What’s your most successful print piece? Could you say
without a doubt, or would it all be a guessing game? If you’re unsure where and
how your ad dollars are going, it’s time to learn one of the most important
tricks of the trade – tracking your print marketing ROI.
Check your
call-to-action. What do you want your prospects to do with your print
piece? How strong is the message, and is it clear enough that recipients will
know what to do next? The call-to-action is vital and will serve as the core of
your ROI tracking efforts. Be sure to include it on any and all promotional
pieces.
Choose your tracking
strategy. There are many choices when it comes to tracking the source of
sales and leads. However, some of the most popular, and most successful,
include customized website landing pages, QR codes, and coupon or promo codes tied
to special offers.
Set up a control. In
order to set a control, you need to track all
of your print pieces at the get-go to see which campaigns are most
successful and which are not. That way when it comes time to re-order from your
print company, you know which offer
performed best and can use it as the control piece. Now all that’s left to do
is make adjustments to the weaker pieces using a new code.
At the end of the new campaign, compare the results against
the control. If the new campaign has performed better, it will replace the old
control and the next campaign will be run alongside it to try to further
improve response rates and ROI.
The Big How-To. Ok,
now that you know what the basics, here’s how to track your ROI:
1.
Website Responses
·
Track web responses through PURLs
(personalized landing pages), complete with a code customized for each user. PURLs
can help guarantee more consistency between print and electronic media, but you
can also use analytic tools, such as Google Analytics, to track the flow of the
customer buying process.
2.
Response Codes
·
QRcodes, coupons and promos can all be used to track responses. The best way
to encourage prospects to actually use them? Offer them something good. The
better the offer, the more likely consumers are to use them, which in turn
means, the more clear your ROI results will be.
Bonus Tip: When handing out
materials, use a location-specific code so that you can see which regions are
most responsive to your product or service.
So
remember, get cracking on your ROI tracking and soon you’ll be seeing the
fiscal rewards!
Do
you have a great tip or strategy on tracking ROI you’d like to share? Tell us
in the comments!
