A New Era Of Communications And Marketing Measurement Has Emerged
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/market-research-4193183-2-c7e90e4d3f7a4149a5abd833b9b3af23.jpg "A new era of marketing communications and metrics has arrived")
Susan Thomas is the founder and CEO of 10Fold , a Silicon Valley communications agency with offices throughout the United States .
In today's fast-paced and ever-evolving business landscape, measuring the impact of marketing and communications initiatives is more important than ever. The ability to analyze and evaluate a company's performance in real time allows them to make informed decisions to maximize resource utilization, optimize strategies, and maintain competitive advantage.
However, traditional metrics such as advertising equivalent and potential reach are obsolete in today's digital world. These metrics do not accurately measure the impact of communication efforts on the business and are not sufficient to demonstrate the value of these initiatives to stakeholders.
The typical approach for communications companies is to provide clients with media coverage, analytics, and activity reports on the content they create. To determine the impact on the business, the marketing team must analyze the data and attempt to compare the results with web traffic and demand generation reports. Another problem is that a marketing software package, often containing dozens of software applications, can be complex and time consuming to gather as much information as possible for benchmarking. Worse still, it can take weeks (or at least days) to get the data you need, and that time sometimes doesn't match the urgency of key reports that help executives make important decisions.
Fortunately, a new era of measurement has arrived that goes beyond monitoring to provide information. Modern measurement solutions provide access to real-time data, and some program results display on the basis of one period of time or compare results with the results of competitors. Finally, the flexibility to break down data to show the full set of attributes and/or impact of a piece of content or campaign is marketing nirvana.
While some tools are starting to provide information (my agency created ours, for example), the industry still doesn't understand how to measure the effectiveness of content or the full impact of published articles. It's important that your metrics align with your business goals so you can make informed decisions that support business operations.
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Modern measuring solutions are based on advanced technologies. Artificial intelligence can play an important role in measurements, providing more accurate information and pattern recognition. By analyzing huge amounts of data in real time, AI can provide deeper insights that analysts might otherwise miss out on. Most solutions are just starting to use generative AI, but by the end of this year, there will be plenty of options for interested buyers.
The ability to visualize data is also important for today's measurement solutions. Clear visualizations allow you to identify trends and patterns, making it easier to make informed decisions. The visualization should also be understandable to stakeholders who are not familiar with the details of the data presented. Be sure to include chart titles, data display dates, and geographic regions included in the metrics.
Integration of the solution into the reporting system
Once you've decided on a measurement solution, there are three steps to easily integrate it into your reporting system.
1. Conduct an executive audit for effective reporting
Implementing a reporting solution can be challenging as your management team may become accustomed to the existing setup. To facilitate the implementation process, provide context for the change by explaining why the new solution will provide better results.
Be sure to look for missing or redundant information in current reports to encourage management involvement. For example, some stakeholders may choose to measure quality through the eyes of a potential customer, and this may require additional website customization to accurately measure the buyer's perception of an asset.
The key is to reach out to all stakeholders and understand the definition of success. If a new solution doesn't meet all of your requirements, it's important to communicate early and schedule to include the missing items.
2. Ensure Data Integrity in Multi-Source Reporting Solutions
If your reporting solution receives data from multiple sources, it's important to review each one to determine which one is the most reliable. It is possible that the received information contains repetitive or unfiltered elements (for example, an inappropriate press release for the received report).
Another important factor for data quality is the frequency of data updates: automatic updates are preferred, and the lack of an open API may require ad-hoc queries and data loading.
3. Protection of confidential business information
The headlines are filled with alarming messages about data breaches and security issues. In today's competitive environment, up-to-date information and marketing strategies are valuable commodities. To prevent hacking, make sure your software includes multi-factor authentication and the ability to track all system users and their downloads. Data protection requires periodic auditing of access rights and downloads.
Compete in the power of data
Real-time reports give you access to new information so you can make quick, informed decisions, optimize campaigns, and make the most of your resources. This can provide a significant competitive advantage in rapidly evolving industries such as technology, where speed is critical.
The importance of modern metering solutions is underscored by the fact that companies are increasingly forced to demonstrate that PR and communications have value beyond brand support, as brand value is difficult to monetize. . Most often, marketing and communications executives are asked to analyze how the results might affect other aspects of the business, such as sales, investor relations, or trade associations. Communications and marketing professionals will increasingly choose tools that integrate with each other to avoid the time-consuming tasks of aggregating and interpreting market trends. Up-to-date information provided by flexible reports can give any marketing manager a competitive edge.
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