Modern Marketing Information & Analysis (Week 21)
Advertising
"It is not at possible to measure advertisement
effectiveness as accurately as other marketing factors like improving brand
image, increasing sales figures, keeping people informed about products,
introducing new products etc. which all affect successful marketing
communications. We all know that there
are some companies who advertise at very low level but still their products are
a hit and some companies indulge in very heavy advertisements but they don’t
get desirable results. But then, there are some traditional and modern tools to
measure most of the effectiveness of an advertisement through which the
advertiser can or may get more and more information about how their ads and
product are performing in the market.
According to Philip Kotler, there are two most popular
areas which need to be measured for knowing the effectiveness of advertisement
and they are:
- Communication Effect
- Sales Effect
Communication Effect Research consists of three
types of researches:
- Direct Rating Method - here, customers are directly asked to rate the advertisement and then these rating are calculated.
- Portfolio Tests - here, the customers see the ads and listen carefully to the ads and all the contents of the ads and then they are asked to recall the ad and the contents. Then the calculations are done with help of this data.
- Laboratory Tests - here, the apparatus to measure the heart rates, blood pressure, perspiration, etc are used on the customer after he watches the ad, to know the physiological reactions of the body.
Sales Effect Research totally depends on the sales
of the company. The sales keep varying from time to time. There are some
factors affecting sales like product availability, the price of the product,
contents of the product, and sometimes the competitors. So this method is a
little difficult than the communication one. The company doing sales effect
research generally bothers about the sales of the product, they try to know
whether or not the money they are spending on the ads is enough or excess.
As earlier said, it is not possible to measure each
and everything and the chances are at the lower end if the company has many ads
running through various mediums at the same time. So suggestion is that the
advertiser or the company should use appropriate and different methods which
are most suitable for the media under use.
- The company can hold surveys and product recognition tests
- Questionnaire or feedback flyers can be distributed and customers could be asked to fill it up.
- Toll free number can be highlighted on the ads so that customers can call up.
- The response rates can be increased by telling customers what to do. For e.g. some ads have lines in flashy color like “Hurry Up” or “No one can eat just one” or “be the first” etc.
These are the traditional ways. Now days, internet
is the modern tool for measuring the effectiveness of an advertisement. There
are some types such as:
Integrated Direct Marketing - This
is an internet based tool where they have a response corner designed on the
websites. Whenever the customers visit the sites, they fill up their contact
details and give feedbacks. Thus the company supplies more information and
sends newsletters and also gets the idea for further action. But then its not
that only online advertiser have this facility but then advertisers who don’t
work online can use coupons, discount vouchers, etc. to do this.
Analysis Tool - There is an analysis tool
available on internet by using which the advertiser will know how many
customers are visiting the site, who are shopping online, how many pages are
viewed, etc. which in turn will help advertiser to measure the effectiveness.
The Internet is the most easy, cheaper and cost
effective way to measure the effectiveness because here no money is wasted as
the ad is only viewed when the customer want to view it where as in normal
print method or using TV, the ad sometimes goes unwatched or unattended and
viewed for the sake of viewing."
Source (no copyright infringements intended):
Public Relations
Measuring PR
effectiveness is as complex as measuring management effectiveness.
Nevertheless, it is self-evident that such measurement is necessary, as clients
are interested and often required to confirm the rationality of their PR
budgets. In the opinion of the Commission on PR Measurement and Evaluation of
the Institute for Public Relations there is no one, simple, all-encompassing
technique that can be relied on to measure and evaluate PR effectiveness. The
Commission's "Guidelines for Measuring the Effectiveness of PR Programs
and Activities" recommend using one or more of the following methods:
- Content analysis;
- Analysis of internet publications;
- Research on the effectiveness of trade show and other corporate events;
- Research using experimental design and quasi-experimental design and their methods in the form of surveys and polling, focus groups, role playing and so on.
The process
recommended by the Commission on PR Measurement for evaluating a PR program has
five parts:
- Setting Specific Measurable PR Goals and Objectives;
- Measuring PR Outputs (short-term results, for example, media reporting on an event);
- Measuring PR Outtakes (target group awareness after the PR program is completed);
- Measuring PR Outcomes (changes in public opinion);
- Measuring Business and/or Organizational Outcomes.
In practice
simpler models are frequently used, based on the number of print media articles
reported, relating PR activity to sales and using the Advertising Value Equivalent
(AVE*) method. The AVE method takes all the media reports generated by PR
activity and calculates their "equivalent" cost as if they had been
placed as ads, and then compares the imputed costs to the cost of the PR
activities.
* AVE (ratio) =
Cost of placing similar advertisement / Cost of PR campaign.
Advertising and
PR are two different marketing instruments: advertising messages in the media
are controlled and referenced to those who commission them, while PR messages
appearing in the media are not controlled or referenced, and as a result, have
more credibility with their intended audiences. Building conclusions based
solely on AVE has questionable value, particularly since it is impossible to
purchase much of the print space and media time generated by good PR (for
example, TV news reports).
Measuring PR
in relation to other elements of corporate strategy
Measuring PR
effectiveness and evaluation cannot be conducted in isolation from other
strategic initiative of a company. That is why it is necessary to set
measurable objectives that are in agreement with the general goals of the
business, as well as clearly specify the target audience and key messages that
need to be communicated and the information channels to be used.
Thoroughly examining
cause-effect relations
Linking PR
efforts to sales or profits needs to be done with care. It is difficult to say
whether PR efforts alone or other factors contributed to the results achieved.
Examining the impact on sales of a PR event requires, at least, an examination
of the impact in the context of year on year longitudinal trends in the
industry, as well as various analytical adjustments related to other corporate
initiatives.
Measuring PR
influence in context
Any specific
method of evaluating PR effectiveness in and of itself will have a low level of
reliability. Well-grounded measurement programs should be focused on both
short- and long-term PR impacts. In addition to trying to determine the direct
impact on sales, is also necessary to determine the degree of impact the PR
activities have had on public opinion and on the overall performance of the
company. For example, one can determine the Return on (PR) Investments (ROI),
which shows the relation between PR efforts and business results.
Recognising measurement of PR effectiveness as an indispensable part of a PR campaign
Measuring the
results and effectiveness of PR efforts are important to both PR specialists
and their clients. The existence of an evaluation component enhances the
quality of PR services on the one hand, and the quality of management decisions
on the other. It is therefore necessary to include the time and expense for
research on measuring effectiveness in PR budgets.
Source (no copyright infringements intended):
Marketing
The Content Marketing Institute explains that performance
improvement was once explained (by Marketing expert H. James Harrington) as, “measurement
is the first step that leads to control and, eventually, to improvement.” For
anyone trying to take their content marketing efforts to the next level, his
words certainly ring true.
For content marketers, metrics provide deep insights into
how our content is performing. They tell us how many people are
consuming our content, what they are doing with it, and whether or not they
like it. Metrics alert us to which ideas we should replicate and which we
should look to improve. They’re also what give us credibility within our companies
by demonstrating that content marketing is both a powerful and worthwhile
investment.
To measure and, ultimately, improve marketing efforts, it
is essential to know which metrics to track and analyse, and how to do so. The
best place to start is by gathering some data from your company website
including numerous specific such as;
- Unique Visitors: The best indication of your site’s overall traffic, unique visitors refers to the number of individuals who visit your website during a given period of time, where each visitor is only counted once. This number will vary dramatically depending on the size of your company, your industry and, of course, the amount of content you’re producing.
- Page Views: The cumulative number of individual pages that your visitors click on during a given period of time. If your page views are higher than your unique visitors, that may be an indication that your audience is finding your content engaging because individuals are clicking around to multiple pages.
- Search Engine Traffic: The amount of traffic being referred to your site through search engines, such as Google or Bing. This number will give you a clear indication of how effective of a job you are doing at optimizing your content for search.
- Bounce Rate: The percentage of visitors who come to your site and then immediately “bounce” or leave before clicking on any other pages. A bounce rate of less than 40 percent is considered good. If it is any higher, it may be an indication that visitors to your site don’t like what they find there.
- Conversion Rate: The percentage of visitors to your site who take a specific action that your content encourages them to, such as signing up for your newsletter. Conversion rates vary considerably based on industry, but tend to hover around 2 and 3 percent on average. That said, aim for a conversion rate of approximately 5 percent, or even higher if you are creating specific landing pages for specific audiences.
- Inbound Links: The number of external links to your site, an indication that other people have found your content important enough to link to it. Importantly, the more high-quality inbound links you have, the higher your content will rank on search engines.
Source (no copyright infringements intended):
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