There is a long-standing punch line in marketing that “Fifty percent of my marketing is wasted, the problem is, I don’t know which half it is.” In the digital age, this is rapidly changing. While there’s still no magic bullet, data and evaluation tools help organizations and individuals know the trade-offs between different communication strategies and tactics. Evaluation done right can give you and your organization greater confidence in your communication strategy because you have a better sense of what you are saying “yes” to and what you are saying “no” to.
In our judgment, the ultimate indicator that an individual resonates with the messages and initiatives of Peruvian Hearts can be measured in the size and frequency of their donation. This evaluation program will outline how to map communication back to this “golden metric.” Is this the only metric that you should judge a given communication strategy? No, but by knowing how much this or that communication strategy adds or takes away from this golden metric, you and your organization have a clearer picture of what the trade-off is. Your decision on the matter is much more informed.
The ultimate goal of this evaluation program is two-fold:
- Help determine the contribution of each component of the marketing communication plan to the goals of Peruvian Hearts.
- Identify opportunities to increase the value of a given component of the communication plan.
Determine the Value
Website traffic analytics combined with donor records can help you begin to assign value to each component of your plan. Assigning value begins with a concept called “channel attribution.” Channel attribution involves giving credit for a given donation to a given communication strategy.
While there are varying degrees of complexity one can introduce in assigning credit to a channel, a safe place to start is “first-channel attribution.” We’re looking to answer the question, “How did you hear/first come in contact with Peruvian Hearts?”
Basic Formula
Monthly average value = (total donation amount attributed to channel) / (number of engagements that came via that channel)
Example: Facebook Value
$3.00 per engagement = $300 donated this month / 100 visits to PH.org from Facebook. Meaning, the average visit from Facebook to the website yields $3.00 donation.
STEPS TO IMPLEMENT
- Survey a random sample of donors asking them where they had their first interaction with Peruvian Hearts and then calculate the percentage for each channel.
- Apply those percentages to the donations for a given quarter and record the resulting amount in the ‘donation amount’ column.
- From the appropriate data sources (email client, Google Analytics, etc.) collect how many engagements occurred in that channel; record results in the ‘engagement count’ column.
- Divide the ‘donation amount’ by the ‘engagement amount’ to get the dollar amount per engagement for a given channel.
Not all of these numbers may be immediately available, so it’s reasonable to make estimations where needed.
Identify Opportunities to Increase the Value of a Given Communication Channel
With the Quarterly ROI identified, steps can be taken to either try to increase the value of a given channel (through trying new strategies or tactics on that channel) or refocus efforts so not to spend too much time on less valuable channels. Use to following resources to help evaluate a given channel further for its effectiveness: