Measuring marketing impact in the built environment

If you run a successful business, chances are you’ve invested a certain percentage of your resources into marketing your services. Whatever your area of expertise, marketing is absolutely vital if you’re going to grow your audience and revenue.

But are you tracking your marketing activities? More specifically, are you monitoring your activities to see what’s working and what isn’t? Not all marketing activities are born equal and what might work for one business won’t work for another.

In marketing, as in science, hypothesis, testing, and evaluation are paramount. We want to ensure that our marketing budgets fund activities that bring desired results. Without robust monitoring and evaluation, we might as well be shooting arrows in the dark, hoping to hit our targets.

Let’s delve into how you can monitor the impact of your marketing initiatives.

1. Setting Clear and Measurable Objectives

The first step in measuring the impact of your marketing is establishing clear, measurable objectives. Are you looking to increase your website traffic? Or perhaps you want to gain more followers on your social media platforms. Maybe you’re an architectural firm wanting to increase the number of quality project inquiries you receive. By setting Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART) objectives, you lay a foundation for effective measurement and evaluation.

2. Tracking Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Once you have your objectives, you can select the KPIs that will help measure your progress toward these goals. For instance, if you’re an engineering firm looking to improve brand awareness, your KPIs could include metrics like website visits, social media followers, and the number of times your brand is mentioned in media or online forums.

3. Utilizing Analytics Tools

To track your KPIs, there is a wealth of analytics tools available. Google Analytics can help you monitor website traffic, user behavior, and conversions. For social media platforms, native analytics can provide insights into post engagement, follower growth, and other essential metrics. In email marketing, monitoring open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates can provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of your campaigns.

4. Conducting Surveys

Surveys are a valuable tool for gauging client satisfaction and understanding their decision-making processes. For instance, a construction company might survey clients after project completion to understand how their marketing influenced the decision to choose their services.

5. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems

A CRM system can track all interactions with clients and potential clients, providing a wealth of data that can help measure the effectiveness of your marketing activities. For example, if you’re an architect, a CRM can help you track which marketing touchpoints a client interacted with before reaching out for a consultation.

6. Return on Investment (ROI)

Ultimately, your marketing efforts should contribute positively to your bottom line. Calculating the ROI of your marketing activities can help you understand the financial impact of your efforts and guide future budget allocation decisions.

A real-world example

Consider an architectural firm that wants to increase its project inquiries by 20% in the next six months. They decide to invest in content marketing, creating blogs and resources about architectural design and processes.

Their KPIs could include website traffic, time spent on their site, and the number of new inquiries they receive. Using Google Analytics, they monitor these metrics and adjust their strategy based on the data. They also implement a CRM system to track which content pieces lead to new inquiries and ultimately, projects. At the end of six months, they calculate their ROI by comparing the revenue from projects generated through this strategy against their marketing expenditure.

Conclusion

Marketing is no longer a wishy-washy, hit-and-miss endeavor but a scientific process that, when done right, delivers tangible, measurable results. By setting clear objectives, tracking relevant KPIs, utilizing the right tools, conducting surveys, and calculating ROI, businesses in the built environment can ensure their marketing investments deliver the desired results. When marketing becomes a science, your success becomes predictable.

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If you’re looking for marketing support that’s scientific and objective driven, contact Luma Marketing today for a free consultation.