Baby Steps
From an early age, we learn the importance of numbers. The ability to count ensures we grasp dimensions through key concepts such as time, distance, length, weight, money and a host of other physical phenomena such as league tables!
Irrespective of whether we gauge how fast we run during our daily jog or how much weight we lose by going “carb. free for a week”, measuring stuff is a key component of our daily lives.
The world of marketing is no different
There is no hiding place when it comes to numbers. In the slick systems driven world we inhabit; management information data, must be fully transparent to decision makers in any organisation and numbers will routinely be compared to various time periods.
As the world of marketing sits in the engine room of most companies, data is the key fuel which to propels the business forward.
It is fair to say that whatever is measured usually comes under scrutiny and anything that appears under this form of forensic examination and focus, gets better understood and in time improves.
What marketing activities then… are worth measuring?
Staying consistent with our marketing ladder here is a chart to help get a better handle on the real marketing measurables.
| Key Measurable Marketing Activity | Frequency | Decision maker | Comments |
| Mission/Vision | Quarterly | Business Owner | Qualitative comments relating to the business’ DNA. Thinking that generates the numbers behind the marketing plan. Apply mind set of “if it aint broke don’t fix” Use corrective action only as a last resort. |
| Marketing Plan | Monthly | Business Owner/ Marketing Folk | The real numbers behind the marketing accelerator and the umbrella document which controls activity spend |
| Revenue | Weekly | Business Owner/ Sales and Marketing folk | The easiest measure of all – money in bank and money invoiced. |
| Website usage stats | Monthly | Marketing folk | Ensure that excessive nerdification is minimised, look for real changes especially following the launch of blogs and newsletters |
| Website blog stats | Weekly/Monthly – depends on distribution frequency | Marketing folk | Simply a measure of how many people downloaded your latest thinking piece, simple easy to find numbers. Measure effectiveness by increase in size of your tribe. |
| Newsletter | Weekly/Monthly – depends on distribution frequency | Marketing folk | View how many people are looking at articles on your website by ensuring good hyperlinks are in place. Using software such as Mail Chimp enables information on clicks, opens and unsubscribes to be compiled and followed up. |
| Social Media Likes | Daily | Marketing folk | Beware social media likes are easy to measure but are sometimes interpretable as merely pandering to whims and affectations. So proceed with caution. Good comments accompanying likes though are examples of quality measurements well worth recording. Watch the trolls! |
| Reviews | Daily | Marketing folk | 5- Star based reviews are easy to measure. The key is to adopt a structured approach when asking for reviews and even incentivise your clients by making charitable donations whenever they provide a positive review |
| Digital Marketing | Monthly | Marketing folk | There are a host of measures here depending on the types of activity. The simplest approach is ROI based. Spend versus leads/business generated such as with SEO services. |
Make sure you know why and what you are measuring
For our epilogue I am going to quote the final few lines from this great blog from Seth Godin called Numbers (and the act of measuring the right thing)
“The right numbers matter. A hundred years ago, Henry Ford figured out how to build a car far cheaper than his competitors. He was selling the Model T for a fraction of what it cost other companies to even make one of their cars, so measuring the cost of manufacture became urgent and essential.
Farmers then discovered the yield was the secret to their success, so tons per acre became the most important thing to measure. Until people started keeping track of flavor, nutrition and side effects.
And then generals started measuring body count…
When you measure the wrong thing, you get the wrong thing. Perhaps you can be precise in your measurement, but precision is not significant.
On the other hand, when you can expose your work and your process to the right thing, to the metric that matters, good things happen.
We need to spend more time figuring out what to keep track of, and less time actually obsessing over the numbers that we are already measuring”
Nothing else to add to this except to discourage you from thinking that desperate times lead to desperate measures, often good measures can be the pathway to success!
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