By: Rebekah Iliff, founder and principal, SGC
Measuring Growth
Any marketing communications professional who has survived through the “thrash and burn” of the past two years is most likely all too familiar with this question: “So how do we measure our investment, and how do we know if what you’re doing is really effective?”
In the past, this question would send me reeling, put me on the defensive and make me want to shout: “Ok you nincompoop, you know it all, you try doing it yourself and see if you can answer that idiotic question!”
The past, however, is not the present, and once I got over the initial irritation of someone questioning my “expertise,” I understood the importance of truly being able to answer it. In reality, if you can’t measure marcom efforts - and this includes everything from email marketing, SEO and SEM to public and media relations through the “impressions” and lead generation cycle (note: not the sales cycle, this is nearly impossible unless you are in-house marketing and public relations OR have a very engaged client) – then your efforts may render pointless. They may NOT REALLY be pointless, but most clients will see it that way, particularly if they have investors or boards that speak the financial language of ROI, brand equity, and rate of return. Heh? Exactly.
Surviving in today’s economic climate can be summed up in one exacting phrase: Work 3x harder for 3x less and with 3x the results. That’s it. If you can do that, your business will thrive. If you can’t, you lose.
Is this even humanly possible? Isn’t this superwoman’s job? How can any sane, normal, human being expect results with limited budgets, limited human capital, and limited potential customers?
The answer is simple: They can, they will, and they do.
But I digress.
In order to measure the effectiveness of any campaign, you must INSIST that your clients have measurable, track-able systems in place. Consider this your insurance policy and know that without these analytics, your campaign may feel like a success but it may not be viewed as a success. Bottom line: measurable data = happy clients.
EVEN IF the growth is not what was expected, the fact that you have the numbers and can re-strategize if something isn’t working often shows the client that you’re aware and willing to navigate change in order to find success. Whether we believe it or not, this goes a long way.
So let’s talk about how to measure growth, and some simple tools that have easy-to-read measureable data built-in that will make your life easier.
Growth % is measured by this equation: (final number – original number)/original number x 100. Growth % over time is measured by the aforementioned outcome divided by the days, months, years of the campaign. So the equation would look like this: (final number – original number) /original number x 100 / (campaign duration)
Here is a simple example from one of SGC’s recent campaigns in which we wanted to grow the email list exponentially prior to a potential acquisition. We used THE BEST web-based email marketing service provider: MailChimp.
When we started our marketing communications efforts, their email list was hovering somewhere around 1200. After six months of concerted effort, the list grew to nearly 2200 engaged, opted-in readers.
So if we use the growth % formula, we can measure the overall growth:
(2200 - 1200)/1200 x 100 = 83% growth.
If we want to know the average monthly growth rate we would divide 83% by the duration of the campaign, which was 6 months. So 83/6 = 14% average growth rate per month.
But what does this growth have to say about the success of our campaign? So what if the list grew? How does it translate to sales?
Fortunately for us, this same client more than tripled their revenue within this six month period (a result of our strategy alongside other key internal members’ efforts), which may or may not have had anything to do with the email list growth. But the reality is that if numbers are moving in a positive direction, the assumption is that there is a correlation. Let’s look at their sales numbers and do the same exercise:
(180units – 30 units) / 30 units x 100 = 500% growth.
Now, let’s average that over a six month period: 500% / 6 = 83% average growth rate per month.
So when I met with the company who was sizing my client up for acquisition, and deciding whether or not they wanted to keep us on board, I could simply refer to these numbers to build my argument. Everyone, particularly financial/numbers people, love to hear about a 500% growth in revenue in a six month period with an average of 83% growth rate per month. But what financial/numbers people (and when I say that I’m generally referring to CEO/COO/Investors/Boards) don’t really want to hear are things like: average number of impressions per day, number of media pitched in an average month, blog posts generated and the number of visitors to the site.
Marketing people love that stuff, but if you’re working directly with the C-suite they could honestly care less. Although I hate to admit it, they’re right. Hands down and without a doubt.
What’s the moral of this story? Well, for starters, if a client isn’t willing to work with a trackable system or tools that will allow you to measure data, walk away. Do this knowing that you are saving yourself a world of frustration and disappointment, and possible failure.
The second moral is this: do your homework, research, and asking around to find out THE BEST integrated marketing platforms and tools that will allow you to track and measure growth. Here are a few of our favorites, for starters:
Business Wire - newswire service
Mail Chimp - web based email marketing service
Word Press - content management system and website development platform
Google Analytics - allows you to track all website/blog activity
Happy measuring!
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