Here are three questions to ask, to keep your work focused:
1. What is the business result we seek to achieve?
At the end of a month (or campaign, or flight, etc.) rather than feel as though you’ve done a bunch of stuff, it’s crucial to track actions against an agreed-upon goal. If you’re a brick-and-mortar retailer opening shop in a new destination, your vision of success is drastically different than an entrenched auto dealer looking to increase inbound leads for new vehicle sales. Both have measurable goals (e.g., reaching consumers in a new target market with efficient frequency, or growing a base of business in targeted customer segments). Both can put social media to work in service of those goals. But only if you know what you seek to achieve.
2. How do we plan to achieve it?
Most campaigns are focused on awareness, demand, or revenue; and these goals may overlap. Consider a Facebook Canvas unit, which can increase brand awareness among a targeted group of consumers (as measured by post-level reactions, in-unit engagement, click through rate, etc.), and at the same time drive to a transaction point that converts some of those clicks into revenue. Now consider a Facebook Carousel, where you place retargeted, personalized, product-focused content in users’ Newsfeeds. These users have already qualified themselves as purchase intenders by being driven to your site via email, pay-per-click, etc. Identify a tactical mix of messaging – this dictates how to measure its performance.
3. What is our definition of success?
The more you integrate social into your holistic sales and marketing plan, the more it must be held to account. It’s easy to spend a lot of money, very quickly, and find yourself adrift on a sea of numbers (e.g., Likes, Loves, Relevance, Reach, etc.), without a clear course. A clear definition of success mandates an awareness of all the data available, and a deliberate plan for how to collect, interpret, and merchandise it.
Just as your marketing campaign shares a story with the consumer, the results of that campaign must share one with you (yes, and your Boss). If customers walking into your new brick-and-mortar location have done so because they reacted to your grand opening-themed Facebook Canvas unit, then a measurement of grand opening sales against funds spent promoting on Facebook might demonstrate positive ROI. For the auto dealer, if inbound leads from the targeted consumers you’ve identified as viable prospects don’t increase – then consider revising the method used to gather those leads (e.g., a retargeted Facebook Carousel, versus direct promotion of Facebook posts).
In each scenario, there are platform-specific metrics to track. If brand awareness is your goal, focus on reach, frequency & relevance (as defined by each social platform). If your goal is transactional, track site traffic from promoted content & retargeted conversions via on-site pixels. In each case, track engagement metrics (e.g., shares, comments, reviews, etc.) to inform future messaging & your creative conceits. Let tactics pave the way – keep strategy focused on your destination & goal.
These are not the only three questions to ask as you plan the social media component of your marketing operations. But they are the first steps to developing a plan that’s as unique as your brand. If you’re ready to get started, we look forward to a partnership that gets you there.
Case Studies
Edward Gazarian
SVP, Digital & Social Media
egazarian@mittcom.com
781-247-0730