Key takeaways:
- How often to monitor data?
- Before the big launch
- During a launch campaign
- Keep it going strong
- But wait…who’s on market watch?
How to measure and monitor your marketing data – and what to measure – is key.
One of the most common questions we hear is:
How often – or when- do we monitor data?
Data monitoring frequency can be a double-edged sword. Monitor too frequently and you may make changes before you have all the insights – kind of like watching your 401k daily.
But if you fail to monitor enough, you may miss key opportunities to optimize.
So, what’s the sweet spot?
For some basic guidelines, check out: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/marketing-metrics-schedule
Before You Launch a New Product, Service, Etc.
Before you launch a new brand, site, product, or program it’s important to do your research.
This means:
- explore content and industry trends
- identify your best keywords – keeping in mind cost and competition
- research competitors and complementary companies
- know the industry experts
- know your industry averages for each of your marketing channels
- have a ‘wish list’ of who you’re targeting in addition to your ideal client profile
Having up-to-date knowledge will support your launch by keeping your marketing relevant. Plus knowing your keyword data, industry averages, and having a ‘wish list’ will help you set realistic launch goals and define launch success.
For smaller companies, these data points should be collected at least once a year, but ideally this would be part of your quarterly marketing plan. Then, ongoing trends can easily be monitored weekly or even daily with automated reporting.
“Marketing’s job is never done. It’s about perpetual motion. We must continue to innovate every day.” – Beth Comstock
Step Up Marketing Analytics During a Launch Campaign
During a large-scale launch or campaign effort, your diligence will be heightened.
You will likely be watching stats daily – or even multiple times a day – depending on your launch. This is completely normal given the effort and budget typically involved in the process.
We often recommend:
- keep an eye on social and email engagement hourly to ensure quick responses
- watch email trends at least once a day to see if any adjustments need to be made
- keep an eye on advertising campaign results and progress daily
To make this heightened level of attention possible, we recommend setting up social media alerts, having scripts ready to use for frequently asked questions, and being clear about whose role it is to monitor and reply to inquiries.
TIP: with advertising, we recommend watching daily, but trying to keep changes spaced at least 3 days apart to give algorithms a chance to perform and obtain more accurate results.
Keep Your Marketing Analytics Efforts Going Strong
For ongoing content marketing, the data frequency often mirrors the content frequency.
For example, a weekly blog or podcast would warrant weekly dashboards with monthly adjustments and planning. A monthly blog or podcast would warrant monthly dashboards with quarterly adjustments and planning.
Whatever you determine is the best strategy, remember to be consistent. A helpful Hootsuite article called 19 Social Media Metrics That Really Matter—And How to Track Them reminds us that:
“Consistency ensures that you’re benchmarking trends with accurate, dependable data.”
Who’s on Market Watch in Your Business?
Whose job is it to watch, understand, and adjust?
Good question, often answered by looking at who is writing or creating the content as well as who is executing and implementing the content marketing plan.
If you have extra time on your hands, it may be feasible to manage your own marketing. Often, entrepreneurs have little to no extra time, so they bring on a marketing team (like us!) who have the knowledge and experience needed when it comes to managing your statistics.
Data is actually both creative and technical. Thus, the insights your data provides should help drive efforts and give value to those efforts, to the marketing role, and to results themselves.
So, don’t overlook your data…and make sure it gets into the right hands!
“The goal is to turn data into information, and information into insight.”
– Carly Fiorina, former executive, president, and chair of Hewlett-Packard Co.
If you’re looking for someone to decipher your data and help you figure out a way to leverage it to get real-life results, the digital marketing experts at Marketecs are here to help. Click here to set up a time to chat.
