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As marketers and PR professionals, we’re on a constant mission to prove how our campaigns contribute to the bottom line. Lucky for us, there is a plethora of measuring tools to show whether we’ve met our goals or if we went off track. We spend hours compiling presentations filled with colorful graphics, complicated charts and endless lists of data—all as evidence that we executed a sound campaign. But, could it have been better?
Data helps us measure achievements, but you’d be doing a disservice to yourself and your team if you stop at the report. Put your analyses to work and continue to improve your results with these measuring tools and tactics.
A/B Testing
Also known as split testing, A/B testing is simply sending out two versions of the same message to see which is more effective.. For example, if your email campaign is experiencing low open and click-through rates and the amount of people unsubscribing is giving you an uneasy feeling, A/B testing will make your efforts more efficient. A/B tools enable the user to split a contact list and compare one style of the email with a second. Apply rules for different variations to determine the winning email format. Continue tweaking versions until you’re using the one that is giving you the best results. Click here for a list of suggested A/B tools.
A/B testing techniques aren’t exclusively for marketing campaigns. PR professionals can use similar strategies when pitching media, assessing social media ad copy, webpage layouts and much more. Rather than always using the same pitch, test a slightly different one with a segmented part of the media list to discover which one gets you a higher number of positive responses. Test out several pitches until you find yourself having conversations with journalists that are truly interested in what you have to offer.
Google Analytics
Google analytics provides deep insight into understanding the most important aspects of your website traffic. Unfortunately, few marketers realize its full potential. Knowing the number of unique monthly visitors only scratches the surface. Learn more about who is visiting your site and how they got there. Analytics will uncover if your website was found via a search engine, website referral link or even a social media post. Combine that information with what is being read—down to a particular blog post—and you’ll be able to target your campaign to a specific audience with content that you know will interest them.
Social Engagement
When it comes to social media data reporting, we often boast about the impressive number of retweets, likes and shares a post may receive. Avoid taking these metrics at face value. It’s fine to report that a post was retweeted 500 times, but also consider who is retweeting. For example, it’s possible that only 100 of those retweets are important.