It’s very important for businesses of any size to track the results of their marketing campaigns. Small businesses, in particular, are often “budget-challenged,” so it is especially important that they know that their marketing efforts are achieving desired results. The biggest benefit is that they will have information to tell them how to use their marketing budget most effectively.

There are a variety of ways they might track the effectiveness of these campaigns:

• Pre/post sales results— sales prior to a campaign have traditionally been $X, sales after the campaign (absent any other intervening factors) are $Y; the difference may be attributed, at least in part— to the results of the campaign.
• Changes in awareness, perception or preference. Conducting a pre-campaign assessment of the target market’s levels of awareness, perception or preference—then implementing the campaign; and then measuring again.
• Response measurement. While awareness campaigns would generally be measured as described above, response marketing efforts can be tracked through coupons, order codes, landing pages, etc. This also allows testing of various offers or creative approaches; for instance, develop three different ad formats and direct responses for each to a separate landing page where results can be measured in terms of visits, click-throughs and, ultimately, response.

The bottom line for any business is that they should definitely measure the impact of any marketing efforts they undertake. The information can help them make better decisions in the future.

These are just a few basic ideas that an provide useful information. What methods are you using to track the effectiveness of your marketing results?

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