Track and Field – A Guide to Smart Marketing

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The challenges of cross-channel marketing have made it more important than ever for marketers to take a disciplined approcah to tracking, writes Kim Irvine.

With Australia’s economy currently under a cloud of doubt, spurred on by the situation in Europe, businesses are becoming nervous that Australia may be headed for another recession. Businesses are beginning to tighten budgets and cut out any costs they deem unnecessary or as a ‘luxury’. For some, this may mean marketing.

While no one can predict the future and how business will be affected in Australia, it pays to be smart and work out a plan now to ensure the marketing department proves it worth to the decision-makers.

Marketing is a powerful tool when the going gets tough. A lot of companies cut down their activities, leaving more room for messages to be heard by consumers. But without proving this, bosses are not going to see it that way.

Tracking is key

Being able to accurately calculate the worth of a marketing campaign to a business is worth its weight in sales. But with an ever increasing amount of platforms to market through, it can be an overwhelming task to track all campaigns accurately.

A number one rule to keep in mind is to track everything; from social media to phone calls to outdoor advertisements. Without significant data proving the sales or leads your marketing brings to the business, how else can you prove the worth of the marketing department to the bosses?

Businesses, now more than ever with the increase of online shopping and global competition, need to guarantee the success of their marketing campaigns and spend their budget wisely.

Tracking the success of a campaign is an invaluable resource for measuring marketing performance to improve sales. Instead of wasting hundreds, thousands or millions of dollars on an underperforming campaign, you could be targeting your customers in a more profitable way – ending the wasted dollars and allocating your budget to those campaigns or platforms that are delivering return.

Online

These days it’s not all about the numbers, while that’s a large part of it, with the increase of online based marketing and social media it is measuring the sentiment behind the numbers. While it’s great to have your brand mentioned, you want it to be positive, not negative.

There are a number of online tools available to ensure you are measuring the whole picture of your marketing campaigns, some free and some which will cost you a small amount.

Now is the time to be investing in your business and setting it up for any hard times that may be ahead. While the future remains uncertain and the economic situation is forever changing, smart marketers will be thinking to the future by acting now and collecting as much data as possible to justify the budget spend so they continue their work of bringing in more sales for a business.

Article by Kim Irvine

Kim Irvine is the General Manager of Zintel, which delivers call tracking solutions to help businesses monitor, optimise and measure both online and offline marketing. They have more than 2,700 customers in Australia that range from small and medium-sized businesses to government organisations and multinational corporations. Zintel is part of the Zintel Group of companies which has successfully been delivering solutions to businesses for more than 15 years.

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