Strategic communications has gone beyond acceptance and operating in siloes, and requires a more mature approach with data to help with measurements.
The “father of modern marketing” Philip Kotler has been quoted saying: “If the marketer does a good job of identifying consumer needs, developing appropriate products, and pricing, distributing, and promoting them effectively, these goods will sell very easily.”
All these areas require some measurement and combination of numbers to help influence or drive a decision.
However, while there is no lack of numbers to count, add or tally, there is a challenge when it comes to what to measure and how to measure it.
Borrowing the concept of data maturity from technology companies, strategic communications functions can benefit from using better frameworks in measurements.
As opposed to measure anything and everything.
The data maturity approach involves creating an operating model that solves specific business problems. In Dell, the end goal of data maturity is to enable “…end users with the ability to perform their own analysis, without the need for IT, on a trusted and supported architecture.”
Referencing Dell’s data maturity model, there are four stages to be aware of for the organisation to move through. These are “data aware”, “data proficient”, “data savvy” and “data proficient”. Each stage is marked by how standardised reporting and data-reliant the organisation becomes in making business decisions.
When applied to strategic communications, data maturity becomes about managing data, and applying data to become more efficient within the function and across the organisation’s stakeholders.
With a data maturity approach, the goal is alignment with the organisation and a single-minded focus on the critical KPI. This can be sales, revenue, brand development amongst many others. If the action does not lead to an outcome supporting the KPI, the action must either be discarded or re-iterated into one that does.
The key question becomes: Are we driving results aligned with our organisation’s KPI?
In this article, we cover 3 metrics to consider adding to the measurement toolbox.
Each set of metrics should have a baseline, an average and a median. The purpose of measuring them is to observe the fluctuation and variance against the benchmark or baseline and what that change means specifically to the company’s KPI.
Over a period of time, there will be measurements that are regarded “as of this moment in time” and whether that is higher or lower vs. the baseline. There will also be a historical overview that will provide brands with actionable insights.
Engagement Metrics
These are measurements that when analysed individually does not provide insight or direction. When combined, they help share a snapshot of the current environment. This can be data such as traffic to website, active users, email opens, social media likes etc.
They can also be divided into active and passive engagement.
Active engagement demonstrate that the message has been accepted through actions such as commenting, re-blogging, re-posting with comments, sharing or analysis on a content platform.
Passive engagement are the smaller actions such as liking a post, or retweeting; where the content is being interacted with but the message has not sunk any roots yet.
A common misconception here is that engaging content has to be high performing or high-quality content. It can be so, but does not have to be. From a measurement perspective, we are looking for trends such as consistent engagement with a content pillar, or frequent interaction with a content format. These trends point towards uptake of the message. Peaks might only be a one-off thing.
Share of voice
According to a study by Milward Brown, there is a direct correlation between overall market share and online share of voice. If a brand increases their share of voice on a marketing channel, it should increase the number of customers being brought through the marketing funnel, and therefore lead to increased sales.
However, it is not as simple as flooding the market with more content or social media posts. An increase in volume of brand and keyword conversations might also be pointing out that the brand is dealing with a crisis. Share of voice has to be measured together with sentiment in order to show directionality.
For context, it is also better to measure share of voice against the total industry share of voice. This can be correlated against total market share. When measuring, observe what a percentage change in share of voice against total industry share of voice means as well to the total market share. It will also be interesting to understand proportionally how significant your brand is compared to the entire industry, and not only against a competitor.
Sentiment or tonality analysis
Sentiment and tonality provide a brand with direction. When compared against a baseline over time, a brand can learn whether their customers like or dislike their products or services.
When measured against an industry through key topics, brand elements or consumer trends, a brand can understand where they stand against competitors and how they are faring within the category or industry.
Sentiment analysis can help turn the volumes of conversational data into qualitative insights such as perception, level of awareness, need for education and so on.
We are Brand Utility is a business consultancy. We work with brands in the corporate, professional services, retail, travel and technology spaces.
Our principal consultant is a registered management consultant, certified and recognised by the Institute of Management Consultants Singapore.
We offer strategy and tactics to support growth outcomes - revenue, scale, regional expansion and market entry – for our clients.
Areas of support include:
· Strategic communications: Approach to market, brand concept and map, positioning, messaging, story and narrative, thought leadership
· Marketing: Campaign/programme planning, story-based marketing execution, digital marketing, community amplification, content planning and production, go-to-market execution
· Lead generation: Digital advertising, social media advertising, social commerce, e-commerce
· Integration of marketing with business operations: We plan and execute as a seconded marketing and/or PR lead for your brand
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