making educated guesses about future trends.

Hiring a Data Specialist

Marketing departments are now beginning to hire data analysis experts. Many marketers are more interested in the creative side of things and they don’t have the skill set to effectively leverage data. However, there are more and more people showing up in the candidate pool who are gaining the skills needed to use data in marketing.

If you want to use data to shape your marketing endeavors, realize that you only have a couple of options. You can hire someone who already has the knowledge needed to effectively leverage data. Or, you can skill up yourself or someone else on your team so that you can use data analysis in your marketing strategy.

Regardless of the option you choose, you’ll be in a good position if you realize that data is the future of marketing. Instead of brushing it off, embrace it for better results.

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According to the survey, marketers from the B2B and B2C arenas are encouraged about the outlook of marketing in their organizations, ranking their confidence at 130. A score of 100 would mean that they simply believe customer spending, marketing budgets, and the investment climate will remain stable.

Additionally, 59 percent of marketers are confident about their brand and that their revenue will grow in the next six months.

Concerning their budgets, marketers are allocating more money to media (21%) and creative for all channels (20%). Asked what they would spend a 10 percent budget increase on, marketers replied innovation/product development, creative and analytics. Their interest in these areas suggests a need for keeping pace with new technology and data trends.

This is reflected in their slightly less positive outlook (60%) on marketing’s influence and power in their organizations to increase over the next few years. Two years ago 64% were sure marketing’s influence would increase. The biggest threat reported by marketers is the lack of understanding by their companies as to what marketing accomplishes. Technology and ability to show ROI could validate their impact, but marketers are noting that they are slow to make these adoptions.

Furthermore, marketers feel that digital marketing knowledge is not up to par at their organization. The lack of this skill by seasoned professionals is echoed by 34 percent of marketers saying they don’t think their company has the right operating model, including staff, team structure, and tools in place and another 59 percent saying they are unsure if they do as well.

How is your company comparing so far? Are you experiencing some of the same struggles in your role? Well a very positive tactic the index captured is marketers’ belief that their organizations are very customer centric. Approximately 80 percent scored their companies higher than 50% for being customer centric with the average score coming in at 74%. These companies are prioritizing customers’ needs and making decisions around customers’ best interests. As companies like Amazon and Netflix continue to be successful with this model, more and more companies will evolve customer trends into their organizations’ behaviors and cultures to produce compelling results.

Marketing has evolved so much over the past 10 years, getting everyone in your company on the same page as to its extraordinary benefits is difficult. It may also mean that the traditional model of the most senior person having all the marketing knowledge is not necessarily the case anymore as the digital age has really changed marketing and marketing channels. Understanding how your toolbox needs to expand to include digital possibilities is important for continued growth. Consider webinars to learn new techniques and platforms or consider outside resources to make sure your marketing efforts produce the success your organizations needs.

The post Marketing Confidence Strong in 2018 appeared first on Modern Marketing Partners.

If you are interested in measuring other aspects of your marketing program, check out the other blogs in our measuring marketing series including traditional measures and Internet measures.

Twitter

Event though Twitter does not offer any significant metrics, there are still ways to track engagement. The most obvious metrics is ‘Followers’ which defines how many people are viewing information that you Tweet. Another important metric to understand is influence in the Twittersphere. For example, the We Follow directory rates influence for specific keyword(s). Twitter profiles gain credibility based on the amount of Tweets written, the amounts of times Retweeted (RT),  or the amount of times listed by other users.

The effectives of any Tweet can be measured in two ways; 1) the amount of times a Tweet is Retweeted, 2) link click-through rates. Klout is a free service that will rank your Twitter profile based off several criteria.

While Twitter does not offer a dashboard, TweetDeck and HootSuite are applications that help manage your Twitter profiles and provide dashboards with some metrics.

Facebook

Facebook has made great strides to become more business friendly. Facebook has extensive built in metrics, called INSIGHTS. The amount of ‘Likes’ a given business page has on Facebook is one important measure. Total ‘Likes’ give a glimpse of how popular a page has become over time. Facebook INSIGHTS also shows the number of interactions within a Facebook page. The peaks in interactions can be linked to content generated which induced an individual to Like the page. Demographic information is also collected by Facebook INSIGHTS to identify who is interacting with a fan page.

YouTube

All YouTube pages include a profile with total channel views and upload views, launch (join) date, and subscribers. Similar to Facebook, YouTube has an impressive metrics system called YouTube Analytics. The dashboard includes total views of all videos on your channel, as well as percentages of views. YouTube Analytics also provide demographics including age, gender, geographic location, and more. Analytics also tell you which search terms on YouTube or Google led the user to your video.

LinkedIn

One way to measure your LinkedIn network is your amount of connections. LinkedIn displays how many 1st degree, 2nd degree, and 3rd degree connections you have. The level of connections at each degree exponentially increases based on the strength of your network.

As with Twitter, LinkedIn can be strengthened by the use of link shortening. Using a tool such as, bitly will shorten the horrendous look of a long link, while providing click-through metrics. LinkedIn offers a minimal amount of metrics for your company page. It allows you to measure how many page visitors you’ve had click on products or services and LinkedIn members following your company.

Other Social Media Measurement Tools

Besides the measurement features of top social platforms, there are a number of social monitoring tools available. Radian6 is just one example of such a monitoring tools, and is one of the most friendly and powerful. Radian6 allows monitoring of the Internet and any posts that are going on about a topic, brand, or company. This tool shows exact posts instead of just a numerical overview of engagement. The ability to track how many posts are going on about your brand or keyword topics is a powerful glimpse into why social media is the future of marketing.

Another monitoring tool that is important to your marketing efforts is Google Alerts. This tool is so powerful; yet simple enough that anyone can be alerted via email when Google finds a topic of his or her choice. Alerts can be for a single keyword, or combination of keywords. This is a free tool that can be combined with all of the above metrics to completely grasp the posts and interactions revolving around your brand, company, or keyword topics on the Internet.

Check out the other blogs in our Measuring Marketing Series:

Measuring Marketing: Traditional Measures

Measuring Marketing: Internet Measures

How do you measure the results of your social media efforts? Let us know in the comment box below and share this post using the social bookmarking tools below!

The post Measuring Marketing: Social Media Measures appeared first on Modern Marketing Partners.

Make sure to check out the other blogs in our measuring marketing series including traditional measures and social media measures.

Website Statistics

All website hosting providers offer website statistics for a website domain. Other advanced statistics are available, however, we recommend Google Analytics, which provides:

• Site and page level traffic information
• Visits and Pageviews
• Pages/Visit
• Bounce Rate
• Average Time on Site (stickiness)
• Traffic Source
• Geographic information

Below is a typical Google Analytics dashboard

Urchin Tracking Modules

Urchin Tracking Modules or UTMs offer powerful measurement opportunities. UTMs are used to add extra information to a URL to allow significant website traffic monitoring. UTMs are specifically designed to provide the most accurate measurements of unique website visitors. The UTM is an extremely valuable technology for businesses looking to gain a deeper understanding of their online visitor behavior. UTM combines with Google Analytics to showcase exactly where website traffic is being generated from. UTMs can be used to track all forms of advertising, including print and electronic (e.g. banner ads). UTMs are a powerful combination with social media because you can track what content is generating traffic to a website.

Other Internet Measures

When utilizing electronic news release distribution services like PRNewswire, BusinessWire or PRWeb, each provides a useful dashboard for measuring news placements. As mentioned, traditional press clipping services are still available.

When utilizing an Email Service Provider (ESP) to develop and distribute email campaigns, most provide robust campaign reporting and metrics including deliverability, bounces (bad email addresses), open rates, click-through rates (CTR), and Opt-Outs. Examples of ESPs include iContact, Benchmark, Constant Contact or MailChimp. Comparing rates to average benchmarks is a useful exercise. (Open rates average 5-20%; click-through rates average 10%).

Website registrations can come from a number of offers, registration pages or conversion forms. Marketers may have such electronic forms for subscriptions (newsletters, updates, warranties), white papers, catalogs, training material downloads, promotions and events; or RSS registrations for blogpost updates and news items.

Check out the other blogs in our Measuring Marketing Series:

Measuring Marketing: Traditional Measures

Measuring Marketing: Social Media

Do you use other Internet measures? Let us know in the comment box below and share this post using the social bookmarking tools below!

The post Measuring Marketing: Internet Measures appeared first on Modern Marketing Partners.

In fact, some of the traditional methods of measuring results are still some of the most important. Below we will identify traditional approaches to measuring marketing. Make sure to check out the other blogs in our measuring marketing series including Internet measures and social media measures.

Financial measures like sales revenue, unit volumes, or profit margins are not only important, but also closely tied to company or brand success.

Other traditional approaches might include identifying new customers, and having sales, service or telemarketing personnel ask (and document) how they found out about your product or company (source of exposure). Inbound telephone calls and inquiries can likewise be qualified, as can trade show and/or event inquiries. At one time trade print advertising supplied reader response cards and reports, which are now less used, if at all. In the PR area, clipping services provided “hard copy” clips of publicity placements, most of which have been replaced with electronic distribution and reporting.

Another traditional approach to measuring marketing results is the use of marketing research, which can be a variety of types and methods. To learn more about the types of market research, read Market Research ­– Types & Tips. Use market research to measure:

• Market size
• Market share
• Brand awareness
• Brand preference
• Market trends
• Customer satisfaction

Tracking measures can be facilitated by a customer or prospect database, or for smaller scale marketing programs, a spreadsheet. If and when the database is integrated with corporate information systems, CRM systems, or sales force automation, these customer records can help manage reporting, as well as identify such customer or marketing scenarios as new customer acquisition, retention, dormant, and lost customers.

Relating back to specific marketing campaigns or initiatives is a challenge with traditional measures. To eliminate this challenge, always use direct response offers and promotional codes for all initiatives and campaigns.

Check out the other blogs in our Measuring Marketing Series:

Measuring Marketing: Internet Measures

Measuring Marketing: Social Media Measures

What traditional metrics do you use? Let us know in the comment box below and share this post using the social bookmarking tools below!

The post Measuring Marketing: Traditional Measures appeared first on Modern Marketing Partners.

Consumption Metrics

The simplest of content marketing metrics, consumption metrics answer the question, “How many people viewed, downloaded, or listened to this piece of content?” They measure brand awareness and website traffic. Some consumption metrics include:

• Page Views – can be easily tracked with Google Analytics
• Video views – YouTube Insights can assist here
• Document views – document sharing tools, like slideshare, keep track of these numbers
• Downloads
• Social Chatter– use services like Mention.net, Radian6, or Sysomos

Consumption metrics provide basic information, but also raise a number of questions. Therefore, it is important to measure the social impact of content.

Sharing Metrics

Sharing metrics answer the question, “How resonant is this content, and how often is it shared with others?” They assist in determining brand awareness and engagement. Some sharing metrics include:

• Shares, tweets, likes, +1s, and pins – sharing tools, like AddThis, and Google Analytics can track these
• Forwards – email forwards can be tracked
• Inbound Links – the amount of links to your piece of content

The Content Marketing Institute makes a great point regarding social metrics. Because they are measured publicly, they may be overvalued. Don’t get caught up in the competition!

How can you increase sharing? Make it easy! Place easy-to-use share buttons on every piece of content. Make infographics easy to embed. And most importantly, make your content worth sharing!

Lead Generation Metrics

Lead generation metrics answer the question, “How often does content consumption result in a lead?” Some key metrics include:

• Form completions and downloads
• Email subscriptions
• Blog subscriptions
• Blog comments
• Conversion rate – how often do visitors who consume content become leads?

Note, content doesn’t necessarily produce leads directly. However, it may contribute to lead generation behavior.

Sales Metrics

The goal of content marketing is to grow your business. So, measuring sales can help you determine if content marketing has impacted your sales goals. Sales metrics answer the question, “Did we actually make any money because of this content?” Some key sales metrics include:

• Online sales – measured through your ecommerce system
• Offline sales – track through your CRM
• Manual reporting and anecdotes

If you are going to track leads and sales, you have to do something trackable!

You can view the entire content marketing report below:

Check Out The Other Blogs In Our Content Marketing Series:

Content Marketing Definitions, Tips, and Strategies

Content Marketing Types

Content Marketing – Survey Results!

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