Measuring Marketing

To the "unchurched," marketing appears to be a money pit, a big hole in the balance sheet that just sucks away money and seems to do nothing to earn its meals. A lot of company executives view marketing (and advertising) this way because they see no measurable results. Unlike sales, where you can automatically peg a transaction and attribute it to a particular sales person, marketing is perceived as being a little more squishy, a non-measurable ambiguity. We throw some money in what we hope is the right direction, attempting to appeal to what we hope are the right customers, crossing our fingers and toes that they will take some sort of action and buy our product. Sound familiar? Do you encounter this every time you try to pitch an idea?

The truth is, marketing is far from unmeasurable. In fact, done right you can track almost all revenue back to its source. The easiest marketing to chronicle is direct mail. Why? Chances are you sent your e-greeting or snail mail piece to a targeted group of existing or potential customers, recipients who have been screened by some demographic as likely candidates to send some of their money your way. You have their names, addresses, and probably a little more information about them before the piece ever hits the cyber circuits or postal truck.

Online advertising is simple to track as well, either by cookie-grabbing or by a unique URL that is set up just for your ad. For example, if your company, ABC Cosmetics, wants to track how many hits your latest ad generates, set up www.ABCCosmetics.com/April or something similar. Once they type in that address, it ticks off one recipient on your list and sends the customer to the original ABC Cosmetics home page. The user is not inconvenienced at all, and you have a record of her visit.

For even deeper diving and better opportunity for follow-up, set up the unique URL with a registration page full of basic information: name, e-mail address, phone number, and how they heard about your company. The user will fill in the quick blanks, click Continue, and is then directed automatically to your regular home page. Now you've not only recorded the click thru, but you've also captured basic contact information for future action.

No marketing or advertising is going to be tracked 100% accurately. That's the nature of multiple exposure campaigns. Did they see the ad or the direct mail or the brochure sitting on the lunchroom table? You may never know. But by a few simple tracking methods, you can justify the expense of a campaign that worked. Or you could find out that it didn't work and know you need to try something different next time. Either way, you have valuable information that will help you make the case in the next budget meeting.