Analytics. Conversions. Engagement. These are all words we hear everyday in the marketing world, usually inspiring visions of landing pages, social media ads and viral videos crammed into our pockets and filling up our screens. But if you’re thinking these ideas only live and breathe in the digital world, you’d be sorely mistake’n.
Measuring the success of your marketing campaigns in print is just as important as those produced digitally and can be achieved by using the same concepts we have become so familiar with on the web.
START WITH YOUR GOALS
Take note of your benchmark numbers, and then as you should with any marketing campaign, print or digital, create your goals first. Define what numbers will be meaningful to your business, whether that’s engagement or new customer acquisition. Even if this is the first campaign of it’s kind that you’ve tried and you’re not sure where to start, take your best educated guess and write it down for each metric you’d like to track. Make your goal known, and public if necessary and appropriate, so others can cheer you on to success. You can always adjust and revise as needed, but creating a goal from the beginning will help to keep you motivated and give you direction for achieving it. Plan checkpoints along the life of your campaign that will give your opportunity to rework your goals if needed.
Planning an upcoming event? You may also be interested in this How To: Campaign and Event Marketing Like a Pro
SETUP YOUR SYSTEMS AND GET ORGANIZED
Create a process diagram if your efforts will be more complex or a Gantt chart to simply set up your timeline. Determine how you will be keeping track of your data and who will be in charge of collecting and organizing it. A simple Excel document can provide a wealth of insight with the right setup and in the right hands, but a more robust marketing information system might be a better solution for your bigger marketing endeavors. Make sure everyone on your team has the tools they need to help you reach your goals without obstruction.
IT’S ALL ABOUT STRATEGY
Don’t think of your print marketing campaign as an isolated effort. Look for ways to integrate your print marketing efforts with your digital marketing. As a bare minimum, you should always include your website and relevant social media on all printed materials. But what about beyond the basics? Why not create a special landing page that only recipients of your printed materials will have access to? Then track the visits on this page to see how well your message was received. You could even print two (or more) versions of your materials with corresponding landing page links to A/B test your designs to see which converts better.
Now that you’ve got the basics down you should be able to track your marketing campaign success with confidence. Want more ideas on how to measure the results of your next print campaign? Contact K Design Co. for trusted marketing and design advice.
