One of the great aspects of online marketing is that you can measure your efforts and determine your return on Investment (ROI). (Gain from Investment – Cost of Investment =ROI) For example, many of you are reading this article in an email. Through the "miracle" of modern technology, I not only know how many people opened this email, but I also know exactly who on my email list opened it. So I can pretty much tell who read this article. Don't worry, that's the extent of my knowledge of you! (Oh, except that I know exactly who clicks on which links). Don't be freaked out! That is the reality of the internet today. Most online activities can be recorded and measured.
As someone marketing your own product or service, this knowledge can be very helpful, and can help you to determine if the money you put into each campaign was well spent. It also gives information that helps you in determining how to approach future campaigns. Let's look at a few ways to track online activities.
Google Analytics
This tool is not only essential, it’s also free! Google Analytics records every single visit to your website, where they came from (another site, search engine, etc), what pages were visited and how long they stayed. Analytics compiles all of this data and puts it into charts and graphs, lets you print reports and much, much more. One particularly useful function allows you to track specific goals, such as visits to your shopping cart, or to your "contact us" form.Email Marketing
We've already discussed the power of tracking email marketing above, services like Constant Contact, iContact and the one I use, Mail Chimp, provide an effective and inexpensive way to regularly reach your audience. A 2008 study* suggested the ROI on email marketing was as high as 43 to 1, that is a $43 dollar return for every one dollar spent, impressive! Bit.ly There are several free link shortening websites that pretty much do the same thing; (shorten long urls to make them easier to share). However bit.ly is different because it will tell you exactly how many times your link was clicked. For example I but put out a link on Linkedin.com the other day and later noted that 34 people clicked on it. Useful information.Search Engine Marketing
Unlike the old days, advertising doesn't have to take the shotgun approach. Using Search Engine Marketing (SEM) you can finely tune who gets your message by targeting based on keywords. And then you only pay if your link is clicked, then you end up with a report of how many times your ad showed up in the results and how many people clicked it. This, and other information lets you continually adjust your ad for the optimum results.Social Media
Measuring social media presents a unique set of challenges, particularly if you are trying to measure ROI, but it can be done effectively. Social media looks different than most marketing efforts. Some of the things that can be measured have value, but cannot be directly tied to monetary reward.Quantitative vs. Qualitative
Some of the things that don't have financial impact that can be measured in social media include: Blog comments, Facebook "likes", social mentions, Twitter followers, YouTube views, Retweets, etc. These "engagements" may not be attached to dollars spent with your company, but they do have value. Some have suggested a new way to measure social media. Instead of the traditional online model of CPC or "Cost Per Click", the new model would be CPE, or "Cost Per Engagement".Measuring the ROI on your social media campaign is more detailed, but involves taking factors like engagements, sales measurement at regular intervals, website visits, visits to the "brick and mortar" store, and more. In-depth analysis of this information will give you a pretty accurate picture of the return on your social media spending.
Contact Connect Marketing and Design to discuss how we can help you plan, execute and measure targeted digital marketing campaigns.
*The Power of Direct Marketing: ROI, Sales, Expenditures, and Employment in the US, 2008-2009 Edition
