Do you want to know if your communications strategies are working? All organizations need to measure the effectiveness of their communications strategies. Metrics provide valuable insights into what’s working, what’s not, and areas for improvement. Measuring the effectiveness of your communications strategies lets you know if you reached your audience, if they understood, and if they took your desired action.
Here are five ways to tell if your communications strategies are successful:
Media Mentions
You can understand your reach, brand awareness, and audience sentiment by tracking media mentions. How do you track media mentions? Set up Google Alerts for your organization’s name, monitor mentions on social media, and track coverage in relevant outlets. This data lets you find out who’s talking about your organization, where they’re talking about it, and what they’re saying. You can use this information to:
- Adjust your media relations strategy.
- Refine your messaging.
- Identify opportunities for placement.
Website Traffic
Track your website traffic with Google Analytics. Google Analytics allows you to learn a lot about your website and your audience. You can learn how your audience is getting to your site and what they’re doing on your site. Plus, you can use demographic data to understand your audience better.
For example, your data might show that a) the majority of your traffic comes from mobile devices and b) users aren’t going to an important webpage. So, you can tailor your website to improve the mobile experience and make sure that the call-to-action for that page is in a prominent spot on mobile.
Additionally, you’ll want to measure website traffic over time, not at a couple instances in time. This allows you to better catch patterns and make effective adjustments to improve your audience’s experience.
Social Media Engagement
Social media analytics provide insights into audience engagement with your social media channels. You can track likes, comments, shares, and clicks. This data lets you:
- Find out which content is resonating with your audience.
- Measure your reach and brand awareness on social media.
- Learn about audience sentiment.
But you want to be careful to consider your specific goals when analyzing this data. For example, getting a lot of engagement on a post isn’t the same as reaching your goals. You’ll want to find out if that engagement is leading to the action you want your audience to take.
Survey Data
Surveys are a valuable way to measure awareness and sentiment. Organizations use surveys to check the performance of both internal and external communications.
You can conduct surveys at key checkpoints as part of your communications plan. You can survey guests after an event, employees after an organizational change, or potential customers before and after a product launch.
Surveys provide both quantitative and qualitative data. This data is powerful because you’re connecting directly with your audience. You can hear from them in their own words, and use these insights to adjust your communications strategy accordingly.
Conversion
Your conversion rate is the percentage of your audience that takes your desired action. This includes registering for a program, attending an event, participating in an activity, or making a purchase. Are you getting your target audience to follow through and do what your communications are asking for? This is one of the ultimate measures of how effective your communications are. By tracking conversion, you can see which of your strategies are most effective at driving action and make changes to improve sign-ups, participation, or sales.
Conclusion
It’s important to track a variety of metrics over time to determine the success of your communications strategies. Metrics allow you to find patterns in your target audience’s behavior and learn about their preferences. You’ll be able to identify what’s working and what’s not. Then, you make necessary adjustments to increase awareness, improve sentiment, or drive conversion — getting better results from your communications.
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