Analyzing Marketing Data: Are You Doing It?

By Montrie Rucker AdamsMay 24, 2016 Blog analyze, campaigns, data, marketing, marketing communications, strategy

Whether or not you have a successful marketing campaign depends largely on the strategy, its execution and the resources used. Every year, big firms invest many resources in marketing and communication campaigns to promote its products and services. At the same time, small companies fight to position themselves on the market, devoting time and resources to attract new clients.

However, whether the company is large or small, it is necessary to spend a certain amount of time measuring the expected results of each marketing campaign. Many companies forget this phase. Most of them waste much of the resources in unproductive activities.

Do you know what kind of content drives more traffic to your business’ blog? What are the strategies that are generating better conversions to your website? Does LinkedIn or Facebook work better as a social networking platform?

To answer these questions, you need to evaluate each marketing action. Be aware of a series of tasks, which are imperative to evaluating successful campaigns. They are:

Find out from what main channels the clients connect to your company. To know which channel is more appropriate to focus and attract potential clients, ask the questions: Is it online advertising? Organic searches? Social networks? Or emails?

Analyze the user’s behavior. In order to know if your messages are connecting or you need to rethink how to approach your target audience, check the company website. How much time do viewers spend on it? Which sections are viewed most? What is the bounce rate? For email campaigns, what is the aperture ratio? For example, if 300 emails are sent and 30 are opened, the aperture ratio is 10 percent. What are the click-through rates? For social networks, what are the numbers of “likes?” How much of your content is shared?

Redefine your target audience. Analyze if you are attracting your target audience or whether it is necessary to direct your next campaign to alternative audiences to ensure customer loyalty.

Optimize your time. Discard those useless tasks that are not producing any fruit and devote time to trying new strategies that may.

At Visibility Marketing Inc., we are aware of the importance of data analysis. We interpret them to design the strategic marketing communication campaign that is best for your maximum exposure and results. This can ultimately save time and money.

Your Facebook Data – Who Has It?

By Montrie Rucker AdamsDecember 7, 2012 Blog advertisers, clicks, data, facebook, user data, visits

During a business conversation with a colleague, the topic of Facebook data came up. Did you know that Facebook users have the ability to download their profile information? At first I thought this was a wonderful idea. What if I lost valuable photos on my computer? If I had them uploaded to Facebook, I could download them. Or, what if I had other content such as Notes, lists of Facebook friends or other special things on my profile – I could just download my profile data and I’d be able to keep it.

The problem with this, she told me, is what’s included in the download. What I found most interesting was how I was being tracked for advertising purposes. For example, did you know that…

Ads Clicked – this information shows a list of dates, times and titles of ads you clicked.
Ad Topics – this is a list of topics that you may be targeted against based on your stated likes, interests and other data in your timeline.

The European Government has begun to build regulations that would protect consumers’ privacy when using social media and visiting websites, including tracking methods and cookies. The EU Cookie Law, or e-Privacy Directive, is a law which applies to how cookies and similar technologies are used to store information on a person’s equipment such as a computer or mobile device. The law goes into great detail about cookies and personal data; confidentiality of Ccmmunications and spyware; information to be provided; responsibility for providing the information and obtaining consent; exemptions from the right to refuse a cookie; and wishes of subscribers and users.

Large websites, especially those that provide free services, make money by tracking and targeting users and delivering targeted ads. The European Government has been trying to get Facebook to comply with the EU privacy laws for quite some time. The US is far behind the Europeans when it comes to this type of online privacy.

For more in-depth information about this subject, you can read The New York Times article, entitled “Facebook Offers More Disclosures to Users” and C|Net’s article, entitled “Facebook Profile Download Tool Comes Up Short.”

What do you think?

October was National Cyber Security Awareness Month

By Montrie Rucker AdamsOctober 31, 2012 Blog cyber security, data, malicious code, october, safety, sba, small biz cyber planner, small business administration, stephen morris, wi-fi

The Department of Homeland Security established October as National Cyber Security Awareness Month to educate the public and businesses about cyber security.

Stephen Morris, Community Moderator for the Small Business Association’s (SBA) blog recently wrote a blog about this initiative. Below are some of the highlights.

Mr. Morris notes nine (9) steps your business can take to improve your cyber security. He provided great detail for each of the steps which you can read in their entirety by clicking here.

Use the FCC’s Small Biz Cyber Planner to create a cyber security plan and establish cyber-security rules for your employees
Protect against viruses, spyware, and other malicious code
Educate employees about safe social media practices
Manage and assess risk
Download and install software updates when they are available
Make backup copies of important business data and information
Control physical access to computers and network components
Secure Wi-Fi networks

—

As we constantly use our computers and the various mobile devices, as well as Wi-Fi connections – we all need to be aware of the risks and how we can protect our identities, our businesses and ourselves.

The SBA provides a lot of useful information for starting and managing your business. The information is free – so there’s no excuse not to visit the site to get the information you need to protect your business investment.