Tracking online marketing efforts for your clients
This might not be new to some of you, but I just wrote a blog post about this...so figured I'd also post here since maybe it will help some.
When I start a new marketing initiative for one of my clients to help grow their business, I ALWAYS track and measure the results! Otherwise, how else would you know if we should continue with that marketing effort or move on to a new one? How would you be able to figure out the ROI for your client?
Some marketing efforts are much easier to track and measure than others. For example, if you send out 1,000 coupons in a mailer to your clients local community and 100 customers come into their store to use that coupon, you now know that marketing effort had a 10% conversion rate. You now have the ability to figure out the ROI for that coupon mailout and you can determine if you should continue or cancel that marketing effort for your client.
But, what happens if you want to run a marketing campaign where you send the "potential buyer" to your clients website, landing page or any other location on the web. How can you track if the website visitor came from your marketing piece or another channel? How can you report back to your client with stats?
Most think this is impossible. But, it's actually easier than you thought. Google offers a free service called "Google URL Shortner". What Google's URL shortner does is it gives you a unique "short" URL (like this: http:// goo.gl/Z6er8) which redirects you to a URL of your choice. But, the best part and most important part about this service is it tracks how many visitors came to your URL from that "short URL".
Watch the video below to see how to create a Google "short URL"
Now that you have the ability to create a URL which is tracked, you want to use this new "short URL" for every marketing effort you create that sends the "potential buyer" to a website. Why? Because, you now have the ability to track and measure that marketing effort, where before if you sent them directly to your clients website you had no way to gather stats.
Remember, every time you send out or post a new marketing effort where you are sending the "potential buyer" to the same URL...make sure you create a new "short URL" so your data doesn't overlap.
Hope that helps, but if you have any questions, let me know.
Thanks,
Eric
When I start a new marketing initiative for one of my clients to help grow their business, I ALWAYS track and measure the results! Otherwise, how else would you know if we should continue with that marketing effort or move on to a new one? How would you be able to figure out the ROI for your client?
Some marketing efforts are much easier to track and measure than others. For example, if you send out 1,000 coupons in a mailer to your clients local community and 100 customers come into their store to use that coupon, you now know that marketing effort had a 10% conversion rate. You now have the ability to figure out the ROI for that coupon mailout and you can determine if you should continue or cancel that marketing effort for your client.
But, what happens if you want to run a marketing campaign where you send the "potential buyer" to your clients website, landing page or any other location on the web. How can you track if the website visitor came from your marketing piece or another channel? How can you report back to your client with stats?
Most think this is impossible. But, it's actually easier than you thought. Google offers a free service called "Google URL Shortner". What Google's URL shortner does is it gives you a unique "short" URL (like this: http:// goo.gl/Z6er8) which redirects you to a URL of your choice. But, the best part and most important part about this service is it tracks how many visitors came to your URL from that "short URL".
Watch the video below to see how to create a Google "short URL"
Now that you have the ability to create a URL which is tracked, you want to use this new "short URL" for every marketing effort you create that sends the "potential buyer" to a website. Why? Because, you now have the ability to track and measure that marketing effort, where before if you sent them directly to your clients website you had no way to gather stats.
Remember, every time you send out or post a new marketing effort where you are sending the "potential buyer" to the same URL...make sure you create a new "short URL" so your data doesn't overlap.
Hope that helps, but if you have any questions, let me know.
Thanks,
Eric