Good measurement drives good results

By Idele Prinsloo, Agency Lead, At That Point

The hard work you put into your marketing and communication efforts runs a high risk of going to waste if you do not measure the effectiveness thereof continuously and thoroughly.
 
By keeping a close eye on how these efforts are performing in terms of reception, reaction and engagement, you can detect any mistakes or inefficiencies early and correct them promptly to ensure you reach the goals you set out to.
 
The black sheep
When it comes to the content strategy of marketing and communication projects, planning, creation, promotion and analytics/measurement are the four main pillars. Each of these are critical to a successful strategy.
 
Whatever the reason, experience has taught us that analytics/measurement is the black sheep that gets neglected most often. Should the reason be fear of the results and the lack of knowing what to do next. Please be rest assured, you do not need a qualification to pull it off.
 
To determine the effectiveness of your content marketing efforts you can measure website traffic on a regular basis using Google Analytics, monitor the growth of your email subscriber list, subscribe to tools like Moz and SEMRush to continually monitor your search rankings, as well as gather feedback via social media updates and shares, direct messages, blog comments, emails, reviews and phone calls, just to name a few.
 
Keep up or miss out
It is however important to conduct regular marketing and communications measurement audits to make sure you are not only measuring but that you are using the right measuring tools that reveal the correct insights.
 
When doing such audits, it is helpful to stay informed on the latest communication measurement trends. Earlier this year, at the Summit on the Future of Communications Measurement, experts agreed that a more holistic view of the value of communications is a trend that is currently becoming gradually clear.
 
It has become about more than just measuring the accumulation of sales leads. C-suite executives are becoming increasingly interested in measuring the environmental and human impact of their businesses. Communications will be at the centre of building or rebuilding trust, which has become a scares commodity.
 
To state it bluntly, the business world’s priorities, focus areas and way of operating is changing and measurement must keep up.
 
According to business2community.com walls between PR, social media marketing, advertising and digital marketing are crumbling as communications professionals recognise the benefits of integrating PR and marketing functions.
 
Companies have come to learn that integrated communications, results in a consistent message and voice across all channels of communication, which leads to more efficient allocation of resources and more agile organisations that are capable of quicker reactions.
 
Industry experts therefore anticipate that all marketing and PR measurement of earned, owned, paid and social media will, over the next four years, be integrated into a single online dashboard that can be tweaked according to different department needs.
 
The bottom line is; to continuously evolve and update your marketing and communication measurement tools and approaches to avoid getting left behind and missing out on great success.

---