In one webinar, I’ve warned about pushing half-cooked marketing campaigns. It’s true, failing to plan thoroughly is planning to fail. Even a marketing campaign needs a follow through after it’s launched. Choosing to rush through or ignore downtrends of an ongoing marketing campaign can be a formula for failure.
How to track the success of a marketing campaign
Every tactic has a different way to track the success of the efforts. Every strategy has a different model.
Let’s address the frequently used strategies first:
1. Media – Ads, PR, etc
The objective:
To increase exposure and brand visibility
Results and means of tracking a marketing campaign
Increased Exposure – Can be tracked by report provided by the media on ad exposure and content exposure
Brand Exposure – Best tracked through customer survey for brand recall and referral sources
Traffic – Can be tracked from Google Analytics and Referral sources
Conversions – Opt-in/Registration are another area to track as well, which can be connected as goals in analytics
Technically, in larger brand campaigns like eToro’s – where media expense is in millions – they also do user-recall tests to see how users recall their brand and what they perceive. Unfortunately, these types of tests cost more than the value of these campaigns and can outweigh the benefit of their use.
The primary question to ask yourself is: what are we looking for and how can we track it.
2. Content Marketing Campaign
Content Marketing can be tracked via multiple sources which include:
- Search Engine Exposure/Rankings
- Social Media Exposure
- Brand Visibility
- Search and Social Domination for keywords
- Google Analytics Traffic
- Reputation Growth
- and more…
KPIs are the foundation of every marketing campaign
KPIs should inform your every decision.
Take a look at the list below to gauge a better understanding of KPIs and how they highlight areas of importance/improvement:
List of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)
Advisory/Consulting – Efforts Saved, Clarity, Prioritization, Validation, Introductions
In-Product Market Strategy – User’s Usage Time, Bounce Rates
Content Marketing – Engagement Rate (Cross Channel), User Comprehension, User Return Rate, Other pre-set objectives campaign-specific, Brand Preference, assisting in conversion rate optimization, Search Engine Ranking Positions, Keywords in SERP, Long Tail Keywords Range, Social Media Reach, Social Media Following, Opt-ins, backlinks count, domain authority, and many more
Messaging – Engagement Rate (Cross Channel), User Comprehension
Content Calendar – Engagement Rate, Social Signals
Marketing Automation – User Return Rate, Other pre-set objectives campaign-specific, Brand Preference, assisting in conversion rate optimization
Email Funnels – Open Rate, Click Rate, Conversion Rate, Campaign specific objectives
Creative PR Stunt(s) – PR Klout, Brand Recall, Virality, Social Following Increase, campaign-specific objectives
PR & Media – PR Klout, Brand Recall, Virality, Social Following Increase, campaign-specific objectives
Paid Ads – Cost per lead, cost per conversion, ancillary benefits like the social following
Email Marketing – Open Rate, Click Rate, Conversion Rate, Campaign specific objectives
Regional Marketing – PR Klout, Brand Recall, Virality, Social Following Increase, campaign-specific objectives, views, shares, comments
Community Management – Engagement, Avg. Users Online, Returning Users, Average Response Time, Answered Questions (Cross Channel), Complaint Resolution Time, Overall Channel Liveliness, etc.
Reputation Management – Lower Negative SERP Results, Lower Negative Social Results, Response Time, Mitigation Time, Brand Preference, Brand Trust, etc.
LinkedIn Reach Outs – Contacts, Interested Connections, Leads, Campaign Specific Objectives
Remarketing – Cost per lead, cost per conversion, ancillary benefits like the social following
Influencer Marketing – PR Klout, Brand Recall, Virality, Social Following Increase, campaign-specific objectives, views, shares, comments
Social Media – Engagement Rate (Cross Channel), User Comprehension, User Return Rate, Other pre-set objectives campaign-specific, Brand Preference
Quora Marketing – Answer Views, Upvotes, Traffic from Quora, Leads, Campaign Specific Objectives, Brand Preference, assistance in conversion
Referral Campaign – Number of Referrals, Cost Per Referral, ancillary benefits like the social following.
What to do when funds can’t be raised
Every possibility brings with it an equal adversity; this is the balancing scale of business and life.
What you can do as a business owner is to plan for the best approach. What an expert can do is to use data, stats, experience, history and future projection, trends, timings to do the best that is required.
You improvise; you grow.
Be confident in the process
You will not hit your hardcap with these initial funds invested in marketing. That’s obvious. This is going to help you take further steps, position yourself strongly, validate in the market, and it will help to raise more funds to reinvest and repeat it until the hard cap is met. So it’s a cycle.
If you look at traditional companies, they do it with seed, angel, series A, B, and so on. In this case, you do it in shorter, faster rounds. But the goals are the same.
As funds come in, you grow faster. From there, you continue to raise even more funds. Yes, it’s wrong to raise more funds than what’s needed and it’s even worse to raise funds without progressing. In a traditional business environment, when you try to raise future funds, the new investors will evaluate your past progress to decide if it’s worth their risk. The same applies here.
Raising funds is a very valid model
Raising more funds is not bad by itself, but the premise that you can raise funds without showing much for it is wrong. As long as your business expenses are justified, progress is verifiable, growth is happening, raising funds is a very valid model to grow your business as every tech giant has done. But none of those tech giants raised it all in one sweep, but overtime.
More so now, to compete with other blockchain startups, traditional established non-blockchain business giants in the same niches, businesses or industries that will become obsolete with your product’s increased usage, etc., you do need more funds, but with time and progress.
At this point, the growth doesn’t need to just be on a product/research level, but should instead be focused on marketing and audience growth to create growth in community size and confidence.
One right step a day, and you can be above the clouds with a flag pole on the peak down the line.
About The Author
Mr. KEY – Karnika E. Yashwant has been an avid marketer leading blockchain projects since 2013 and executing Content Marketing for Fortune 100s since 2007. He is the CEO of Utopian Capital, an investment firm for blockchain technology, and the Founder of KEY Difference Media, an agency rated in numerous Top 5 and Top 10 lists in the Blockchain/Crypto space year after year. He can be reached at LinkedIn or Telegram.
He helps businesses understand how they can function and use blockchain technology to benefit their businesses. His whole perspective stems from marketing, helping businesses reach the marketing objective – be it raising investment or attracting users.
He can help them navigate the challenges and help make the right choices, and most importantly, get the message across to the crypto audience. He is a master at educating the audience, onboarding them and increasing customer acquisition using crypto news media, influencers, Content Marketing, and community connections.
