When it comes to raising awareness for your brand or cause, most of us assume that simply promoting it on social media or via email is enough to get the job done.
I know this because I was once there too.
After all the hard work spent creating what seemed like the perfect message and eye-catching image to match, I wouldn’t see the engagement I had hoped for.
I knew there was something I was missing. I tried different tactics and noticed a few slight improvements, but for the most part, not much changed.
Does this sound familiar?
Here’s the problem:
This tactic is more like throwing darts in the dark hoping to land on your target. It’s not effective, it’s certainly going to frustrate you, and it will consume way too much of your time along the way.
Today I’m going to talk about how to be more strategic with your campaigns in order for them to be effective.
It sounds like a lot of work, but don’t panic yet. I’ll show you exactly how to do this the easy way.
[content_upgrade cu_id=”7393″]Bonus: In this free resource, I’ll show you my top four metrics to start focusing on today.[content_upgrade_button]Click Here[/content_upgrade_button][/content_upgrade]
“If you can measure it, you can manage it.”
The first issue I noticed with my initial strategy was that I couldn’t really gauge if it was working because I wasn’t actually tracking anything.
Sure, I could see how many people “liked” my posts and how many readers signed up when prompted, but I couldn’t use this information to prove if my campaign was successful.
That’s when I knew I had to start measuring metrics.
According to this great article in Forbes, “Measuring something gives you the information you need in order to make sure you actually achieve what you set out to do.”
I couldn’t agree more.
By measuring certain key metrics, you’ll have a better idea of knowing how productive your efforts are.
Plus, as mentioned in that same article, “The simple act of measurement increases motivation to perform.”
And again, this couldn’t be more true.
Once I started focusing on the metrics I’m about to share, I realized that I was making more progress than I initially thought (how exciting!). But I wouldn’t have known this if I didn’t start measuring those key performance indicators (KPI) in the first place.
Let’s take a look at the metrics you should be focusing on anytime you’re building awareness for your brand or cause.
First, Check Your Website Traffic Sources
If you haven’t already done so, it’s important to download and install Google Analytics tracking for your website.
This free tool gives you key insights about statistics like:
- How many website visitors you have each day
- Where your website visitors are coming from (traffic source)
- Which campaigns are performing the best
Here’s how you’ll use it:
Whenever you post on social media or send out an email campaign, you’ll want to hop into Analytics to see what kind of activity you generate.
So for example, if you post something on Facebook, you should login to Analytics after a few hours or even the next day to see how much traffic came to your website via Facebook.
You may find that of the 20 “likes” you’ve received on a post, 10 new visitors went to your website to check it out.
Now, at first glance, 20 might not seem that impressive, but if 50% of them checked out your site, that’s a pretty decent win worth celebrating.
This shows that your audience liked what you posted so much that they were willing to take action by visiting your website.
Next, Track Conversions Using Campaigns
Once you get comfortable with Google Analytics, you’ll want to set up what’s known as campaigns anytime you’re promoting something specific for your brand.
Essentially, Google adds a specific tracking number to your URL in order to see what kind of activity you’re generating.
On the surface, your link won’t look much different to viewers. Yet underneath, it will lead you to important clues about how well your campaigns are performing.
After you setup your campaign, you’ll want to set up what’s known as conversion benchmarks.
A conversion is recorded anytime your audience takes a certain action such as signing up or even just landing on the page, as in the case of a landing page. Once the action is taken, Analytics automatically records that it happened.
After a few days, you can judge how effective your campaign is based on how many conversions you’re seeing.
Now, if you’re not generating as much action as you’d like, you can simply change one or two small variables and wait a few days to see if the number of conversions changes at all. I’ve found this to be the best way to gauge the performance of your hard work.
As pointed out by Kissmetrics, the following items are great to track:
- Leads
- Trial signups
- Account creations
- Newsletter signups
- White paper or ebook downloads
Each of these metrics can be recorded once a user takes an action such as filling out your contact form.
So if you’re not seeing these forms filled out, you’ll know you have to reevaluate your strategy and try something else. This is much easier than constantly spinning your wheels wondering if something is working or not.
In a matter of minutes, you’ll know right away what’s doing well and what isn’t thanks to Analytics tracking. The key is to set these tracking tools up before you begin your next campaign.
It’s also important that you set up a new campaign for each item you’re tackling. So your newsletter campaign should be separate from your e-book downloads one.
Finally, Create Realistic Benchmarks
Now that you know how to set up your tracking, it’s time to figure out what exactly you’ll be tracking.
I’m talking about setting realistic goals here.
So your first course of action is to define what success looks like to you.
Is it having 10 new email newsletter signups each day, or are you more interested in ebook downloads?
Decide what a win looks like for you and make this your top priority.
Now create a goal that’s realistic. So if you’ve only seen 10 newsletter signups over the course of a month, you won’t want to set that as your daily goal.
Try setting your goal to 20 newsletter signups over the course of a month since you know that 10 is perfectly achievable.
That’s the key with setting goals: They must be attainable, but not too easy.
Once you’ve determined your benchmark (20 signups in this case), you’ll need to break it down into manageable bites.
For this example, you’d want to divide your goal of 20 signups by 30 days in a month to see that you need at least one sign up every few days. This is much more manageable than trying to knock out the 20 all at once.
After you’ve created a manageable daily goal, decide what actions you can take today to get closer to your daily goal of one sign up. This could be posting on social media, driving readers from your email list, or anything else you can think of.
As each day passes, keep an eye on your Analytics tracking to see what’s working and repeat this process until your goal has been reached or the month ends. When the month does wrap up, measure your progress and adjust your goals accordingly for the following month.
That’s the beauty of setting real objectives: Once you do, you’ll see firsthand that your hard work is paying off and you’ll be much more motivated to keep going.
See how easy it is to track your progress as you raise awareness for your brand or cause? Now it’s time to get moving.
Start by setting up your Analytics tracking and establishing what a conversion looks like.
Once you’re all set up, decide on which goals are most important and break those down into daily targets that you can begin working on starting today.
After that, be sure to track your progress each day and decide if anything needs to be changed in order to improve your performance. Repeat this process anytime you have a new goal and you’ll have enough momentum to get your brand off the ground in no time.
[content_upgrade cu_id=”7393″]Bonus: Don’t forget to check out my top 4 metrics to start focusing on today![content_upgrade_button]Click Here[/content_upgrade_button][/content_upgrade]