Is Your Strategy Working? How To Measure Marketing Success

Marketing strategies can lead to incredible successes, but they don’t always deliver. If you’re investing time, money and effort in marketing methods, it’s essential to ensure that your campaigns have a positive impact. In this informative guide, we’ll outline some effective ways to help you measure and track performance and optimise results.

Establish your starting point

It’s impossible to know how far you’ve come or if you’ve gained ground without establishing a starting point. Before you start tracking your performance after launching a new campaign, analyse and save data and create a file or report. If you know where you’re coming from, this will enable you to track changes and monitor progress while also giving you critical metrics to compare. Historical data will give you a benchmark and enable you to make accurate, relevant comparisons once you have revised your strategy.

Outline key metrics

Marketers and business owners have access to a vast amount of data today, but it’s not always relevant or useful. To make the most of analytics, outline key metrics. Start by considering your main objectives. Link the metrics and performance indicators to your business targets and focus on these specific areas. If you’re on a mission to increase site traffic and supercharge visitor numbers, for example, collect and evaluate page hits and website visitors continuously and gather information about where users are coming from. If you’re keen to boost sales and you have a high cart abandonment rate, concentrate on data linked to the sales funnel and see where people are dropping out. Perhaps customers leave the site when they see the delivery page, or they change their minds when they get to the checkout page and there’s no option to complete an order as a guest. Using data, you can identify barriers and issues and make improvements. Collecting feedback and using testing are other great ways to solve problems. 

Evaluate the ROI of different marketing methods

Most businesses use a combination of marketing methods and channels to promote their products and services. If you use multiple techniques, it’s useful to evaluate different methods to see how effective they are in terms of helping you to achieve your objectives. If you analyse each method or channel, this will give you a more accurate insight into how well different elements and components are working. Some platforms may be generating high conversion rates while other methods may be falling flat. Measuring ROI for SEO, for example, is an excellent way to ascertain how well your SEO campaigns are working. If you’re generating a lot of interest, traffic and sales through search engine optimisation, this is a positive sign. If your ROI is low and you’re spending money but not creating or converting leads, this is a sign that you need to make changes. Compare methods, look for ways to address issues and make improvements and consider streamlining your approach if you’re spending money on techniques that don’t generate profits.

Consider non-numerical data

When we think about data, we automatically conjure up images of numbers and calculations. Numerical data is valuable, but it’s also wise to consider non-numerical data. This is particularly relevant if you’re working towards goals, such as enhancing brand image or changing the perception customers have of your business. Conducting surveys, gathering feedback and carrying out interviews and focus groups can all give you access to important information and useful insights. You could measure customer perceptions by asking people to tick a box that is closest to the adjective they would use to describe your brand or focus on brand loyalty metrics, for example. 

Analyse customer retention rates

Attracting new customers is a positive sign for businesses, but turning a new client into a repeat customer is even more valuable. Customer retention can help you boost sales and ROI and enhance brand image. Research shows that existing customers spend an average of 67% more than new clients. If you have loyal customers, you can also capitalise on the power of word of mouth. People who are happy with the service or products they receive are likely to recommend brands and companies to others via online reviews and conversations with friends and family members. 

Tracking customer retention rates enables you to see how many clients are coming back after making their first purchase or order. High retention rates indicate high performance levels. Low rates suggest that customers might not be happy with the products or services provided or that they may have switched to a competitor.

Track sales

The primary marketing goal for most brands that offer products or services is to make a sale. If your main objective is to increase sales, tracking sales figures will show you how well your strategy is working. If sales figures go down or stay the same, there may be multiple causes, including ineffective marketing campaigns. If the data shows that sales are soaring since you revamped your strategy or launched a new marketing campaign, this indicates that it is working well. Often, it can take time to see results. A new campaign won’t supercharge sales overnight. Keep an eye on the numbers and zone in on the data to get more information. If you’re generating more leads, for example, this may contribute to higher sales in the days or weeks that follow. If there’s no change in any of the metrics, such as traffic flow, impressions or site visits, it’s unlikely that your sales will shoot up. 

Businesses use marketing methods and tactics to raise brand awareness, create leads and boost sales, but not every campaign sets the world alight. If you’re drawing up a new strategy or preparing to launch a new campaign, it’s critical to track performance levels and measure success. Monitoring performance will enable you to identify problems and weaknesses and find solutions. It will also enable you to make decisions based on data, evaluate different marketing channels and methods and implement effective ways to improve ROI and increase sales. Outline key objectives, focus on metrics that align with them and include numerical and non-numerical data.