When people talk about marketing, they're either discussing an overall strategy or a campaign that has synchronized elements to reach various customer segments on any number of channels. Yet in all likelihood, you have several campaigns running at the same time, none of which are for the same thing, and you may even be among the more than 40% of marketers that increased their ad spend on data-driven marketing. Both ought to be tracked because both are equally important to your bottom line. In this post we’re going to discuss the top three tips for tracking marketing campaigns even if they are all different.
Determine How They're Different
You may think this sounds obvious, but it's important to sit down with the information in front of you, rather than just hold the nebulous idea in your mind. Each campaign has different offers with separate calls-to-action, but they also have separate purposes. For example, one may be geared toward building brand awareness over the long term, while another is promoting a specific brand event, and yet another is promoting a special offer or discount. Understand what the needs are for each, as well as the expectations involved.
It also bears mentioning that you ought to determine where any overlap is between these campaigns. An awareness campaign is unlikely to have overlap with action campaigns, but two action campaigns could — will they occur in the same time period, and could both affect revenue in that time? Understanding the separations and overlaps will give you the insight you need for the next tip.
Set Specific, Measurable Goals for Each
The right goals is a vital part of measuring your ROI. Your goals need to be SMART (i.e., specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-constrained), and they need to be clearly laid out so that their benchmarks are understood. This is the basis for how you'll track the success or failure of your goals, and allow you to monitor them over time both individually and in the context of the big picture. By laying out the goals of each simultaneous project together, you can find the points at which each campaign is aligned and build them toward helping each other rather than detracting from each other.
If you're not sure how to set these goals, it can help your marketing strategy overall to involve marketing professionals. They have the tools and experience to give you the advice you need to design the most effective plan possible. They'll also help you avoid the kind of marketing pitfalls that can undermine your tracking process, such as "mention this ad" style tactics.
Organize the Tracking Process
Here, we're literally referring to the way you monitor your results. There's a myriad of tools and processes available to help you track your goals, although you should also consider some of the basics, like a spreadsheet that's periodically (and regularly) updated with relevant information and statistics for each campaign. Having a clear process will also help you to see the trends in your campaigns both individually and in the big picture, information which can help you optimize future simultaneous campaigns. Here's just a few of the options you can consider:
- Google Analytics for brand awareness.
- Social listening tools for both awareness and action campaigns on social media such as SumAll.
- Micro-surveys for customer engagement and experience.
- Heatmap analysis tools.
- Content analysis such as BuzzSumo and Conductor Searchlight.
- Email marketing dashboards and toolkits such as Constant Contact, and InTouch.
Now that you've got a clearer idea of how to track multiple marketing campaigns simultaneously, you can move your marketing strategy forward with confidence. Juggling multiple marketing projects doesn't mean you'll have to drop the ball on any one of them.
