A lot of people do a really good job messing up web measurement. Yet measurement is actually the simple part about any\u00a0digital marketing. Measuring is easy. Analysis, insight and creativity are the difficult parts.<\/p>\n
Everything online is measurable if you are organized, setup the right tools and understand which KPIs roll to outcomes. Measurement lets you show results in terms no one can argue with. In fact I\u2019ve never lost a client or had to \u201cprove my value\u201d to a CMO or CEO when we were measuring results of tactics each month and able to show clear performance improvements.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s obvious why a lot of marketing and PR gets cut \u2013 no showing of meaningful results (why should we keep paying for SEO, social media, or online PR if we can\u2019t show how it is impacting the business?). I wouldn\u2019t keep you if you weren\u2019t showing results either.<\/p>\n
So if nothing else, get the following right:<\/p>\n
Start with your own web analytics<\/strong><\/p>\n You have absolutely no business messing with social analytics tools or any data external of your own web properties until you are are a ninja with using your own data to make decisions. I don\u2019t care what aspect of marketing or PR you are in. The order here matters because KPIs can expand quickly and your own website data is the most detailed, accurate and important. Plus it lets you track outcomes from all other platforms. You will waste a whole bunch of time and gain little actionable data or meaningful results reports without getting your own web analytics right. The\u00a0analogy\u00a0is simple: you need your commend center fully functional before you worry about outposts.<\/p>\n Define\u00a0<\/strong>some sort<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0of conversion<\/strong><\/p>\n Whether you are using Google Analytics or Omniture (if WebTrends \u2013 I\u2019m sorry for you, wouldn\u2019t wish that on my worst\u00a0enemy) define a conversion from your website. What action is it you want people to take? You can\u2019t possibly improve outcomes from digital communications unless you are tracking them. Even if you aren\u2019t selling anything online there are always outcomes, if you can\u2019t think of how to create one you aren\u2019t trying hard enough.<\/p>\n Give all your partners access to measurement tools<\/strong><\/p>\n Everyone working on marketing your brand online needs access to your web analytics. If you can\u2019t trust them with this then you have the wrong partners and have bigger problems to deal with. There is no way to effectively close the loop on your activities without data. If your partners don\u2019t know what to do with this data, you should probably upgrade to better partners.<\/p>\n Most of you can skip the expensive social media monitoring and analytics services<\/strong><\/p>\n If you\u2019re not a big national brand with absurd amounts of money to throw at monitoring\/measurement, (which you can do for free or relatively cheap) you (probably) don\u2019t need some\u00a0ridiculously\u00a0overpriced monitoring or analytics tool. Marketing and PR industries have been manipulated into thinking it\u2019s impossible to track the web without an expensive third party service. Also they have been influenced into thinking social media is some amorphous, impossible thing to monitor and measure or that it is entirely distinct from the rest of the web. That\u2019s just not the case \u2013 the web as a whole is social and very measurable. I really think a lot of these services do nothing but prey on those who don\u2019t actually understand the web. Your own web analytics data has about everything you need to achieve social media success,\u00a0especially<\/em>\u00a0if you are in B2B. Everything else can still be found on your own, effectively (almost no one utilizes the power of RSS).<\/p>\n Report effectively and provide actionable insights monthly<\/strong><\/p>\n Once you have chosen\u00a0the critical few\u00a0metrics for your business and associated KPIs, track them monthly and report in a rhythm to key stakeholders along with insights and next steps. Remember, you don\u2019t need to report everything. In fact, you should be focusing your teams on keeping their heads down on impacting the\u00a0metrics that actually matter. Also in my experience monthly is the proper cadence for reporting. Daily or weekly is too short and you\u2019ll kill yourself reporting when you should be executing.<\/p>\n None of this stuff is new, but there is an obvious disconnect when measurement is (still)\u00a0being exploited\u00a0for profit or to spin results.<\/p>\n Tracking the right metrics? Actually understand how they work together and what tactics are effective? Great, now hold your team accountable to improving them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A lot of people do a really good job messing up web measurement. Yet measurement is actually the simple part … <\/p>\n