A Measurable Marketing Manifesto

Are marketers talking the talk and walking the walk with online marketing campaigns? According to Larry Chase, publisher of Web Digest for Marketers, no. “The sad truth is the lion’s share of many Internet Marketing campaigns go unmeasured,” he asserts.

Larry argues that the magic of online marketing comes from knowing where your audience came from, where they’re going, and what they are doing, plus understanding their intentions and creating messages around those intentions.  The way to do that, says Chase, is to understand the power of Web metrics and analytics to help you know what’s really going on with and behind your interactive marketing campaigns, enabling you to “meet customers where they live.”

To illustrate this, Chase recently published “The Measurable Marketing Manifesto”. Let’s look at his top ten rules and recommendations.

Rule #1 - Get a Dashboard
Start simple but start tracking, says Chase. “The more variables you can measure, the more you’ll learn about your audience.”

Rule #2 - Don’t Overdo Rule #1
Don’t get so caught up in “Analysis Paralysis” that you’ll never get anything done.

Rule #3 - Step Up
There is so much that can be applied from direct marketing, and lots of opportunities for marketers to play leadership roles in online marketing.

Rule #4 - Don’t Give It Away
If you’re a traditional media outlet, don’t just give away online ads as a value-add for buying print ad space, says Chase. The online campaign has to be conceived, written, packaged, managed – leading to a campaign that gets results.

Rule #5 - Look for Unintended Consequences
Online marketing efforts are designed to achieve a particular outcome, like percent of click-throughs. Chase says to follow each campaign through all the way to the back end, “which many people miss because they’re so fixated on the top line click-through.”

Rule #6 - Brand Focus
Branding helps response rates in online marketing. Chase says people are more likely to respond to an offer from a known brand.

Rule #7 - Stats are People, Too
Confused by the sheer amount of data from your Web metrics & analytics? Chase says to live in the shoes of your target audience. “Coming at it from their perspective may help you understand what the raw numbers aren’t saying,” he says.

Rule #8 - Work It
Web metrics experience doesn’t happen overnight, says Chase.  “The greater the experience curve you have over your competition, the sharper that competitive edge is.”

Rule #9 - Get Help
Web metrics & analytics is a distinct competitive edge, so get outside help to fast-forward your learning curve, enabling you to get that jump on your rivals, says Chase.

Rule #10 - Think Fast
Web metrics & analytics is a quickly evolving discipline. The technology is getting more sophisticated all the time. Chase recommends marketers make it their business to keep up with this exciting field.  This is not a “learn it once and forget about it” proposition.