Some of the greatest lessons we can learn in marketing come from reviewing the performance of our past marketing campaigns.
Sometimes it seems that marketing is all about what’s new.
We get excited about the latest social media platform being embraced by the youngsters; we’re across the hottest trends online; we look at the innovation being explored by industry leaders – and we’re super-pumped to try out these new ways to elevate our brands and sell to our customers.
Yet, often the one thing you can do to increase the effectiveness of your marketing efforts is to look back.
Some of the greatest lessons we can learn in marketing come from reviewing the performance of our past marketing campaigns – and incorporating those learnings into future campaigns can lead to real growth and tangible bottom-line results.
Getting the most out of reviewing marketing campaigns means digging deep, knowing what to look for, and understanding how to use the results.
Here’s what a marketing campaign review looks like:
Go back to your marketing plan
Reviewing your marketing campaign involves drilling down to the nitty-gritty, but before all that you need to take a holistic look at the campaign – and that means going back to the beginning and reviewing your marketing plan.
What did you want the marketing campaign to achieve? It could be increased sales, brand awareness, or achieving a certain ROI for your marketing spend.
Once you’ve re-acquainted yourself with the overall aims of your marketing campaign, you’ll know how to evaluate its overall success, and that will probably happen pretty quickly.
Maybe you almost reached your sales targets; perhaps you smashed it out of the park. But that’s only the first step. Now you need drill deeper to see exactly why and how you got there.
Review your marketing strategy
Now’s the time to examine the different marketing metrics and determine which worked and what were less successful. Normally there are a number of measurable metrics in a marketing strategy. Each needs to be measured and evaluated.
Your goal, for example, may have been to up your brand’s environmental sustainability credentials. The strategy may have taken in collaborations with influencers, paid search advertising, and videos and blogs. Which of these were the most successful? You’ll probably be surprised.
Review the campaign’s objectives
Defining the measures of success is usually a mix of the specific and the general. The sales KPIs might have a specific number attached to them, but the KPIs for objectives like brand perception can be a little trickier to define.
A common way to measure the success of all your objectives is by calculating the return on investment (ROI).
Basically, your ROI is the amount of profit measured against the amount spent, the best ROI being of course, the greatest profit for the lowest spend.
The ROI needs to be assessed on two levels. Firstly, the overall ROI – that is, the cost of the entire marketing strategy compared to the whole of the profits yielded. However, it’s also important to break the strategy down into each marketing initiative, such as print advertising, social media, or event stall.
Which tactics and channels worked well?
Now is the time to get really granular, breaking your marketing campaign into channels and tactics, and evaluating their results.
In terms of digital marketing, your marketing campaign may have involved publishing posts and paid advertising across a number of platforms; and you will likely be incorporating email newsletter campaigns. They all will have performed differently and it’s important to know how.
Break this down further by examining the tactics you used on each platform. Did you achieve a greater number of click-throughs with video, images, or copy? How did blog articles perform compared to infographics?
It’s even better if you drill down further and look at intricate details, such as the style of images used, length of headline, and tone of the copy, for instance.
Compile recommendations for future campaigns
Taking all these steps will provide you with a lot of information about the performance of your marketing campaign – which is great, but it’s how you use this information that will provide you with the most.
Analyse the results you are seeing and formulate recommendations for future campaigns. What did you discover from your past marketing campaign, and how might you do things differently next time?
Investing in marketing campaign reviews
Reviewing and analysing are essential components of all the marketing campaigns we develop for our clients at Assemblo. As with marketing campaigns themselves, the greater the expertise you engage, the more effective the results.
Assemblo is a full-service marketing agency based in Melbourne and can help brands and businesses achieve the most effective results possible, by reviewing marketing campaigns of the past and building better ones for the future.
To find out how we can help you with your marketing campaigns, give us a call on (03) 9079 2555 or drop us a note via our contact form below.