Day 10: Tracking and Learning

Day 10 Video:

Welcome to Day 10! So glad to see you today :-)

Today’s Learning Points

Our goal today is to cover:

What and why of tracking and learning;
How to track and learn;
The IMPACT way of track and learn;
and, what’s coming up.

What and Why of Tracking and Learning

Tracking and learning are integral parts of Target and the beginning of learning from your audience to market more effectively. You’ll also use tracking and learning as part of your Monitor activities to continue to grow in your knowledge so that you can make smarter marketing decisions based on real data and analysis, rather than whimsical actions. We’ve discussed the marketing paralysis that happens when you’re always operating in “hit and miss” mode. This problem is very real and often exasperated by the dynamic nature of social media.

While setting up and taking the time to track and learn, is initially time consuming — the detriments caused by NOT taking this time can cost you much more. Tracking and learning is absolutely critical to your success. You will:

Track trends, including opportunities to leverage;
Avoid time pits that are not reaping returns for your activities;
Increase efficiency as you systemize your marketing efforts;
Increase effectiveness as you build better relationships and targeted traffic.

Ask any smart marketer who has achieved measurable success, they have put systems and processes into place. That’s what tracking and learning is all about in the IMPACT Marketing Formula. If you’ll remember from Day 1 of this program, the best wisdom you can embrace (especially in marketing online) is the idea of opportunity costs:

“Always remember, there is an opportunity cost in everything you do…

when you go one way, you give up the opportunity of going another, possibly better way.”

– Another wise old guy

How to Track and Learn

In Setting Up to Listen, you learned the beginning of tracking and learning — internal and external listening to better understand your audience. We took a look at Google Analytics for traffic, Twitter for social media conversations, Google Alerts and Blog Search for niche and industry listening… and more. Without alarming you, this part of listening is just the beginning of your learning. You’ll need to track every marketing activity you partake in that builds traffic, the kind of traffic you’re bringing in, the kind of content your audience prefers, keywords, search engine activity, and much more. This, my friend, is where the challenge begins.

With so much to handle and so much going on at one time — the value of processes and systems become self evident. Without them you are literally setting yourself up for failure. Sure, you may have momentary success or enjoy lucky results (we call this the feast and famine syndrome). But, to have truly profitable, sustainable results and to set your business up for growth — you’re going to have to get serious about your marketing.

Case in Point

You already know and will learn more in-depth as we progress in the 30 Days 30 Ways, getting found is a top priority in your marketing. To get found by your ideal audience, you need to use intelligent content marketing, SEO, social media, and beyond. These marketing strategies could span ten’s of sites, hundreds of keywords, and so much more.

So, riddle me this: How do you keep track of all that? How do you ensure you are consistent and purposeful in your actions? How do you know what’s working and what’s not? What do you even keep track of?

The answer is simple. You need a plan, a process, and a system to help you.

The IMPACT Way of Track and Learn

We teach our clients to use a two-part system — IMPACT Marketing Calendar and IMPACT Action Guide. This approach helps you stay consistent (Calendar) and purposeful (Guide) in everything you do online.

IMPACT Marketing Calendar

The IMPACT Marketing Calendar is any calendar system that will allow you to maintain a regular schedule of key online marketing activities – ensuring you are consistent and timely in your efforts. The caveat is that you actually have to do the activities You’d be surprised at how many people will say, but the calendar is not working… are you working the calendar? LOL All jokes aside, the Calendar is meant to keep you on schedule, help guide your time, and help you manage everything that will need to be done.

We use Google Calendar because its free and it works. You can, of course, use any calendar system you want. However, there are many uses for Google Calendar that will help you in other areas of your online marketing as well. We covered Google Calendar (setup and getting around) in the Tools of the Trade.

The point in setting up an IMPACT Marketing Calendar is to outline what marketing activities you do at what times. For instance:

Blog maintenance (plugins and upgrades) should be scheduled monthly;
Once a week we take time to review your analytics and reviewing your efforts;
Twice a week, we schedule specific time for RSS reading and blog commenting efforts for link/community building;
Once a week we dedicate time for keyword research and creating a “content” bucket (we’ll cover later in program);
Once a week, we take that same “content” bucket and recycle is as part of our content marketing efforts (also covered later in the program);

Of course, these are just a few examples, but you get the point. Your ultimate goal is to cut out the “chicken with its head cut-off syndrome” that appears to plague so many people marketing online. Throughout the rest of the program as we dissect and learn core components in marketing online — we’ll be adding to and adjusting your IMPACT Marketing Calendar. You’ll learn how to know when to do certain activities, what to do and so on.

The IMPACT Action Guide

The IMPACT Action Guide is basically a project management tool (as coined by our client @Ali_Davies, who fell in love with it at first sight). The Guide will help you stay on track, stay consistent and stay focused. Again, we use tools that are free and effective, but any tool that accomplishes the same ends can be used at your preference

We use Google Docs to house the spreadsheet that makes up the Guide. This allows us to collaborate with team members all over the world, as well as with clients and their Guides. The Guide is our hub for all online marketing activities we embark on. It is also our central place of analytics and the point from which most of our marketing decisions are made, because it houses all the information we need as a team to make smarter decisions.

The Guide provided below is the exact version we use to start client projects. Of course, it is not all inclusive, nor is it intended to be. But its a pretty d*mn good start and a huge jump ahead of your competition in marketing online… if you do the work

You can view the IMPACT Marketing Guide here, through Google Docs:

IMPACT Marketing Action Guide

You can download the Guide in spreadsheet form here:

IMPACT Marketing Action Guide Download

[right-click the link and save it to your computer, or click link to open it]

Working with the IMPACT Marketing Calendar and Action Guide

As we move forward through the rest of this program, we’ll dive into the logistics of using the Calendar and Guide. By the end of the 30 Days 30 Ways you’ll have a great start to your Calendar and Guide, as we develop both in the remaining days.

So… next we’ll start to use the Calendar and Guide in relation to SEO (Getting Found with SEO). You’ll learn best practices for SEO, how to integrate SEO into your content marketing efforts, top SEO tools and how to use the Calendar and Guide to organize and maximize your efforts.

What’s coming ahead…

Day 11: Target Getting Found with SEO
Day 12: Target Getting Found with Blogging
Day 13: Target Getting Found with Social Media
Day 14: Target Getting Found with Content Marketing
Day 15: Engage Twitter for Business

See you tomorrow!

Maria Reyes-McDavis

and WebSuccessDiva Team

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About the Author...

Maria Reyes-McDavis is a colossal geek brainiac, certified genius IQ with university degrees in Finance, Economics, Business Management and an MBA. Maria has served over 300 pro-level, digital marketing clients as founder of online marketing firm Digital Peas & Carrots. Maria is Founder and Editor of Hyphenated Americans, a conservative politics blog and Proverbs 31 Project an online women's ministry. Most importantly, Maria is a wife to her king, mother of 3, lover of basketball (Go Lakers & Clippers!), classic cars and is currently training for professional women's roller derby!